Industry question for big brands.

[newleafsup]

I am just wondering if any of the the larger USA brands that have boards manufacturered over seas are worried about possibly raising the prices of their boards or find manufacturers within the states if President Trump's trying to keep manufacturing state side", or paying tariffs on exports comes to fruition? Just trying to get honest opinions. I am a very very small builder of mainly surf sups and wonder if this is the time to think about ramping up?

[surfcowboy]

The real question is... where are all your materials coming from? You might be in the same boat. You d be surprised where a lot of "American" chemicals some from.

Just my 2 cents.

[Area 10]

Yep. Trump is going to find out that the world is hugely interconnected, and it's just not possible to pull up the drawbridge without impacting negatively (as well as maybe positively in certain directions) on your own population. It's a global economy these days - if someone else loses, we usually lose too. It's not a zero sum game. The same chemicals used to eg. build boards, are probably also used in medicine, or printing books etc, so you can't tax them without impacting across a huge range of things you want to keep cheap, and you'll probably find there's no way to legally tax eg. SUPs without also taxing eg. prosthetic limbs for your veterans, or parts for locally-built satellite dishes or whatever which would be hugely unpopular and cause bad press.

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

I was talking a really big watersports retailer in upstate New York last week and he saw the same thing. If Trump does pass a big tariff on imported goods, the prices of board would go up a lot. Maybe we'll need to make a list of American-made boards soon?

[surf4food]

A10 brings a valid point.  And with that, SUP board prices and whether or not they should be made here is the least of our problems.

[yugi]

I am just wondering if any of the the larger USA brands that have boards manufacturered over seas are worried about possibly raising the prices of their boards or find manufacturers within the states if President Trump's trying to keep manufacturing state side", or paying tariffs on exports comes to fruition?
...

The real question is... where are all your materials coming from? ... You d be surprised where a lot of "American" chemicals some from.
...

Yep. Trump is going to find out that the world is hugely interconnected,
...
It's a global economy these days - if someone else loses, we usually lose too.
...

Bingo!

Good question, NewLeaf. Spot on, Cowboy. A10, yep. Well seen, Surf4Food.

The answer for US consumers is painfully obvious. I've been worried about the knock on effect. You guys nailed it. Everyone loses.

Even me. Damn!

Long term it's good to manufacture local again. Nothing wrong with that. That's coming. Of course. Mid term it's going to create a boom in automated manufacturing. Here it was already nicely on it's way without needing some Douchebag kicking a hornets nest.

Short term it's gonna sting.

[SUP Sports ®]

I was talking a really big watersports retailer in upstate New York last week and he saw the same thing. If Trump does pass a big tariff on imported goods, the prices of board would go up a lot. Maybe we'll need to make a list of American-made boards soon?

I've had 1000's of my board designs manufactured overseas...at smaller factories that concentrate more on quality than quantity...etc...but, I've always built as many as possible here in America during the same time frame...

Even though the production capacity of USA glassing factories is relatively quite limited compared to Asia, we still manage to get our orders through with faster turnaround times...with more control...at less cost than so-called "big brands"...and, in most regards...less stress/anxiety that goes along with importing them...

There's also a whole lot more warm fuzzy job satisfaction of building a high quality product that employs skilled and compassionate surfers and watersport enthusiasts here in the USA...

http://supsports.com/standup-paddle-boards/california-custom-series

We keep hearing the same thing from our client base...so, the demand for our US built boards goes up...thus, the numbers of our domestic board production continues to climb...in fact, both of the California based glass factories that we use have recently had to expand their facilities...

Who knows...maybe some of the idled boat building factories in the US will start to make a slow comeback...which would be a welcomed silver lining in the recent regime change here...;-)

[Luc Benac]

Yep. Trump is going to find out

I doubt that he will find out - it will still be an alternate fact in an alternate reality, if really hard numbers ever come out, it might even qualify as fake news in the Trump belief system of values. Unless maybe it will affect the bottom line in the family businesses but then again it would be more than made up by the discreet ransacking of the US finances to their profit.

[Bean]

It's funny, of the boards that I've purchased in the last few years, my custom made in the USA, Infinity came with the lowest price tag.  The same board (Phoenix), from Boardworks, is actually a couple hundred bucks more.

Warren, I think you have the right idea.

[Luc Benac]

It's funny, of the boards that I've purchased in the last few years, my custom made in the USA, Infinity came with the lowest price tag.  The same board (Phoenix), from Boardworks, is actually a couple hundred bucks more.

Warren, I think you have the right idea.

Proximity would also come into play. A custom shaped locally when you can simply drive and pick-up the board with no intermediaries and no oversea or across the country shipping could be very price competitive. If I was living in SoCal I know where my boards would come from....actually some of them already come from the same place.....

[Bean]

Good point Luc, in my case the board was airfreighted from Cali to Newark NJ where I picked it up at a depot.  (Considered in my total cost)

We actually have some decent local shapers on the EC as well but they seem to focus on prone shapes.  That would of course change if the demand for locally shaped SUPs increase.

[SUP Leave]

Tariffs are a terrible policy, especially the way Trump thinks about them: so called "Fair Trade" which has been the liberal policy on tariffs.Trying to even the playing field with other countries through a tariff is simply another form of the government getting money to try and save a few jobs (welfare disguised as work). The simple fact is that America cannot compete in every market, even with massive tariffs. We are talking about trying to compete through government intervention with countries who are nearly unregulated environmentally and pay single digit dollars a day to their labor force. Compared with American labor force who make double digit dollars per hour. There is no tariff high enough to save these types of jobs. Let the American market develop its labor skills through supply and demand, not by taxing the free market. Tariffs create false demand, and unmarketable labor skills.

Trump has some good ideas vis-a-vis regulation and taxes to ease the burden on American companies, but trying to help the market by keeping Americans from getting good products at the best prices does the opposite. It is a short-term band-aid that will eventually fail and cripple the labor force further. Hopefully (no chance) one of the R's will stand up to this idea.

I agree with the sentiment that we could see increased prices on many imported goods. The custom surfboard example is a great model for how tariffs could badly affect the market and make materials that American businesses need more expensive, turning away consumers. Sometimes the difference between pulling the trigger on a product like a custom board is $100, and it would be a shame to see that happen due to material costs alone.

However, if you believe that the product you will be using will have a rising cost due to tariffs and you have room, stock up now! Then track the market pricing for your product while increasing your net profit.