Table of Contents

1. Key Highlights:
2. Introduction
3. Tariff Shock Arrives at the Trade Shows
4. Buyers Reframe Priorities: From Cost to Resilience
5. Multi-Country Sourcing: Strategy and Execution
6. Nearshoring and Domestic Production: Trade-offs and Opportunities
7. Compliance, Traceability and the Role of Intelligence
8. Speed of Trends: Social Media’s Compression of Product Cycles
9. Category Shifts: What Displayed Demand Revealed
10. What Exhibitors Face: Pricing, Margins and Lead Times
11. Freight, Logistics and the Hidden Costs of Sourcing
12. Legal and Political Backdrop: Lawsuits and Ongoing Uncertainty
13. Scenario Planning: How Brands Can Stress-Test Strategies
14. Practical Steps for Buyers and Brands
15. The Role of Trade Shows in a Volatile Market
16. Sustainability and Social Compliance Remain Non-Negotiable
17. Financial Considerations: Pricing, Margins and Retail Strategy
18. How Smaller Brands Can Compete
19. Observing the Buyer Mindset Shift on the Show Floor
20. Long-Term Structural Changes: What May Stick
21. What to Watch Next: Indicators That Will Drive Decision-Making
22. Recommendations for Executives and Procurement Teams
23. The Human Factor: Workforce and Factory Implications
24. Final Observations from the Las Vegas Marketplace
25. FAQ

Key Highlights:

• New Section 301 duties—10% or 12.5% on imports covering 99.4% of U.S. imports—arrived less than 20 days before Fashion by Informa’s Las Vegas shows, forcing buyers and exhibitors to prioritize supply-chain resilience over cost alone.
• Buyers are executing multi-country sourcing strategies (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Turkey, parts of Latin America), demanding transparency, faster lead times and compliance; show organizers partnered with intelligence firms to offer actionable market guidance.

Introduction

When Fashion by Informa reconvened its main trade shows under one roof at the Las Vegas Convention Center—Magic, Project, Sourcing and Offprice—the agenda extended well beyond seasonal styles. A fresh round of Section 301 tariffs that added 10 or 12.5 percent duties on imports from a broad set of trading partners landed less than three weeks earlier, reframing conversations on the show floor. Buyers and exhibitors arrived asking a different set of questions: how to preserve margins while staying agile, how to shorten lead times without sacrificing compliance, and how to build a supplier network that can withstand future policy shocks.

The Las Vegas marketplace captured a live snapshot of the industry’s strategic pivot. Vendors displayed trend-driven collections informed by social media cycles. Sourcing booths highlighted diversification away from single-country dependence. Offprice aisles filled with licensed and non-apparel opportunistic buys. Organizers and consultants supplied data and scenario planning, attempting to convert uncertainty into operational decisions. This article maps what happened at the shows and explains the practical implications for brands, retailers and manufacturers navigating tariff-driven disruption.

Tariff Shock Arrives at the Trade Shows

The introduction of new Section 301 duties on July 24—additional levies of 10 or 12.5 percent—reshaped the agenda at the Las Vegas shows almost immediately. The tariffs apply across imports from 60 economies, encompassing 99.4 percent of U.S. imports. That sweep yields an industry-wide cost shock; even modest percentage increases become significant across tight retail margins.

Trade shows are where sourcing intentions meet reality. Buyers come to evaluate factories, confirm lead times, inspect sample quality, and negotiate price. With duties rising across the board, the calculus for every purchase shifted. Conversations moved from a narrow focus on unit cost to a broader assessment of landed cost, reliability and speed. That shift is particularly evident for emerging brands that lack long-term supplier contracts capable of absorbing sudden tariff-driven cost increases.

A related development: 25 U.S. states filed suit challenging the tariff action. The litigation framed the tariffs as "arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law," escalating policy uncertainty. The White House framed the duties as lawful use of trade authority to address unfair practices. Legal wrangling offers no short-term fix; courts can take months to issue rulings, leaving buyers to make sourcing decisions under continued ambiguity.

The timing intensified pressure. When a major sourcing change or factory audit requires 12 to 18 weeks to implement, decisions made at the Las Vegas shows could determine holiday-season assortment and margins. Buyers faced a compressed window to reassess partners, negotiate new terms and, where necessary, qualify alternate factories.

