In The News

Tariff Impacts: A Letter from SanMar President & CEO Jeremy Lott

Issaquah, Wash. – April 7, 2025

Partners and friends,

As you are no doubt aware, the White House announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2. These included a baseline 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to incremental tariffs on a country-by-country basis. This process is still playing out. Some countries are negotiating to lower tariffs while others are increasing their tariffs to match.

While we will learn a lot more in the days ahead, I want to give you an idea of what to expect and how it might affect pricing.

The new tariffs begin at 10% and go as high as 50% for countries that run significant trade imbalances with the United States. While our supply chain is diverse—we produce in 24 countries—all of our factory partners are affected by tariffs to some degree. This includes Vietnam (46%), Bangladesh (37%), Myanmar (45%), Madagascar (47%), Sri Lanka (44%) and China (34%). The reciprocal tariffs are stacked on top of any existing tariffs, meaning that the new tariffs on China are added to the 20% tariffs instituted earlier this year.

What this means for you:

  • In the short term, SanMar will begin to pay the new tariffs. We have production orders placed many months in advance. We'll honor those orders with our partners and begin to import goods at the new higher prices.
  • We’ll make a single price change starting June 1, with the plan to hold that change through 2025. Instead of a product-by-product or country-by-country approach to pricing, we’re working to determine an increase that is sufficient to balance the higher rates from the countries listed above with the lower rates from other SanMar sourcing destinations. Our thought is that this simplifies things and makes pricing more predictable. While it won’t be an insignificant amount, we will do everything we can to minimize the increase. We’ll update you next week with full details.
  • As soon as possible, we'll shift as much production as we can from high-tariff to low-tariff countries like Honduras, where we make most of our Port & Company and District t-shirts.
  • If that strategy is successful, and if countries can negotiate lower tariffs, we would expect that prices will come down in 2026.


We’re with you, and we’re here for you.

During the past several years we all learned to pivot, be entrepreneurial and add value in any way we could. We'll do the same now.

If you need help finding a replacement product to meet your budget, or if you need a little extra help with credit, please contact our dedicated teams. As always, we’re here to support you.

We know this is a challenging time, and we’re all in it together. We appreciate your business and the trust you put in SanMar.

Best,

Jeremy Lott
President & CEO

To learn more about SanMar, visit sanmar.com.

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ABOUT SANMAR
At SanMar Corporation, we do more than make and sell t-shirts. We build meaningful connections that elevate lives. As the largest supplier of wholesale imprintable clothing and accessories in the United States, our products, and the connections they create impact organizations, individuals, and the world we live in. It all started more than 50 years ago with a business philosophy that has held true since day one: Be Nice and Tell the Truth. Family owned and operated, SanMar is based in Issaquah, Washington, with nine distribution centers nationwide and apparel from more than 30 celebrated brands.

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