Downloading Music Is Quickly Going Out Of Fashion

First records died, then cassette tapes, then CDs and now, downloads. That's right, we're all but officially in the age of streaming services.

Apple might operate the largest online music store in the world, but the Apple Store's iTunes digital music sales have fallen about 13 percent this year, a source familiar with the matter tells the Wall Street Journal. The writing is on the wall.

Meanwhile, Spotify is surging ahead. The music streaming service hit 10 million global paid subscribers in May, up from 6 million paid subscribers in March 2013. Throw in people who use the service but don't pay, and Spotify's now lays claim to 40 million active users, up from 24 million in March 2013.

Then there's Pandora, the Internet radio service with 80 million users, which dominates the streaming music industry. Those numbers have steadily increased, up from 70 million in May 2013, and listening hours have continued to increase too.

Of course, there's a big difference between the Apple Store on the one hand and Spotify and Pandora on the other. Apple's iTunes makes mountain of money, while Pandora occasionally turns a little profit and Spotify isn't even profitable yet.

Nevertheless, Apple apparently sees which way the wind is blowing. As speculated in earlier reports, Apple will be relaunching and rebuilding Beats Music -- the existing $10-a-month subscription streaming service -- under its own brand.

You can soon say goodbye to the days when download was king.

Americans Are Taking Fewer Vacation Days Than At Any Point In Nearly 4 Decades

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Americans took the least amount of vacation time in almost four decades last year, forfeiting billions of dollars in compensation without scoring points with their bosses, according to an industry group analysis released on Tuesday.

The report for the U.S. Travel Association said the average American with paid time off (PTO) used 16 of 20.9 vacation days in 2013, down from an average of 20.3 days off from 1976 to 2000. It added that 169 million days of permanently forfeited U.S. vacation time equated to $52.4 billion in lost benefits.

"By choosing to work instead of taking PTO, employees are essentially working for their employers for free," the analysis said.

The report did not give a reason for the drop in vacation time but the fall coincided with the 2007-2009 recession and a slow economic recovery. An Ipsos/Reuters survey in 2010 found that only 57 percent of Americans used all their vacation time.

Wealthier workers tend to earn more vacation days, and also leave more of it on the table, according to the study. People with an annual income of more than $150,000 failed to use an average of 6.5 vacation days last year, while those with less than $29,000 did not use 3.7 days on average.

Employees who foreited paid time off do not get more raises or bonuses than those who take all their vacation time. They also report higher levels of stress at work, the survey said.

"America's work martyrs aren't more successful. We need to change our thinking. All work and no play is not going to get you ahead - it's only going to get you more stress," Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said in a statement accompanying the report.

The analysis was prepared by Oxford Economics, a forecasting group. It used Labor Department data and a June survey of 1,303 workers by GfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications in conjunction with Oxford Economics.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Alan Crosby)

All The Wealth The Middle Class Accumulated After 1940 Is Gone

Here's more proof the middle class is dying.

The middle-class share of American wealth has been shrinking for the better part of three decades and recently fell to its lowest level since 1940, according to a new study by economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics.

In other words, remember the surge of the great American middle class after World War II? That's all gone, at least by one measure.

In this case, "middle class" is defined rather expansively as the bottom 90 percent of all Americans. "Wealth" is the total of home equity, stock and bond holdings, pension plans and other assets, minus debt. As such assets are mostly owned by mid- to higher-income households -- and considering most Americans define themselves as "middle-class" -- it seems reasonable to use the bottom 90 percent as a proxy for the "middle class."

Saez and Zucman discussed their paper in a blog post for the Washington Center For Equitable Growth on Monday that included this stark chart:

Debt has been the big force driving net wealth lower for the middle class, according to Saez and Zucman. Brief bubbles in stock and home prices in the 1990s and 2000s only temporarily offset the steady, depressing rise in mortgage, student-loan, credit-card and other debts for the bottom 90 percent.

"Many middle class families own homes and have pensions, but too many of these families also have much higher mortgages to repay and much higher consumer credit and student loans to service than before," Saez and Zucman wrote.