Buyers Reframe Priorities: From Cost to Resilience

The industry’s reaction became clear: price remains important, but resilience now ranks equally—or higher—when selecting partners. Emilie Lewis, vice president of events for Fashion by Informa’s Las Vegas and Nashville marketplaces, reported that buyers now seek suppliers who can navigate tariff volatility, diversify production footprints and compress lead times without quality compromises.

Resilience manifests in several concrete buyer demands:

• Multi-country supplier networks to spread geopolitical and operational risk.
• Shorter lead times through nearshoring, dual-sourcing or domestic capacity for time-sensitive SKUs.
• Clear compliance processes and robust documentation to manage customs uncertainty.
• Transparency in cost build-ups so buyers can predict landed cost under different duty scenarios.

These requirements reflect a strategic reorientation. Cost-driven sourcing—where brands place large volumes with a single supplier in a low-cost country to achieve scale—remains viable for some product types. For trend-driven categories, however, time-to-market and flexibility now outweigh the cheapest per-unit price.

Case example (illustrative): An independent women’s contemporary label that previously produced 70 percent of its cut-and-sew volume in a single Southeast Asian supplier began splitting orders: 40 percent retained in that high-volume partner for base styles, 40 percent allocated to nearshore partners for seasonal trend pieces, and 20 percent reserved for domestic quick-response runs. This model protected staple margins while giving the brand the agility to respond to viral demand.

Multi-Country Sourcing: Strategy and Execution

Multi-country sourcing has moved from theory to operational imperative. Buyers reported expanding relationships across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Turkey and parts of Latin America, selecting destinations by product category, cost structure and lead-time capabilities.

How buyers choose destinations

• Apparel manufacture with labor-intensive processes (e.g., woven dresses, shirts): brands often prefer Bangladesh and parts of Southeast Asia for cost efficiency.
• Knitwear and jersey production: Vietnam and Pakistan provide competitive capabilities and improving fabric ecosystems.
• Technical or higher-wage crafts, such as certain footwear components or leather goods: Turkey and parts of Latin America offer shorter transit times to North America and strong quality control.
• Sustainable and traceable supply-chains or specialized trims: India and certain Latin American suppliers provide diversified material sources and increasingly transparent certifications.

Operational challenges Shifting production is not instantaneous. Qualifying a new factory means sample development, compliance audits, capacity assessments and logistics planning. Buyers reported they are investing more in upfront supplier development to shorten the qualification timeline. That includes virtual factory walkthroughs, more frequent sample rounds, and investing in small-volume initial production runs to prove quality before scaling.

Example from the floor: A sportswear buyer described a two-step approach. For seasonal capsule programs, the buyer sourced quick-turn knits from a regional supplier in Mexico that offered two-week lead times. For the broader core collection, the buyer retained established Vietnamese suppliers that provided cost advantages on larger runs. The hybrid approach balanced speed and economy.

Finance and inventory implications Diversification increases managerial and financial complexity. Multiple suppliers require more SKUs for minimum order quantities (MOQs), more freight lanes to manage, and more inventory buffers to avoid stockouts. Buyers managing cash constraints must balance the benefits of resilience against higher working capital demands. Successful brands are using dynamic inventory models—blending smaller, more frequent orders for trend pieces with larger, less frequent replenishments for staples.

Nearshoring and Domestic Production: Trade-offs and Opportunities

Nearshoring and onshore options have gained traction for time-sensitive categories. Shorter transit times reduce exposure to freight disruptions and provide faster market response, which is critical when trends spread rapidly on platforms like TikTok.

Advantages

• Lead-time compression: shipments by truck or short ocean lanes can slash transit times from weeks to days.
• Reduced inventory risk: faster replenishment reduces the need for large safety stocks, which is valuable for trend-driven SKUs.
• Improved collaboration: proximity makes product development and quality control more iterative.
• Customs predictability: originating and processing goods nearer to the point of sale can simplify documentation and lower exposure to tariff reclassifications.

Constraints

• Higher unit costs for labor-intensive goods can erode margins.
• Capacity limits: domestic and nearshore factories often have lower throughput compared to large overseas complexes.
• Skill specialization: certain production techniques remain concentrated in long-established regions, making knowledge transfer and workforce training necessary.

A practical approach: Brands often segregate their assortment by time-sensitivity and margin. High-velocity, short-lived trends migrate nearshore or onshore. Core, high-volume basics remain offshore to optimize cost. For some, the result is a “two-speed” supply chain that balances immediacy with efficiency.

