A note on Tariffs

At 12:01 a.m. on September 8, the Government of Canada's new counter-tariffs on a range of goods imported from the United States came into effect. The measures cover approximately $27.6 billion of US imports across more than 700 product categories, at rates of 15, 25, or 50 per cent depending on the item. Ottawa has described the move as matching US tariffs "dollar for dollar," following the 50 per cent US Section 338 tariffs that took effect on Canadian goods on August 22.

We want to walk our customers through what this means for our store, because we know the topic has come up in a number of your messages to us.

First, an important distinction that gets lost in a lot of the coverage: these tariffs apply to goods that actually originate from the United States. A product made by an American company in Japan, Vietnam, or anywhere else outside the US is not affected by these particular measures. Rules of origin matter, and most of what we carry from American brands is not, in fact, manufactured in the US.

At the moment, the only brand in our store whose products are actually made in the United States is Field Notes. Every Field Notes memo book is printed and bound at printers in the American Midwest, which is a source of pride for the brand and one of the reasons we carry them. Nothing else on the site is US-made at time of writing.

The next piece of good news, if we can call it that: all of the Field Notes stock currently in our warehouse arrived before September 8, and is therefore not subject to the new tariff. Prices on our existing Field Notes inventory will not change. When we place our next order and that shipment crosses the border, however, it will be assessed at the new rate, and that additional landed cost will work its way into the price of future stock. We do not yet know the exact percentage that will apply to memo books under the tariff schedule, and we will be transparent about the number once we do.

A quieter part of this to address. Some of you have written in recent weeks to ask whether we might set Field Notes aside for now, as a way of registering how you feel about current US trade policy. Those messages have been thoughtful and in that same spirit, we would like to explain why we have chosen to keep carrying the brand.

Field Notes was one of the very first brands we brought in when we opened, and it has been on our shelves ever since. It is not an anonymous multinational. It is a Chicago-based small business that has built its identity around American papermaking and print traditions, and that has treated its customers and retail partners with care throughout its history with us. Like many American small businesses right now, Field Notes has been vocal with its Canadian partners about their own discomfort with the current direction of US trade policy. The people who make the notebooks are not the people setting the tariffs.

We also want to be honest that dropping American-made products from our shelves would not, in itself, do much to change trade policy in Washington. What it would do is sever a relationship with makers who have been part of our story from the beginning, at a moment when their partners abroad matter more to them, not less.

None of this is to dismiss anyone's frustration. It is real, it is shared inside our own office, and it will very likely mean higher prices on Field Notes as new shipments come in. We would rather absorb some of that cost where we can, communicate the rest of it clearly, and keep the door open, than close a door that has been open since the beginning.