Southern California footwear stores are bracing for the impact of the new tariffs from President Donald Trump’s administration, with the overwhelming majority of sneakers coming from China.
Dom Deluca, owner of Fairfax-based Brooklyn Projects, fears that the impact of these new tariffs could be fatal for his business. He said he’s been getting warnings from his vendors announcing wholesale price increases because of new tariffs.
His vendors are urging buyers to take advantage of current prices. Deluca said that tariffs have already forced him to raise prices on some skateboards by $11.
He is anticipating a tariff hit on his biggest seller: sneakers. Approximately 97% of footwear and clothing in the United States are imported, predominantly from Asia, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association.
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The Nike shoes sold by Brooklyn Projects are made in China, the number one target of Trump’s newest tariffs.
Deluca said that the tariffs will erase his already dwindling profit margin.
“If you have $100 once you take into consideration the tariffs and all that and your expenses that $100 after paying for the goods, now you have $35," Deluca said. "Well then ok out of $100, $35, the rent, the employees, the electricity, the insurance now you’re at negative $20.”
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Deluca said he is eating most of the cost increases on the skateboards but said the prices on Nike sneakers are fixed.
Sales representative Emile Murray said his customers are scared and he is nervous.
“If I’m selling less I’m obviously making less,” Murray said. “I have a mortgage, I have a wife, I have bills.”
Deluca said that the United States simply does not have the infrastructure to make the sneakers that are imported.
“In the next three to six months, unfortunately people are going to close, shops are going to go out of business, that’s just the way it is,” Deluca said.
