US footwear giant Skechers to be sold under shadow of Trump's tariffs

Skechers, the third-largest footwear firm by sales in the United States, announced on Monday that it would be sold in a deal that values it at $9.4 billion. The sale announcement comes days after Sketchers along with other top US shoe brands signed a letter warning the country's footwear industry could be totally damaged by the huge tariffs imposed by the White House.

According to a joint statement by Skechers and the private equity firm 3G Capital, the latter would pay $63 per outstanding share for Skechers in a deal both companies expect to close later this year. Skechers will become a privately held company once the deal closes, with its chief executive Robert Greenberg remaining in the role and continuing to oversee the company's strategy.

Though not mentioned by either party explicitly, the deal is being heavily linked with the impact of US President Donald Trump's tariffs. Almost all of Sketchers' sales last year came from shoes made in Asia and about two-thirds of the revenue came from sales outside the United States.

The deal comes amid tumult in the industry. On April 29, Skechers joined others like Nike and Adidas in warning the president that his tariff policy posed an "existential threat" to the US footwear industry. The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, along with more than 80 leading US footwear firms sent a letter to Trump urging him to exempt footwear from his administration's so-called "reciprocal tariff" plan.

"We are hit particularly hard by the tariff actions, because the US government already places a significant tariff burden on our industry before any new tariffs are added," the letter read, citing the example of children's shoes to demonstrate how the new tariffs have forced the companies to pay tariffs ranging from "more than 150 percent to nearly 220 percent."

The letter noted that Trump's tariffs "would not drive shoe manufacturing back to the US." On the contrary, the new tariffs would remove the "business certainty" that the industry needs in order to take on significant capital investment in the machinery and materials to produce shoes in the United States.

The companies added that they were "deeply concerned about imminent US footwear job losses, added costs for consumers, and reduced consumer spending that will fundamentally hamper our industry and harm the entire US economy."

Skechers has about 5,300 retail stores worldwide, of which about 1,800 are company-owned. The company reported a record $9 billion in revenue in 2024 with net earnings of $640 million.

The Southern California-based company's stock tumbled in recent months amid tariff concerns. The company's first-quarter results missed Wall Street's expectations.

In April, Skechers also pulled its full-year outlook while citing "macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policies," as CFO John Vandemore likened the economic environment to the pandemic, suggesting the company was mitigating the impact of Trump's tariffs by sharing costs with vendors and adjusting prices.