Compliance, Traceability and the Role of Intelligence

Tariff changes put compliance demands front and center. Buyers now require end-to-end documentation, clear tariff classifications, and evidence of country-of-origin determinations. Fashion by Informa recognized this need by partnering with Hertzman Global Intelligence (HGI) to provide market insights and guidance at the show.

What compliance looks like in practice

• Rigorous supplier documentation: purchase orders that include country-of-origin declarations, bills of materials and factory-subcontractor disclosures.
• Harmonized System (HS) code accuracy: misclassification can lead to unexpected duties or customs delays.
• Supply-chain mapping: knowing where fabric, trims and components are produced matters for rules of origin and duty mitigation.
• Free trade agreement (FTA) optimization: buyers explore whether any manufactured goods can meet FTA rules to reduce tariffs, though complex value-added thresholds can limit applicability.

Technology aids compliance. Cloud-based sourcing platforms and blockchain pilots provide immutable audit trails for critical inputs. For now, human oversight remains crucial; software can gather and store documents, but experienced customs brokers and legal counsel interpret ambiguous cases.

On the show floor buyers asked for near-term scenario analysis: what happens to landed cost if duties remain, rise further, or are rolled back? Intelligence partners provided models showing the sensitivity of assortment margins to duty changes and freight cost volatility. These models helped buyers stress-test decisions in real time.

Speed of Trends: Social Media’s Compression of Product Cycles

Social platforms, especially TikTok, compress fashion cycles. Viral looks can surge within days and fade as quickly. Magic and Project showed how brands are attempting to marry viral aesthetics with the scalability wholesalers require.

Key dynamics

• Trend-to-shelf window: brands that capture a viral aesthetic and translate it into a wholesale-ready product in weeks can capitalize on surge demand. This requires agile design-to-production workflows and suppliers that accept short runs.
• Wholesaler expectations: many wholesale buyers still require minimum lead times and order volumes. Bridging this gap requires either flexible supplier partners or intermediaries who can aggregate demand across small retailers to achieve MOQs.
• Quality vs. speed: quick-turn products must still meet retail quality expectations. Brands that rush productions risk higher return rates and brand damage.

Example: A handbag brand showcased a capsule collection inspired by a TikTok microtrend. By leveraging a domestic leatherwork partner for a 500-unit run, the label met wholesale quality standards and delivered within a four-week window—closing the gap between online virality and retail distribution.

Category Shifts: What Displayed Demand Revealed

The Las Vegas shows reflected distinct category shifts across the marketplaces.

Magic: handbags, trend-driven contemporary pieces, activewear and footwear registered growth. Buyers showed particular interest in accessible, trend-led accessories that support rapid merchandising cycles and deliver higher margin per square foot on retail shelves.

Project (men’s): Y2K nostalgia, sport-inspired silhouettes and innovative footwear dominated. Men’s buyers are chasing nostalgic shapes and technical reinterpretations that resonate with younger consumers.

Sourcing: principal categories emphasized apparel manufacturing services, sustainability solutions, fabrics, trims and packaging. Demand signals highlight that sourcing professionals are investing in material innovation and sustainability certifications.

Offprice: an increase in non-apparel, cash-and-carry options and licensed goods across women’s, men’s and kids’ product lines indicated buyers are hunting opportunistic buys that can be quickly merchandised and moved through discount channels.

These category signals reflect how buyers balance the need for fast-moving, high-margin items with practical sourcing constraints. Accessories and footwear, for example, provide higher margins and can tolerate higher unit costs, making them attractive when tariffs raise production costs.

What Exhibitors Face: Pricing, Margins and Lead Times

Exhibitors—manufacturers, fabric mills and accessory suppliers—confront their own adjustments. Tariffs squeeze margins and complicate pricing strategies. Exhibitors must either absorb costs to remain competitive or pass them to buyers, risking order loss.

Strategies exhibitors adopt

• Value engineering: redesigning products to reduce tariff-exposed inputs or simplify assembly without degrading perceived quality.
• Re-routing components: moving certain fabric or trim sourcing to jurisdictions with more favorable duty treatments or better trade flows.
• Offering tiered pricing: staged price points based on lead time commitments. Faster turnaround commands premium pricing.
• Guaranteeing compliance: exhibitors increasingly provide full documentation and customs-ready paperwork as a service to buyers.

