US Sneaker Prices Could Soar Under Trump’s Proposed Tariff Plans

The sneaker markets reacts on the news of Donald Trump as the next US President and his proposed tariffs on goods from China.

So it’s official, Donald Trump is President of the United States (once again) as he pledges to “make America great again” a new study from the National Retail Federation (NRF) might not necessarily agree with. The study found that if Trump was to implement his tariffs, specifically with China, it could cost the US consumers somewhere between $46 billion to $78 billion a year. The study from the NRF looked at how Trump’s proposed tariffs could potentially impact the likes of apparel, footwear, furniture & toys. The ex-Apprentice star & New York real estate mogul proposed to increase tariffs to 10-20% on imports from all foreign countries with a further 60-100% percent tariff on goods from China. From a sneaker perspective, which the majority of are still made in China, prices could rise from $50 for a pair up to $64 with the additional tariffs hitting the consumer’s wallets (or purses).

Currently 99% of shoes sold in the USA are imported from China, Vietnam or Indonesia. The US alone imports around 2.5 billion shoes a year with big household names like Nike manufacturing the majority of their sneakers in the 3 mentioned counties. A rise in import tax would simply increase sneaker prices in the USA. It will be interesting to see how the markets react to the news. In early morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange shares in Nike (NKE) were down around 3%, Footlocker (FL) were down around 3% & Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS) were down around 5% as investors digest the news of Trump’s new US presidency and what it could potentially mean for the footwear industry as a whole over the coming months & years. Also don’t forget to subscribe to Sneaker Jobs & follow @sneaker_jobs to keep up to date with all the latest industry news.