How Will Trump's Tariffs Affect the Cost of my Sex Toys?
To our Unbound community,
In 2016 at Unbound, we decided to design and manufacture our own sexual wellness products. There was no hesitation about where they would be made—it had to be China.
By most estimations, 70-80% of the world's sex toys are made in China—and for a good reason. The manufacturers in Shenzhen are exceptional at what they do. There is no other region that can match their quality of raw materials, technology, safety standards, manufacturing processes, speed, and price.
Over the last nine years, we've developed lasting relationships with the individuals who run these manufacturing facilities. They are an extension of our company, and there would be no Unbound without them. We share holiday greeting cards, baby and vacation photos, and look forward to visiting them every year in Shenzhen. We care not only about their businesses but about them as individuals—our partners and friends.
Which is why it is absolutely nauseating to be writing this, attempting to explain how the hell we're going to factor in an overnight cost increase of 145%, which is also changing by the hour.
The truth is, I don't know if we, as a small business, can absorb a cost increase this large. As of now, tariffs cost 1.5x more than the actual cost of the product itself. So a vibrator that costs us $30 to make now has an additional $43.50 in tariff costs, bringing the total cost from $30 to $73.50. And for what?
In the interest of radical transparency, and to put this in perspective, here is a breakdown of our business expenses before and after the Trump tariffs:
As you can see in the graph above, tariffs are now our largest line item expense as a business—costing us more than our actual manufacturing and more than what we pay our entire team.
I don't know what we will do to absorb a cost increase this large. It's insurmountable. It feels overwhelming, devastating, and cruel. To re-shore manufacturing is equally expensive and takes months, if not years.
To raise prices on our customers—after we've all already endured so much inflation—feels equally cruel. But as a business, we don't really have a choice. How much our prices increase, unfortunately, is incredibly complicated and depends on several factors. Currently, we have inventory that we paid for that was not tariffed, but we also have tens of thousands of units en route to our warehouse that will be tariffed. Figuring out the price increase is an absolute headache, and we don’t have all the answers yet in order to determine that ultimate price.
But we can promise you a couple of things:
- As soon as we do know the end impact of the tariffs, we will communicate it to our community immediately.
- We will do everything in our power to limit the impact to pricing. Unbound was built on the belief that sexual wellness products should be accessible for all, and we have always defined that as being well below $100. It is still our goal to maintain that threshold.
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We will continue to lobby for tariff relief. If you care about the survival of small businesses, help us in this fight. Please contact your local politicians today and ask them to put a stop to this trade war. If you visit this website and put in your zip code, it provides a script and the phone number to call your local reps: https://5calls.org/issue/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico/
This isn’t the first time we’ve gone up against the orange goblin, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But we hope you’ll join us in the fight this time around. We need you—and we need your voice.
Unapologetically yours,
Polly
Co-Founder and CEO
