DECKERS OUTDOOR CORP (DECK) Business, 2012

Unless otherwise specifically indicated, all amounts in Item 1. and Item 1A. herein are expressed in thousands, except for employees, share quantity, per share data, and selling prices.

General

Deckers Outdoor Corporation was incorporated in 1975 under the laws of the State of California and, in 1993, reincorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware. We strive to be a premier lifestyle marketer that builds niche brands into global market leaders by designing and marketing innovative, functional and fashion-oriented footwear developed for both high performance outdoor activities and everyday casual lifestyle use. We believe that our footwear is distinctive and appeals broadly to men, women and children. We sell our products, including accessories such as handbags and outerwear, through quality domestic and international retailers, international distributors, and directly to end-user consumers both domestically and internationally, through our websites, call centers, retail concept stores and retail outlet stores. Our primary objective is to build our footwear lines into global lifestyle brands with market leadership positions. We seek to differentiate our brands and products by offering diverse lines that emphasize authenticity, functionality, quality, and comfort and products tailored to a variety of activities, seasons, and demographic groups. Virtually all of our products are currently manufactured by independent contractors outside of the United States (US). Our continued growth will depend upon the broadening of our products offered under each brand, the appeal of our products to our consumers, expanding domestic and international distribution, successfully opening new retail stores, increasing sales to consumers, and developing or acquiring new brands.

In July 2008, we entered into a joint venture agreement with an affiliate of Stella International Holdings Limited ("Stella International") for the opening of retail stores and wholesale distribution for the UGG brand in China. The joint venture was owned 51% by Deckers and 49% by Stella International. Stella International is also one of our major manufacturers in China. In April 2012, we acquired the 49% noncontrolling interest owned by Stella International. In September 2009, we began to reacquire our international distribution rights, beginning in Japan. In January 2010, we acquired certain assets and liabilities, including reacquisition of our distribution rights, from our Teva distributor that sold to retailers in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg (Benelux) as well as France. In September 2010, we purchased a portion of a privately held footwear company as an equity method investment. In January 2011, we acquired certain assets from our UGG, Teva, and Simple brands distributor that sold to retailers in the United Kingdom (UK) and from our UGG and Simple brands distributor that sold to retailers in Benelux and France. The distribution rights in these regions reverted back to us on December 31, 2010 upon the expiration of the distribution agreements. In May 2011, we entered into an asset purchase agreement with Sanuk USA LLC, C&C Partners, Ltd., and the equity holders of both entities (collectively referred to as "Sanuk" or the "Sanuk brand"). In July 2011, we completed the acquisition of the purchased assets and the assumption of the assumed liabilities of the Sanuk brand. Our consolidated financial statements include the operations of Sanuk beginning July 1, 2011. In May 2012, the Company purchased a noncontrolling interest in the Hoka brand, a privately held footwear company, which was accounted for as an equity method investment. In September 2012, the Company acquired the remaining ownership interest in Hoka.

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Products

We market our products primarily under three proprietary brands:

UGG®. UGG Australia is our luxurious comfort brand and the category creator for luxury sheepskin footwear. The UGG brand has enjoyed several years of positive consumer reception, driven by consistent introductions of new styles in the fall and spring seasons, as well as year-round styles. We have also strategically expanded our geographic distribution as well as our consumer base with more men's products. Additionally, we have broadened the brand into additional product categories beyond footwear, such as handbags, apparel, and cold weather accessories. We carefully manage the distribution of our UGG products within higher-end specialty and department store retailers in order to best reach our target consumers, preserve the UGG brand's retail channel positioning and maintain the UGG brand's position as a mid- to upper-price high-end brand.

In recent years, sales of UGG products have benefited from significant national media attention and celebrity endorsement through our marketing programs and product placement activities, raising the profile of our UGG brand as a luxurious comfort brand. We have further supported the UGG brand's market positioning by expanding the selection of styles available in order to build consumer interest in our UGG brand collection.

Teva®. Teva is our outdoor performance and lifestyle brand and pioneer of the sport sandal market. We have expanded the Teva product line over time to include open and closed-toe outdoor lifestyle footwear, as well as additional outdoor performance footwear, including light hiking shoes, freeride mountain bike shoes, amphibious footwear, and rugged outdoor cross training shoes.

