Mark it zero, dude! Facing tariff hike, family-run maker of bowling shoes and bags struggles to leave China
- Strikeforce Bowling is facing 25 per cent tariff on bowling shoes after getting hit with higher levy on bowling bags
- The company will most likely have to absorb the additional costs, according to its president
Brad Handelman has been trying to move his family’s business out of China for years, but has only come up with gutterballs.
He has looked at Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Vietnam for new manufacturers, but has had zero strikes in shifting his sourcing for bowling shoes and bags away from China.
Now, Strikeforce Bowling, based in Melrose Park, Illinois, is facing an additional 25 per cent tariff on its bowling shoes later this year after being hit with a similar higher duty on bowling bags last month, a casualty of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
“We've been looking at it for the last couple of years,” Handelman, Strikeforce’s president, said. “The labour cost has increased … The youth of China, similar to the United States, they don't want to work in factories. Our factories have been telling us they can’t get labour. They can’t get workers after [Lunar] New Year to come back and work for them.”
US President Donald Trump has threatened to place tariffs as soon as July on some US$300 billion of Chinese-made products, ranging from flat panel televisions to magic tricks, as he tries to force Beijing to change years of industrial and trade policy.