Hello everyone,
A few weeks ago I sent out a note about tariffs and some approaches to them that we thought might be helpful. Now the tariffs are down a bit, perhaps temporarily, and we’ve all had a minute to regroup and make plans in this chaotic business landscape.
Here are some things we’ve been doing to help our clients (and us!) stay afloat.
Onshoring: For the last few decades, the flexible manufacturing that a lot of companies need has been found in China. They have a deep infrastructure for affordable tooling, electronics, logistics and more. While vendors in the US tend to focus on larger, more expensive products, we're delighted to have found a handful that do good work and are willing to accept low initial MOQs. The tool cost is a little higher than China pre-tariff, but shipping is lower and cost per unit is roughly analogous. As of now, we have found good US vendors for:
We hope to shortly solidify our choices for:
Assemblies will be more expensive and electronics will be largely sourced, but we want our clients to have options and understand the pros and cons of onshoring vs not.
Other Countries: Some products, especially soft goods and complex electronic assemblies, cannot be reasonably produced in volume in the US outside of a few specific cases. We are actively pursuing partnerships in Taiwan, Poland, Bangladesh, India and Mexico. We expect to have a soft goods partner from one or more of these places vetted and onboard within a month.
Non physical media: While we’re an industrial design studio at heart, we’ve always done the odd UX/App/Web project here and there. If you’re considering some kind of line extension but don’t want to deal with the uncertainty of a physical product we may be able to help brainstorm a digital product that keeps your brand fresh.
Staying nimble: As the curse goes, we live in interesting times. The great thing about being designers is that we’re trained to look for solutions to new problems that may not be obvious, and to approach each new challenge with optimism and an open mind. We’ll keep you posted– our job is to support our clients in all their endeavors through good times and bad.
In solidarity,
Isis Shiffer