In recent years, we have focused on regaining our leadership position in the performance sandal market, while broadening our performance platform to include other outdoor activities such as light hiking, and freestyle mountain bike riding to lessen our overall reliance on sandal sales, while bringing youthfulness back to the brand through contemporary designs, colors, and materials. Throughout 2011 and 2012, we have continued to expand our closed-toe offering in both performance and lifestyle outdoor footwear. This includes the award winning outdoor light hiking platform, Riva, and Teva's entry into insulated winter boots with the Lifty Collection.

Sanuk®. Sanuk is our fun lifestyle footwear brand rooted in surf culture but embraced by an eclectic mix of style-savvy optimists. The Sanuk brand is probably best known for the patented SIDEWALK SURFERS® shoe which effectively introduced the hanging deconstructed footwear movement. Other primary offerings include the Beer Cozy and Yoga Mat sandal collections made from real yoga mat material. The brand has a history of innovation, product invention, foot-friendly comfort, unexpected materials and clever branding.

In recent years, Sanuk products have been recognized by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) for being both the 2007 and 2010 Footwear Product of the Year. The brand's SIDEWALK SURFERS are marketed with the hand-crafted, humor driven "Cut&Paste" ad campaign and the slogan "THESE ARE NOT SHOES, THEY'RE SANDALS®" which references the patented sandal construction. We plan to build on the Sanuk brand's authentic position in the surf and outdoor markets through its relationships with prominent professional athletes and ambassadors, including surfers, rock climbers, photographers, artists, and musicians known as much for their unique personal styles and charisma as for their specialized talents.

In addition to our primary brands, our other brands include TSUBO, a line of mid and high-end casual footwear that incorporates style, function, and maximum comfort; Ahnu, a line of outdoor performance and lifestyle footwear; MOZO, a line of footwear that combines running shoe technology with work shoe toughness for individuals that spend long hours working on their feet; Hoka, a line of

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footwear for all capacities of runner designed to alleviate fatigue, impact and muscle strain; and Simple, a line for which we ceased distribution effective December 31, 2011.

Sales and Distribution

At the wholesale level, we distribute our products in the US through a dedicated network of independent sales representatives, as well as through employee sales representatives who serve as territory representatives or key account executives for several of our largest customers. Our sales representatives are organized geographically and by brand and visit retail stores to communicate the features, styling, and technology of our products. In addition to our wholesale business, we also sell products directly to consumers through our websites and retail stores. Our brands are generally advertised and promoted through a variety of consumer media campaigns. We benefit from editorial coverage in both consumer and trade publications. Each brand's dedicated marketing team works closely with targeted accounts to maximize advertising and promotional effectiveness. We also manage brand marketing on a global basis to ensure consistent consumer communications in all regions and channels. We determine our global communication plans based on brand strategies, consumer insights, and return on investment measures.

Our sales force is generally separated by brand, as each brand generally has certain specialty consumers; however, there is overlap between the sales teams and customers. We have aligned our brands' sales forces to position them for the future of the brands. Each brand's respective sales manager recruits and manages their network of sales representatives and coordinates sales to national accounts. We believe this approach for the US market maximizes the selling efforts to our national retail accounts on a cost-effective basis.

We distribute products sold in the US through our distribution centers in Camarillo and Ventura, California. Our distribution centers feature a warehouse management system that enables us to efficiently pick and pack products for direct shipment to customers. For certain customers requiring special handling, each shipment is pre-labeled and packed to the retailer's specifications, enabling the retailer to easily unpack our product and immediately display it on the sales floor. All incoming and outgoing shipments must meet our quality inspection process.

Internationally, we distribute our products through independent distributors and retailers in many countries, including throughout Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada, and Latin America, among others. In addition, as we do in the US, in certain countries, we sell products directly to international consumers through our websites and our retail stores. For our wholesale and direct to consumer businesses, we operate distribution centers in certain international locations and utilize third-party distribution companies in other countries. We may also work with trading companies for importation, as needed. Our principal wholesale customers include specialty retailers, selected department stores, outdoor retailers, sporting goods retailers, shoe stores, and online retailers.

Our five largest customers accounted for approximately 22.8% of worldwide net sales for 2012, compared to 24.0% for 2011. No single customer accounted for greater than 10% of our consolidated net sales in 2012.

UGG. We sell our UGG footwear and accessories primarily through higher-end department stores such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's, as well as independent specialty retailers such as Journey's and David Z., and internet retailers such as Zappos.com. We believe these retailers support the luxury positioning of our brand and are the destination shopping choice for the consumer who seeks out the fashion and functional elements of our UGG products.

Teva. We sell our Teva footwear primarily through specialty outdoor and sporting goods retailers such as REI, L.L. Bean, Dick's Sporting Goods, and The Sports Authority as well as on-line retailers such as Zappos.com. We believe these retail channels are the first choice for athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, and adventurers seeking technical and performance-oriented outdoor footwear. Furthermore, we believe that

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retailers who appreciate and can fully market the technical attributes of our performance products to the consumer are best equipped to sell our Teva footwear.

Sanuk. We sell our Sanuk footwear primarily through independent action sports retailers including specialty surf and skate shops, outdoor retailers such as REI, Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS), and Bass Pro Shops, specialty footwear retailers and larger national retail chains including Nordstrom, Journeys, Dillards, and The Buckle. We believe these retailers showcase the brand's creativity, fun, and comfort and allow us to effectively reach our target consumers for the brand.

Other brands. Our other brands are sold throughout the world primarily at better department stores, outdoor specialty accounts, independent specialty retailers, and with online retailers that support our brand ideals of comfort, style, and quality. Key accounts of our other brands include Nordstrom, Dillard's, Hanigs, REI, and Zappos.com.

eCommerce. Our eCommerce business enables us to market, communicate and build our relationships with the consumer. eCommerce enables us to meet the growing demand for our products, sell the products at retail prices, and provide significant incremental operating income. The eCommerce business provides us an opportunity to communicate to the consumer with a consistent brand message that is in line with our brands' promises, drives awareness of key brand initiatives, and offers targeted information to specific consumer segments. We operate our eCommerce business through the Uggaustralia.com, Teva.com, Sanuk.com, Tsubo.com, Ahnu.com, and Mozoshoes.com websites. Our websites also drive wholesale and distributor sales through brand awareness and by directing consumers to retailers that carry our brands, including our own retail stores. In recent years, our eCommerce business has had significant revenue growth, much of which occurred as the UGG brand gained popularity and as consumers continued to increase internet usage for footwear and other purchases.

We have expanded our international capabilities by developing sites to service certain international markets. These sites are translated into the local language, provide product through local distribution centers and price the products in the consumers' local currency. In 2012, we launched additional sites in the US for our Sanuk brand and launched mobile sites for several of our brands in the US, Europe and Japan. Our eCommerce business has offices in Flagstaff, Arizona; Richmond, England; and Tokyo, Japan. In order to reduce the cost of order fulfillment, minimize out of stock positions, and further leverage our distribution centers' operations, order fulfillment is performed by our distribution centers in California, the UK, Canada, and Japan. Products sold through our eCommerce business are sold at prices which approximate retail prices, enabling us to capture the full retail margin on each direct to consumer transaction.

Retail Stores. Our retail stores are predominantly UGG Australia concept stores and UGG Australia outlet stores. Our retail stores enable us to directly impact our customers' experience, meet the growing demand for these products, sell the products at retail prices and generate strong annual operating income. In addition, our UGG Australia concept stores allow us to showcase our entire product line including footwear, accessories, handbags, and outerwear; whereas, a wholesale account may not represent all of these categories. Through our outlet stores, we sell some of our discontinued styles from prior seasons, plus products made specifically for the outlet stores. We sell Teva products as well as some of our other brands through a few limited outlet locations.

In 2012, we opened seven stores in the US and twenty-three internationally. As of December 31, 2012, we had a total of 56 UGG Australia concept stores and 21 UGG outlet stores worldwide. During 2013, we plan to open additional retail stores in the US and internationally.

Product Design and Development

The design and product development staff for each of our brands creates new innovative footwear products that combine our standards of high quality, comfort, and functionality. The design function for all

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of our brands is performed by a combination of our internal design and development staff plus outside freelance designers. By utilizing outside designers, we believe we are able to review a variety of different design perspectives on a cost-efficient basis and anticipate color and style trends more quickly. Refer to Note 1 to our accompanying consolidated financial statements for a discussion of our research and development costs for the last three years.

In order to ensure quality, consistency, and efficiency in our design and product development process, we continually evaluate the availability and cost of raw materials, the capabilities and capacity of our independent contract manufacturers, and the target retail price of new models and lines. The design and development staff works closely with brand management to develop new styles of footwear and accessories for our various product lines. We develop detailed drawings and prototypes of our new products to aid in conceptualization and to ensure our contemplated new products meet the standards for innovation and performance that our consumers demand. Throughout the development process, we have multiple design and development reviews, which we then coordinate with our independent manufacturers. This ensures that we are addressing the needs of our consumers and are working toward a common goal of developing and producing a high quality product to be delivered on a timely basis.

Manufacturing and Supply Chain

We do not manufacture our products; we outsource the production of our brand footwear to independent manufacturers primarily in China. During 2009, we began to diversify our manufacturing locations by outsourcing a limited amount of production to manufacturers in Vietnam, and in 2010 and 2011 increased this production volume while also opening manufacturing locations in 2011 in the US and Latin America. We require our independent contract manufacturers and designated suppliers to adopt our Supplier Code of Conduct, which specifies that they comply with all local laws and regulations governing human rights, working conditions, and environmental compliance before we are willing to conduct business with them. Our Supplier Code of Conduct applies to all of our manufacturers, distributors, vendors, and other independent contractors. We also require our manufacturing partners to comply with our Ethical Supply Chain guidelines and Restricted Substances policy as a condition of doing business with our company. We require our licensees to demand the same from their contract factories and suppliers. We have no long-term contracts with our manufacturers. As we grow, we expect to continue to rely exclusively on independent manufacturers for our sourcing needs.

The production of footwear by our independent manufacturers is performed in accordance with our detailed specifications and is subject to our quality control standards. We maintain an on-site supervisory office in Pan Yu City, China that serves as a local link to our independent manufacturers, enabling us to carefully monitor the production process from receipt of the design brief to production of interim and final samples and shipment of finished product. We believe this local presence provides greater predictability of material availability, product flow and adherence to final design specifications than we could otherwise achieve through an agency arrangement. To ensure the production of high quality products, the majority of the materials and components used in production of our products by these independent manufacturers are purchased from independent suppliers designated by us. Excluding sheepskin, we believe that substantially all the various raw materials and components used in the manufacture of our footwear, including rubber, leather, and nylon webbing are generally available from multiple sources at competitive prices. We generally outsource our manufacturing requirements on the basis of individual purchase orders or short-term purchase commitments rather than maintaining long-term purchase commitments with our independent manufacturers.

At our direction, our manufacturers currently purchase the majority of the sheepskin used in our products from two tanneries in China, which source their skins for our products primarily from Australia, Europe, and the US. We maintain constant communication with the tanneries to monitor the supply of sufficient high quality sheepskin available for our projected UGG brand production. To ensure adequate supplies for our manufacturers, we forecast our usage of sheepskin in advance at a forward price. We have

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also entered into minimum purchase commitments with certain sheepskin suppliers (see Note 7 to our accompanying consolidated financial statements.) We believe current supplies are sufficient to meet our needs in the near future, but we continue to investigate our options to accommodate any unexpected future growth.

We have instituted pre-production, in-line, and post-production inspections to meet or exceed the high quality demanded by us and consumers of our products. Our quality assurance program includes our own employee on-site inspectors at our independent manufacturers who oversee the production process and perform quality assurance inspections. We also inspect our products upon arrival at our distribution centers.

Patents and Trademarks

We utilize trademarks on virtually all of our products and believe that having distinctive marks that are readily identifiable is an important factor in creating a market for our goods, toward identifying the Company, and in distinguishing our goods from the goods of others. We currently hold trademark registrations for UGG, Teva, Sanuk, Simple, TSUBO, Ahnu, MOZO, Hoka One One, and other marks in the US and in many other countries, including the countries of the European Union, Canada, China, Japan and Korea. We now hold more than 160 utility and design patent registrations in the US and abroad and have filed more than 10 new patent applications which are currently pending. These patents expire at various times; US design patents that are registered this year will remain valid to 2027. Utility patents filed this year will remain in effect until 2033. We regard our proprietary rights as valuable assets and vigorously protect such rights against infringement by third parties. No single patent is critical to our business, and no group of patents expiring in the same year is critical to our business.

Seasonality

Our business is seasonal, with the highest percentage of UGG brand net sales occurring in the third and fourth calendar quarters and the highest percentage of Teva and Sanuk brand net sales occurring in the first and second calendar quarters of each year. Our financial results include the Sanuk brand beginning July 1, 2011. Historically, our total net sales in the last half of the year have exceeded total net sales for the first half of the year, and we expect this trend to continue. Our other brands do not have a significant seasonal impact on our business. Nonetheless, actual results could differ materially depending upon consumer preferences, availability of product, competition, and our wholesale and distributor customers continuing to carry and promote our various product lines, among other risks and uncertainties. See Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors." For further discussion on our working capital and inventory management, see Item 7 of Part II, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources."

Backlog

Historically, we have encouraged our wholesale and distributor customers to place, and we have received, a significant portion of orders as preseason orders, generally four to eight months prior to the anticipated shipment date. We provide customers with price incentives, and in certain cases extended payment terms, to participate in such preseason programs to enable us to better plan our production schedule, inventory and shipping needs. Unfilled customer orders as of any date, which we refer to as backlog, represent orders scheduled to be shipped at a future date, which can be cancelled prior to shipment. The backlog as of a particular date is affected by a number of factors, including seasonality, manufacturing schedule, and the timing of product shipments as well as variations in the quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year preseason incentive programs. The mix of future and immediate delivery orders can vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. As a result, comparisons of the backlog from period-to-period may be misleading.

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At December 31, 2012, our backlog of orders from our wholesale customers and distributors was approximately $323,000 compared to approximately $387,000 at December 31, 2011. While all orders in the backlog are subject to cancellation by customers, we expect that the majority of such orders will be filled in 2013. We believe that backlog at year-end is an imprecise indicator of total revenue that may be achieved for the full year for several reasons. Backlog only relates to wholesale and distributor orders for the next season and current season fill-in orders and excludes potential sales in our eCommerce business and retail stores during the year. Backlog also is affected by the timing of customers' orders and product availability. As compared to the prior year end, at December 31, 2012 fewer customers had completed previewing and writing their Fall 2013 pre-book orders.

Competition

The casual, outdoor, athletic, fashion, and formal footwear markets are highly competitive. Our competitors include athletic and footwear companies, branded apparel companies, and retailers with their own private labels. Although the footwear industry is fragmented to a certain degree, many of our competitors are larger and have substantially greater resources than us, including athletic shoe companies, several of which compete directly with some of our products. In addition, access to offshore manufacturing has made it easier for new companies to enter the markets in which we compete, further increasing competition in the footwear and accessory industries. In particular, in part due to the popularity of our UGG products, we face increasing competition from a significant number of competitors selling products designed to compete directly or indirectly with our UGG products.

We believe that our footwear lines and other product lines compete primarily on the basis of brand recognition and authenticity, product quality and design, functionality, performance, comfort, fashion appeal, and price. Our ability to successfully compete depends on our ability to:

•shape and stimulate consumer tastes and preferences by offering innovative, attractive, and exciting products;

•anticipate and respond to changing consumer demands in a timely manner;

•maintain brand authenticity;

•develop high quality products that appeal to consumers;

•price our products suitably;

•provide strong and effective marketing support; and

•ensure product availability.

We believe we are well positioned to compete in the footwear industry. We continually look to acquire or develop more footwear brands to complement our existing portfolio and grow our existing consumer base.

Employees

At December 31, 2012, we employed approximately 2,300 employees in the US, Europe, and Asia, none of whom were represented by a union. This figure includes approximately 1,300 employees in our retail stores worldwide, which includes part-time and seasonal employees. The increase in employees during the year was primarily related to increased expansion efforts. We intend to increase our employee count further in 2013 primarily related to the opening of new retail stores and our other expansion initiatives. We believe our relationships with our employees are good.

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Financial Information about Segments and Geographic Areas

Our six reportable business segments include the strategic business units responsible for the worldwide operations of our brands' (UGG, Teva, Sanuk and other brands) wholesale divisions, as well as our eCommerce and retail store businesses. The majority of our sales and long-lived assets are in the US. Refer to Note 8 to our accompanying consolidated financial statements for further discussion of our business segment data. Refer to Item 1A of this Part I for a discussion of the risks related to our foreign operations.

Compliance with federal, state, and local environmental regulations has not had, nor is it expected to have, any material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, or competitive position based on information and circumstances known to us at this time.

Available Information

Our internet address is www.deckers.com. We post links to our website to the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC: annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All such filings are available through our website free of charge. Our filings may also be read and copied at the SEC's Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. Information on the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains an internet site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.