Made in Asia: U.S. Footwear Brands Ask for Tariff Exemption

Last week, Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America (FDRA), an industry group representing leading footwear brands such as Nike, Adidas, Skechers and many more, sent a letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to exempt the footwear industry from the reciprocal tariffs that came into effect last month.

Given the nature of the U.S. footwear industry – imports account for more than 95 percent of shoes sold in the United States – the reciprocal tariffs pose an existential threat to American footwear businesses, the letter said, claiming that hundreds of businesses and tens of thousands of jobs are at stake. Given that the reciprocal tariffs are stacked on top of existing levies, many footwear companies face tariff rates upwards of 150 percent under the new regime, which would threaten their existence.

“Many companies making affordable footwear for hardworking lower and middle-income families cannot absorb tariff rates this high, nor can they pass along these costs. Without immediate relief from the reciprocal tariffs they will simply shutter,” the FDRA wrote to Trump, adding that the tariffs would not help in bringing back manufacturing to the United States, but make it virtually impossible: “It takes significant capital investment and years of planning to shift sourcing. The new tariffs in fact remove the business certainty that is needed to make these types of investments and erase almost all the necessary capital.”

In 2024, the U.S. imported more than $28 billion worth of footwear. China and Vietnam alone accounted for almost 70 percent of footwear imports last year, both of which have been hit with high reciprocal tariff rates. Other major footwear suppliers, such as Cambodia and Indonesia, also face comparatively high tariff rates, making it virtually impossible for footwear brands to dodge the tariffs by shifting their production to another country.