Another important factor has been that incomes have stagnated for most Americans over the past few decades, once adjusted for inflation. Along with rising debt levels, stagnant wages have made it impossible for most families to save very much money.

And who has been the beneficiary of this middle-class misery? The top 0.1 percent of Americans, whose incomes have just kept rising, and whose share of wealth has soared to levels not seen since Jay Gatsby was still staring at the blinking green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock:

In fact, the middle class is not alone in suffering from shrinking wealth. The rest of the top 10 percent of Americans below the 0.1 percent -- the "merely rich," Saez and Zucman call them -- have also suffered from falling household wealth over the past four decades.

This rising inequality of wealth can only lead to more inequality of income and wealth in the future, Saez and Zucman warned, echoing French economist Thomas Piketty. The very rich will just keep getting richer by living on the returns from their wealth, while the rest of us will keep falling behind.

America's Disappearing Jobs: 24/7 Wall St.

After the Great Recession, which cost millions of Americans their jobs, the U.S. labor market has begun to heal. So far this year the United States has added an average of nearly 230,000 jobs per month. In the 10 years through 2022, the BLS estimates that total employment will grow by more than 15 million jobs, or nearly 11%.

However, the outlook for some occupations is bleak. For example, the number of fallers — logging workers who cut down trees — is expected to decline by 43% between 2012 and 2022, the most of any occupation. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates and projections for more than 1,000 occupations for 2012 and 2022, 24/7 Wall St. identified America’s disappearing jobs.

Click here to see the nation’s disappearing jobs

In many cases, these rapidly declining occupations are already quite rare. For instance, there were just 1,600 locomotive firers — who are responsible for monitoring train tracks and engine instruments — in the U.S. as of 2012. In all, five of the fastest declining occupations had fewer than 10,000 workers in 2012.

Yet, in other instances, occupations that are expected to contract still employ a large number of Americans. There were more than 320,000 people employed as data entry and information processing workers in 2012. There also were nearly half a million postal service workers.

The projected decline in postal service workers is especially significant. In all, the BLS forecasts that the number postal service jobs will fall by 139,000 between 2012 and 2022 — or more than all of the other disappearing occupations put together. A number of factors are expected to contribute to this decline, including continued drops in mail volumes as well as the ongoing financial struggles of the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS has already cut tens of thousands of jobs since 2012, and it is currently slated to cut another 15,000 jobs next year.

Increased automation, digitization, and technological innovation play a role in the decline of several of the fastest shrinking occupations. “We definitely think that technology and automation are a factor with some of these [jobs],” Martin Kohli, chief regional economist at the BLS, told 24/7 Wall St.

The development of email has reduced mail volumes and, as a result, the need for postal service workers. Automated sorting systems have further reduced the need for human sorting. Similarly, motion picture projectionists have become less common as digital projection replaces traditional film rolls, Kohli said.

International trade can also play a part in the decline of an occupation. Specifically, Kohli identified free trade and imports as factors impacting textile occupations. Trade, Kohli said, “reduces the demand for people to make shoes and textiles in this country, because imported shoes and cloth, often from Asia, cost relatively little.” At the same time, he noted that this allows Americans to focus on other industries, such as high-level manufacturing and providing financial services. Semiconductor processors, too, have become less-common in the U.S., as many businesses have elected to outsource manufacturing work abroad and focus on design, marketing, and distribution.

To determine the jobs with the greatest forecast percentage decline in employment, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed BLS Employment Projections program data for 2012 and 2022. Most of these occupations refer to a specific job. In a few cases — postal service workers, data entry and information processing workers, and textile machine setters, operators, and tenders — we used a broader classification to reflect that multiple jobs in the larger job category would be among the fastest shrinking. Where several occupations were similar in their description, such as textile machine workers and fabric and apparel patternmakers, we selected only one occupation. Employment figures from the BLS for 2012 represent estimates, while figures for 2022 represent forecasts. Median annual wage figures are for 2012. Further information on each occupation came from the BLS’ Occupational Outlook Handbook.

