TARIFFS AND THE SKATE INDUSTRY

[DERBY]

here in canada some fa boards retail for $149.95 and hit sale prices at $104.97. shit been cooked

[Unkle Fleak]

I need to get wheels and I need boards really badly too. I’m just going to stop in the shop and buy all the 97s and 99s over 57mm if I can get like five pair, I’ll be good till the term is over. I’ve been able to make boards last two months now with a heavy skating. I just don’t do any of the Gumby tail tricks 

I am desperate for wood rn. I almost set up my last Hitek Bloard with the timbs/eggs graphic. Last night.
I can’t do it. I got a stack of wall boards and that one’s and the Henry Sanchez dgk hologram are the top of my collection.

I saved some traffic stuff some grimple. Hopps I know the graphics seem cool because they’re heat transfers but I missed out on traffic. I was busy doing jail in the 00s.

Coakley is the truth. I think pj is the best but. Cc has the bulletproof body of work

[BOILED ANGEL]

here in canada some fa boards retail for $149.95 and hit sale prices at $104.97. shit been cooked

i regularly find FAs for around 50 eurolinos when theyre on sale while random HLCs go for 70. i know its more of a demand thing but i still think its crazy how little impact production and import actually have in europe.

[nah-nah-nah]

There’s still old wood laying around hence the lower price. When that’s gone they will all be €100+

[SaySo]

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Best stock up now.
Get ready for $100 decks, $80 trucks, $60 wheels.
25% Tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada. An Extra 10% on China.
You thought the industry was doing it tough before, now it's cooked.

[close]

Welcome to canadas pricing for hard goods

[close]

Europe as well. Welcome to the club

Ditto for Asia.

[Groondor the Orc]

Let’s be real. Taking wood from Canada and shipping it to China to be turned into skateboard decks to be sold in USA/EU/etc is bad enough.

Worse is the fact that the skateboard industry is founded on glorifying the destruction of said resource hungry artefacts in a grotesque frenzy that leaves bricks and mortar and flesh and bone mutilated.

Skateboarding is a consumerist fire that ought to be extinguished.

[m477]

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The prices will still go up even if production is here because of labor costs

[close]

All the maple is imported from Canada.  Try again.

From my understanding these import Tariffs can be avoided. For example, Toyota does this by having vehicles built in the US with imported parts from Japan. So ideally the same principle would apply with other industries with the goal of bringing back more manufacturing and labor jobs to US workers.

With that being said, I don’t think it’s far fetched idea for a skate company to ponder moving production back to the US, especially since the new administration is dead set on deregulation. I for one wouldn’t mind paying more for a made in USA DLX board, ermico trucks and wheels (not that I’d switch from my made in USA bones wheels ).

Lastly, agreed that this ain’t happening overnight. But it’s a decent attempt to bring a spark back to US manufacturing. Only time will tell if it works.

[Sick_McCrank_]

Ever moved house? It’s annoying and expensive. And not easy to find a good place. Now imagine moving from Vietnam to USA with a tight budget.

[SatanicPanic]

Unemployment has been very low in the USA for a few years now. Who is going to be jumping to take these new factory jobs?

[TwisT]

Unemployment has been very low in the USA for a few years now. Who is going to be jumping to take these new factory jobs?

16 year old me would have quit my McDonald’s job in a heart beat work in the sole tech mines

[Allen.]

Coakley is the truth. I think pj is the best but. Cc has the bulletproof body of work

[augustmoon]

Unemployment has been very low in the USA for a few years now. Who is going to be jumping to take these new factory jobs?

Robots.  There will be no jobs, only automation.  There will be no “universal basic income”. 

Don’t have a job? Go to jail and provide slave labor to the state. 

Have a job?  Better keep your mouth shut and be a good worker bee or find yourself in column A. 

[ok boomer]

Let’s just quit skating so we’re unaffected.

Gottem

[Garfiled L. Asagna LLC]

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Unemployment has been very low in the USA for a few years now. Who is going to be jumping to take these new factory jobs?

[close]

Robots.  There will be no jobs, only automation.  There will be no “universal basic income”. 

Don’t have a job? Go to jail and provide slave labor to the state. 

Have a job?  Better keep your mouth shut and be a good worker bee or find yourself in column A.

