Latest news with #StonemaierGames
Business Insider
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
I'm a board game designer facing a huge tariff bill. I'm trying to stall shipments and preparing for the worst.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jamey Stegmaier, the 44-year-old cofounder, lead designer, and president of Stonemaier Games based in St Louis, Missouri. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Like everyone else, we found out about the latest tariffs on television. My company, Stonemaier Games, pays tariffs to the US government for the games we manufacture in China and import to the US. I thought we could work with it when the 20% tariff was applied in March, but then the last month happened, and that changed everything. We learned we would be hit with an initial 34% tariff on top of an existing 20% one. Then it kept rising to 145%. I was surprised not just by the initial jump but by how much it continued to increase day by day. American companies, including us, could lose a lot of money or go out of business within a few months. We work with a Chinese company called Panda Game Manufacturing I started Stonemaier Games 13 years ago, launching my first title, Viticulture, on Kickstarter while it was still just a hobby. Since then, my team of eight US-based employees has published 20 different modern strategy games, including Wingspan, our best-known title. My team focuses on the entire creative and commercial process: We design games, handle logistics, and take care of sales and marketing — everything except actual manufacturing. That happens in China, with Panda. China has entire industries built around custom game components, such as wooden tokens, custom dice, and specialty molds. The US doesn't, and those components are expensive to make here. Once games are made, about 65% are shipped to the US, and the rest largely go to Europe, Canada, and Australia. We're the ones paying the tariffs — not China or our customers We had already started a large print run of 250,000 games before the tariffs were introduced, none of which have sold to customers yet. Some are earmarked for distributors, but distributors pay us after goods are delivered. That's part of what made this so difficult — we'd already invested heavily. So far, we've only paid around $5,000 in tariffs on a small shipment that left China in early February, right when the initial 20% tariff hit. If we passed along the full 145% tariff to customers, a popular game like Wingspan, which sells for $65, would suddenly cost close to $200. No one would buy it. This week, we're starting to ship out that big 250,000-unit run, which will take about three weeks. If things go poorly, we could be hit with 145% tariffs when those goods arrive in June. We'll take the current shipments and cover the freight costs, but I'm already thinking about the holiday print run. If the temporary truce holds — which slashes China's tariffs on the US from 125% to 10% and the US's tariffs on China from 145% to 30% — we'll "only" pay 30%. That's still painful, but manageable compared to the alternative. We've been trying to stall by seeing how long we can delay shipments, hold them in China, or temporarily route them through Canada. There's no loophole — tariffs are based on the country of origin, not where the goods enter. Even if we store something in Canada, we still pay when it crosses into the US. Most of our customers have been supportive People are particularly sympathetic to how these changes are affecting small businesses. I've been outspoken in the media and joined a lawsuit against the tariffs with a dozen other companies. Some customers who support the president have taken issue with things I've said, like how I will not stand idly while my livelihood and thousands of other small business owners' livelihoods are treated like pawns in a political game. On the various blog posts I've written, especially the " We're Suing the President" post, there were a number of inflammatory comments, including some saying that they'll never buy another Stonemaier game again. It's been surprising to me to see such a wide range of reactions. Right now, we're just trying to move forward I've looked into onshoring our manufacturing. We do sell most of our games in the US, so on paper it makes sense, but the US just doesn't have the infrastructure or expertise for this kind of manufacturing at scale. The creative question I've been asking myself is: Could we design games around what we can manufacture in the US? That's interesting from a design perspective — but also creatively limiting. The 90-day truce period on tariffs ends in August. There's still so much uncertainty, which will likely lead to a more modest holiday run than usual. I'd like to see Congress step up I want to see Congress take ownership of the process. I'd also ask for a grace period for businesses like mine, which made decisions before the tariffs were announced. That would show good faith. If the tariffs don't get pulled back, people will have significantly less money to spend on things that bring them joy, like games. Any publisher without cash reserves is in trouble, especially if they have games in production in China. I think local retailers will suffer the most. There's no math that makes it work. There's no silver lining. It's a lose-lose-lose situation for everyone involved.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why indie board game companies are teaming up to sue Trump