These are America’s Disappearing Jobs:

 America’s Disappearing Jobs of  

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -22.5% > Number employed, 2012: 20,900 > Number employed, 2022: 16,200 > Median annual income: $33,940 > Educational qualification: High school diploma Overall, the number of all metal and plastic machine workers is projected to decline by 6% between 2012 and 2022. The decline is expected to be greatest among drilling and boring machine workers, who operate and repair drilling machinery used in plastics and metals manufacturing. The number of such jobs is expected to decline by more than 22%. Foreign competition and especially technological advancement are expected to account for much of the job decline in metals and plastics manufacturing. As a result, workers in the field that can operate and program computer numerically-controlled (CNC) machines are expected to have the most job opportunities going forward. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3Bua1SipO Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -23.4% > Number employed, 2012: 1,300 > Number employed, 2022: 1,000 > Median annual income: $34,250 > Educational qualification: High school diploma The number of animal breeders is expected to decline by more than 23% between 2012 and 2022. Breeders use their knowledge of animal genetics to help farmers breed more productive farm animals. As of 2012, more than three-quarters of all animal breeders were self-employed. The total number of people working as breeders is already quite low — around 1,300 as of 2012. The BLS expects agricultural employment to decline in the coming years as a result of technological advancement. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3Bua4ULaA Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -23.5% > Number employed, 2012: 76,300 > Number employed, 2022: 58,300 > Median annual income: $25,520 > Educational qualification: N/A Textile machine workers can operate a range of equipment used in bleaching, dyeing, cutting, knitting, weaving, winding, twisting, and drawing out textiles. However, lower wages overseas have, in the past, contributed to a decline in textile manufacturing, after U.S. import quotas were repealed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jobs for textile, apparel, and furnishings workers are expected to drop by about 7% between 2012 and 2022. Much of this decline is expected to be among textile machine workers, which are projected to lose nearly 18,000 jobs, or 23.5%. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3BuaAVV6U Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -24.8% > Number employed, 2012: 324,600 > Number employed, 2022: 244,200 > Median annual income: $30,100 > Educational qualification: N/A Jobs in data entry and information processing include a number of functions. While some workers mostly type various documents, letters, and forms for an employer, others primarily handle entering and verifying data. The BLS expects the number of workers in such positions is expected to decline by nearly 25%, or over 80,000 workers, between 2012 and 2022. Yet, occupations that the BLS considers to be similar are expected to see notable increases, suggesting some of these workers may be able to switch jobs. The number of secretaries and administrative assistants is expected to rise by almost 500,000, or 12%, in that time. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3BuaIy8rA Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -26.5% > Number employed, 2012: 8,000 > Number employed, 2022: 5,800 > Median annual income: $19,830 > Educational qualification: Less than high school Motion picture projectionists operate projection and sound equipment. The number of such jobs is expected to drop by more than 26% between 2012 and 2022, largely due to the shift to digital projection. While the educational requirements for the job are limited — being a projectionist does not require a high school diploma — pay is also quite low. As of 2012, the median annual wage for a projectionist was just $19,830, versus a national median wage of $34,750 across all occupations. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3BuaQg1aZ Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -27.1% > Number employed, 2012: 21,300 > Number employed, 2022: 15,500 > Median annual income: $33,020 > Educational qualification: Associate’s degree Semiconductor processors oversee the manufacturing process by cleaning silicon, monitoring machinery, and testing circuits to ensure they function correctly. Processors work in perfectly clean rooms while wearing lightweight attire called “bunny suits” in order to prevent dust particles from damaging semiconductors. The combination of automation and foreign manufacturing is expected to reduce the number of processors by more than one-fourth between 2012 and 2022. Today, a number of major U.S. companies such as Broadcom and Qualcomm are “fabless” chip makers, meaning they outsource manufacturing operations, often to other countries. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3BuaXoVpZ Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -28.3% > Number employed, 2012: 491,600 > Number employed, 2022: 352,600 > Median annual income: $53,100 > Educational qualification: N/A The number of postal service workers in general is projected to drop by more than 28% from 2012 to 2022, with postal service clerks expected to experience the biggest percentage drop. According to the BLS, “automated sorting systems, cluster mailboxes, and tight budgets” are all expected to lead to lower postal worker employment. The U.S. Postal Service has struggled for years to repair its finances, and posted a net loss of nearly $5 billion last year amid a decline in mail volume that will likely continue. In response to these declines, the USPS cut hours worked by 2.3% in 2012, and by an additional 1.1% last year. The USPS forecasts that it will run a multi-billion dollar loss in fiscal 2014. It has also announced plans to cut up to 15,000 jobs in 2015, an action that is being opposed by 50 U.S. senators. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3Buacwfqy Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -35.3% > Number employed, 2012: 3,500 > Number employed, 2022: 2,300 > Median annual income: $24,310 > Educational qualification: High school diploma Jobs for shoe machine operators and tenders, who work to build shoes and shoe parts, are projected to drop by more than a third between 2012 and 2022. Yet, such jobs are already quite rare in the U.S., with only 3,500 people working in the field as of 2012. Today, many footwear makers outsource their manufacturing to foreign countries and companies. One such company headquartered in Hong Kong, Yue Yuen, employed roughly 413,000 people at the end of 2013. Major companies that outsource manufacturing to Yue Yuen include Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3BuahICGw Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -42.0% > Number employed, 2012: 1,600 > Number employed, 2022: 900 > Median annual income: $44,920 > Educational qualification: High school diploma Locomotive firers are responsible for monitoring train tracks for debris, and they check various instruments in order to ensure that no problems are present with the trains’ engines. The job is currently very rare, with less than 2,000 workers as of 2012 — a number that is expected to drop far more in the coming decade. Already, many such jobs have become obsolete as automation has taken the place of people, with locomotive engineers and conductors filling most of these roles. A handful of companies — BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific, as well as the national rail operator, Amtrak — employ most railroad workers. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3BuanzW9Z Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

