04/03/2025
Politics aside, I'm so grateful and appreciative to have the opportunity to work with a local and handmade brand that sells PHENOMENAL gear worldwide.
What's on our mind... a lot (tariffs). Sadness, disappointment, worry, pride!
I keep my political opinions for family gatherings and campfire side conversations with friends. So this will stay strictly business implications. As a human, I am sad to see how drastically a few egos and personalities can reshape the best bonds to have ever existed between two countries.
As a human and entrepreneur, I am disappointed in the potential unnecessary and wasteful cost these tariffs will produce for us, our customers and all those avalanche impacts.
As a business and employer, I worry about the actual impact of these tariffs. From some raw materials we import from American textile mills and buckle makers, to our US customers who enjoy their strong dollar and our high quality products - potentially not realizing that our individual products won't be slapped with 25% charges, to the real delay these cause on our expansion into US retailers' brick and mortar shops.
I have pride knowing that we have built an incredible network of customers at home here in Canada, in countries across the oceans and seas, AND with Americans just to our south who will support us. Further, with businesses we will creatively adapt with, and our own work ethics to push forward and come out of this a more resilient business.
We urge our Canadian family to consider choosing a sometimes slightly more expensive product made with passion and pride right here on the East Coast. It supports a number of other Canadian businesses in the process, including the livelihoods of the locals who physically cut and sew our gear. We appeal to our International family to continue putting your trust in our little Canadian brand to outfit you for adventures! For Americans, you should not see a 25% bill on import, as these tariffs should only apply to the same threshold of items that typically get hit with import fees (over $800-1200 USD). Eventually these costs will hit our products once we need to restock certain bulk materials we import from US textile mills - but we will do everything we can to minimize these and will reverse any once we get ourselves (North America) back in our right minds.
We are too intertwined to not be in this together!
- Nick Scott