More Companies Adding Service Fees, Raising Prices, Citing Tariffs
Last month we reported on Specialized adding a line-item charge on certain bikes, passing direct price increases to consumers. Trek, that same week, increased prices on their bikes across the board, in response to tariffs.
This week, we’ve seen two more companies release price increases or service charges, citing tariff policy as their reasoning.
Blueseventy has announced a price increase that will impact all products in their product line, beginning on Monday, May 12th. In an email to consumers sent last night, the company said that because of “the extreme and unexpected increase in import tariffs under the Trump administration, we are being forced to raise prices on our products.”
Expanding on their reasoning behind the increase, the company wrote:
“The new tariffs introduced recently were implemented without any warning or grace period, leaving us no time to adjust operations. The reality is that there are no domestic manufacturers of swimming-specific wetsuits, and no general wetsuit manufacturers in the USA that can match the level of performance and quality that our wetsuits are known for, which is why for nearly 30 years we’ve run our manufacturing through China.
After weeks of deliberation, analysis and real concern for the future of our company, we’re making the difficult choice to adjust pricing in order to continue providing the level of product and service that you expect from us.”
Current full-price wetsuits available through Blueseventy’s website range from $190 for the Glide bib-john wetsuit, up to $975 for the top-end Helix wetsuit. The company has not announced what the new pricing come Monday will be.
Also now more expensive is Wahoo Fitness’s TRACKR Radar device. Originally coming to market for $199.99, this is now coming in at $249.99 following the addition of a service charge. When checking out for a TRACKR Radar on Wahoo’s website, the device costs $199.99, but when visiting the shopping cart to checkout, consumers are met with a $50 service charge underneath shipping, along with a link to the following description about those charges.
“We appreciate your continued support and trust in our company. We are committed to providing high-quality products and services to the endurance sports community in order to Build the Better Athlete in All of Us. Due to recent changes to our global supply chain, we find it necessary to implement a service charge on orders shipping from our US Warehouses.
With our current sourcing structure, many of our products have become more expensive to procure and deliver.
We understand that price adjustments can be challenging, and we want to assure you that we are exploring ways to optimize costs and minimize the impact to you, our customer, without compromising on the value we deliver.”
The TRACKR Radar is made in China and subject to the current 145% tariff rate. Many of Wahoo’s other devices are made in Taiwan, which is not subject to the same rate.
Some retailers, such as REI, have directly increased pricing to $250 for the device. Others, like Performance Bike, continue to list the TRACKR Radar at $199.99.
Despite the charge, Wahoo is showing the TRACKR as sold out, with additional availability expected in mid-May.
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and when the tariffs are gone, those prices will be the new normal.
I think it’s interesting in terms of how brands are approaching it. If you list it as a tariff charge separately, there’s some degree of hope that prices may decrease.
But if you just start baking that back into the price of the item…yeah, there’s a zero point zero percent chance IMO of that coming back down.
The service fee is suspicious. Price gouging? Itvshould only reflect extra labor needed , usually wage increases are thecreason this is added, no tarrifs
Peter Abraham a good friend and one of the mots knowledgeable insiders in the Cycling and Running businesses from a marketing and promotional standpoint just wrote a great piece on LinkedIn about this https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trade-tariffs-what-ive-learned-talking-peter-abraham-roelc/?trackingId=Bea3%2Be7rTtOuVy0j3TrQOg%3D%3D Also, others I have spoken to have said that post about Memorial Day, current stock - manufactured well before all the Tariff talk started - on many items manufactured abroad (which is the vast majority of goods in the Sports and Recreation Space!!), will start to run low or out completely with no time-line on replacement. Major receiving Ports like LA and Vancouver are down about 40% on Containers coming into these Ports!
John from Blueseventy here. We truthfully we be reducing prices if/when there is some tariff relief.
Great article. It seems as it matches the gut feelings of many of us regarding this mess.
I guess it gets even more depressing in Canada: American product increases price due to manufacturing their goods in China + our depreciated CAD $ due to internal and external factors + we could see tariffs on American products. I guess this is a great time to avoid buying stuff as much as possible.
The bottom line is for literally everything that is commonly used in a sport such as Triathlon - the gear is going to get more expensive.
John, you’ve always done me a solid. I still have BS brand loyalty
a buddy of mine went to buy goggles from Zone3 using his USAT discount code and this was the checkout basket, $61 in tariffs on a $39 goggle
This is just getting started, but it is going to escalate quickly and everywhere. I just ordered a replacement part for a light in my house …. Part was marked up due to tariffs, cost almost as much as the light originally cost (the light itself has been marked up ~70%).
Trump was asked today in one those random off-the-cuff interviews he likes to give, on the Oval Office, but often sounds like he has no idea what he’s talking about and he was asked about the substantial decrease in container traffic at the Port in Los Angeles and he shrugged his shoulders and said “Good - it’s working”, then riffed on this $1trillion trade deficit number (that’s wrong) that he is stuck on with China! So there you go - he does not seem to care if supplies of various goods and things become scarce and completely unavailable, while wholesale/distribution/retail businesses go out of business! Wow!
I order Chinese products from eBay, Temu, and Vevor. Tried to stock up on various items in the last month, but increasingly my orders were cancelled. Can not get anything direct from China now.
Just adding here - on Canada - that Trump has gone on and on and on, about Canada being a bad-actor on the trade front and “ripping us off by $200 billion/year” - a grossly wrong number. He’s also said things about the current CUSMA/USMCA Deal - “Who would sign such a terrible deal?” - well it’s Trumps signature that is on that deal from 2018!
Why support temu? They abuse usps loophole that subsidizes third world countries. I worked for usos, all that temu garbage made me quit as it made me work 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week ,(yes they deliver Sundays to do amazon and temu)
The cumulative tarrif on China products can be 245%. It’s comically stupid. Nothing more can be said on that front.
Regarding what those companies can do? Hope they have enough in stock now, raise prices on existing stock 50% to spread out the pain, and pray the rates decrease (I’m guessing this is a ploy to normalize a 50% tariff), and then when the next delivery arrives if rates haven’t changed, add another 50-100% and then prepare to roll over and die.
Layoffs and slashing employees and all costs mixed in too.