Exhibitors report higher demand for initial small-volume runs that allow brands to test the market without committing to large orders that could be eroded by tariff shifts. Some mills offer smaller MOQ programs to capture this need, albeit at higher per-unit costs.

Freight, Logistics and the Hidden Costs of Sourcing

Tariffs are a headline cost, but logistics contribute materially to landed cost and risk. Freight rates have normalized from the pandemic spike but remain volatile. Congestion, port delays and vessel reassignments add uncertainty to promised lead times.

Buyers now consider:

• Mode optimization: when deliveries are time-sensitive, air freight can mitigate tariff timing risk at a higher dollar cost. For less time-constrained categories, ocean consolidation remains essential.
• Inventory placement: pre-positioning inventory in bonded warehouses or distribution centers near markets can reduce tariff exposure until classification is clarified.
• Incoterm shifts: negotiating EXW vs. FOB vs. DDP terms affects where duties and shipping risk fall in the transaction.

Real-world example: A midsize footwear brand learned that a shift from FOB to DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) simplified pricing for small retailers, who preferred certainty on landed cost. The brand absorbed the duty risk by renegotiating slightly higher retail prices and adjusting promotional cadence to preserve margins.

Legal and Political Backdrop: Lawsuits and Ongoing Uncertainty

Policy responses to perceived unfair trade practices have long driven industry shifts. The recent wave of Section 301 duties spurred legal pushback. Twenty-five states filed suit, arguing the tariffs were poorly justified. The White House defended the action as a lawful exercise of trade authority.

Implications for the industry

• Possible outcomes: courts could uphold the administration, strike down the tariff expansion, or force procedural corrections. Each outcome has different timing and implications; litigation seldom delivers immediate clarity.
• Policy reversals: even if courts rule against the tariffs, administrations can adjust policies or appeal decisions, extending uncertainty.
• Political risk as a sourcing factor: buyers now treat political risk similarly to natural disasters or labor disputes, building contingency plans accordingly.

Legal uncertainty forces pragmatic sourcing: brands must make purchasing decisions assuming tariffs may remain for multiple months. That assumption reduces speculative orders and pushes investments toward supplier relationships that can adapt to changing duty landscapes.

Scenario Planning: How Brands Can Stress-Test Strategies

Brands should adopt scenario planning to manage the unpredictable. A simple framework evaluates three plausible scenarios and prescribes tactical responses.

Scenario A — Tariffs persist at current levels

• Response: Accelerate multi-country sourcing, renegotiate supplier terms to share duty burden, revise retail pricing and compress assortments to focus on profitable SKUs.

Scenario B — Tariffs increase further

• Response: Prioritize nearshoring for time-sensitive categories, increase use of bonded warehousing, and intensify cost reengineering (e.g., simplify designs, substitute trims).

Scenario C — Tariffs rolled back or remediated

• Response: Rebalance sourcing to regain cost efficiencies while retaining some diversification gains. Evaluate which nearshore investments yielded operational improvements irrespective of cost.

Stress-testing requires quantitative modeling. Buyers should calculate landed cost under each scenario, including duty, freight, inventory carrying, and opportunity cost of stockouts. Suppliers and buyers that invest in these models gain negotiating leverage and clearer operational direction.

Practical Steps for Buyers and Brands

Actionable measures emerged repeatedly at the Las Vegas shows. They are operational and achievable:

1. Map the full supply chain: Know where raw materials originate and which sub-suppliers are involved. This knowledge informs duty exposure and compliance risks.
2. Reassess HS codes and customs classifications: Use customs counsel to audit classifications that can materially change duty liabilities.
3. Build a supplier development budget: Allocate small funds for qualifying and ramping new suppliers in strategic geographies.
4. Negotiate flexible MOQs: Seek tiered MOQs or rolling orders that allow small initial volumes with scaling clauses.
5. Use bonded warehousing strategically: Postpone duty payments until goods are sold or re-exported to reduce capital tied to tariffs.
6. Diversify freight options and carriers: Maintain relationships across shipping providers and carriers to avoid single-source logistics risk.
7. Invest in real-time data: Use dashboards that combine inventory, order status, freight ETA and cost changes to trigger rapid decisions.
8. Offer guaranteed compliance services: Suppliers that provide customs-ready documentation position themselves as preferred partners.
9. Revisit product design for duty mitigation: Redesign products to alter material composition where feasible, reducing tariff exposure without degrading value.
10. Communicate transparently with retail partners: If duties force price adjustments or lead-time changes, early communication maintains relationships and reduces surprises at the shelf.

