Wednesday, December 29, 2010



Why Buy Real Uggs?

Do Uggs support charitable organizations with the millions of dollars they are obviously raking in?
Do they help the planet in some way? Are they really the most comfortable shoes of the decade? Will someone please tell me
why I should pay $150 for these comfortable, utterly adorable slippers masquerading as shoes?

Up until a few days ago, I didn't even like the stupid things. I saw them on other girls and I thought to myself, "Yuck!" But as I was helping a friend wrap Christmas presents, I saw a pair of Uggs she'd purchased for a young lady. They were purple Bailey Button Uggs and they were really nice. I picked them up and whammo! I was bitten by the Ugg bug. All of a sudden, I had to have an exact pair. I searched online, I looked everywhere, trying to find the purple Bailey Buttons. Finally, I found them, at the reasonable and affordable price of $150. NOT!

I am trying to figure out why people will pay $150 starting price for a pair of Uggs. If they're lucky,
they can find a good deal on a website somewhere, say $105, or on Craigslist for $80 or $90 if they
happen to be a size 6, which for some reason, is the size of all the CL Uggs.

So, finally, I decided, screw it. I'm not going to spend that kind of money on these shoes. I'm not that materialistic. I'm not that rich. I'm a hard worker and money means something to me. So I caved and bought a pair of fakies.

My "Uggs" were $15 at Walgreens. They had one style choice in two different colors -- either black or tan.
And I think they are adorable. OK, so they don't say "Uggs" on the back. But take a zero off the end of the price I paid for mine. They are way comfy and so cute! They're like ugly stuffed animals on your feet. I didn't even have to wait in line. They will be trashed by the end of the season in this recent blizzard dumping of snow, so I figured, why not just make life easy on myself? We vote with our dollars and when we spend tons of dough on shoes and clothes, all we're doing is telling people, "Yes, please keep charging me up the yin yang for your dumb crap! Thank you so much!"

Not to mention, Uggs are made with Sheepskin which hey, guess what? It probably doesn't feel too good for the sheep.
No sheep have been harmed in the Walgreen's version. However, a friend pointed out to me that supporting Walgreen's
means supporting cheap labor and underpaying employees which I know about and I don't like. It's so hard to win in this world,
and it is of course, important to think of the impact our purchases make.

There are lots of articles that say "Fake Uggs are bad for you" hmmm...I wonder where that rumor started?
Can anyone say PR / marketing that Uggs certainly paid big bucks to put out there? The truth is, these boot
types (including Uggs) have no arch. So get one of those pair of gel arches, while you're at Walgreens, or
at Duane Reade, Rite Aid, what have you, and stick them in. They are $10 / pair, bringing the total cost of
the boots up to $25, still a huge bargain and surely my most comfortable pair of shoes.

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