Different types of leather are seen at the Rio of Mercedes cowboy boot factory, on July 31, 2025, in Mercedes, Texas. Ronaldo Schemidt | AFP | Getty ImagesBootmaker Twisted X — known for its Western footwear — was thrown into chaos overnight when President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports in April. The company turned a conference room at its Decatur, Texas, headquarters into a “tariff war room” as import costs on its finished work boots surged, shipments were paused mid-transit and invoices fluctuated so wildly that staff found themselves recalculating margins by the hour. “A lot of other leather companies had to pause shipments because of the chaos and it felt like prices were going all over the place before you could take account,” Twisted X CEO Prasad Reddy told CNBC. “It was a very uncertain time.”Twisted X wasn’t alone. Leather retailers big and small are facing similar challenges, and the result has been higher prices at the register that are unlikely to come down anytime soon. Pre-tariff inventory is gone, while replacement orders cost far more. The products hitting shelves now were manufactured with more expensive hides, subjected to pricier foreign processing and shipped with higher freight costs than last year’s merchandise, industry experts said. The Yale Budget Lab projects that leather goods prices will remain elevated by nearly 22% for at least the next one to two years, driven by inflation, supply chain bottlenecks and heavy tariff exposure, particularly across China, Vietnam, Italy and India. “The reason why leather is hit so hard is twofold,” said John Ricco with the budget lab. “No. 1, some of these tariff rates that are the highest are placed on different countries where we import most leather. The second reason is that we just import a lot of leather, and, more broadly, apparel-related products from these trading partners than we make.”The costs have already shown up for brands like Tapestry, owner of handbag makers Coach and Kate Spade. Executives told investors in August that tariff-related expenses could total $160 million, warning of “greater than previously expected profit headwinds” moving forward.[embedded content]Chasing low costsA pair of Twisted X boots starts the way most U.S. leather goods do: as a raw, salted cow hide from an American ranch. That hide is shipped overseas, usually to Asia, to be tanned into leather. For Twis …
