More footwear companies are coming to terms with how new tariffs might impact an industry that is heavily reliant on imports from foreign countries.
Ninety-nine percent of the shoes sold in the United States are imported — primarily from China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Donald Trump, who recently won his presidential bid, has proposed a tariff plan that includes a 10 to 20 percent tariff on imports from all foreign countries and an additional 60 to 100 percent tariff on imports specifically from China.
Luckily for the shoe industry, many companies have already diversified their sourcing away from vulnerable regions like China in the wake of the supply chain meltdown in 2021. So executives appeared overall confident in their ability to weather another era of tariff changes.
Amer Sports, parent company to Salomon, Arc’Teryx, Wilson and other brands, addressed the potential impact tariffs could have on business in an earnings call this week. Chief financial officer Andrew Page told investors that company already operates a diversified sourcing model.
“Greater China represents less than 30 percent of Amer Sports’ global sourcing,” Page said. “And looking at Amer Sports Group in totality, sourcing from China to the U.S. market represents only 10 to 12 percent of total group revenues.”
The executive added that higher tariffs would mainly impact the company’s smaller ball and racquet category.
“We have some degree of flexibility to adjust our supply chain, but price increases will be the primary tool we utilize should tariffs occur,” Page said.
TJX Companies, the parent company to TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra, and Homesense, also addressed tariffs in an earnings call with analysts this week. According to CEO Ernie Herrman, the off-price retailer’s model is “a benefit” because it allows it to maintain a consistent value proposition over direct retailers. TJX, which diversified out of China several years ago, also buys much of its inventory directly from brands.
“If a brand were to get hit with increased tariffs on a category, and that brand had to raise their price and then that price gets carried on to another retailer, could that price on that one SKU for us be up a little? It might, but it will never be any issue with the value gap that we have relative to the competition,” Herrman said.
At Shoe Carnival, chief merchandising officer Carl Scibetta said that tariffs “seem to be the topic of conversation with every vendor appointment” that the retailer has had.”
Scibetta noted that while Shoe Carnival directly imports a very small percent of its own inventory, close to half of its inventory from partner brands have exposure to China, especially athletic brands.
“We’ll have to be very careful about pricing to our consumer and certainly look at where products are being made and how we can best provide the value that our consumers are used to,” Scibetta told analysts. “But at this point, we’re like everybody else, we’re watching it very carefully and we will adjust where we need to. But most importantly, we will continue to deliver value to our customers.”
