TARIFFS AND THE SKATE INDUSTRY

[Ghost Face]

So it looks like any stock or inventory that's not on route to the US already is being hastily diverted or offered to other countries at discounted prices. Projected orders are being cut and ranges reduced.

We're seeing this in surf, cycling and now skateboarding.

In most countries the exchange rate has gone to shit so any discounts is canceled by the exchange rate. It's not looking go so far.

Hope it turns around soon.

[radcunt]

The Prime dude is a Trump dipshit. Doesn’t realise all the extra shit that tariffs will drive the cost up on.

[kneebone]

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The Prime dude is a Trump dipshit. Doesn’t realise all the extra shit that tariffs will drive the cost up on.

[close]

Rejoicing because the only way their business could get traction is through a series of catastrophic events for their competitors is such a MAGA vibe. “Yes! My neighbors house caught on fire and now my lawn is the greenest” type shit.

Also noted in the Two Felons thread, the fatter of the felons has appeared in photos at Prime helping with the screen printing and whatnot. Do not support these guys.

[augustmoon]

If these tariffs hold, skateboarding as we know it is effectively over.  There is no way an industry that survives off of the expectation that you consume and replace a deck and pair of shoes once a month (give or take) will make any kind of sense if prices for these goods triple or quadruple in price. 

[Osage]

If these tariffs hold, skateboarding as we know it is effectively over.  There is no way an industry that survives off of the expectation that you consume and replace a deck and pair of shoes once a month (give or take) will make any kind of sense if prices for these goods triple or quadruple in price.

  Skateboarding will be the same. The Skateboard industry will change.

  I don't see how anything will triple or quadruple in price. I also assume some things will rise fast and others will lag behind but I'm not smart enough to know which.

  The current Tariffs on the big skate gear producing countries are:

   China: 106% - This will effectively double the price of wheels and trucks, some decks, grip tape, hardware, bushings, and bearings. Also plenty of shoes.

  Mexico: 25% - Most of us are riding decks made in Mexico. They'll go up 25%

  Canada  25% - Canadian made decks will go up 25%. US made decks will go up some amount due to the maple all coming from Canada

  Vietnam - 46% - Tons of shoes are manufactured in Vietnam. They're going up!

  US: - Even companies that produce their stuff in the US are using raw materials from other countries so the price will be going up here as well. Bones wheels are made in California but I bet the raw materials come from overseas. As does packaging, shrink wrap, inks, dyes, paint, transfers etc..... Canadian Maple....


  I think in the very short term, things will look the same. Shoes will start going up soon. I think smaller companies like Royal will just go out of business. Long established companies like Indy/Thunder/DLX/Bones etc.... will be able to weather the storm but will cut back on r&d and new products. They will also have to eat some of the tariff money but obviously not the bulk of it. I'm personally excited to try the Thunder T2 trucks later in the spring but if they're gonna be like $100 for a pair, that will be a very tough sell. I know I won't be buying them. People will reluctantly pay $75 for a pair of Indys when they need new ones but no one is going to pay $120 for a pair of Grind Kings.


   

[BALARGUE]

Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

[Magnolia]

Not to mention that for many companies it just won't be viable to ship to the US at any price. I expect to see some products just vanish entirely from stores

[Osage]

Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

   Historically companies do eat some of the tariff money when tariffs go into effect. No much but some. Indy can go to their manufacturer and say we can't sell these unless you cut our price by 2%. They can do the same with distributers and then lower their profit margin slightly and keep their MAP down a little. It won't be much. I know for certain that they are better at business than I am but a $74.95 pair of Stage 11's looks a lot better than an $82.95 pair.

[Osage]

  And unfortunately another way companies will try to keep prices down and/or continue to sell product at crazy high prices will be to layoff employees. They will cut back on team riders, drop kids from flow, sponsor less events etc....

[Ghost Face]

Chine just announced 84% tariff on imports from the USA. This is going to get out of hand.

[rawbertson.]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG_B3Dpu9h2

[BALARGUE]

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Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

[close]

   Historically companies do eat some of the tariff money when tariffs go into effect. No much but some. Indy can go to their manufacturer and say we can't sell these unless you cut our price by 2%. They can do the same with distributers and then lower their profit margin slightly and keep their MAP down a little. It won't be much. I know for certain that they are better at business than I am but a $74.95 pair of Stage 11's looks a lot better than an $82.95 pair.

fair enough

They might apply some shrinkflation...

