Just a quick note to clear up some misinformation out there
Import taxes - called "tariffs" or "duty"- are levied on goods moving from one country into another.
They are usually a percentage of the value of the goods. They are levied specifically to reduce the sales of those goods by increasing their price.
The person or company that is the importer is charged the tariff by the destination country. In our case the importer is Inkling Inc. - the company name that owns TheTentLab brand - and we pay an import agent to pay the tariffs (the duty) charged by US Customs (plus that agent's fees).
For other companies, be they Walmart, Apple, Target… ANY company in the US that brings in imported goods, they pay import tariffs to the US government and include those costs in all their calculations to arrive at their prices. There is NEVER a situation where the exporting country pays the tariffs for the importer*. So when someone says they're "punishing" a country with tariffs, they may well be harming that country's sales to the US, but it's by CHARGING US CUSTOMERS THE TARIFFS.
A US importer calculates their cost by adding:
the cost of the goods themselves (paid to the factory)
+
shipping (paid to the shipper)
+
tariffs (paid to the US)
=
the importer's cost for the goods, usually called the "Landed, duty paid" cost
*Even if such a thing was possible, the money paid as tariffs would still be included in the price of the goods.
Since we're here…
The 2025 US Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) can be found here: https://hts.usitc.gov
Tents are addressed in Chapter 63, subheading 06.22. Backpacking tents are classified as HTS 6306.22.10.00(a) and their regular duty rate is free. Non-backpacking tents (car camping) are usually charged 8.8% duty.
Since our tents are made in China there is an overriding document which adds duty as HTS 9903.88.15
Looking up chapter 99, we find the additional duty is currently 7.5%. So backpacking tents from China pay 7.5% duty (and car camping tents are at 16.3%).
Our Deuce trowels are classified as tools of "base metal," (i.e. not "precious metal") specifically a spade or shovel, HTS 8201.10.00.00, regular duty is free.
We make many of our Deuces in the US (at margins that are barely viable as a business) and we also import Deuces from South Korea, made by our good friends DAC, the tent pole company.
General Note 33 is a US-Korea free trade agreement, so one would hope that Deuce duty would be extra free? uh…no…
April 2nd, 2025 UPDATE: Trump just announced IMMEDIATE drastic tariffs that directly affect our products. First, I want to point out that an immediate tariff means that any obligations an importer already has to sell their product at a specific price will result in massive losses for that business. Even if there are no obligations, ALL that company's pricing and market positioning are immediately in chaos; their entire ability to knowledgeably compete is cut off at the knees. So an immediate tariff is automatically a massive penalty on every business affected. Putting it simply: a tariff that can't be planned for in advance is dramatically anti-business.
Where does that leave us for our products? We pride ourselves on being an efficient business — offering good value for money while making a livable profit. Speaking for myself, personally, as Mike Cecot-Scherer, the owner of TheTentLab, I think businesses should think of their task as WORKING FOR THEIR CUSTOMER in return for a decent living. Price gouging or charging as much as the market will bear - especially for health related products - is, in my opinion, failed capitalism, inherently immoral, and should be punished. My two cents. So you can guess that our products are priced with lower than average profit margins and we can't absorb any large increase in our costs.
We make the Deuce in the US and in Korea. The US production has been remarkably difficult - it involves a chain of three suppliers in a row - but I wanted to have it. Moving all my production to my Korean source would have been such an easy "purely business" decision. For our Deuce trowels, the Korea tariffs are slated to be 35% which brings their cost to just below our US production cost. Previously we could blend the low profits of the US production with our Korean production profits and make a reasonable average profit. But not anymore. We're going to be in a fight for survival for the foreseeable future and we can't rationalize any but the smallest specialty US production (making Ice blue and Purple only). Because of Trump's tariffs, our Deuce production will become almost entirely made in Korea. It's do that or die.
Could we raise our prices? At $20.95 MSRP for our DirtSaw #2 and $23.95 for the #3, I don't think we have much room to increase before we bump into substantial customer resistance. It's already hard to communicate the costs and value of all the details of what appears, at first glance, to be a simple sheet metal product. And with the economy being thrown into chaos by a trade war, gigantic numbers of federal employees being fired, a plummeting stock market, and an assault on every government service (no matter how basic)…well to have a customer for anything, the customer has to have money and an inclination to spend it. If it comes down to a choice between buying groceries or a poop trowel, I'm pretty sure we all know it's not going to be the costs-more-but-is-much-better trowel…
Our tents have been made in China for over a decade by Jasper outdoor Products. All the production, R&D development, refinement and sourcing has been done with them as a valued partner. Our tents are technically far beyond what can be - or ever has been - sewn in the US(b). The tariffs for our tents are being set at 7.5% + 20% + 34% = 61.5%. This is what that does to their prices:
MoonLight 2: now $650, expected to be $1065 next time we import them (2026)
MoonLight 2+: now $725, expected to be $1180
MoonLight 3+: now $760, expected to be $1225
MoonLight 2: now $825, expected to be $1325
Our only hope to be a viable tent seller once our current inventory is gone is that either the tariffs come back down very soon or ALL of the US tent sellers have to raise their prices similarly so we don't compare so badly. Even if we all raise our prices, you can bet that no customer is going to buy a new priced tent for at least a year or two if they can avoid it.
(a) Don't let the decimals get to you. The HTS is a classification system where every two digits marks a class or subclass. The full number is always 10 digits but if it only takes, say, six digits to classify something, the last four digits will be zeros.So the decimal point is used as an organizing mark. The first two digits are the chapter of the HTS which is a general category. For instance 6306.22.10.00 means:
Chapter 63: Other made up textile articles; sets; worn clothing and worn textile articles; rags
6306: Tarpaulins, awnings and sunblinds; tents (including temporary canopies and similar articles); sails for boats, sailboards or landcraft; camping goods:
6303.22: Tents (including temporary canopies and similar articles): Of synthetic fibers:
6303.22.10: Backpacking tents
6303.22.10.00 (adding zeroes to fill out the tent digits)
6303221000 - Ten digits, no decimals, the "real" HTS code
(b) I actually know this. I worked with US production for Sierra Designs and American Recreation Products (Kelty, Wenzel) from the mid 80s through the mid 90s. And, more recently (20-teens), I've also worked with one of the few US tent companies still in existence: Lightfighter.