• > Pct. change in employment 2012 – 2022: -43.3% > Number employed, 2012: 6,600 > Number employed, 2022: 3,800 > Median annual income: $35,250 > Educational qualification: High school diploma Fallers are logging workers that cut down trees. According to the BLS, fallers face numerous job pressures that are projected to cut jobs by roughly 43%. Despite a focus on safety, jobs in logging are often dangerous due to the machinery used and the dangers of falling branches. According to the BLS, fallers face numerous job pressures, including increased mechanization, conservation efforts, and foreign competition, that are projected to cut jobs by roughly 43%. Logging workers are already something of a rare occupation. As of 2012, there were just under 44,000 logging workers in the U.S., of which roughly 6,600 were fallers. The number of logging workers, overall, is expected to decline by 8.7% from 2012 to 2022. Read more: America’s Disappearing Jobs - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/08/27/americas-disappearing-jobs-2/#ixzz3Buas3WEB Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

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Most Americans Believe Employers Should Be Required To Give Workers Paid Vacation: Poll

WASHINGTON -- Americans overwhelmingly support the idea of requiring large U.S. employers to provide their workers with at least some paid vacation time, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.

In a poll conducted ahead of Labor Day, 75 percent of respondents said they believe in placing such a mandate upon the business community. A mere 17 percent said they oppose it. The support crossed party lines to include 87 percent of self-identified Democrats and 65 percent of Republicans.

The United States is an outlier among the world's advanced economies in having no law to guarantee workers paid time off from work.

In a 2013 analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research looking at the U.S. and 16 European nations, America was the only country without some form of a vacation mandate on its books. European countries tend to guarantee workers four weeks' worth of vacation per year, and some countries offer as much as five or six. Canada mandates at least two weeks.

Most U.S. employers voluntarily offer paid vacation time to their workers, but many still opt not to. That's particularly the case in lower-wage industries like food service and retail, where workers are also less likely to receive paid sick leave. The same analysis by CEPR estimated that 23 percent of U.S. workers don't get any paid vacation.

Of the respondents to the HuffPost/YouGov poll who were currently employed, nearly one in three said they receive no paid vacation time through their jobs. Only 46 percent of all respondents said they had taken a vacation in the past year. (As a separate poll recently found, many of the American workers fortunate enough to receive paid vacation time choose not to take advantage of it for various reasons.)

