Counterfeits holding back UGG boot sales in China

Increased competition from counterfeits is holding back efforts to grow sales of UGG boots in  China, financial results show.

The company behind UGG boots, Deckers Outdoor, now has 20 stores in China but its most established operations are suffering from the rise of fakes. Sales at its four established stores were down more than 10 per cent, in part because of increased competition from counterfeits.

"We’ve had a lot of competition in the past year...in the form of counterfeits. That does represent a significant amount of competition," Angel Martinez, CEO of Deckers Outdoor, said. Stemming the rise of counterfeit UGG boots is now central to growth plans, particularly outside the US.

Martinez said this anti-counterfeiting focus has made the company "pretty good at addressing those issues and going after those folks." Deckers Outdoor is using this experience to develop more cost-effective anti-counterfeiting methods, helping it control costs while tackling fakes.