Portland business owner can’t get his products into the country because of tariffs

Kyle Ranson has e-bikes ready to sell. But they’re stuck in China.

“They’re sitting at the factory right now,” Ranson says. “Finished product that we can’t get.”

Ranson is the CEO and founder of Vvolt in Portland. He manufactures his e-bikes in mainland China, which has borne the brunt of President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policy. The administration plans to hit that country with a baseline tariff on imports of at least 145%. Add that to existing tariffs, and the actual amount being paid could be as high as 205%.

“Let’s use a shipment of bicycles coming into the country, maybe a half a million dollar shipment,” Ranson says. “If you are paying 205% tariffs, you’ve now got to find over a million dollars in free cash flow just to pay the government the tariffs. There aren’t any small to medium businesses in the US that are sitting on a million dollars of free cash flow.”

Ranson is also the CEO of Showers Pass, which specializes in rain gear. Those products are manufactured in China, but also Taiwan and Vietnam. He says he’s looking at his offerings item-by-item to determine which ones are worth bringing in under the more expensive trade policy. In the meantime, he’s hoping his existing inventory — maybe four months’ worth — will carry his businesses through the trade negotiations.

Ranson spoke with OPB “All Things Considered host Geoff Norcross about how Trump’s moves on tariffs are affecting his businesses.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Geoff Norcross: At this moment, how are the tariffs affecting you?

Kyle Ranson: At this moment, on the e-bike side of things, we could bring a finished product into the U.S. with zero tariffs this time last year. We are now paying over 205% tariffs. It’s devastating.

Norcross: Because they’re made in China?

Ranson: Because they’re made in China.

Norcross: Do you actually have bikes in China that belong to you that you just can’t get?

Ranson: Yep, they’re sitting at the factory right now, finished product that we can’t get.

Norcross: You said 205%. Where does that number come from?

Ranson: The number changes all the time. Right now, the administration will say there’s a 145% tariff on China. But guess what? That sits on previous tariffs, so it’s a compounding effect.

Norcross: For the products that are manufactured in Vietnam or Taiwan, are you going to be able to bring that stuff over and sell it with the smaller tariffs that are being levied on those countries?

Ranson: We’re looking item by item as to what is the best thing to do. We’re in a fascinating position in that we specialize in rain gear. But what that means is, our business is very seasonal. We’re very strong in the fall and the spring, and then during the summer, hopefully sell a few merino wool t-shirts and some shorts to fill in the gaps. But the reality is, we bleed red ink during the summer months. That’s the exact same time that we need to be bringing products in for the fall busy season. So any increase in cost puts an unreasonable pressure on us from a cash flow standpoint.

Norcross: How much existing inventory do you have? How long do you think you can keep selling stuff until this gets resolved, however that might look?

Ranson: We’re looking at our key styles now and going, OK we may only have four months of inventory left, and this is only going to get worse. As we enter our busy season, not having all the inventory we need is very concerning.

Norcross: So what are you doing now?

Ranson: What we can’t do is nothing. We need to react, and we’re doing everything we can to say, OK how do we mitigate this? How do we survive? Showers Pass has a small subsidiary in the UK. If we can’t bring the product into the U.S., do we ship the product to the UK? And will that allow us to survive during this uncertain time? On our e-bike side, same thing. We’ve got this finished product sitting at the factory. Do we ship it to the UK? Do we ship it to Australia? Are there partners that we can work with? What is that doing for us? It’s giving us a little bit of maneuverability to try and survive through this time of uncertainty.

Norcross: The most generous take on tariff policy is, it’s an attempt to close some of the trade deficits that we’ve been working under for decades, and also hopefully bring back American manufacturing and American jobs. Do you see that happening?

Ranson: I don’t see it happening. We’re very fortunate to live in the greatest nation. We’re one of the wealthiest nations in the world, and the economy is built on consumerism. We’re consumers. And the notion that we have a deficit is quite bizarre to me. The reality is, we’re very fortunate that we have a deficit in product consumption because we consume more than anybody else. So this notion that we’re going to sell as much stuff to other people as they sell to us just is not practical.

This notion of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.? I think what we should all be looking at is, where is the future of manufacturing? We’re a pivotal point in history, with regards to AI and robotics. That’s where the future is. And the fact that we’re looking in our rearview mirrors and saying we want to bring these manual jobs back to the U.S. is bizarre to me.