Board game companies are suing Trump because they say tariffs are affecting their profits. Stonemaier Games said in the lawsuit it expects to pay "millions" due to tariffs. Trump says the tariffs are meant to boost US jobs, but the cost is often passed on to the consumer. A group of tabletop game companies is suing President Donald Trump because it says his tariffs are reducing their profits to the real-world value of Monopoly money. Stonemaier Games, which makes the popular board games "Wingspan," "Rolling Realms," and "Vantage," announced its involvement in the lawsuit this week. The company said the lawsuit would "challenge the unchecked authority" of Trump and his tariffs. "We will not stand idly by while our livelihoods—and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the US, along with the customers whose pursuit of happiness we hold dear—are treated like pawns in a political game," the company said. Lawyers for Stonemaier, which is based in St. Louis, said in a legal complaint that the company estimates it will pay "millions in tariffs" because it manufactures all of its games in a Chinese factory owned by Panda Game Manufacturing, which is based in Canada. Stonemaier has printed its games in China for more than 13 years, the lawsuit says. At least nine other companies joined Stonemaier in the lawsuit, saying Trump's tariffs will cause substantial harm to their business. XYZ Game Labs, Rookie Mage, Spielcraft, and TinkerHouse Games are all board game companies that are joining the lawsuit. Spielcraft, an independent Nebraska-based board game maker, paid $4,335 in tariff fees in April, the lawsuit says. Other small businesses also joined the suit. Clothing company Princes Awesome, which makes inclusive clothing for children and adults, paid $1,041 for dresses imported from China in March, according to the lawsuit. "Princess Awesome has also ordered additional products from Peru, Bangladesh, and India that they anticipate will arrive in the United States in the coming weeks and are continuing to place new orders for imports," the complaint says. Trump and his treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, have said that the tariffs are part of a strategy to increase manufacturing jobs in the United States. But that could take a while. In the meantime, tariffs can raise prices and reduce the dollar's purchasing power, leaving consumers with less money to spend. Experts told Business Insider that supply chain disruptions caused by the tariffs could cause prices to spike and the availability of goods to decrease in as early as a few weeks. Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing the companies in the lawsuit, said in a statement that Trump's tariffs are unconstitutional and that only Congress should have the power to levy tariffs. "The Constitution gives Congress—not the president—the power to impose tariffs because policies affecting an entire nation should come from the body most representative of the entire nation," the statement says. "And Congress cannot delegate that core legislative power to the president." Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mischief Toy Store of St. Paul joins lawsuit against Trump tariffs
By their own admission, Grand Avenue toy store owners Millie Adelsheim and Dan Marshall have never filed a lawsuit before, let alone one aimed at pausing international tariffs. Suing the White House struck them as an ambitious but appropriate place to start. 'We estimate about 85% of our toys are impacted by Trump's 145% tariffs,' said Adelsheim and Marshall, the husband-and-wife co-owners of the Mischief Toy Store, in an open letter Friday explaining how they've been thrust into the front lines of an international trade war. 'Every day, we're getting notices of price increases from our suppliers. Several have left the US market altogether and many others have paused production. As a country we will be seeing huge price increases and shortages on every kind of consumer product — not just toys — in the near future.' With the financial future of their shop and their industry on the line, Mischief Toy Store has joined with Stonemaier Games and four other board game manufacturers, a children's clothing company called Princess Awesome, a metal treating company and an importer of fine art to file legal action against the U.S. government in an effort to roll back international tariffs recently imposed by the Trump administration. The lawsuit — 'Princess Awesome & Stonemaier Games, et al. v. Customs' — was filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan, with the 10 plaintiffs represented, free of charge, by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a non-profit Libertarian law firm. Around St. Paul, Adelsheim and Marshall are known for backing progressive causes, making the group effort 'a somewhat strange partnership for us. While we may disagree on other issues, we are all in full agreement on the need to check Trump's abuses of power. He is not a king and we cannot allow