CNewStyle

Sienna Miller? Check. Justin Timberlake? Yes. André Leon Talley? Ten pairs of slip-ons, please. Hollywood offspring such as Kingston Rossdale and Violet Affleck have been spotted in ugg Australia products. And for those who cannot have enough, there are more than 150 styles from which to choose.

Which bring us to the knockoffs. ugg Australia has a Facebook page instructing consumers on how to avoid dealers selling faux footwear. The parent company says it has located more than 3,000 websites offering counterfeit goods.

Earlier this month, a columnist at the Anchorage Daily News wrote about her experience in looking online and ordering what turned out to be fakes. After her initial order, several days passed with no boots and no communication:

“I went back to the Web site, where I noticed a tiny ‘About us’ link at the bottom of the page and found this: ‘ “Ugg” is not a brand name but an age old generic term for this Style of Australian-made sheepskin boot.’
“I was starting to understand what I was dealing with. It was age-old and generic. A scam. High-priced, counterfeit uggs.”

After Julia O’Malley ordered the real thing (delivered three days later), she received a pink slip to pick up the other package at the post office:
“They were a dead-on match for the real ones, right down to the pattern on the soles and the little metal tag on the heel. But inside them, there was no fog-colored sheepskin. Instead, it was cream-colored fur of indeterminate origin. One of the guys I worked with picked them up and stroked the inside.

” ‘It’s probably endangered species,’ he said.”

Success also inspires competitors. Ugg Australia’s upscale rivals include Koolaburra, whose products are worn by Miley Cyrus, Lauren Conrad and Vanessa Hudgens and whose prices are higher than those for Ugg Australia items. Companies such as Skechers and Old Navy are producing boots that offer a more affordable option for folks who can’t splurge on a pair of the real sheepskin stuff that falls in the 100-plus dollar range. They’re creating products that are similar in style but may be either faux-suede or lined in wool and cost around $50-plus.