They've already automated most of the factory work worth automating though. I'm sure they'd want to do more if they good efficiently but the tech still isn't there. There will always be bunk ass jobs you gonna pay humans to do. Outside of factory work farming a really good example of how you can only do so much with automation. Those fucking machines are so crazy technologically they can pick and sort specific parts of plants but there's still fruits that will always be harvested by man because despite all the crazy tech farmers have at their disposal, picking the shit by hand is the most efficient and effective way. There will always be shit ass work for humans to do even if it's just resetting the robot when it gets it dumbass stuck. I work in a warehouse where they wanna automate everything and alot of that shit works, but it isn't efficient, paying a human to do is more efficient, even if getting a robot to do it is cheaper, in the long run paying the human to do it is more profitable. There's very effective automation systems but the require so much maitnece and money to operate that it's never gonna be feasible for most aspects of employment. The far future who knows but humans will not be replaced any time soon.

[PapaSquat]

hadn't considered this. im cooked.

[Ghost Face]

How do you feel about 100% tariffs?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/01/trump-threat-100-per-cent-tariffs-brics-nations-dollar

[TheLurper]

I wonder how many people are actually willing to pay more for goods and services to make sure an American makes decent money. I question this for a few reasons:

1. Macro: Dollar General, Walmart, and Amazon are all known to treat their low level laborers like shit. Does this stop anyone from shopping there? Not many. All three continue to do very well among consumers. Dollar General and Walmart being conservative favorites.
2. Social Science: People are poor predictors of their own behavior. Asking people "What would you do in x scenario?" is awful research, the better questions is, "What did you do in x scenario?" We would all say that we wouldn't shock someone to death because they answered a question wrong, but Milgram showed us that most of us would. 
3. Poor Sampling: Much of SLAP isn't always a fan of paying more to support skateboarding, something we've all based our lives around: https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?topic=130377.0 and has already complained about the cost of boards https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?topic=126940.0
4. Anecdotal: I've tried convincing family members who complain about their working conditions or those lucky enough to have a union job to support companies that are unionized or treat their workers well, none of them give a shit. I repeat what my poli sci prof taught me,"We have two votes in America, our actual vote and our money. " and then add on, "If you want better working conditions shop at places that treat workers well and ignore the places that don't" and they shrug it off. Low prices is all that matters to them.

While I think there is a better moral story around this potential Trumpflation than around the post-pandemic inflation, "We're suffering for other Americans and to make our country strong" vs "restarting factories and supply chains takes time AND lots of people are trying to post-pandemic spend all at the same time", I don't think many will actually give a shit about others. I don't think we are moving into a post-individualist America that embraces communal values. It is like the people who say "spending money on Ukraine is wrong that money could got to help Americans" and then say, "Fuck government housing, fuck socialized medicine, fuck all that communist Marxist shit." They don't want to help Americans, they just want an excuse to not fight against a country that they don't understand. And I certainly don't think Canadians, Europeans, Africans, etc. give a fuck about American jobs nor do I think "Made in America" symbolizes quality like it did 70 years ago.

I can't stress potential Trumpflation enough as tariff exceptions will be made, companies had to be preparing for this, and companies might quietly eat the costs temporarily to get big tax breaks and get weaker worker safety laws.

[GreenLineAcid]

Let’s be real. Taking wood from Canada and shipping it to China to be turned into skateboard decks to be sold in USA/EU/etc is bad enough.

Worse is the fact that the skateboard industry is founded on glorifying the destruction of said resource hungry artefacts in a grotesque frenzy that leaves bricks and mortar and flesh and bone mutilated.

Skateboarding is a consumerist fire that ought to be extinguished.

You first 

[GreenLineAcid]

How do you feel about 100% tariffs?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/01/trump-threat-100-per-cent-tariffs-brics-nations-dollar

What about 200%? That’s what he’s said he’s going to do to John Deer Tractors

[mj23]

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Unemployment has been very low in the USA for a few years now. Who is going to be jumping to take these new factory jobs?

[close]

The mystical factory jobs and workers of olde were only able to provide/have a decent quality of life because they were union jobs. Conversation about this shit is like walking into a wall. What makes anyone think that anything but any hypothetical jobs would be anything but free trade labor or what the market will bear?

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Unemployment has been very low in the USA for a few years now. Who is going to be jumping to take these new factory jobs?

[close]

Robots.  There will be no jobs, only automation.  There will be no “universal basic income”. 

Don’t have a job? Go to jail and provide slave labor to the state. 

Have a job?  Better keep your mouth shut and be a good worker bee or find yourself in column A.

Both exactly right. These fat cats have zero interest in helping the Working Man.

