Bogg’s brand-new quilted tote bag was born out of tariff turmoil
When President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs sent brands scrambling earlier this year, Bogg founder and CEO Kim Vaccarella found herself in the same bind as countless consumer companies: costs were rising, orders were uncertain, and the brand’s once-predictable supply chain was suddenly unstable.
That volatility pushed her to fast-track a project that had been on the back burner for years.
On Monday, the New Jersey-based brand debuted its Bougie Quilted Collection, a new lineup that introduces a quilted silhouette molded directly into Bogg’s proprietary EVA material. It’s a luxury-inspired take on the brand’s signature perforated, Croc-like totes. It’s also the company’s first significant new product line beyond its standard bags, which went viral last year for their practical, durable design. The new collection is available on Bogg’s website, and through wholesale partners like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Scheels.
The idea for the quilted tote collection had been floating around for years, but tariffs forced Bogg to accelerate the timeline. The collection, originally slated for 2026, became a 2025 priority as higher duties drove up costs and forced the company to rethink its holiday assortment. Bogg cut its seasonal lineup in half out of concern that weakening demand for holiday goods could leave it with excess inventory, which can lead to steep discounts and off-pricing.
Tariffs have also forced Bogg to lower its sales outlook for the year. While the company initially set aggressive targets — aiming for roughly $175 million in sales — Vaccarella now expects revenue to land about 30% below plan, largely because of tariff-driven cost increases.
Bogg moved up the quilted tote collection to help fill that projected gap and help “salvage our 2025,” Vaccarella told Modern Retail. “We just wanted to make sure that we were still bringing our customers what they want despite all of the disasters that have happened this year,” she said.
Unlike holiday prints, which have a short selling window and often require deep discounting if demand cools, the quilted bag was an evergreen style Bogg could sell into 2026, making it less risky to produce during a tariff-heavy, demand-uncertain year. It could also be produced relatively quickly by Bogg’s existing manufacturing partners in China at a time when newer manufacturers were still being onboarded.
The new collection arrives amid Bogg’s meteoric rise — $100 million in sales last year and $200 million in lifetime sales — but also at a moment when the company is juggling tariff-driven supply-chain disruptions and mounting concerns about slowing consumer spending. Bogg is betting that the Bougie Quilted Collection will help insulate it from future shocks by pushing beyond its beach-bag reputation and extending its year-round appeal.
The Bougie bag comes in three sizes — OG ($100), Baby ($80) and Bitty ($60) — and four colorways: Pink Taffy, Rose Petal, Black and Freshly Pressed Linen. It also launches with a new suite of accessories, including poufs and pearl bows designed to clip across the front of the bag.
“We really wanted to bring a little bit of that fashion, but without the fuss,” Vaccarella said. “It’s got that quilted, a little bit of that luxury feel, but then it also has the ability to be washed off.”
Tariffs reshape Bogg’s supply chain
For Bogg, the new collection’s development unfolded against the backdrop of a major supply-chain reshuffle. Like many brands, Bogg spent the past year scouting factories across Asia to reduce exposure to China, which has been one of the most heavily tariffed countries and has accounted for 100% of Bogg’s production since Vaccarella founded the brand in 2008.
But shifting supply chains came with its own set of challenges, particularly quality concerns. “Are we going to be able to get our original bag in the way we want to see it in other locations? Are we going to be able to ramp that up?” Vaccarella said.
Those same questions surfaced as the quilted collection came to life. While the material remains the same as Bogg’s classic tote, the molded quilted look required months of experimentation.
“Developing it and trying to figure out how to do it so that it was molded to look like a quilt … was what was taking us a little bit of time,” she said. Once samples started arriving early this year, “we were like, ‘OK, we have something.’”
The company has since shifted about 30% of manufacturing to Vietnam and expects to reach 50% by year’s end. Bogg is exploring Indonesia and India, as well.
Still, the tariffs’ financial and operational impact has been profound. Duties on Chinese imports spiked as high as 145% earlier this year. “We ended up bringing in a lot of containers at that higher rate — millions and millions of dollars just in tariffs on those containers, because we didn’t want our retailers to suffer,” Vaccarella said.
Bogg isn’t alone. Many brands are up against margin pressure and similar constraints when trying to diversify production. Retailers that pulled forward inventory earlier in the year, including Target, Amazon and Build-A-Bear, helped lessen the impact of tariffs. Still, retailers are implementing significant mitigation efforts, including renegotiating with factories and shifting their supply chains.
“There’s a lot of worry around bringing in too much inventory, because you have to pay tariffs when you bring in the inventory before you sell it,” according to Brad Jashinsky, director analyst at Gartner. “That extra color that you’re going to test out for, maybe that’s not something that you’re going to do this year because of the added cost of tariffs.”
The issue is particularly acute for smaller brands. “A lot of these factories don’t want to take small orders,” he said. “They don’t want to just take an order for a few quarters and then work with a brand that’s then going to jump to another manufacturer as tariffs change.”
But even major retailers are feeling the pressure from tariffs.
Take footwear brand Crocs, which inspired the lightweight, waterproof EVA materials that Vaccarella uses for her Bogg bags. On the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Crocs said tariffs cut deeply into their gross margin by more than 230 basis points despite raising prices and negotiating better factory rates. Its wholesale orders are also weak because retailers are “planning cautiously,” CEO Andrew Rees said. The company is preparing for a tough holiday season with slower sales and “choiceful” customers, Crocs CFO Patraic Reagan said.
Despite the turbulence, Bogg is still gearing up for more product innovation next year. As Vaccarella put it, “We’re super excited for 2026 with some of the things that we’re going to come out [with], and we hope that this is the first of many new, exciting things.”