During a session at Switchback Spring on June 17 in New Orleans, executives from Columbia Sportswear, Wild Rye and Sorini Strategic Advisors warned that, despite February’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that IEEPA-based tariffs were unlawful, outdoor vendors and retailers should not expect to feel much relief from the “chaos” and “confusion” caused by the tariffs.
“A year and a half into this craziness, I feel like we’re in the eye of the storm right now,” said Megan Costello, VP of Trade and Customs Policy at Sorini Strategic Advisors, which works on trade issues on behalf of the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA).
Costello said her team is “scrambling to halt or mitigate tariff actions expected to replace the temporary 10 percent covering most products that were imposed in February after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not grant President Trump the authority to impose tariffs, setting the stage for refunds.”
Prior to the ruling, tariff rates had ranged from 10 percent to 50 percent, depending on the product and category.
The broad 10 percent to 15 percent global temporary tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Expansion Act, are set to expire on July 24, with the Trump Administration signaling its preparation to replace them with a broad new Section 301 Tariff that focuses more directly on anti-competitive behavior.
Costello said, “Tariff rates could return to a universal 10 percent import duty and reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations that followed the Liberation Day proclamation in April 2025, or they may go higher.” The tariffs are also expected to be more permanent going forward. Costello noted that the initial tariffs on China during the first Trump administration were imposed under Section 301 and remain in place.
“We’ll know in the next six weeks or so,” said Costello. “We’ve literally been on calls all day today trying to come up with strategic comments to fight against this. In summary, it’s not over yet. The new normal is this chaos, and it’s not going back, unfortunately.”
Cassie Abel, founder and CEO, Wild Rye, an Idaho-based women’s outdoor apparel start-up, earned applause from show attendees for noting that she had just received her first tariff refund check. However, she detailed the “turmoil her nine-year-old brand absorbed from last year’s tariff actions.” Said Abel, “I knew nothing about trade until April 2, 2025. I watched my brand fall apart in front of my eyes as I was faced with 145 percent tariffs and so threw myself into this chaos fully and completely.”
Abel believes small- to medium-sized companies are most affected by tariffs because, in many cases, they rely on sales in North America with no global distribution to offset the impact.
Smaller brands also don’t have the flexibility to shift production to Vietnam, Cambodia or elsewhere to mitigate tariff hits, in part because quality’s better when sourcing from China. Abel noted, “If you’re in the durability channel, it’s all about the partner that you have, not about the country of origin, and we have very high-quality partners in China.”
Abel added that if a brand must raise its prices to offset tariffs, open-to-buy retailers often shrink, and ultimately margins are squeezed. She said, “The number of small brands I’ve seen shutter their doors in the last year is heartbreaking because small brands are the innovation in this industry. They’re the ones pushing the larger brands to evolve and change and stay relevant.”
Abel said smaller brands, just like larger ones, have also had to deal with the “yo-yo” of changes in trade laws. She offered an example, “There is a 90-day reduction, and then on August 12, you’re going to likely see a spike, so brands are rushing to air freight product to beat those deadlines, not knowing what’s going to happen afterward, only to see it stay the same. But they just paid five times in shipping, and that’s what’s happening right now.”
Costello concurred that container space “does not exist” as vendors are frantically ordering early to avoid potential tariff hikes ahead of the July 24 deadline. She added, “As we get closer to it, it looks like it’s going to basically stay the same, except for a couple of countries.”
Emily Vedaa, (pictured left) director of Global Customs and Trade, Columbia Sportswear, and chair of the Trade Advisory Council (TAC) at the OIA, added that the Trump Administration put out an executive order last week indicating it would be “cracking down” on customs enforcement, promising to create “extra hurdles for vendors in achieving trade compliance.”
Columbia’s Vedaa also highlighted the challenges of conducting business amid the “instability” created by erratic tariff moves.
“The lack of ability to plan has been one of the most challenging things,” said Vedaa. “I’m sure everyone has felt that in some way over the last year and a half. We might have the ability to change a source of country, but we don’t know what’s going to happen in six months, so what’s the point, right?”
She added that Columbia strives to be “good partners to our finished goods vendors,” but cancellations and requests to share tariff costs strain those relations. Vedaa said, “It’s been really hard to do that strategic planning that we’ve been wanting to do, and I think a few years out, because I don’t know what August looks like for us right now.”
Kent Ebersole, president, Outdoor Industry Association, led the discussion and called out the mass confusion, noting that the tariffs were initially imposed with most threatened tariffs coming in lower than proposed.
Costello noted that trade issues are “so complex and nuanced and detailed, and also specific to your case,” making it hard to understand how they may affect a specific category or company; however, she also blamed the media for continually overreacting to tariff threats. She said any tariffs have to go through several steps, including an executive order and a federal register notice, before they can be imposed.
“There have been several times where they’re reporting on something that was based on a Tweet, or X, or a Truth Social post, and it was wrong, and the entire community is freaking out. We don’t have any documentation yet,” Costello said.
She said one of her company’s priorities is to “navigate through what is fact and fiction,” and help firms quickly assess what any proposed tariffs might mean for them. Her firm has set up a customs hotline to provide the latest information on tariff actions as they move through phases. Said Costello, “We want to give an explainer, like where are we at and what’s actionable now.”
The panel highlighted the resources offered by the OIA’s Trade Advisory Council to help understand and mitigate any tariff blows. Vedaa said, “If you are confused about some of these enforcement things that are coming your way, that’s a good place to get information.”
Industry participants were further urged to participate in trade advocacy efforts.
In early April, the Trump Administration revised the scope of Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper, reducing the tariff on camp chairs from 50 percent to 10 percent following extensive outreach efforts on Capitol Hill.
Said Costello, “That’s huge because it shows that when the industry can coalesce and fight together and explain how idiotic some of these policy decisions are, we can be successful.”
Ebersole added, “We need more wins.”
Vedaa said the Trade Advisory Council is working to determine which products to request be exempted from 301 Tariffs. She said, “We can’t ask for the world; it’s not going to work. We can’t say all apparel should be excluded; that won’t land. So, we’re trying to be a little bit more precise with what we’re asking for exclusions on and focusing on our key manufacturing countries.”
However, the panel is optimistic that the industry can secure exemptions, or “omissions,” for certain outdoor products to avoid facing a widespread blow from the upcoming 301 tariffs.
Costello said many outdoor products “cannot be replicated in the U.S. at the quality that we expect, which is good for our consumers, the United States citizens.”
She added that legislators often have a “lack of understanding of just how unique our products are and how our products have a bigger purpose,” including the mental and physical health benefits of being outdoors and the industry’s support of the environment. But she was encouraged by recent meetings with legislators over proposed 301 exclusions. Costello said. “The door wasn’t cracked open much, but the optimism felt when we were in DC in April was much more than at any time over the last year.”
