There have been a number of guys here who have asked me when the next contest is going to be. The short answer is - not in the foreseeable future.
Before Trump, we had 20 years of hassle free shipping to the USA with a special arrangement between our two countries so customers could order up to $800 USD a day without having to pay any tariffs, taxes or duties.
Essentially, our business has been in chaos since Trump brought in the tariffs. It's been three months of shipping hell trying to get our packages over the boarder. With all Trump's flip flopping, many times the border itself didn't know what was happening. We had parcels stuck at the border because a few hours earlier, the rules changed and we needed more paper work.
Things have settled down a bit but it's still not great:
We've gone from any parcel heading to the USA with Chinese made goods in it being subject to 120% tariffs, then it changed, and changed and now the rules are:
1. Any parcel with Chinese made goods only is subject to around 47% tariffs.
2. Any parcel with no Chinese made good are not subject to any tariffs.
3. If a parcel has any Chinese made goods and any good made from anywhere else in the world, everything in the parcel is subject to tariffs at the rate of: Chinese goods: 47%, Mexican and Canada made goods are subject to 25% tariffs and everything else is subject to 10% tariffs.
We were left with two choices:
1. Let our American customers pay the tariffs on delivery or...
2. Raise our prices and pay the tariffs on behalf of our US customers.
We know our American customers are not about to start paying tariffs so we raised some of our prices to cover the tariffs ourselves (which is still being paid for by our US customers but not so blatantly.) But this has resulted in a slow down of sales, we're not able to remain competitive on many items and it's costing us a fortune in extra shipping fees as we've been trying to split orders and shipping them in two or three separate packages to lower costs for our customers - but that means we're eating the extra shipping costs. It's costing us money just to keep the business running right now.
This whole thing that Trump goes on about "the countries will pay the tariffs" is utter BS.
As we are in Canada, tariffs are handled differently than US retailers but eventually, you're going to start seeing prices rise for your jocks and gear as American retailers deplete their existing stock and end up having to pay tariffs to get any new stock shipped to them. There simply isn't enough markup to cover the tariffs by the companies themselves.
It would be nice not to have so many products/brands made in China but even if companies start moving manufacturing to the USA there's no way they can produce your jocks and gear as cheaply as China as employees are paid on average $3.91 USD an hour and can work 18 hour days. I guess you could get the immigrants to work that cheaply, but oh wait....
Anyway... the way things are right now, we can't afford to be hosting contests. It's as simple as that.
As most of you know, I've been dealing with cancer since 2019 and with the stress of the business, it's just not worth jeopardizing my health. I'm spending more time up at our trailer and enjoying summer, nature and not thinking about work and my health as much as I can. I'm officially retiring within the next month and I can't wait.
I don't want this to turn into a political discussion. Even though I have strong opinions on everything, I have mostly managed to keep my mouth shut as this is not a political site but simply a website for like minded guys to hang out and talk jockstraps.
Will keep you all posted.
John.
Before Trump, we had 20 years of hassle free shipping to the USA with a special arrangement between our two countries so customers could order up to $800 USD a day without having to pay any tariffs, taxes or duties.
Essentially, our business has been in chaos since Trump brought in the tariffs. It's been three months of shipping hell trying to get our packages over the boarder. With all Trump's flip flopping, many times the border itself didn't know what was happening. We had parcels stuck at the border because a few hours earlier, the rules changed and we needed more paper work.
Things have settled down a bit but it's still not great:
We've gone from any parcel heading to the USA with Chinese made goods in it being subject to 120% tariffs, then it changed, and changed and now the rules are:
1. Any parcel with Chinese made goods only is subject to around 47% tariffs.
2. Any parcel with no Chinese made good are not subject to any tariffs.
3. If a parcel has any Chinese made goods and any good made from anywhere else in the world, everything in the parcel is subject to tariffs at the rate of: Chinese goods: 47%, Mexican and Canada made goods are subject to 25% tariffs and everything else is subject to 10% tariffs.
We were left with two choices:
1. Let our American customers pay the tariffs on delivery or...
2. Raise our prices and pay the tariffs on behalf of our US customers.
We know our American customers are not about to start paying tariffs so we raised some of our prices to cover the tariffs ourselves (which is still being paid for by our US customers but not so blatantly.) But this has resulted in a slow down of sales, we're not able to remain competitive on many items and it's costing us a fortune in extra shipping fees as we've been trying to split orders and shipping them in two or three separate packages to lower costs for our customers - but that means we're eating the extra shipping costs. It's costing us money just to keep the business running right now.
This whole thing that Trump goes on about "the countries will pay the tariffs" is utter BS.
As we are in Canada, tariffs are handled differently than US retailers but eventually, you're going to start seeing prices rise for your jocks and gear as American retailers deplete their existing stock and end up having to pay tariffs to get any new stock shipped to them. There simply isn't enough markup to cover the tariffs by the companies themselves.
It would be nice not to have so many products/brands made in China but even if companies start moving manufacturing to the USA there's no way they can produce your jocks and gear as cheaply as China as employees are paid on average $3.91 USD an hour and can work 18 hour days. I guess you could get the immigrants to work that cheaply, but oh wait....
Anyway... the way things are right now, we can't afford to be hosting contests. It's as simple as that.
As most of you know, I've been dealing with cancer since 2019 and with the stress of the business, it's just not worth jeopardizing my health. I'm spending more time up at our trailer and enjoying summer, nature and not thinking about work and my health as much as I can. I'm officially retiring within the next month and I can't wait.
I don't want this to turn into a political discussion. Even though I have strong opinions on everything, I have mostly managed to keep my mouth shut as this is not a political site but simply a website for like minded guys to hang out and talk jockstraps.
Will keep you all posted.
John.
