On March 4, the United States will begin imposing a 25 per cent tariff on most Canadian goods, including secondhand and vintage apparel – a market that is valued at almost 200 billion USD.
As in most industries, the looming tariffs have caused uncertainty for buyers and sellers, with small businesses likely set to be the worst hit.
“A lot of people in 2025 are selling online and they’re selling into the U.S. So we have people who – 30 to 70 per cent of their customers are in the U.S. if they offer cross border shipping,” says Kristina Urquhart, curator of The Vintage Seeker – an online directory of vintage and pre-loved vendors.
“So this is a huge impact on them because the tariffs are going to be applied when a customer buys that product … that means that on the cost of a vintage good, it’s gonna be 25 per cent more for an American customer buying from a Canadian small shop.”
She says most small vintage businesses shipping secondhand items to the U.S. send goods within what’s known as the “de minimus threshold.”
“It allows shipments under $800 to pass through the border duty free,” she explains.
“A lot of these sellers have been using this loophole because generally these items are less than $800. We’re talking like $20 items, $50 items, $150 items. So this has allowed that flow of goods back and forth through Canada and the U.S., and there’s American sellers that are selling into Canada as well.”
The de minimis threshold is set to be scrapped when the tariffs kick in.
“[The threshold] was of benefit to the people that we’re engaging in secondhand trade. If you think about it, a lot of those goods have lower value. So $800 allows you to transport a significant quantity of these goods,” says professor of marketing David Soberman, from University of Toronto.
The terms of the tariffs are currently unclear and Urquhart says resellers are unsure if they apply to all items being sent over from Canada or only those specifically made in Canada.
“Theoretically something that’s being transshipped should not be taxed,” says Soberman.
“In theory it’s based on country of origin,” agrees Urquhart.
“So we’re thinking that it’s possible that if a seller has an item that was made in the U.K., that might not be [subject to tariffs] because it was actually originating from the U.K. — unless they of course get their own tariffs, in which case that’s going to complicate everything. But right now we don’t know.”
“If you’re thinking about this from the perspective of a firm that is engaging in this business, uncertainty and delays can be as damaging as the tariffs themselves,” adds Soberman.
Impact of retaliatory tariffs
If Canada chooses to go ahead with equal retaliatory tariffs on all U.S. goods, it will no doubt impact the import of used goods into Canada – which many resellers in the country rely on for their inventory.
“Our suppliers mainly import all of their clothing from the United States. With the additional 25 per cent – if it gets slapped on – a lot of these suppliers aren’t going to be doing that anymore,” says Marc Keeling, co-founder of Relocation Vintage that specializes in streetwear.
“I’ve already spoken to my supplier and he’s told me if the tariffs come, he’s not bringing in any more U.S. clothing,”
He says the best items for his store and the clients they cater to comes from across the border.
“‘Manufactured in USA’ is kind of what we look for as vintage collectors … so the quality of vintage that’ll be coming into Canada is going to be affected greatly. The import/export hub that Toronto is for used clothing is going to be affected pretty greatly,” he says.
“It’s not necessarily just that the cost of the U.S. clothing will go up — it just won’t come in at all and it’ll affect my bottom line in the sense where I won’t have high enough quality items to sell … if we can’t curate some of the best vintage that we possibly can in the city, then we lose that [client base].”
A number of Canadian vintage and reseller businesses also source inventory from “rag houses” that import used clothing in bulk from the U.S. before shipping massive bales onwards to other countries including India, Africa and South America.
“[The bales] are basically these thousand pound cubes of clothing … and you crack them open and all the clothing comes out. You don’t know what’s going to be in it. You don’t know what you’re going to find,” explains Claudia Filipsky, who sources inventory for her business Cloud Girl Vintage mainly from Toronto rag houses.
“People want U.S. bales because they want items from the U.S. that are are better to sell. They have an older culture — for example, people have lived in their homes since the 1800s. When, unfortunately, those people pass away and they clear out their stuff, there’s amazing pieces that tell so much rich history.”
She says if retaliatory tariffs are imposed, it follows that U.S. bales will be more expensive to import, and she’s expecting to see a price hike at rag houses.
“[Rag houses] know that people need them to run their businesses. And if the bales are going to get more expensive, then that means their expenses go up. Which means then you as the picker, your prices go up and if you rely on these places to source your inventory, you are probably going to pay that price because you know that the quality of the stuff is what’s going to keep your business afloat,” says Filipsky.
Filipsky says if necessary, she might pivot to picking more from Canadian bales and cater to the nostalgia for local brands that are no longer in business.
“We might see a shift in what people are selling if these spots [raise their prices or] don’t want to actually get those American bales just due to the price,” she says.
Keeling says that’s not the best option for him, but he’s already looking at alternative sources for U.S. made vintage items from within Canada.
“Thankfully I have a pretty big network within this industry and some of the people within my network have been picking and collecting for decades and decades. I know some people much older than me who have been picking for much longer than me who have garages full and storage lockers full of ‘made in USA’ vintage that came from the States that I can purchase in wholesale — it isn’t ideal because we pay a bit more, but I’d rather pay a bit more, take a little bit of a hit on my profit than just shut down,” he says.
Urquhart says closing shop may be the only option for some small businesses if they cannot adapt.
“Some people are having to look at their business model and decide if it’s something that they’re going to be able to do going forward. How are they going to be able to replace those U.S. customers with the customer base in Canada … it’s really hard to replenish those customers in Canada [because] we have a smaller pool of people to choose from and people are not spending as much as they were two or three years ago because everything costs more now,” she says.
“I think people are already changing the way that they are selling because of the cost of everything has gone up. I’ve seen a lot of full-time people start to do it part-time on the side instead just in order to make ends meet … I think in the short term, we are going to see some closures just as people don’t really know what to do.”
Impact on buyers
Soberman points out that the secondhand market offer alternatives for people who cannot afford to buy new.
“Many, many aspects of the secondhand market are trying to provide options for people that are more [financially] constrained and so this is going to be especially hard for them,” he says.
“One of the things that actually occurs when there’s inflation is substitution. So people will figure out ways to make ends meet by substituting. And often what that means is substituting secondhand goods for new products. For example, clothing … you’re going to be able to save money versus what you would have to have paid in a store when you’re buying new products. And of course, if there’s a tariff that’s placed on some of the products that you’re buying in the secondhand store, then you’re not going to be able to make the same savings. So it’s going to interfere with the substitution. It’s also going to hurt the sales in those particular stores because those are the people that you need in order to have that business operating in a prosperous way,” he explains.
He adds that secondhand buyers and sellers including vintage resellers, rag houses and thrift stores play a vital role in the circular economy.
“It’s a very important factor for us to try to develop a more sustainable society. And tariffs that are leveled against secondhand goods are really moving us in the opposite direction,” he says.
“Nobody’s a winner when this sort of thing goes on.”
