Adidas warns Trump tariffs will put up US shoe prices
Adidas has said the price of its popular trainers, including the Samba and Campus models, is likely to rise as a result of Donald Trump’s tariffs,The German group said the uncertainty around US import tariffs had prevented it from raising its outlook for sales and profit this year despite reporting strong first-quarter results,“Since we currently cannot produce almost any of our products in the US, these higher tariffs will eventually cause higher costs for all our products for the US market,” said Adidas’s chief executive, Bjørn Gulden,“Given the uncertainty around the negotiations between the US and the different exporting countries, we do not know what the final tariffs will be,”Fashion brands, and especially sports shoe producers such as Adidas, will be hit by the introduction of tariffs as the bulk of their products are made in countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and China.
Known for its trademark three-stripe logo, Adidas’s Samba trainers retail for about £70 in the UK.The company said it was exposed to “currently very high tariffs” even though it had already reduced exports from China to the US as a result of the introduction of tariffs on goods made in all other countries of origin.Gulden said: “Cost increases due to higher tariffs will eventually cause price increases, not only in our sector, but it is currently impossible to quantify these or to conclude what impact this could have on the consumer demand for our products.”While Adidas has diversified its supply chain, it may face steeper challenges when raising its prices than some of its competitors, according to analysts.“Our analysis suggests the brand operates in a tighter price elasticity environment, particularly in its core footwear lines like the Superstar or Gazelle,” said Yanmei Tang, an analyst at Third Bridge.
“With potential tariffs pushing production costs higher, Adidas lacks the same headroom as competitors such as Nike or Hoka, whose consumers are more accustomed to premium pricing.”Earlier in April, Adidas reported a 17% rise in total sales for the first quarter of the year, while sales and profit beat expectations.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionIts operating profit between January and March jumped 82% year on year to €610m (£519m) thanks to strong sales of its lifestyle products, including new animal and floral print versions of its Samba trainers, the model worn by the former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak among others.Gulden is credited with turning around Adidas since the brand cut ties with Kanye West in 2022, scrapping its lucrative Yeezy line of sneakers.The group confirmed on Tuesday that it had sold the remainder of its Yeezy stock at the end of 2024.
‘It’s an existential moment’: Greens take on Reform in fight for fed-up voters
With its thatched cottages and patchwork fields, Wiltshire is a traditional true-blue Tory heartland; its county council is always dominated by Conservatives.But this week, the Greens think they stand a good chance of winning their first seats on the council because people are so fed up with the main parties.Zack Polanski, the party’s deputy leader, has been on a blitz of the rural areas of England trying to drum up support. A vegan who lives in Hackney, east London, one might not think the country’s farmers and rural communities would find much common ground with him.“The fact is, inequality hurts you no matter who you are,” he said as he prepared for a gruelling day of campaigning
No 10 bullish about immigration, despite Labour MPs’ concerns about rightward shift
Labour is under no illusions about how difficult Thursday’s local elections will be for the government.Nigel Farage’s Reform is on course to take hundreds of council seats and is ahead in the race for two mayoralties. Keir Starmer has not even campaigned in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, such is the expectation of defeat.“The opening image of this set of elections was a Labour MP punching a swing voter in the face,” one party insider admitted. “Of course it’s going to be tough
Starmer claims voters being ‘conned’ by Tories and Reform UK as parties are planning a coalition – as it happened
Keir Starmer has claimed that Conservative voters and Reform UK voters are both being “conned” because neither party is being honest about the prospect of the two parties merging.In an interview with Beth Rigby from Sky News during his visit to Rossendale in Lancashire, asked whether he was more worried about the Tories or Reform in this week’s local elections, Starmer said he saw them as “equally” challenging. He went on:The Tories have got a terrible record, 14 years of failure. Reform moan about everything, but have got no answers.And at the end of the day, Reform and the Tories, there’s all this talk about them getting together merging
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Labour and Conservatives face a challenging electoral test | Letters
Talk of electoral pacts between the Conservatives and Reform UK for the right-of-centre vote has been widely reported. Your editorial (24 April) notes that as the policies of these parties move further right, some traditional Conservative voters will shift their allegiance away. Yet these voters are not going to the Labour party, as its leadership follows rightwards. A litany of government policies must seem as abhorrent to “old school” Conservatives as they do to traditional Labour values.Instead, there is steady growth in support for parties that are broadly in the soft left, socially and environmentally aware space: Liberal Democrats, Greens, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru
Fathers ‘betrayed’ by Labour workers’ rights bill, say paternity leave campaigners
New fathers have been “betrayed” by Labour’s flagship employment rights bill, campaigners have said, after it emerged that a promised “day one” right to paternity leave will not include the right to statutory pay.The Guardian has learned that while the bill will give an estimated 30,000 more new dads each year statutory paternity leave, they will still need to have worked for the same employer for at least six months before being eligible for statutory paternity pay.The revelation has caused anger in Labour ranks and among campaigners for better paternity leave, and sparked manoeuvres to try to force ministers to change course, with a flurry of amendments tabled when the bill comes to the Lords for debate on Tuesday.The Fatherhood Institute, which is campaigning for six weeks’ well-paid leave in the baby’s first year, described the lack of day one rights to pay for new fathers as a “betrayal”.Kathy Jones, the CEO of the charity, said ministers had repeatedly pointed to the employment rights bill as a significant step towards a better system and suggested further policy would come after their parental leave review later this year
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