A person retailers for footwear at a Nike outlet retailer in Los Angeles on April 10, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Pictures
America’s largest shoe manufacturers are asking President Donald Trump for a tariff reprieve.
The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America commerce group despatched a letter to the White Home this week asking for an exemption to Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, which the affiliation stated pose an “existential menace” to the footwear business. The letter is signed by 76 footwear manufacturers, together with Nike, Adidas, Skechers and Below Armour.
“Many corporations making inexpensive footwear for hardworking decrease and middle-income households can’t take up tariff charges this excessive, nor can they move alongside these prices. With out rapid aid from the reciprocal tariffs they may merely shutter,” reads the letter, which is dated April 29.
“Many orders have been positioned on maintain, and footwear stock for U.S. customers might quickly run low,” the commerce group stated.
Trump’s wide-sweeping tariffs, introduced on April 2, included levies on a number of nations which are essential sources for footwear suppliers, together with China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Whereas the preliminary tariff charges of greater than 45% for Vietnam and Cambodia had been lowered to 10% for a 90-day interval, the Trump administration has solely ratcheted up duties on Chinese language imports, which at the moment are topic to an efficient tariff fee of 145%.
Trump’s larger tariffs on dozens of commerce companions are set to renew in early July.
Adidas beforehand warned this week that tariffs would result in larger costs for American customers. In late March, earlier than the precise reciprocal tariff charges had been introduced, Nike’s finance chief stated international levies and financial uncertainty would lead to decrease current-quarter gross sales.
The footwear affiliation’s letter stated the business had already been going through vital duties on merchandise akin to youngsters’s footwear earlier than Trump introduced his broad tariffs. In complete, U.S. footwear corporations will face tariffs ranging between 150% and about 220%, the commerce group stated.
“That is an emergency that requires rapid motion and a focus. The American footwear business doesn’t have months to regulate enterprise fashions and provide chains whereas absorbing this unprecedented and unexpected tariff regime,” the affiliation wrote.
The group additional warned that the tariffs won’t lead to bringing manufacturing again to the U.S., as Trump has promised, as a result of they erase the understanding that companies require with the intention to spend money on sourcing modifications.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