There appears to be little appetite among Republicans or Democrats in Congress to place a vacation mandate upon businesses. In recent sessions, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) has introduced a bill that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to guarantee most workers vacation time, but the legislation has gone nowhere.

Under Grayson's proposal, companies with at least 100 employees would be required to provide a week's vacation to full-time workers as well as part-time workers who have been employed for a year and log at least 25 hours a week. After three years, those companies would be required to offer two weeks of vacation to workers, while companies with at least 50 employees would be required to offer one week.

Grayson's bill likely has no chance of passing the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, where Republicans are loath to place any mandates upon the business community. And while many lawmakers are willing to back paid sick leave, not a single one of Grayson's Democratic colleagues has signed on as a co-sponsor to his vacation bill.

"We're really hurting ourselves, and specifically we're hurting the most vulnerable among us," Grayson told HuffPost last year, noting that low-wage workers are disproportionately without vacation time. "If every other advanced country can do this, so can we."

A HuffPost/YouGov poll from last year found nearly as much support among the general public for a paid sick leave mandate for employers. Seventy-four percent of respondents to that poll said that companies should be required to provide sick days to workers, while only 18 percent said they shouldn't. In recent years many U.S. cities have passed legislation that guarantees workers a certain amount of accrued paid sick leave, often over the strong opposition of business lobbies.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted Aug. 26-28 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here.

Worker To Starbucks: 'I'm Not Able To Parent The Way I'd Like To'

Changes to Starbucks’ erratic system for scheduling its workers' hours can’t come quickly enough for Allison Montgomery.

“Starbucks is not catering to parents at all, it’s been going on for a long time,” Montgomery said Wednesday during a segment on HuffPost Live. “You’re at the mercy of the software.”

Her woes mirrored those of Jannette Navarro, the single mother profiled in a New York Times story published last week that exposed the plight of Starbucks workers balancing home life with the chain's irregular hours.

Since becoming a barista at the coffee chain two years ago, Montgomery, a single mother in Chester, Pennsylvania, has struggled to get her four children to daycare. Her unpredictable hours caused her wages to fluctuate, making it impossible to accurately document her income for government benefits. Montgomery said she was "cut off" from state-funded child care subsidies in part because she couldn't provide proof of a regular source of income. After she lost access to a car, Montgomery woke up at 3 a.m. to safely deliver her kids to a babysitter before beginning her commute by two separate buses to work.

"I can't tell you how many times I've had to panic before work, getting a babysitter or calling out, being late," Montgomery said. "It's hard to find reliable, affordable daycare."

Montgomery said she pleaded with her manager to give her more consistent hours, but said "nothing could ever be done about it."

Last week, Starbucks vowed to update its scheduling software to make hours more consistent and enforce new guidelines to discourage managers from slotting the same workers for back-to-back open and closing shifts. In a company-wide email, Cliff Burrows, Starbucks’ president for the U.S. and Americas, also pledged to post shifts at least one week in advance.

But worker advocates said the promised changes failed to secure steady hours for employees.

"Our regional leaders are reaching out to Allison to learn more about her specific situation and how we can help," Zack Hutson, a Starbucks spokesman, told The Huffington Post on Thursday. "Our success is a direct result of the relationship our [employees] have with our customers, and we believe we have a responsibility to support them in balancing their home and work lives."

He did not immediately reply to questions about how soon updates to the company's scheduling software would take effect.

“I’m not able to parent the way I’d like to,” Montgomery said. “I would like to just have a normal schedule, something I can look forward to.”

Updated with a statement from Starbucks

Ugg Is Sick Of Being Pigeonholed For Its Boots

When most people think of Ugg boots, they picture this:

The company that makes Ugg boots would rather you picture this:

The model in this Ugg ad is wearing Ugg boots, but she is drawing on an $795 Ugg-branded sheepskin area rug with a $145 Ugg pillow on the chair behind her. Oh -- and she's Ernest Hemingway's great-great-granddaughter, sketch artist Langley Fox Hemingway.

