There’s a Reason Your Columbia Shirt Has a Tiny Pocket Near Your Waistline
19th September 2024
These days, most people have a pretty good idea of what tariffs are. They’re an additional tax on goods made in another country, traditionally put into place to protect a homegrown industry. Application of tariffs has been one of the tactics used by the president of the United States in ongoing trade negotiations with China and the European Union.
This story is not about those tariffs. It’s the story of how one company has dealt with tariffs for decades, and the implications that has for stuff you end up buying at the store.
Tariffs are an excellent example of how micromanaging economic activity is the thin edge of the wedge toward a nation in which the government sticks its nose into every orifice of your body.
Tooze and Peter Bragdon, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, are basically the tariff guys at Columbia Sportswear. They told Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal that Columbia has been doing something they call “tariff engineering” for decades — they design apparel and products in accordance with American tariff policy.
For example, certain women’s garments with “pockets below the waist” get lower duty rates than those without. Because of that, a number of the women’s shirts Columbia Sportswear makes are intentionally designed with tiny pockets near the waistline, which lowers the cost of importing them. One of the company’s shorthands for “pockets below the waist” is “nurse’s pocket.”
An example of one of Columbia’s most popular women’s garments with pockets below the waist is a short sleeve shirt called the PFG Tamiami, which retails on the company’s site for $40 for a standard size, $45 if it’s a plus size.
According to Peter Bragdon, this pocket “is a prime example of how the real designers of apparel and footwear in this country live on Capitol Hill.”
Indeed it is.