Inside the 90 days brands spent navigating Trump’s trade blitz

Some deals have already been formulated. Last week, Vietnam reached an accord with the U.S. to set tariff rates to 20% for Vietnamese imports. The E.U. has reportedly agreed to accept a 10% duty on many of its exports, while working toward the Wednesday deadline. 

On Monday, Trump posted letters to Japan and South Korea, saying that he plans to impose 25% tariffs on all of their exports to the U.S. beginning Aug. 1., unless the countries reach an agreement with the U.S. China is on a separate timeline, with its 90-day tariff pause running until mid-August, though the two sides have already reached a limited deal.

For many companies, the last 90 days have felt like an exercise in constant contingency planning. Brands have been whiplashed by fluctuating tariff timelines, unsure whether to raise prices, reroute inventory or cancel entire product lines. Some have pulled back planned product launches or slashed SKUs to conserve cash. Others are prioritizing high-margin businesses, like subscriptions, that don’t require the manufacturing of physical goods at all.

As Denise De Baun, the CEO of the red-light sleep device company Helight, put it, “We’re gambling every single day.”

Shifting supply chains 

For many U.S. brands, Vietnam has become the next manufacturing hub outside of China. 

Bogg Bag, which makes perforated tote bags, began visiting factories in Vietnam, as well as Sri Lanka and Cambodia, in January. It has taken six months to get that new factory relationship up and running, as Bogg placed its first purchase order of 100,000 units, which is expected to arrive in August. The vast majority of Bogg’s products used to be made in China, but now the company has diversified enough that about 70% is made in China and 30% is manufactured elsewhere. The company eventually hopes to reduce its dependency on China to 50%, Bogg’s founder and CEO, Kim Vaccarella, told Modern Retail in an interview. 

Bogg Bag isn’t alone. Chuck Gregorich, who runs the outdoor goods brand Net Health Shops, has moved aggressively to diversify his supply chain. He estimates that around 40% of his product mix is now sourced from Vietnam, though that percentage could drop if tariffs on Vietnamese imports go up beyond 20%, he said. His long-term goal is to split his sourcing evenly between India and Vietnam. 

Still, the pivot to Vietnam isn’t a clear win. Costs are higher, lead times are longer and tariffs are still expected. “Neither [China nor Vietnam] are giving us relief, essentially because we’re still in a deficit either way we look at it,” Vaccarella said.

Indeed, the new rate on Vietnamese imports is lower than the 46% Trump imposed on April 2, but it is also still higher than the 3% duty rate that Vietnamese goods were taxed prior to Trump taking office.

Prioritizing ‘made in USA’

The few brands that had already shifted production away from China are feeling vindicated. 

Chris Peterson, CEO of Newell Brands, said the company began the transition several years ago after discussions at Business Roundtable meetings in Washington made him rethink tariff risk. Today, less than 10% of its products are sourced from China.

Newell has 15 U.S. factories and has used its domestic production as leverage in conversations with retail partners. Peterson said the company has pushed retailers to prioritize American-made brands like Sharpie and Rubbermaid, which are insulated from tariff volatility. That strategy has yielded a 1-2% sales uplift.

“We’ve been having some pretty good traction … and gotten some meaningful assortment wins that we’re expecting to see in the back half of this year,” he said.

But even Newell isn’t immune to global disruptions. Brands like Graco, which the company owns, are still entirely manufactured in China due to a lack of alternatives. Peterson said building up U.S. capacity is a multi-year process.

“You can’t do that overnight. It takes time to order machinery, start up a line and get procedures in place,” he said. “We’re not trying to have a knee-jerk reaction. We’re making decisions that will benefit us in the long term.”

Pulling back

In lieu of raising prices, New York City-based skin-care brand Borghese has made cuts in other areas of the business to protect margins. For example, Borghese pushed some new product development to 2026. Borghese also canceled one of four planned holiday gift sets — limited-edition product sets that the company offers to retail partners — and reduced quantities by another 30%, Borghese COO Dawn Hilarczyk told Modern Retail in an interview. 

Bogg has also trimmed its product mix in response to tariffs. “We’ve definitely tightened up our assortment,” Vaccarella said. The company slashed its fall holiday line by half, focusing on retailers’ top items and prioritizing quality over quantity. In addition, Bogg decided to move up a design that was planned for the spring and summer of 2026 to the December holiday lineup of this year. 

“We do have a little bit of a deficit from this year because we weren’t able to get a lot of our fall and holiday stuff sorted out in time while we were dealing with all this tariff nonsense,” Vaccarella said. 

Meanwhile, accessories brand Loftie, which makes clocks in China, is focused on growing the high-margin — and tariff-free — software side of the business. More than 13,000 members pay for the company’s app subscription, which includes features like personalized sleep guidance, app blocking and routine-setting. Loftie wants to double the size of its subscription business by the end of this year to keep the company afloat.

The increasingly unpredictable global supply chain landscape has made Loftie CEO Matthew Hassett question “whether to make physical products at all,” he said, adding, “How can I commit to making this product when the rules change by the day, but I have to plan five months in advance?”

Rethinking prices

Some brands have begun testing price hikes to offset tariff costs, but the results have been mixed. 

Denise De Baun, the CEO of Helight, which makes red light sleep devices in China, said the company initially raised prices from $139 to $159 on its website and Amazon to absorb the cost of tariffs. However, after a two-week experiment, it saw sales plunge as much as 40%, particularly on Amazon, where customers tend to be more price-sensitive. As a result, it decided to drop the price back to the original $139. Now, Helight is eating the increased cost to its margins, while also looking for creative ways to reduce costs without raising prices, like pulling back on some social media campaigns.

“It’s impacting profitability, first and foremost,” De Baun said. “Whether or not we’re able to absorb it or not absorb it, at the end of the day, we’re paying 30% more than we were planning on paying, and we have to figure that out in the rest of our P&L.”

Bogg also announced two separate price increases this year— an additional $5 at retail on its core bags, which make up about 80% of its sales, in both April and July. But the company reversed course both times to wait for more clarity on final tariff rates to avoid multiple price adjustments. For now, the company is planning to implement price hikes in December or January.

“I just don’t want to raise and then have to raise again. It’s too much to do when you’re in 9,500 doors across the country and you have all these different retailers with various tagging and all these different things,” Vaccarella said. “We wanted to make sure we could come out with it right the first time.”