Ugg looks to Post Malone and sneaker-inspired shoes to win men over
Best known for sheepskin boots beloved by women, the brand is reaching a new market by designing comfortable shoes for men, and using icons to market them
Thanks to a clog that looks like a sneaker, Ugg is increasingly becoming a men’s brand and boosting what was already one of the hottest shoe lines in the footwear industry.
Sales of the Ugg brand, which is owned by Deckers Outdoor Corp., rose 19 per cent last quarter, with the growth in men’s products nearly doubling that rate.
Stefano Caroti, CEO of Deckers, said last week on an earnings call that the “men-specific clog” had become a favourite across several geographies. Earlier in the year, he said that the company sees “tremendous potential” to accelerate Ugg adoption with male consumers.
Investors will no doubt want to see more of that. Ugg is the company’s biggest brand, with sales rising 13 per cent to US$2.5 billion in the financial year through March.
The company’s stock took a big hit in January when its revenue forecast trailed estimates. Although the shares are down more than 40 per cent this year, they’ve been rebounding. That includes a big jump last week when its sales for the quarter through June beat the average Wall Street estimate on the strength of Ugg, which accounts for about 51 per cent of annual sales at Deckers. (Hoka, a running brand that also posted robust growth, makes up roughly 45 per cent of company revenue.)
While still recovering from earlier in the year, Deckers has emerged as one of the strongest performers in the footwear space, according to David Swartz, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar.