Shoe companies are expected to face higher costs due to President Trump‘s tariffs. According to the Wall Street Journal:
Shoe prices are expected to rise further as footwear companies burn through stockpiles of inventory they rushed in before tariffs raised import costs, an industry group warns…
Matt Priest, chief executive of Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, an industry trade group, said companies are beginning to pass along the cost of tariffs paid on recent shipments…
Many U.S. companiesrushed in extra inventory ahead of the Trump administration’s new tariffs as a hedge against the increased costs. But now, months later, those inventories are beginning to dwindle, leaving companies on the hook for hefty tariffs of as much as 50% or more on shipments of new goods.
Priest said that his group’s approximately 500 members typically pay about $3 billion in tariffs each year in total, and that is on track to grow to about $5 billion for this year.
Pat Mooney, president of St. Louis-based Footwear Unlimited, which owns and licenses brands such as Frye boots, said he expects prices to rise more rapidly going forward. “That 2.8% is the tip of the iceberg, in my opinion,” he said.
Mooney said costs at his company, which makes shoes in countries including China, Mexico, India and Indonesia, are up about 15% to 20% on average for like items this year. Footwear Unlimited so far has largely shared the costs with its factories. Mooney said the company is also raising some wholesale prices about 5% to 10% on average due to tariffs.
NLPC had already warned Nike about manufacturing in China. In 2023, we filed a proxy memo with the Securities and Exchange Commission that opposed then-CEO Mark Parker‘s (pictured above) and Apple CEO Tim Cook‘s respective reelections to Nike’s board. One of our primary reasons was the company’s usage of forced labor in China, and overall reliance on its supply chains in the communist nation. The Trump administration has made efforts to fight Uyghur forced labor in China, and President Trump has cited the issue as rationale for increasing pressure on China in the past. In June, the company announced that it’s tariff bill was already $1 billion.
Nike will defend itself by pointing out the industry-wide trend, as mentioned above, but company executives have no excuse after NLPC warned them two years ago. Nike’s leadership should have known that they couldn’t participate in the human rights abuses perpetrated by one of America’s adversaries without eventually facing repercussions.
