Cowboy boots “Made in the USA” are affected by tariffs on South African ostrich leather

As an unusual consequence of Donald Trump’s customs policy, cowboy boots made in the United States will be occupied by 30 percent from today, Friday, August 1st. This customs is directed against South Africa, which produces most of the ostrich leather coveted for these boots.

The most prestigious Texas brands that create this symbol of American culture move their materials exclusively from Oudtshoorn, 400 km east of Cape Town. In this world capital of ostrich breeding and its surroundings, the population corresponds approximately to the number of birds: about 100,000.

“We do not know how serious the effects will be, but they will certainly not be positive,” said Laubscher Coetzee, who is a fourth generation of a breeder family known for the quality of their springs, to AFP. For almost two centuries, ostrich farms have been located on this wide level, surrounded by reddish rock mountains, the so -called ‘little Karoo’.

Cape Karoo International (CKI), a kind of cooperative that belongs to the region around 200 breeding companies, delivers more than 55 percent of the global production of ostrich products, according to its managing director. South Africa, which has been the target of attacks by the American president for months, has a total of 70 percent. In addition to France and Italy, where they supply the big names of the fashion industry with leather for handbags, 20 percent of the leather from CKI are exported to the USA. There, Texas institutions of the cowboy boot production like Lucchese or Justin are tearing. A few of these costly boots costs several hundred US dollars or even more.

Ostrich leather

The head of Rios of Mercedes, another renowned manufactory in Texas with a story that goes back to 1853, praises the ostrich leather in a video from June 2024. “People always ask me the best leather for the production of boots. I think it’s an ostrich leather,” explains Ryan Vaughan with a cowboy hat on his head after an introductory “Howdy”, typical of the south of the USA. “It adapts perfectly to the shape of the foot. It is extremely resistant.”

Justin boasts “to produce materials from all over the world in the USA”. In a message to AFP, Lucchese explains “to be proud to produce his boots in the state of Texas for 141 years”, while “sometimes you have to look beyond the borders to find raw materials.”

“The Trump administration wants the production to be made in the United States. In our case, we export the raw material, the leather-which cannot be made from local ostriches in the USA because there is none,” notes François de Wet, Managing Director of CKI, which employs 1,200 employees. The climatic peculiarities of the small Karoo explain the success of the local breeding, says Coetzee in front of the fireplace fire in his property, which was built by his great -grandfather in 1896.

“There is a reason why the ostrich sector still exists 200 years after its beginnings. People have tried it all over the world in the USA, in Australia and even elsewhere in South Africa. It is a bit of a desert animal,” says the breeding specialist, who sells around 600 animals to other breeding companies every year.

The fact that the bouquet has become a favorite in the area is because the climate with an average of less than 400 millimeter rain per year does not allow any other agricultural activity. “Everything revolves around ostriches. It is a semi -desert region, nothing can grow here, there is not enough water,” says Leon Lareman, manager at CKI.

Hats with springs

“The entire added value is created in the USA, so we are already doing what the Trump administration wants,” argues de Wet. And since it is impossible for the South African producers to wear 30 percent inches alone, the Texas manufacturers and buyers will settle part of this calculation inside the cowboy boots.

These skins, recognizable by the characteristic spring marks, are sold to the US manufacturers for around $ 20 per square foot (930 square centimeters). “In the past two to three months we have exported more ostrich leather to the USA, which gives us a small scope for action,” explains de Wet.

“We do not plan any layoffs in the near future,” he assures. “But in the long term, if the full height of the tariffs is maintained, this will certainly lead to a decline in our business.”

Oudtshoorn already has the traces of a past crisis: the ostrich palaces, a mixture of Dutch colonial architecture and Art Nouveau, which had their owners built: inside in the golden age of spring production. Until everything at the end of the Belle Époque in Europe collapsed with the advent of the automobile, the roof of which was not high enough so that the high society could carry its hats with feathers.