Families and businesses are concerned about the effect of tariffs on youth sports

CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 6, plays baseball and basketball.

The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, Michael, 46, are watching closely for the ramifications of tariffs on their rising youth sports budget.

“All of their equipment I’m sure comes from China,” said Karli Casamento, a second-grade teacher in suburban Philadelphia. “As they get bigger, they need new equipment. So that is definitely a concern.”

For families like the Casamentos and businesses in the marketplace, there is continued uncertainty surrounding the possible effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs — the 10% baseline tariffs, along with a 30% rate on Chinese goods — on youth sports.

Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma were among 76 companies that signed an April 29 letter to Trump asking for a footwear exemption from reciprocal tariffs. The Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America letter warned tariffs would “become a major impact at the cash register for every family.”

Amer Sports, the parent company of Wilson Sporting Goods and Louisville Slugger, downplayed the effect of tariffs when it announced its first-quarter earnings on May 20. But looking beyond this year, chief financial officer Andrew Page mentioned pricing as one way the company could offset higher import tariffs.

Dick’s Sporting Goods reaffirmed its earnings guidance for 2025 when it provided its first-quarter update on May 28. CEO Lauren Hobart said Dick’s had no plans to trim its product assortment in response to tariff costs, and that its guidance confirmation was based on its belief it can manage the situation.

“We are constantly assessing our pricing down to the item level, SKU level, and we do that based on consumer demand and the profitability of the business,” Hobart said in response to a question on possible price increases. “We have a very advanced pricing capability, much more advanced than we used to have, and much more enabled to make real time and quick decisions.”

Many of the US’s most popular sports rely on imported equipment

The U.S. has been the largest importer of sporting goods since 2010, accounting for 31% of the world’s imports in 2022, according to a 2024 World Trade Organization report. Boosted by racket sports, China is the most significant exporter of sporting goods at 43% in 2022.

Fueled by golf, badminton and tennis equipment, Vietnam and Taiwan experienced rapid expansion in exporting outdoor sports equipment to the U.S. from 2018 to 2024, according to data from the consulting firm, AlixPartners. Vietnam increased 340% to $705 million, and Taiwan was up 16% to $946 million.

Tariffs of 46% for Vietnam and 32% for Taiwan could go into effect next month after a 90-day pause.

Hockey skates, sticks and protective gear are often imported. Same for baseball gloves and composite and aluminum bats, which are often imported or use materials that are imported, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Soccer goals, lacrosse nets and cones are often sourced from low-cost labor markets.

“You can’t get around the fact that a lot the stuff that we use in youth sports is coming from abroad,” said Travis Dorsch, the founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. “So surely if the tariffs go into effect and in any long-term or meaningful way, it’s going to affect youth sports.”

The Casamento family cheers for the Philadelphia Phillies, and that’s how Jax and Colt got into baseball. Karli Casamento called sports “a safe way to socialize, and it gets them active.”

But equipment has become a major expense for the family. Jax has a $400 bat and a $300 glove, Karli Casamento said, and his catching equipment is $700. There is an additional cost for registration for his travel team, in addition to what it costs to travel to tournaments.

“We’ve tried to say to Jax, ‘Well, you’re in ninth grade now, do you really need to play tournament ball? You’re not going to grow up and be, you know, the next Mike Schmidt,’ things like that,” Karli Casamento said, “because it’s just, it’s $5,000 a year and now we have two kids in sports.”

Tariffs may not impact all sports families equally

That effect most likely will be felt by middle- and low-income families, threatening recent gains in participation rates for youth sports.

The Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which tracks youth participation by sport, found in 2023 there was a 6% increase in young people who regularly participated in a team sport, which it said was the highest rate (39.8%) since 2015. An Aspen Institute study released in October showed participation for girls was at its highest levels since at least 2012.

“I’m really concerned that we’re going to spike this great momentum because families, who are already saying that sports is getting increasingly more expensive, equipment’s getting more expensive and they’re continuing to stretch to make that work, like this might be the one that just kind of puts them over the sidelines,” said Todd Smith, the president and CEO of the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

Smith was in China in April for a World Federation of Sporting Good Industries board meeting. He visited some manufacturing facilities while he was in the country.

“The ones that I went to are really, really impressive,” Smith said. “First class, high tech, like highly skilled. And the thought that tariffs are all of a sudden just going to allow a 10-plus million dollar facility to just pop up the next day in the U.S. is just, it’s not feasible.”

Low-income families were already feeling a financial strain with youth sports before Trump was elected to a second term. According to the Aspen Institute study, 25.1% of children ages 6-17 from households earning under $25,000 played a sport on a regular basis in 2023, down slightly from 25.8% in 2022. That’s compared to 43.5% of children from households earning at least $100,000, up slightly from 42.7% in 2022.

Youth sports participation has a wide range of ramifications for public health, said Tom Farrey, the founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program.

“This incredibly virtuous cycle can be engaged if you can simply get kids off their phones and off their couches and into the game and they have a sustained experience into adolescence,” Farrey said. “And if you don’t, then you’re at risk for a range of health consequences, including obesity.”

Going along with playing on three baseball teams, Jax Casamento has workouts for his travel squad and also takes hitting lessons. The Casamentos turned a baseball trip to South Carolina into a family vacation last year.

Michael Casamento is a physical education teacher in an elementary school, so the family’s concerns about the effect of tariffs on the cost of youth sports go beyond their two boys.

“I work with a lot of kids that are a lower socio-economic status,” Karli Casamento said. “It really makes it harder for those types of families to be able to afford to play sports.”

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