Keen Footwear Won’t Raise Prices Because of Tariffs in 2025, But It Could Be A Shoe Sector Outlier
Outdoor footwear firm Keen Inc. said it won’t implement any tariff-related price increases for the balance of 2025.
“We recognize this is not a simple or easy choice in today’s climate—but it’s the right one,” company founder and CEO Rory Fuerst wrote in a letter to Keen’s partners.
“We believe it’s our responsibility to support our retail partners and fans through this period of uncertainty. By holding our prices steady, we aim to help you maintain strong consumer relationships and continue delivering the value and quality people expect from Keen,” Fuerst explained in the letter.
The family-owned footwear firm said it continues to stand by a core belief, which is that “when things get tough, you show up for the people who matter most.”
Because Keen is backed by a diversified supply chain, including owned manufacturing with a factory in the U.S.A., and proactive planning, the shoe company is “fortunate to be in a position to absorb these impacts without passing them on to its community,” the company said.
Watch on FN
Keen is best known for its introduction of a hybrid sandal in 2003 called the Newport, which combines the openness of a water sandal with the toe protection of a rugged shoe. Keen has been PFAS free since 2018. Last year, the company introduced its first lifestyle sneaker, the trail-inspired KS86. The Portland-based firm last year also introduced an OSHA-friendly work shoe that looks more like a basketball sneaker than a safety shoe.
Keen isn’t the only shoe company that has been monitoring the retail landscape amid the backdrop of rising duties. Earlier this year, Twisted X CEO Prasad Reddy also said that his boot company will not raise prices, even though most are made in China. Reddy told Footwear News that a large portion of its wholesale business is comprise of independent retailers who would see their businesses become severely impacted by any price increase. And while absorbing the extra cost would impact Twisted X’s bottom line, Reddy told FN that the company “can absorb it better than the end consumer or the retailer.”
Many other larger footwear firms have already said that they are likely to increase prices on some shoe styles. Steve Madden Ltd.’s CEO Edward Rosenfeld said in February that price increases on some items could occur this fall as the company continues to diversify production out of China. Crocs is taking a wait-and-see approach, embedding an extra 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China in company earnings guidance for the year, but keeping open the possibility that it might need to raise prices over the longer term. Columbia Sportswear is doing the same thing, absorbing most of the 10 percent base increase, but keeping close tabs on essentially the industry’s best practices for the back half of the year.
Footwear manufacturers, especially those operating within the glass fishbowl of Wall Street, are in a tough spot. No matter what they decide to do, it’s almost as if they’re damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. They have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, one that centers on ensuring profits each quarter. That usually translates into price increases when needed to garner a certain level of gross margins. But raising prices can result in fewer retail orders on the wholesale side, as well as lower overall sales as consumers pull back on spending. And if they don’t meet Wall Street expectations, shares of the company’s stock could get downgraded.
For the shoe sector, tariffs are the big conundrum of 2025. While a tariff increase was expected, no one foresaw the reciprocal tariff spike imposed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump on April 2. Double-digit percent increases, and China as high as 145 percent for some imported goods, have left some wondering how they’ll survive the new cost structure. Even though there’s a brief despite with the current 90-day pause, with the exception of goods imported from China where the high duty rates remain, there’s still no clear guideline on what happens come July 9 when the current hold ends. Last week, the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA), along with more than 80 leading U.S. footwear firms, sent a letter to Trump urging him to exempt footwear from his administration’s reciprocal tariff plan.
But even if some clarity comes along by way of new trade deals with individual countries, those agreements might not occur in time for new orders and shipments for the holiday season. Most orders normally would be in transit in a few weeks, with the bulk during August, to ensure timely receipt by brands and retailers.
What all that could mean for shoe jobs isn’t clear, but the picture’s not looking good.
Vans and Timberland owner VF Corp. confirmed to FN last Thursday that it is cutting 400 more jobs across the firm’s brands and throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia regions. The layoffs are on top of a round of job cuts in January due to a reorganization of certain global functions. And Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden in March confirmed that the sports firm is eliminating 500 positions at company headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
On Friday, the U.S. labor department said that nonfarm payroll employment rose by 177,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent. While the overall job market seemed resilient against uncertain trade policies, retail might be a different story. Government data for the retail trade showed that 1,800 jobs were lost in April, compared with 21,700 jobs added in the prior month. Data in May could indicate what the upcoming trend could be in retail.
Separately, new data from executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that the retail sector this year cut more than 64,000 jobs from January through April, representing a nearly 300 percent uptick in jobs lost versus the number of job cuts announced in the same 2024 period. And with higher prices expected on many items and a consumer pullback on discretionary spending, there’s a good chance more retail job cuts could be on the way.