The Role of Trade Shows in a Volatile Market

Trade shows have always been about discovery, relationship-building and deal-making. Under tariff uncertainty, their strategic value increases. Shows allow buyers to:

• Rapidly vet multiple suppliers across geographies.
• Examine samples and verify quality rather than relying on digital catalogs.
• Start supplier development conversations that have to compress from months to weeks.
• Access intelligence partners and legal experts who can translate policy into procurement action.

Fashion by Informa’s decision to partner with HGI exemplified the new expectation of value-added services from show organizers. Intelligence offerings help buyers evaluate supplier risk profiles, estimate landed cost under different duty scenarios, and prioritize sourcing routes.

Sustainability and Social Compliance Remain Non-Negotiable

While tariffs dominate conversations, sustainability and social compliance continue to matter. Buyers demand partners that meet environmental standards, respect labor laws, and offer transparency. These attributes increasingly influence sourcing choices and can mitigate reputational risks that tariffs alone do not address.

Examples of buyer requirements

• Certifications (e.g., GOTS, OEKO-TEX) for materials.
• Auditable social compliance programs and corrective-action histories.
• Supplier commitments to reduce carbon in transportation and production processes.

Sustainable suppliers sometimes command premium pricing, but buyers report that ethical sourcing can reduce long-term risk and strengthen consumer trust, a competitive advantage in turbulent times.

Financial Considerations: Pricing, Margins and Retail Strategy

Tariffs alter the margin calculus for both suppliers and retailers. Markup strategies must account for duty exposure, and promotional plans may require recalibration.

Retail strategies to preserve margins

• Reduce discount depth on higher-duty SKUs to protect margins.
• Introduce price tiers clearly tied to product origin or delivery speed.
• Increase emphasis on accessories and categories with higher resilience to duty increases.

At the wholesale level, brands may adopt mixed pricing strategies: absorption of some duty for strategic partners to preserve account relationships, while passing cost increases for less strategic channels.

Banks and lenders also weigh tariff risk into working-capital decisions. Brands that present robust contingency plans and diversified supply networks gain access to more favorable financing terms.

How Smaller Brands Can Compete

Emerging brands often lack the leverage of larger firms, but they can use agility to their advantage. Smaller labels should:

• Prioritize near-term bestsellers for nearshoring to capture market momentum.
• Use pop-up or direct-to-consumer channels to test trends before committing to wholesale.
• Collaborate with other small brands to consolidate orders and meet supplier MOQs.
• Seek sourcing partners that accept smaller initial runs as part of a development pipeline.

Industry incubators and sourcing marketplaces on the trade show floor frequently facilitate these connections. Smaller brands that use trade-show intelligence effectively can punch above their weight.

Observing the Buyer Mindset Shift on the Show Floor

Conversations recorded at Las Vegas revealed a notable behavioral shift among buyers. Instead of solely requesting price reductions, they asked detailed questions about manufacturer contingency plans, the provenance of trims, and a supplier’s ability to provide legally defensible documentation. The signal was clear: reliability and transparency now compete with price in supplier selection.

This trend aligns with the US Fashion Industry Association’s benchmarking study that found 92 percent of business owners report market uncertainty. That high percentage manifests in more conservative ordering patterns and a premium placed on supplier reliability.

Long-Term Structural Changes: What May Stick

Some pandemic-era supply-chain practices likely persist next to tariff-driven shifts. The most durable changes include:

• Permanent supplier diversification: firms that invested in alternative sources will continue to use them to mitigate future disruptions.
• Increased use of nearshoring for time-sensitive categories.
• Greater reliance on data and analytics for sourcing decisions.

These structural changes recalibrate what “efficient” looks like: instead of purely lowest-cost production, efficiency now includes speed-to-market, inventory optimization and risk-adjusted pricing.

What to Watch Next: Indicators That Will Drive Decision-Making

Several developments will influence near-term sourcing and procurement planning:

• Legal rulings on the tariffs and any subsequent administrative actions.
• Freight-rate fluctuations tied to geopolitical events or port congestion.
• Currency movements that change real costs across sourcing destinations.
• Supplier capacity shifts, especially if large buyers reallocate volumes to alternative geographies.

Buyers and suppliers should monitor these indicators and maintain flexible plans that allow rapid adjustments.

