Wuggs shoe-in as next homegrown footwear
A TASMANIAN game meat company has sent off its first batch of skins to be made up into what could become the state’s most iconic homegrown footwear. Wuggs, the brainchild of Lenah Game Meats, are made from wallaby fur rather than lamb’s wool. And after a pre-production boot drive the first boots for customers should be delivered in November. Lenah’s John Kelly described Wuggs as the first sustainably-produced, luxury ugg boots in Australia. The game meat company said it harvested less than two per cent of Tasmania’s three million wallabies per year and that harvest reduced the impact of that large population on farming enterprises. The company sells its meat in more than 170 supermarkets across Tasmania and Victoria and wants to use all of each animal harvested for food. “Wugg boots are an extension of this philosophy,” Mr Kelly said. “Wallaby leather is totally unique, it’s the world’s strongest lightweight leather with a fibre structure different to any other, making Wuggs the warmest, softest and most ethically produced boot going and a boot built to last.”
Wugg sales will be predominantly online to start with but Mr Kelly expects they will then be stocked in “appropriate” retail outlets around the state.
Lenah hopes Wuggs will become the next great Tasmanian icon.
“All we need to do is get Bobby The Bear into a pair,” Mr Kelly said.
An online Pozible boot sale gave Lenah Game Meat the market confidence to branch out.
“To produce Wuggs economically we need to do a production run of at least 100 pairs,” Mr Kelly said.
“The skins have to be selected, shipped to the tannery in Melbourne, tanned into the finest grade leather, then cut into the exact correct shapes for Wuggs (there’s six different shaped pieces of leather in each boot), then stitched and fitted to the soles and finally our trademark hot iron brand applied.”
The company needed to pre-sell 100 pairs of Wuggs within 30 days and achieved that aim.
“Then we will go for it and start producing full time. And yes, we are channelling Henry Ford: you can have any colour you like so long as it’s authentic tan,” he said.
See https://www.pozible.com/ profile/wuggs-1 helen.kempton@news.com.au