Ssense’s comeback efforts include moving a core part of its business to the United States so American customers can avoid hefty tariffs.
Ssense’s comeback efforts include moving a core part of its business to the United States so American customers can avoid hefty tariffs.
A stylist prepared a rack of clothes at a Ssense store in Montreal. The company, an online clothes retailer, is trying to lessen the burden of U.S. tariffs on its business.Credit…Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York Times
Peter Eavis reported from Montreal. He has written often about how President Trump’s tariffs have affected American shoppers who buy from overseas.
As Canadian companies brace for the impact of President Trump’s latest tariffs, a Montreal-based business has been trying to recover from the levies he introduced last year.
Those tariffs helped push Ssense, a trendy online clothes retailer, into a financial meltdown that sent shock waves through much of the fashion world.
Ssense’s website sells everything from a $7,000 Chloé dress to a $100 pair of Converse sneakers. It also lists products from lesser-known designers, some of whom say the platform has been a crucial source of sales.
This year, Ssense emerged from the Canadian equivalent of a Chapter 11 reorganization and hopes to rebuild itself so that it can withstand trade wars between the United States and Canada. In particular, the company aims to lessen the burden of American tariffs by moving a core part of its operations to the United States next year.
“It’s a game changer,” Rami Atallah, the chief executive of Ssense (pronounced “essence”), said of the planned move in an interview.
Mr. Trump has often said companies that want to avoid tariffs can set up in the United States. That Ssense and other Canadian companies are relocating suggests that his trade policies are in some cases having their intended effect.
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