Recommendations for Executives and Procurement Teams

Leadership must act deliberately to navigate the current landscape. Recommendations:

• Create a cross-functional task force: procurement, finance, legal and logistics should collaborate on scenario planning.
• Set clear sourcing priorities: identify which SKUs require speed and which prioritize cost.
• Negotiate contingency clauses in contracts: options for price adjustments or reallocation clauses protect both parties.
• Invest in supplier development where strategic: dedicate resources to accelerate qualifications of new partners.
• Maintain transparent retailer communication: partners value clarity when costs or lead times change.

These steps reduce panic-driven decisions and build a defensible, repeatable approach to sourcing under policy uncertainty.

The Human Factor: Workforce and Factory Implications

Factory workers and managers face ripple effects. Order shifting can lead to uneven capacity utilization and volatile income streams for factory employees. Brands that move orders without considering human impact risk supply disruption through labor disputes or turnover.

Best practice: engage suppliers in long-term planning and include fair volume forecasting. Where possible, contribute to supplier resilience through development programs, equipment investments, or shared forecasting tools that smooth production cycles for workers.

Final Observations from the Las Vegas Marketplace

The Las Vegas shows provided a concentrated view of how the industry adapts under policy pressure. Buyers left with new contacts, more sophisticated duty-modeling, and a clearer sense of which suppliers can meet the dual demands of speed and compliance. Exhibitors adjusted pricing and product scaffolding to remain competitive.

The broader lesson: trade policy shocks accelerate trends that were already developing—supplier diversification, nearshoring, real-time data use and an emphasis on compliance. Brands that treat these adjustments as strategic investments rather than temporary disruptions will be better positioned when policy volatility eases.

FAQ

Q: What exactly changed with the new Section 301 duties? A: The most recent round imposed additional duties of either 10 percent or 12.5 percent on imports from 60 economies, affecting 99.4 percent of U.S. imports. These duties increase the landed cost of imported goods and require buyers to reassess sourcing economics and compliance documentation.

Q: How immediate was the impact of the tariffs on sourcing decisions? A: The tariff changes took effect on July 24. Fashion by Informa’s Las Vegas marketplace convened under the new duty environment less than 20 days later. That compressed timeline forced brands and buyers to rapidly evaluate contingency options and accelerate supplier development.

Q: Which sourcing destinations are brands favoring now? A: Buyers reported expanding relationships in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Turkey and parts of Latin America. Choices vary by product type: Bangladesh and parts of Southeast Asia for low-cost woven goods, Vietnam and Pakistan for knitwear, Turkey and Latin America for faster delivery and certain leather/footwear capabilities.

Q: Will nearshoring solve the tariff problem? A: Nearshoring reduces lead times and can lower some logistics risks but often comes with higher unit labor costs and capacity constraints. Nearshoring works best for time-sensitive or trend-driven SKUs where speed provides a pricing or margin advantage. It should be one element within a diversified sourcing strategy.

Q: What practical steps should small brands take now? A: Small brands should prioritize the bestsellers for faster sourcing channels, consolidate orders with peers where possible to meet MOQs, use shows to find suppliers that accept smaller runs, and invest in basic landed-cost modeling to understand tariff impacts.

Q: How can buyers manage compliance amid tariff uncertainty? A: Map the full supply chain, verify HS codes, secure country-of-origin documentation, and work with customs counsel. Use bonded warehousing strategically to delay duty payments until goods are sold or re-exported. Partnering with intelligence providers can provide scenario analysis for landed-cost planning.

Q: Could the tariffs be overturned soon? A: Legal challenges are underway. Twenty-five states have sued, calling the tariffs arbitrary. Courts can take months to decide. Until there’s a definitive ruling or policy rollback, buyers should plan assuming duties could persist.

Q: What categories are less affected by tariffs or more resilient? A: Accessories, footwear and higher-margin categories can better absorb tariff increases. Trend-driven items moved via nearshoring or domestic quick-turn production also show resilience because speed can command premium prices.

Q: What role did trade shows play during this period of uncertainty? A: Trade shows served as hubs for fast supplier vetting, quality checks and immediate negotiation. Organizers offering intelligence and legal resources added value by helping attendees translate policy changes into procurement actions.

Q: What long-term shifts should the industry prepare for? A: Expect continued emphasis on supplier diversification, improved traceability and compliance capabilities, broader adoption of nearshoring for fast SKUs, and increased use of data-driven sourcing strategies that account for political and logistic risks.