Sportswear giant Adidas has warned import taxes imposed by President Donald Trump will lead to higher prices in the US for popular trainers including the Gazelle and Samba.
“Since we currently cannot produce almost any of our products in the US, these higher tariffs will eventually cause higher costs for all our products for the US market,” chief executive Bjorn Gulden said on Tuesday.
Clothing manufacturers are among the businesses hit hardest by tariffs as they source labour from countries such as China and Vietnam, which have faced steep levies from the US.
Adidas did not comment on how much prices would rise, but said the trade war had “put a stop to” an upgrade in its financial outlook.
Mr Gulden said it was “currently impossible to quantify” cost increases resulting from tariffs, “or to conclude what impact this could have on the consumer demand for our products”.
“Given the uncertainty around the negotiations between the US and the different exporting countries, we do not know what the final tariffs will be. Therefore, we cannot make any ‘final’ decisions on what to do,” he added.
Vietnam has become the global centre of athletic shoe manufacturing and it is subject to some of the most punishing US tariffs. Nike, Puma and Adidas all have large factory outlets in South East Asia.
Trump has introduced tariffs in a bid to bring manufacturing back to US shores. However companies such as Adidas say the US lacks factories with the specialised equipment to make running shoes and workers with the knowledge to operate them.
Mr Gulden said in a conference call with reporters that Adidas exported more products to the US to mitigate the impact of tariffs before they took effect. He said the company also re-routed products made in China meant for the US to other markets instead.
The company reported preliminary results last week showing its profits had almost doubled to €610m (£519m) in the first three months of the year, marking its strongest sales performance for the period in company history.
Sambas and its newly launched Taekwondo trainer saw strong demand, with sales growing in all markets outside the US.
“You could ironically say that not being so dependent on the US now is an advantage for us compared to maybe companies that are more American,” he said, a remark pointing to its rival, Nike.
Adidas shares were largely unchanged in early Frankfurt trading on Tuesday. The stock had recovered most of its losses after some tariffs announced earlier this month were partially suspended.
