Top 25 "It" products of all time: #12 -- Uggs

Uggs. It's the brand people love to hate. But that's before they try on a pair.

Ever since Uggs, the Australian boot made with Merino sheepskin, became popular with the beautiful people, they've become an easy target for the masses. They're ugly. Yes. They're expensive. Yes. They're too trendy. Well, they were. Hopefully their temporary fling with the feet of starlettes all over Los Angeles and Vale has cooled and they will return to the people who have always known and loved them: The surfers. And all us slobs who like comfort more than the latest "it" shoe.

Growing up in the '70s and '80s on the beaches of Southern California, I didn't have a pair of Uggs. They were surfer wear. And you had to be a cool enough, connected enough, surfer to know a mate in Oz who'd agree to ship you over a pair or two (my brothers wore them, though.) They remained a niche market until sometime in the mid-90s, when Hollywood fashionistas discovered them. It wasn't long before the masses started lining up to buy their own pairs.