Trump Tariffs Affecting Skydive Gear Pricing
As of April 5, 2025, a new baseline 10% tariff was levied on all imports into United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency with the U.S. trade deficit. Additional tariffs were announced and then paused for 90 days. On the heels of the tariffs, the American dollar has fallen in value.
All of this combined is already affecting the price on the gear you use to skydive. Skydivers use a wide-range of gear from manufacturers across the globe, so it is impossible for pricing to not be affected by the tariffs or falling dollar.
ChutingStar imports gear directly from some of your favorite manufacturers outside of the United States. And most manufacturers inside the United States use parts or materials that are sourced from overseas.
For items that we directly import and buy from manufacturers in other countries, we've already been hit with the increased tariffs this week. The tariff is paid directly by ChutingStar and then has to be factored into our price so that we're not losing money, can stay in business, pay our staff and pay our bills.
Everything related to business, tariffs and the dollar is so volatile right now, it's impossible to predict our costs from day-to-day. Manufacturers outside the United States as well as ChutingStar are addressing this in different ways as they try to figure a way through this time period. Some manufacturers have paused shipping to the U.S or are covering the additional tariffs for their vendors, while others are keeping USD pricing set even with the falling dollar or just letting the vendor deal with a tariff bill and increase their own pricing.
Our collective hope is that things will either return to before, or at least stabilize so we know what to expect.
In the meantime, ChutingStar is paying the tariffs for imports and then factoring that into our cost. This will increase pricing on some products immediately, while others may take longer to be affected. If the tariffs reduce, or increase, or the dollar keeps fluctuating, this too will eventually affect pricing on everything.
Our most current pricing will always be online at ChutingStar.com.
As of April 16, 2025, received shipments with the extra tariff fees have required price increases to: