Collateral Damage: How Tariff Policy Is Gutting America’s Outdoor Gear Innovators

The author would like to acknowledge these founders and executives for taking the time to share their experiences with me: Dan Durston (Durston Gear), Henry Shires (Tarptent), Michael Glavin (Zenbivy), Jonathan Schmid (Gossamer Gear), Lloyd Vogel (Garage Grown Gear), Nikolai Paloni (Ombraz), Jeff Jacobs (Brynje USA), and Meli Hinostroza (Arms of Andes).

Introduction: Tariffs Are Quietly Reshaping the Outdoor Gear Industry

If you’ve already noticed (or worried about) the price of outdoor gear creeping upward, it may not just be inflation or better technology. There’s an unlikely undercurrent of structural, opaque uncertainty at work: tariffs – or at least, the threat of tariffs.

A tariff is a tax placed on imported goods. In theory, tariffs are meant to protect domestic industries by making foreign-made products more expensive, thereby encouraging domestic manufacturing. Under the Trump administration, tariffs have returned as a central feature of U.S. trade policy. In 2024, the Trump campaign renewed its push for expanded China-focused tariffs, with party leaders proposing a 10% universal import tax and elevated duties targeting Chinese imports. As the administration finishes its first 100 days of its second term in 2025, tariffs of up to 145% have been enacted (as well as suspended, excepted, and postponed), igniting economic uncertainty and a U.S.-led trade war.

But for many in the outdoor industry – especially the small and midsize companies that design, build, and distribute the ultralight gear beloved by backpackers – tariffs aren’t designed to bring about market stability or job growth. Instead, they’ve introduced confusion, raised prices, disrupted supply chains, and threatened the survival of the very brands that make our community innovative and unique.

In my interviews with eight founders and executives from small brands across the outdoor industry, a clear picture emerged:

• Tariff rules and policies are poorly understood, documented, and enforced. Customs interpretations are inconsistent and policy shifts are unpredictable.
• Prices are rising – often dramatically. Some brands already report 25–40% cost increases.
• U.S. manufacturing isn’t a viable fallback. The infrastructure, labor force, and capacity just aren’t there – and aren’t likely to ever be there due to a labor vacuum and living wage disparities.
• Big brands will survive. Small brands may not. Larger corporations have resources to absorb costs and reroute supply chains. Cottage brands do not.
• Consumers are caught in the middle. Higher prices, fewer choices, and less transparency may be the new normal.

What follows is an in-depth analysis of how tariffs – often invisible to the average consumer – are reshaping the future of the gear we rely on to travel light, explore farther, and experience wilderness.

This is more than an economic story. It’s a story about values, access, and who gets to participate in the backcountry economy.