Luggage Maker Navigates Twisting Path of Trade War

July 11, 2025
How a Luggage Manufacturer in Colorado Has Survived Trump’s Trade War. So Far.

Early on Tuesday, seven executives at the manufacturer Eagle Creek held another emergency meeting about the latest developments in President Trump’s unpredictable trade war.

A day earlier, Mr. Trump had revealed a flurry of new tariffs against trading partners, including Indonesia, where the bulk of Eagle Creek’s luggage, packing cubes and duffel bags are made. The levies, set to go into effect on Aug. 1, meant that imports from Indonesia would be subject to a tariff of 32 percent, an extra cost that would pose a significant challenge for the rugged, 50-year-old company.

Eagle Creek’s leadership team discussed a range of topics at the meeting, amongthem its pricing strategy, given the new rates, for the upcoming fall and springseasons.

But there was an even more pressing matter at hand. Three shipping containerswith about $240,000 worth of the manufacturer’s goods were set to arrive at thePort of Los Angeles on July 30, just before the new tariffs are expected to kick in. Adelay of even a few days could result in additional fees of at least $52,000 — and upto $75,000 if Mr. Trump followed through on imposing an additional tariff of 10percent on countries aligned with the policies of BRICS nations, a group thatincludes Indonesia.

Although it wasn’t clear whether the on-again, off-again tariffs that Mr. Trump hadjust unveiled would hold, or whether he was bluffing, executives at Eagle Creekrealized the company needed to have enough cash on hand to pay the tariff bill.

Eagle Creek’s experience underscores how President Trump’s chaotic approach to tariffsis having a real impact, even before the toughest levies take effect.

“All this scenario planning is like a hidden tax on business,” said Travis Campbell,owner and chief executive of Eagle Creek, which is based in Steamboat Springs,Colo.

Eagle Creek’s experience provides a real-time window into how Mr. Trump’sapproach is creating a maze of unknowns for businesses, effectively renderingmany of them paralyzed as they await further clarity on what the president willultimately do with regard to tariffs.

Even if Mr. Trump’s new tariffs never switch on, their chaotic rollout has forcedbusinesses across the country to rethink their supply chains, which in someinstances are complex and difficult to untangle. Many companies have curtailedhiring plans, delayed projects and generally hunkered down in a way that couldhave significant implications for the broader economy.

“All forward-looking decisions just get turned down — and maybe turned down tozero — when uncertainty gets really high,” said Chad Syverson, an economicsprofessor at the University of Chicago.

“When you turn all that down,” he added, “all the benefits that come with thoseinvestments get halted as well.”

In a series of interviews and chats over text message in recent weeks, Mr.Campbell described how his company had been stuck in a state of limbo since Mr.Trump first introduced his expansive tariffs that would impose double-digit levieson dozens of countries. The White House has said a goal of the policy is to compelAmerican companies to make their goods in the United States.

That has not been the reality for Eagle Creek. Unable to plan for the future withouthaving a firmer view of its expenses, the company paused hiring and salaryincreases, and it cut back its spending on marketing. Investments in research anddevelopment, including for a new product line that the company had hoped tointroduce next spring, have been frozen.

“It really impacts every single choice we can make as a business,” said Mr.Campbell, a former Smartwool and North Face executive who acquired EagleCreek in 2021 from VF Corporation.

Eagle Creek sells travel gear like luggage, packing cubes and duffel bags, much of which is made inIndonesia.

Jimena Peck for The New York Times

Replacement luggage wheels for shipment at Eagle Creek’s warehouse. “You actually can’t make adefined plan and stick to it because the rules change all the time,” Mr. Campbell said of the U.S. tariffpolicy.

Jimena Peck for The New York Times

Because of the categories of materials it imports, Eagle Creek — which also makesabout 5 percent of its products in Vietnam — already pays tariffs of between 17.6and 20 percent.

But when Mr. Trump revealed his initial rates in early April, which included a 32percent tariff on goods from Indonesia and 46 percent on Vietnam, the incremental$800,000 cost to Eagle Creek on its existing orders was so staggering that thecompany “paused everything,” Mr. Campbell said.

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“I don’t think anybody in the business community expected the magnitude of thetariffs,” he said.

To buy time to decipher the tariff rules, Eagle Creek asked its manufacturingpartner in Vietnam and Indonesia to stop working on orders that were in progress.It then raced to get completed items on cargo ships before the new rates kicked in.

When days later Mr. Trump announced the 90-day pause that gave countries untilJuly 9 to strike trade deals, Eagle Creek’s goods were already en route and it wastoo complicated to reverse course.

“You actually can’t make a defined plan and stick to it because the rules change allthe time,” Mr. Campbell said. Although the company has been spared the steepesttariffs, it still has to pay a base-line 10 percent tariff that Mr. Trump has put in placeon top of its existing duties.

As Mr. Trump’s July 9 deadline approached, Eagle Creek was running up against adeadline of its own. Eagle Creek typically sends out its price list around late springand early summer to retailers to secure orders for the next spring. Without clearguidance on tariff rates, it raised its pricing with the assumption that it would faceonly the added 10 percent base-line rate, adding an asterisk that noted the priceswere subject to change.

Through it all, Mr. Campbell has been forced to consider some existential questionsfor Eagle Creek. Should it explore bypassing the United States and importing andselling more goods in Canada and Europe to potentially avoid paying such steeptariffs? Is it even possible to manufacture some of its goods domestically? Couldthe global trade war spook consumers so much that they stop buying travel gear,and if so, what then?

Mr. Campbell, right, said the company had put a pause on hiring and salary increases, and cut back itsspending on marketing, as it was unable to plan for the future without having a firmer view of itsexpenses.

Jimena Peck for The New York Times

Mr. Campbell has been outspoken about the negative effects of higher tariffs onsmall businesses like his, and sees himself as a kind of reluctant spokesman for theoutdoor industry. In late May, during a hearing in Denver by the

Senate Committeeon Small Business and Entrepreneurship

, Mr. Campbell told Senator JohnHickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, that, with the new tariffs, “it feels as thoughour country is systematically working against businesses like ours.”

Before Mr. Trump reignited the trade war this week, Mr. Campbell had beenoptimistic that the tariffs the administration exacted against Indonesia wouldsettle into rates that were not so punishing. He was encouraged by the news last

week that Mr. Trump had announced a preliminary trade pact with Vietnam thatimposed a lower tariff of 20 percent on imports from that country — far below theApril figure.

Instead, Mr. Trump’s renewed 32 percent tariff threat against Indonesia hasintroduced fresh confusion at Eagle Creek. Mr. Campbell was so distressed by theannouncement on Monday that he said he immediately jumped on his mountainbike and went for a ride to clear his head. “Much worse than I was hoping!” he saidabout the tariffs in a text shortly afterward.

After a whirlwind day on Tuesday, Mr. Campbell was a little calmer. He had heardfrom an outdoor industry lobbyist that despite Mr. Trump’s decision to sendIndonesia a letter setting tariffs at 32 percent, a deal could still be on the table.

More fundamentally, he planned to adopt a wait-and-see approach as opposed torushing to prepare for another eventuality that might not happen at all.

“Maybe we’re going to take a breath for the rest of the week, rather than killingourselves with replanning,” he texted late on Tuesday, “and see if we learn more inthe next few days.”

Sydney Ember is a Times business reporter, covering the U.S. economy and the labor market.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Luggage Maker Navigates Twisting Path of Trade War