Why should I care about buying Australian Made?
The debates, legal issues, and ownership of the UGG name is popular and well understood by many people, but for most, the topic is still a cause for confusion. When consumers learn that not all UGG boots are made in Australia, the confusion grows again. At UGG Since 1974, we’re all about educating our customers on how to buy Australian made (you can start by shopping at uggsince1974.com.au) and why it is important to do so.
So who actually cares about buying Aussie made? We know its not always the consumer who is looking for cheapest deal, because there’s no doubt about it, buying an Australian-made product is going to cost you more.
Good Workers = Good Product
Why do our UGG boots cost more? Well, we pay our employees a fair wage which includes benefits and good working conditions. If we had our employees working in a sweat shop slapping together 1,000 pairs of Ugg boots every day, providing 2 weeks’ annual leave, no sick pay, low wages and working a 12 hour day, we’d only be charging our customers half price to buy a pair of our boots. (Mind you, the boots would last only half the time as well.)
But we employ many local Australians, providing employment with great working conditions for those talented makers who craft our boots. We also use only a premium quality product (read: A-Grade Australian Merino wool) and we check each and every pair by hand before they are made available to sell or be posted around the world. In fact, sometimes the price of a single sheepskin which we use in our UGGs can cost more than an entire pair of UGG boots sold by Chinese manufacturers.
This tells you something about the quality of the sheepskin being used, and the types of labour being performed, to create some UGG boots available on the market. So is that enough to make people care about buying Australian Made?
Who cares? We should!
The point is, we, as Australians SHOULD care. Buying Australian Made means keeping our economy strong, and getting a premium quality product in return.
In the UGG industry, the old adage of “you get what you pay for” goes a long way.
Whether you want Ugg boots for your kids, men’s Ugg boots for your husband or boyfriend, women’s Ugg boots for your wife or girlfriend, and you want UGG boots to stay being made proudly in Australia, then look a little closer at the product you are buying.
Who cares? We do!
Our company UGG Australian Made Since 1974 has been going in Australia since…well, 1974. Do your maths and that’s 44 years! If you want to read a bit of the history, it’s available on this website. So, it won’t be repeated here.
We’re a small Australian company that has not only survived a global economic disaster, cheaper look-alikes (of poor quality) from south east Asian based manufacturers flooding the local market, and unfair competition from international companies, but we’ve also flourished and expanded. We’ve created new designs and introduced innovative fashion statements that have taken UGG boots way past being a pair of comfortable, warm slippers for around the house.
We’re also firmly entrenched in Australia, which for us means that your UGG boots are made by Australians, from Australian materials, in Australia, under Australian ownership.
Once you buy a pair of our Australian made UGG boots, we promise you’ll notice the difference. So how about it? Give some thought to caring about buying Australian made.
Do you know anyone working in an Australian manufacturing industry? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!