I would not be surprised a new skinny wheel trend being pushed on us
Less material, lighter
Same price

[GreenLineAcid]

If you can still afford to buy a skateboard let alone food every week with these tariffs congratulations.

[lowline]

he just paused the tariffs again for 90 days, lol. this dumb motherfucker

[backside_frontside]

he just paused the tariffs again for 90 days, lol. this dumb motherfucker

But kept the blanket 10% on all countries and increased China's tariffs to 125%. Bye bye skate industry

Thanks President flip flop

[Osage]

he just paused the tariffs again for 90 days, lol. this dumb motherfucker

  Except on China, where he claims he is raising them.

  Not to mention the 10% global tariffs that he already put in place that he didn't pull.

[Scab Picker]

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Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

[close]

   Historically companies do eat some of the tariff money when tariffs go into effect. No much but some. Indy can go to their manufacturer and say we can't sell these unless you cut our price by 2%. They can do the same with distributers and then lower their profit margin slightly and keep their MAP down a little. It won't be much. I know for certain that they are better at business than I am but a $74.95 pair of Stage 11's looks a lot better than an $82.95 pair.

[close]

fair enough

They might apply some shrinkflation...

I would not be surprised a new skinny wheel trend being pushed on us
Less material, lighter
Same price

I’ll pay for the price increase as long as I can still get Radial Fulls or Conical Fulls, because the idea of Tablet Slims pisses me off.

[fruits, nuts, + seeds:)]

as a newly minted macroeconomics expert like everyone else in this thread im just chiming in to say its too late to panic and its time to kill your families and yourselves

[LA Native]

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Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

[close]

   Historically companies do eat some of the tariff money when tariffs go into effect. No much but some. Indy can go to their manufacturer and say we can't sell these unless you cut our price by 2%. They can do the same with distributers and then lower their profit margin slightly and keep their MAP down a little. It won't be much. I know for certain that they are better at business than I am but a $74.95 pair of Stage 11's looks a lot better than an $82.95 pair.

[close]

fair enough

They might apply some shrinkflation...

I would not be surprised a new skinny wheel trend being pushed on us
Less material, lighter
Same price

[close]

I’ll pay for the price increase as long as I can still get Radial Fulls or Conical Fulls, because the idea of Tablet Slims pisses me off.

One time, probably 14 years ago I had these Cardiels, and they were a strange shape I hadn't seen at the time, but this was a time that I was not hyperfocused on specific products and their characteristics. But anyway, they were really slim, like a tablet but they had every characteristic of a conical and it was the first time I became aware of the benefits of a wheel of that shape and how skinny they were. This was when everyone was still skating classics, around 2011.

Long winded way of saying I would be down for skinny squareish wheels

[kneebone]

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Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

[close]

   Historically companies do eat some of the tariff money when tariffs go into effect. No much but some. Indy can go to their manufacturer and say we can't sell these unless you cut our price by 2%. They can do the same with distributers and then lower their profit margin slightly and keep their MAP down a little. It won't be much. I know for certain that they are better at business than I am but a $74.95 pair of Stage 11's looks a lot better than an $82.95 pair.

[close]

fair enough

They might apply some shrinkflation...

I would not be surprised a new skinny wheel trend being pushed on us
Less material, lighter
Same price

[close]

I’ll pay for the price increase as long as I can still get Radial Fulls or Conical Fulls, because the idea of Tablet Slims pisses me off.

[close]

One time, probably 14 years ago I had these Cardiels, and they were a strange shape I hadn't seen at the time, but this was a time that I was not hyperfocused on specific products and their characteristics. But anyway, they were really slim, like a tablet but they had every characteristic of a conical and it was the first time I became aware of the benefits of a wheel of that shape and how skinny they were. This was when everyone was still skating classics, around 2011.

Long winded way of saying I would be down for skinny squareish wheels

Radial Slims. They've been requested in the Spitfire F4 thread consistently for like 5 years now. Yet DLX gives us some weird lock-in/classic shape that literally no one asked for

[BALARGUE]

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2025/05/01/how-will-tarrifs-affect-the-skate-industry/

There’s been a lot of speculation about the exact effects of the latest tariff (145%) on Chinese goods.

