Women buy clothes from a point of sale store in Los Angeles, California, April 10, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty images
Few consumer products are protected from the impact of new price on goods imported into the United StatesBut clothes can be among the hardest.
A trade war could considerably increase the price of clothing for consumers. Given a large part of the American clothing and shoes are imported, the prices on these goods would increase the cost for importers and, ultimately, the consumer, according to experts.
“Prices 2025 disproportionately affect clothes and textiles, consumers confronted forecast by the Yale University Budget Lab. “Clothing prices will remain 27% higher in the long term.”
For the moment, the Trump administration has opted for a universal tariff rate of 10%. Earlier this month, the White House imposed 145% prices on China products. President Donald Trump Recently granted abrupt prices exclusions to smartphones, computers and some other electronics largely imported from China.
“We are concerned with the escalation of the trade war with China. In the end, no one wins,” said Julia Hughes United States Fashion Industry Association.
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“This policy continues to submit the American imports of the largest trading partner in our industry to an unbearable tax,” said Steve Lamar, president and chief executive officer of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, in a prepared statement.
Prices, especially on clothing and materials, which are not made in the United States, will lead to higher prices for consumers and will only eat inflationAccording to the American Apparel & Footwear Association.
The United States receives 97% percent of clothing and shoes from other countries, but mainly China and Vietnam, a 2024 report by the American Apparel & Footwear Association found.
The prices “will be transmitted to the consumer”
“Prices are a tax paid by the American importer which will be transmitted at the end of consumers.
As part of the new high prices on China, Trump also revoked a Popular tax escape known as minimis. The exemption has enabled numerous electronic commercial companies to send goods of a value of less than $ 800 to the United States in the franchise of rights. The flaw also allowed American buyers to buy low -cost goods directly from retailers in China and Hong Kong.
Some popular online retailers, such as Shein and Temu, the importation of China, could face an immediate impact and will probably make the idea that these additional costs for customers in higher price terms, which would reach low and average Americans.
How consumers plan to amortize the blow
Three -quarters of consumers said they are already adopting “trade” behavior when buying clothes and shoes, according to recent research Empower.
In the years since high inflation Makes more expensive clothesA change was already starting.
Buyers have lowered more affordable second -hand goods and kissed Buy “dupes” – Abbreviation of duplicates.
“If you cannot afford Louis Vuitton, you will buy a coach. If you cannot afford the coach, you will buy the Knock OFF,” said Shawn Grain Carter, an associate professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, which is part of New York State University.
Historically, commercial restrictions increase the cost of authentic goods, creating the perfect conditions for counterfeiters to flood the market of cheaper and harder to detect, according to Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder and CEO of EntruPy, an authentication service.
With the recent decree of Trump eliminating the free dete of minimis Treatment of low value imports, the flow of counterfeit products will also be more expensive and more difficult logistics, said Srinivasan.
However, “counterfeiters are incredibly agile,” he said. “When a route is blocked, they will adapt, looking for other distribution channels to continue flooding the counterfeit market.”
Alternatively, “there could be a little more meager on the secondary market because it seems more affordable,” said Srinivasan.
Faced with higher costs67% of consumers plan to change their purchasing habits, according to another recent report by equipment on equipment. Among the main strategies, 46% say that they will buy in savings or second -hand stores. Other ways to save include comparison purchases or the purchase of less imported goods. The survey questioned more than 1,000 adults in January.
In another investigation By application of Smarty purchase, 50% of respondents said they were more likely to envisage used goods or local alternatives due to price increases induced by prices.
“Prices are already encouraging my clients to seek alternatives even more actively with regard to luxury designer products,” said Christos Garkinos, CEO and Covet Founder Retranet Covet by Christos.
“On the one hand, customers who seek to earn additional money in this volatile economy plan to sell parts of their designer collections,” said Garkinos.
“On the other hand, many of my existing customers double the resale,” he said, “because they know that there is no price to pay and they can always get their hands on luxury products without paying this additional premium at the moment.”
The American resale market is experiencing significant growth, the projections indicating that it will continue to develop rapidly in the coming years. This growth is motivated by factors such as the increase in consumer preferences for second -hand options, especially among young generations and the growing adoption of online resale platforms, according to experts.
Recommend it – which encompasses the purchase and sale of concerned, renovated or used goods – should increase 55%, reaching 291.6 billion dollars by 2029. according to To a 2024 report by Offep, an online market to buy and sell new and used items.
However, there are not enough used products to meet consumer demand, said Hughes. “The quantities are not there.”
For the moment, the clothing industry must wait and see what will happen with potential trade agreements in the future, as is the start of the start of the school year – one of the most important purchasing seasons of the year – should start to ship, said Hughes.
“Chaos always gets started,” she added. “It is a real time of uncertainty.”