Seeking to avoid the fashion dustbin of history, Ugg Australia is plugging away at diversifying its brand. It launches a new advertising campaign on Monday with the tagline "THIS IS UGG" in an attempt to portray Ugg as "universal," with items for men, women, kids and the home -- not just one style of sheepskin winter boots. In addition to Hemingway, the ads feature New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Connie Rishwain, president of Ugg, told The Huffington Post in an interview this week that she doesn't want Ugg to be "stereotyped" as a mere footwear brand.

Indeed, the brand sells all kinds of stuff these days. Ugg debuted a home goods line in October: knit pillows, blankets and sheepskin rugs. In 2011, Ugg launched a pricier fashion line called Ugg Collection, made in Italy. In 2012, Ugg opened its first men's store. Rishwain said Ugg is trying to go for a year-round feel by offering products under the Ugg name that shoppers can use at different times of the year.

As a result, Ugg now sells a host of things to wear: Boots, slippers, sneakers, sandals, wedges, winter gloves and hats, coats, shirts and handbags. It includes pricey fashion items like $375 Italian leather harness boots and a $215 python-embossed calf hair clutch. You can even buy an puffy, fuzzy sleeve for a smartphone.

Of course, branching away from a core product isn't always a winning strategy. Another big shoe brand, Crocs, tried a similar move in 2009, but took things too far, the company admitted in July. By putting its name on so many different styles of shoes, Crocs strayed too far away from its heritage, bewildering customers by selling plastic, hole-punched clogs alongside fancy high heels.

Reflecting on the rise of Ugg boots in the mid-2000s, Rishwain said she loved all the press and PR when celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton were spotted with the classic sheepskin boot on their feet. But it's not 2003 anymore. A decade after Ugg boots became popular, few besides teenagers in Santa Barbara wear them like that, said Rishwain.

"We were really well known for that and it was photographed a lot," said Rishwain. "Ugg has really evolved over the years to be so much more than the boot."

Founded in California in 1978 as Ugg Imports, the boots burst into popularity in the early-2000s after being featured by Oprah Winfrey on her television show, sparking a teenage fashion frenzy. Deckers Outdoor Corp., which bought the brand in 1995 and is now Ugg's parent company, reaped the profit. In 2013, the brand raked in nearly $1.3 billion in sales.

Over the years, Ugg has fought constant criticism. The high fashion crowd has largely dismissed the boots as ugly. Podiatrists have said the boots don't provide proper support, leading to health problems. A U.K. judge warned that the boots are dangerous to wear while driving. Animal rights group PETA mobilized against Ugg, accusing the company of "extreme cruelty to animals."

In spite of it all, the brand has done quite well lately for Deckers. In July, it announced a 22.8 percent spike in Ugg sales to $123.3 million for the quarter, up from $100.4 million the same period the year before.

Sam Poser, an analyst at Sterne Agee, wrote in a note to clients that Deckers, which also owns brands Teva and Sanuk, is benefitting from a trend toward comfort, as clothes like stretchy leggings and yoga pants become increasingly popular.

"Products across brands and categories are gaining momentum," including Ugg, wrote Poser. "Deckers is set up well for the future."

As much as Ugg wants to branch out, it remains dependent on the original shearling boot it owes its success to. The Women's Classic Short boot, which sells for $155, remains the brand's best-seller.

According to the company's market research, Ugg needs the classic boot to attract first-time buyers, who then go on to buy other kinds of products. So, Ugg tries to keep the boot updated. Compared with its days as a teen fashion craze, the stout little booties are now a bit slimmer, with new soles. Designers have added styles with embellishments, bows, embroideries and buttons.

And that boot is here to stay, whether the haters like it or not. In interviews with HuffPost earlier this year, fashion psychologists and stylists told HuffPost that the classic Ugg boot has surpassed fad status, earning a permanent place on women's feet.

"They have become the winter flip-flop," fashion consultant Kate Schelter told HuffPost at the time. "A banal essential that people cling to out of comfort and freezing temperatures."