And while we’re sure every at-home economist likely has a few valid points, we wanted to hear directly from the people actually making and selling skateboards about how these ongoing tariff negotiations might affect the skate industry.

Over the past two weeks, we reached out to various shops, manufacturers, and distributors on the front lines. These ten got back to us. None of them had to take time out of their hectic schedules to answer our questions—especially with such transparency—so we want to show them extra love for pulling back the curtain and filling us in.

Here’s the question we asked all of them:

Are the tariffs, specifically the Chinese tariff, affecting your business at all? How do you think they will affect the skate industry if they sustain?

[elbarto]

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Considering tariffs will be applied on wholesale price, you can expect a bigger increase on MSRP and for the end customer.
And I'm pretty sure no company is going to "eat some of the tariff money".

[close]

   Historically companies do eat some of the tariff money when tariffs go into effect. No much but some. Indy can go to their manufacturer and say we can't sell these unless you cut our price by 2%. They can do the same with distributers and then lower their profit margin slightly and keep their MAP down a little. It won't be much. I know for certain that they are better at business than I am but a $74.95 pair of Stage 11's looks a lot better than an $82.95 pair.

[close]

fair enough

They might apply some shrinkflation...

I would not be surprised a new skinny wheel trend being pushed on us
Less material, lighter
Same price

[close]

I’ll pay for the price increase as long as I can still get Radial Fulls or Conical Fulls, because the idea of Tablet Slims pisses me off.

[close]

One time, probably 14 years ago I had these Cardiels, and they were a strange shape I hadn't seen at the time, but this was a time that I was not hyperfocused on specific products and their characteristics. But anyway, they were really slim, like a tablet but they had every characteristic of a conical and it was the first time I became aware of the benefits of a wheel of that shape and how skinny they were. This was when everyone was still skating classics, around 2011.

Long winded way of saying I would be down for skinny squareish wheels

I used to skate the David Gravette STF Bone's exclusively before F4's came out. An F4 with that wheel shape (skinny and square) would be sick.

[doorpanel]

BBS dude is a kook, clearly

[lamfordie]

Wonder why thunder and venture won't be affected by the tariffs. Are they still made in the US?

[Too Frank To Fred]

Wonder why thunder and venture won't be affected by the tariffs. Are they still made in the US?

Mexico. Not as gnarly as the tariffs on Chinese manufactured trucks like Ace, Indy and others...

[Makaveli]

I heard one of the shoe brands Bluetile mentions in the article is Ipath, which sucks. Such bad timing for that brand to finally come back.

[Mr.Jenkins]

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2025/05/01/how-will-tarrifs-affect-the-skate-industry/

Expand Quote

There’s been a lot of speculation about the exact effects of the latest tariff (145%) on Chinese goods.

And while we’re sure every at-home economist likely has a few valid points, we wanted to hear directly from the people actually making and selling skateboards about how these ongoing tariff negotiations might affect the skate industry.

Over the past two weeks, we reached out to various shops, manufacturers, and distributors on the front lines. These ten got back to us. None of them had to take time out of their hectic schedules to answer our questions—especially with such transparency—so we want to show them extra love for pulling back the curtain and filling us in.

Here’s the question we asked all of them:

Are the tariffs, specifically the Chinese tariff, affecting your business at all? How do you think they will affect the skate industry if they sustain?

[close]

Ruben Garcia.. Old homie. Didnt know he worked for HLC.

[Osage]

BBS dude is a kook, clearly

 Man, I just read that and dude clearly is a big Trumper if he honestly believes what he just said. Ugh, I love their decks and love DLX but that quick interview made me never want to buy anything they make again.

[Sedition]

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BBS dude is a kook, clearly

[close]

 Man, I just read that and dude clearly is a big Trumper if he honestly believes what he just said. Ugh, I love their decks and love DLX but that quick interview made me never want to buy anything they make again.

^ That.

[Too Frank To Fred]

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BBS dude is a kook, clearly

[close]

I was trying to figure out if maybe it was just poorly worded

“so in my specific case, what Trump wants to do with bringing manufacturing back, it’s going to work”

But it does sound bad. BBS on maga? 😬

That could be a hasty conclusion you're making there... After all many decent right-minded people would love to see a return to domestic manufacturing... albeit without the Trump insanity...