Tariff marathon: Sports shoe firms roll out financial adaptations to US duties

The major sports shoe brand owners are starting to feel the impact of US import duties, while the newly implemented, higher IEEPA duties  will put greater pressure on them to mitigate higher costs through their supply chain. A review of the comments from four major suppliers shows costs of as much over US$1.4 billion annually from tariffs per firm. 

The rush in imports broadly to feed such inventory increases can be seen in US imports of sports shoes, which climbed 29% year over year in March and by 39% in April. The start of tariffs led to a slowdown to a 2% growth rate in May, including a 40% drop in shipments from mainland China. June has seen a renewed surge with a 22% increase including 14% more shipments from Vietnam and 97% more imports from Indonesia, likely due to the prospect of higher tariffs emerging. 

There’s also evidence of a severe disruption from normal seasonal patterns, which historically include a peak in May linked to stocking for summer sports and back to school. In 2025, shipments in May were lower than in April with a sequential recovery rather than the usual decline in June. 

More recently, S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows US seaborne imports of sports shoes in July up by just 2% year over year, suggesting that the aggregate 15.1% increase in total first half imports may provide sufficient volumes for the remainder of the peak sales season. 

Consumer goods firms are rapidly moving from the inventory management phase of mitigating tariffs to the financial adaptation stage. This involves a mixture of raising customer prices and negotiating lower costs with suppliers.

One firm noted it is “introducing strategic pricing adjustments starting in the fourth quarter of 2025,” showing price increases are likely to be an ongoing feature for the sports shoe firms.

Another flagged that “as part of our regular approach to seasonal planning, we have implemented a surgical price increase” with “phased implementation beginning in fall '25.” The firm is also fine-tuning, noting that “we're implementing those at different points in time throughout the fiscal year based on taking into consideration the consumer, the back-to-school holiday season.”

A third firm moved sooner, flagging that they “implemented selective initial price increases, which went into effect on July 1” in the order of “around $5 increases on some of that product”. 

That is consistent with import prices — Market Intelligence data shows US import of shoes had an average value of US$17.8 per pair in June 2025, so a 20% average IEEPA tariff would be worth US$3.6 per pair.

Negotiations with upstream suppliers are a central part of firms’ actions to deal with tariffs, coming on top of in-house cost-cutting programs.

So far, the negotiations have yet to have a marked impact on import prices, though that is not a surprise given prices for supplies can be agreed two or more seasons in advance. US import prices increased by 3.0% year over year in June after rising by 5.7% in May. However, imports from mainland China fell by 7.9% in June to US$10.8 per pair—the lowest for a single month since September 2021.

Imports from mainland China remain significantly cheaper than the average, worth US$12.9 per pair on average in the second quarter of 2025 compared with US$18.3 per pair for all suppliers.

The apparel sector more broadly has a long-term focus on reshoring  to cut costs and mitigate risks.

Ultimately, suppliers will be dependent on imports in the mid-term as one firm indicated “there are no shoe factories in the US that can take these volumes and also no apparel, then, of course, local production is not the alternative.”

Short-term choices for seasonal products may not be possible, with one firm flagging that “our China exposure got reduced further for the Spring/Summer 26 collection.”

The current range of IEEPA duties appears relatively narrow between the two biggest sourcing centers for sports shoes of Vietnam (20% IEEPA tariff) and mainland China (currently 30%), which will limit the further impetus for reshoring solely due to tariffs. 

For all main shoe types, the share of US imports coming from mainland China fell to 31.6% in 2024 from 50.9% in 2017, with Market Intelligence forecasts indicating a further fall over the next three years to 26.3%. Most of that share is picked up by Vietnam (30.5% in 2024 from 22.9% in 2017) while smaller supply centers include Indonesia and Cambodia.

That’s not to say that firms are cutting mainland China out of their supply networks, with a shift in emphasis to use production in mainland China for the domestic market and for the rest of the world.

Market Intelligence data shows mainland China still accounts for 24.3% of global exports of sports shoes measured by importers side data in 2024, including 13.5% of EU (including intra-EU supplies), 46.2% of Japan and 34.7% of South Korea. In total, Market Intelligence forecasts call for total mainland China shoe exports to increase by 0.9% year over year in 2025 in inflation-adjusted terms.