Courtesy of UGG
For Quannah, everything is about intention. That carries over from her advocacy work with Congress, the White House, and big banks to her burgeoning career in fashion. Last year, she walked her first NYFW runway with Prabal Gurung. She has since continued to walk for multiple other brands, including Chanel, and pose for magazine covers and brand campaigns. Throughout those experiences, she’s made sure these brands know her values, her passion for discussing the climate crisis, and want more than a “blank canvas” campaign star shilling their product. Her work with UGG falls in line with that goal.
The Classic Mini boots are the first offering in the new UGG Regenerate collection. These new shoes are identical to the original Classic Minis but made with regenerative materials, including by-product sheepskin from Atkins Ranch in New Zealand and sugarcane instead of petroleum-based materials for the sole.
The boots are also carbon neutral — including offsets UGG purchased — and, for every pair sold, the brand will donate $6 to its partner, the Savory Institute, which works to provide farmers with the resources and data to adapt to regenerative farming methods like rotational grazing. Those $6 per shoe will go towards converting 20 acres of grassland to regenerative farmland, the brand shares. It is part of a goal UGG has set to restore one million acres of grassland by 2025.
These new boots in the Regenerate collection have served as a testing ground for current and future UGG products. Alongside the Classic Mini Regenerate, UGG has also developed a preferred materials guide to implement swaps such as the SugarSoles in other non-Regenerate boots. The brand also plans to continue the Regenerate line in future seasons.
“We’re going to learn a lot this first season,” said Nicks Ericsson, senior director of brand purpose, sustainability, and DEI at UGG’s parent company Deckers, during a press Q&A. “It’s the first step into regenerative product, and we wanted to build off this idea of what this [boot] represents, which is really all about longevity, crafted to last. We know consumers keep our boots for three to five years, many longer than that. They pass it down to younger siblings or the next generation. It’s all about longevity, and now we found a way to capture that in the material that preserves, restores, and creates longevity for the land and the planet.”