[natenola forever]

It's not as insane to make skateboards in America as you think, they use a lot of the same technology that is used in plywood style furniture making, theres probably plenty of those mfg places that need steady business. Supernaut did their own boards for a while and I'm pretty sure that was at a furniture factory in northern California, Gangenmi did Vehicle boards out of his family's furniture manufacturer. Anyone remember Taylor-Dykema boards? they did a lot of peoples wood and I randomly googled them one day and they did tons of MFG for other word related products. Prime still does boards in California it think? Also if you remember Schmitt said all the industry got their uncut blanks from water ski companies in the 80s, and it worked well cuz those companies were slow in the winter. Of course idk if anyone even water skies anymore truthfully and all of that manufacturing might be outsourced overseas by now. American skateboard mfging is possible, I don't actually think it's going to happen but it can.

[natenola forever]

Automation doesn't always kill jobs, I met with a clothing manufacturing company here and they couldn't get a half of their workforce to come back after covid cuz they were getting to much free money, so against their own wishes they decided to automate, they took all the employees that wanted come back, trained them as techs on the machines and paid them more for an easier job. Also went to welding union meeting and some students there expressed concern about robot welding, and they were told every robot still needed an operator and a quality control person and the robots basically took away the danger and the actual physical labor of the welding but a professional welder was still need to make sure the work was quality and set up the machine

[rawbertson.]

Best stock up now.
Get ready for $100 decks, $80 trucks, $60 wheels.

Lol I have been "stocking up" the past like 4 years  and it has nothing to do with tarriffs coming etc hahaha

those prices you listed are already the price here  in Canada  you can get $83 MSRP spitfire F4s (60mm Radial Full)
the shop owner told me he won't charge me that much but he knows damn well I will pay it 

[backside_frontside]

It's not as insane to make skateboards in America as you think, they use a lot of the same technology that is used in plywood style furniture making, theres probably plenty of those mfg places that need steady business. Supernaut did their own boards for a while and I'm pretty sure that was at a furniture factory in northern California, Gangenmi did Vehicle boards out of his family's furniture manufacturer. Anyone remember Taylor-Dykema boards? they did a lot of peoples wood and I randomly googled them one day and they did tons of MFG for other word related products. Prime still does boards in California it think? Also if you remember Schmitt said all the industry got their uncut blanks from water ski companies in the 80s, and it worked well cuz those companies were slow in the winter. Of course idk if anyone even water skies anymore truthfully and all of that manufacturing might be outsourced overseas by now. American skateboard mfging is possible, I don't actually think it's going to happen but it can.

Do you understand there is more to the skateboard production pipeline than just pressing boards? Where does the wood come from? Do you know how much of the US has been clear cut? Where does the aluminum for trucks come from? How much aluminum ore is mined in this country? Where does the urethane get made? Yes, we produce a lot of petroleum but where is that processed into urethane for wheels? Where is the grit for griptape coming from? Where does the ink come from for the graphics? Where are the board presses made? There is much more to manufacturing than the final product. That doesn't even consider soft goods, which is the really bread and butter of a skateboard company. To think all of that is just gonna come back stateside is naive, sorry.

[Sick_McCrank_]

Stupid people always make the world seem so simple. But it’s because they’re stupid, not because the world is simple. Because it isn’t. They just lack the ability to comprehend it.

[Ghost Face]

Any sales lost in the US as a result of the tariffs pushing prices up too far will have to be recouped from International sales. If US parent company/brand sees 20% loss in sales they'll make it up by having raised wholesale to International distros. The world will pay for the tariffs so "the Board" still makes bank.

[Sick_McCrank_]

Yeah right.

[devils acrobat]

Stupid people always make the world seem so simple. But it’s because they’re stupid, not because the world is simple. Because it isn’t. They just lack the ability to comprehend it.

That's a very simple take

[Sick_McCrank_]

It’s also a stupid take. But still stands.

[Kaezan]

Any sales lost in the US as a result of the tariffs pushing prices up too far will have to be recouped from International sales. If US parent company/brand sees 20% loss in sales they'll make it up by having raised wholesale to International distros. The world will pay for the tariffs so "the Board" still makes bank.

The US buys more boards than any other country, probably combined. For anything imported, we will pay with price increases, specially for some of the US based brands (Independent, Thunder, etc). The smaller companies that import will either go out of business or have to increase prices. The bigger companies will likely be okay, but will raise prices.

The rest of the world doesn't have the same amount of disposable income as the US. If we can't afford increased prices, they can afford it even less.

At the very basic level of thinking, these manufacturers would move operations to the United States. However, that's not something that happens over night. It will take several years (if they even go that route). Building out new facilities, getting out of contracts with manufacturers overseas, etc is not simple and takes time.