What Does ‘Made in America’ Mean in the Age of Tariffs?

Fire & Pine proudly boasts that we are Made in America. But what does that mean, exactly? How much does a product need to be made here to be called, well, made here?

We’ve been creating our artwork in Ridgeland, South Carolina since 2016. We are a small to midsized business with 17 dedicated, amazing team members. Eight of us work in manufacturing, two in B2B sales, two in our retail store, one in design, one in marketing, and three in our C-Suite.

When we first came up with the idea of engraved solid wood maps in 2016, we didn't know squat about woodworking. But over several years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment later, we figured it out. We sourced raw pine from North Carolina and New York, then ripped it, glued it, planed it, edged it, and sanded it ourselves. Once we had semi-finished lumber, we handled everything else in-house as well: painting, designing, engraving, washing, sealing, adding hardware, and packaging.

Year over year, sales increased. Our customer base exploded.

But we weren’t making money.

It became clear that processing raw lumber entirely in-house was not sustainable. The equipment maintenance, material waste, labor demands, and time required to prepare each board from its raw state were significant. As demand for our products grew, we faced a difficult reality: continuing to handle this step ourselves was not only financially burdensome but also limited our ability to scale, innovate, and support our team with long-term stability.

We took our time exploring solutions. We looked at partners in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, carefully comparing pricing, capabilities, and consistency. In the end, we found a partner in China who could meet our exact specifications and align with our standards. Their ability to pre-process the lumber - ripping, gluing, planing, and sanding - meant we could shift our focus to what we do best: design, craftsmanship, and finishing. Not just that, but they have been absolutely lovely to work with. They are genuinely kind, knowledgeable, collaborative, and helped us create a sustainable model without sacrificing the quality or integrity of what we do.

A global supply chain has allowed us to pay our team members better wages, open up more employment opportunities as we grow, keep our pricing down for our wholesalers, and free up our most valuable asset, time, to innovate new amazing products.

Every part of the purposeful craftsmanship behind our artwork takes place in Ridgeland, South Carolina and we are very proud of that.

So, is Fire & Pine still “Made in America?”

Yes, Fire & Pine is still, and always has been, Made in America - more specifically, Made in America using some imported materials. The way we approach our process is similar to how many artisans and makers operate across the country.

Think of a cabinet maker who purchases a sheet of plywood from Home Depot. That plywood came from overseas, likely Indonesia, but the skill, care, and craftsmanship that turn it into a custom kitchen are all done in America. In that sense, the heart of the product, what gives it meaning and value, comes from the hands that built it.

That’s how we see our work too. While some early steps in material prep happen abroad, everything that makes a Fire & Pine piece unique is done right here by our team.

The gift and home industry is a tight knit group. Over the past few weeks, I have spent countless hours on the phone and over Zoom trying to not only navigate this rapidly changing environment, but to help one another.

Brands like ours love our customers and want to take care of them, do right by them. They are the ones that help buy our kids their first car. They help pay for daycare. They mean the world to us. It is also our job to educate them and, ultimately, their end customer, on what is going on right now with our industry and trade at large.

I feel very fortunate to be in the position that we currently find ourselves in. We have the ability to pivot more quickly and at less of a cost increase than most brands out there. I say this to ask everyone to please have patience and grace with all of your vendors. Everyone in the industry (on the vendor side) is going through it right now. If this trade war doesn’t subside by mid-May, Q3 and Q4 is going to be very difficult for everyone. But we will get through it together.

Navigating the Tariff Impact

How much did this sudden, major tariff hike hurt us?

Greatly, but it could have been WAY worse. Our most recent shipment of lumber from China was caught in the middle of the tariff change, from 20% to 145%, on an order we had placed back in October. Because of the timing, we were hit with a $20,000 tariff bill we hadn’t budgeted for. If that same shipment had arrived just three weeks later, the tariff would have cost us nearly $120,000. We probably wouldn't have had that in cash without going to extreme measures to find it. Right now, we have enough raw material to last into Q4 and we see enough runway to reset our supply chain in another country, such as Brazil, or to take a different approach to our lumber. When it comes to sourcing raw wood, there are only certain regions in the world that have the right combination of tree species, climate, and infrastructure needed to support consistent, high-quality supply.

Can we bring back our raw wood manufacturing to the USA?

Technically, yes, but only with significant support from state or federal programs. Without that kind of backing, the cost increase would be substantial. To remain profitable, we would need to raise our prices by around 35%. That’s not a step we want to take.

We care deeply about keeping our products accessible and fairly priced for our customers. We also understand the realities of the market, and we don’t believe it could reasonably absorb that kind of increase. Our goal is to balance quality, sustainability, and affordability. Finding the right partners for early-stage processing has allowed us to do that without passing the cost onto you.

How does this affect our Ornaments, Magnets, Postcards, and Displays?

All of our plywood lumber is sourced from a factory in Indonesia. Once prepared, it’s shipped to a U.S.-based distributor, who helps us deliver the materials directly to our headquarters in South Carolina.

From there, everything is handled in-house by our team. We paint each board, cut the ornament shapes, engrave the designs, carefully clean and finish each piece, add the string hanger, and package the final product for shipment.

Why we rely on raw materials from overseas for these products: There are plywood facilities in the USA, but this material costs 30-40% more than the same plywood from Indonesia. We could source it domestically, but our wholesale ornament prices would rise from an average of $8 each to likely $10-$11 each, which would then increase the MSRP from $16 to $20-22. We feel that it is best for all parties to keep our price points where they are at by using Indonesian plywood. We are currently absorbing the 10% extra tariff as a company and not passing it on to our customers.

How does this affect our Wooden Wall Art?

Our solid pine board lumber is cut in New Zealand, sent on a container ship to China to be glued together and sanded, then put on another ship to come to our manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Here, we take the partially finished wood and paint it (depending on the end product), engrave our designs on it, send it through a cleaning process, top coat it, and cure the coating to make sure it maintains moisture content, hardware, and package.

Why we rely on these raw materials from overseas: By sourcing raw materials from regions that already have the necessary machinery and skilled workforce in place, we’re able to continue offering our wall art at a fair price without major increases. For the first time in two years, we are making a small adjustment to our pricing (average increase of 6-7%) to reflect the cost of materials currently on hand, materials that were impacted only by the initial 20% tariff.

At the same time, we’ve been proactively exploring alternative sourcing options. We’ve had meaningful conversations with raw material manufacturers in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Based on these discussions, we’re confident that we’ll be able to secure the materials we need without requiring any additional tariff-related price increases this year. Our goal remains the same: to deliver high-quality, handcrafted art while keeping it accessible and sustainable for everyone.

The other "ingredients" to our wooden wall art that we are still awaiting information on are as follows:

• Printer Ink: We use a Canon UV printer on all of our printed products. This ink is proprietary to Canon and we have no alternatives to this ink. All of their ink is manufactured in either the Netherlands or Japan, both of which have been hit with tariffs. We have not seen a price increase yet on this from Canon, but do expect one at some point which we will most likely absorb for the time being.

• Paint: We use Sherwin Williams commercial grade cabinet paint. This paint is manufactured in Charleston, South Carolina. However, many of the ingredients to their paint are sourced globally, such as coloring and the paint buckets themselves. We have not seen a price increase yet on this from Sherwin Williams, but do expect one at some point which we will most likely absorb for the time being.

• Hanging Hardware: We source this hardware (sawteeth, wire, etc) from a US distributor. We do not know where this is manufactured, but highly suspect it comes in from China. We have not seen a price increase yet on this, but do expect one at some point which we will most likely absorb for the time being since this cost is relatively small.