The apparel industry, particularly in the United States, is subject to significant pricing pressure caused by many factors, including intense competition, consolidation in the retail industry, pressure from retailers to reduce the costs of products, retailer demands for allowances, incentives and other forms of economic support, and changes in consumer demand. These factors may cause us to reduce our sales prices to retailers and consumers, which could cause our profitability to decline if we are unable to offset price reductions with sufficient reductions in product costs or operating expenses.
Volatility in the availability and prices for commodities and raw materials we use in our products (such as cotton) and inflationary and other macroeconomic pressures, including, for example, the increased costs of labor and raw materials we experienced in 2022 and the first half of 2023 and the new and additional tariffs on goods imported into the United States that took effect beginning in the second quarter of 2025, have resulted in increased pricing pressures and, in turn, pressure on our margins. We have implemented in the past, and in the future may seek to implement price increases to mitigate higher costs but such actions have not always fully mitigated and, in the future, we may not be able to fully mitigate, the impact of any higher costs. Further, any such price increases could have an adverse impact on consumer demand for our products. In addition, consumer spending has been, and may continue to be, negatively impacted by reduced earnings power resulting from inflationary and other macroeconomic pressures, which has resulted, and may continue to result in, lower sales of our products, increased inventories, order cancellations, higher discounts, pricing pressure, higher inventory levels industry-wide, and lower gross margins.