Brian Smith was born in Australia. As a chartered accountant, he used $500 startup money and founded UGG Imports to bring sheepskin footwear to America. After 17 years, as sales reached $15 Million, he sold the business to Deckers Outdoor Corporation. The UGG brand has since exceeded over $1 Billion in international sales.
Brian is a passionate innovator and entrepreneur, and he is considered one of the most sought-after business leaders in the country today. As a media guest and an Inspiring speaker, he is committed to teaching his breakthrough business strategies to new entrepreneurs.
How did Brian start UGG? (1:12)
- Brian had just graduated after studying for ten years to become a chartered accountant, and he quit the job the same day.
- Brian hadn’t wanted to give up before graduating, wasting all that time he had spent studying, but he did hate it the whole time.
- Something inside of Brian wanted to be entrepreneurial.
- After a lot of meditating on his way back to Australia, Brian figured he would go to California and find the next big trend.
- He chose California because all the big brands like Levi’s, waterbeds, and surfing brands were going there and doing well, so it seemed the natural thing to do.
- He spent the first few months surfing and making friends in Malibu. It was when it started getting cold in late October, and he was pulling on his sheepskin boots from Australia that Brian realized no one in America has sheepskin boots.
- That was the lightbulb moment for Brian and started the journey of building the UGG Brand.
- UGG is now a brand so widely recognized that almost anyone brings up the brand with a fond memory as soon as they find out Brian is the founder.
- There was an initial rejection from Americans as they found the idea of sheepskin footwear alien. A friend of Brian mused that the weather in California was too hot, and Brian reasoned that California and Australia were identical in climate.
- Brain realized it was the American’s lack of knowledge of sheepskin footwear; that was the real problem. Australias innate knew sheepskin footwear, and how rugged it is, you cannot rip sheepskin, you can get it wet, even when it’s wet it insulates so your feet stay warm even in snow, etc.
- To be a good entrepreneur, you have to have a level of ignorance when you start because if you knew your obstacles, you wouldn’t have gone for it.
- Brian was faced with really considering giving up. Still, he kept brainstorming; he realized the reason all of his friends in Malibu thought it was such a good idea was that they had already been to Australia and had come back with a couple of pairs of boots for their buddies as well.
- So it was through the surfing community already knowing sheepskin footwear and spreading the word that UGG boots eventually started picking up speed.
How did Brian procure funding once he had a demand going for the footwear? (9:02)
- Brian and his friends borrowed around $500 to send to Australia to get samples, so they were initially underfunded.
- The samples arrived back while Brian still had zero orders, but he and his friends were sure they would be instant millionaires with how good the stores were that would be selling them.
- That’s when they realized they needed money to get the ball rolling. Brian’s roommate overheard them talking and told Brian about some guys in his office looking for investments.
- They received $20,000, which is like $75,000 by today’s standards, and they sent $15,000 of that down to Australia and ordered 500 pairs, which arrived swiftly.
- Buying pairs at about $30 a pair and planned on wholesaling them for $50 - $65, the retail price was usually $60-70-80 a pair.
- However, once they had the inventory and went back to the store manager that said he loved the footwear and idea but could not sell it in his store. Going store to store after that, every store ended up rejecting the boots.
- So all the stores initially excited about the concept wouldn’t actually try and sell any of the footwear.
- In their first year, they sold 28 pairs, making only about $1,000. To make a living, Brian and his friends did any job they could find.
- Obviously feeling somewhat disappointed, Brian decided not to give up, likening starting up a business to raising a child. He states, “You can’t birth adults.”
- And so the birth of UGG was those initial six samples, every store rejecting the idea and the business went into this horrible ‘infancy’ where it laid dormant for a while and Brian had to nurse it and care for it through it not giving anything back.
- So eventually, the boots started to pick up speed with Briand and his friends, never giving up on the idea.
What does Brian think is the most critical strategy that helped him leap from idea to enterprise? (13:50)
- In Brian’s case, he knew how popular the footwear was in Australia, and he knew how big the American market is.
- He also knew how similar Americans and Australians are, so he had to figure out precisely what causes the aversion Americans were feeling to the product.
- Brian was at a trade show in Las Vegas, the Ski show, and after five days of talking to ski shop owners, they still did not have a single order.
- On the last day of the show, a woman came up to Brian talking about Madden Slash, and he told her to try on the footwear. She slid one boot on before getting really excited and saying she could sell them as after ski boots.
- She ended up ordering 60 pairs from them, which was the most significant order they ever received.
- And Brian finally realized that you should never try and sell a shoe to a sales representative without insisting they try on the shoe themselves first.
- He considers this his most significant breakthrough for UGG in the 20 years that he owned it.
UGG
Founded in 1978 by an Australian surfer on the coast of California, UGG® is a global lifestyle brand renowned for its iconic Classic boot. First worn by Hollywood royalty, fashion editors, and then the world, UGG® designs and retails footwear, apparel, accessories, and homewares with an uncompromising attitude toward quality and craftsmanship.
Resources
Connect with Brian: LinkedIn
UGG: Website
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