him to act like one.' The plaintiffs argue that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress, and not the president, the power to impose financial tariffs on foreign countries, and that the tariffs will be financially devastating to their businesses and industries. On Feb. 1, the president imposed tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, citing the need to address illegal immigration and fentanyl importation. On April 2, he expanded the tariffs to almost every country, calling trade imbalances a national emergency that empowered him to take unilateral action. He later paused most of those tariffs for 90 days, allowing time to renegotiate trade deals. While certain Trump policies have gained a following with segments of the American public, about 6-in-10 Americans polled have said they disapprove of the tariffs, according to the Pew Research Center, and a majority of the population has taken a skeptical view of the president's overall handling of the economy. Marshall, in an interview Friday, said kids aren't playing with analog toys as much as they used to, given growing interest in video and digital pastimes. For some vendors and suppliers, the tariffs will be a final nail in the coffin. 'We source American-made toys as much as we can, and one of our American suppliers is going out of business — Two Bros Bows,' he said. 'Kids don't play with analog toys like they used to, and they're not buying American. We're the last toy store in St. Paul. If all those things go up by 200%, it's going to be really hard to stay in business.' Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Stonemaier works with Chinese firms to manufacture the popular card-driven board game 'Wingspan,' which would be heavily impacted by a 145% tariff on imported products from China. For the board game company, that amounts to a $14.50 tax for every $10 spent manufacturing the game, which adds up to a looming payment of nearly $1.5 million, according to a written statement from Stonemaier. 'We will not stand idle while our livelihood — and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the U.S. — are treated like pawns in a political game,' said Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier Games, in the statement. Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include XYZ Game Labs, Rookie Mage, Spielcraft and TinkerHouse Games, as well as Quent Cordair Fine Art, the KingSeal kitchen supply company and 300 Below, a cryogenic processing company. Similar cases have been filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance in the Northern District of Florida, Tranel Law in District of Montana and the Liberty Justice Center in the Court of International Trade, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation. 'This might put us at risk,' wrote Adelsheim and Marshall, the Mischief Toy Store owners, in their open letter Friday. 'Who knows how Trump and his minions will respond … We'll be doing everything we can to keep things as normal as possible.' The Grand Avenue shop owners were previously associated with Peapods Natural Toys, which closed in 2015 after 16 years in operation in St. Paul. 'We'd also like to make it clear that we've always supported American-made toys and we stock them when we can,' they wrote. 'Those of you who remember Peapods will know that we specialized in Made in the USA toys, held a Minnesota Toy Fair to promote local toymakers, and even founded the Handmade Toy Alliance to support small batch US toymakers. The steady loss of US and EU toymakers was one of the main reasons we closed Peapods back in 2015. Tariffs cannot and will not reverse this trend.' St. Paul shooter gets 19½-year prison sentence for killing man on University Avenue who had his back to him St. Paul chief finance officer John McCarthy leaves for League of MN Cities MPCA sets May 8 deadline or it may yank St. Paul foundry's permit Jim Gelbmann: Our partisan endorsement process is unrepresentative, polarizing and self-serving History Theatre season includes new musical about the St. Paul Winter Carnival
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Could 'Princess Awesome' Defeat Trump's Tariffs?
It sounds like something out of a comic book: Princess Awesome vs. Tariff Man. And, as so often seems to be the case in those stories, the would-be hero faces daunting odds against a powerful villain, with the fate of the world—or at least a chunk of the global economy—hanging in the balance. Princess Awesome LLC, a Maryland-based shop that sells nerdy apparel for kids and adults, is one of several plaintiffs in a new lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's unilateral tariff powers. Other plaintiffs in the suit include five sellers of tabletop games and board games, an art studio, a kitchen supply company, and a toy store. All say they have paid tariffs or expect to have to pay them in the near future, as their businesses depend on imports. In a blog post on the company's website earlier this month, Princess Awesome cofounder Rebecca Melsky showed how tariffs were increasing the prices of her products. "It's bad for the world, for the country, for you, and for all companies, but particularly small ones," she wrote. "Big businesses will have an easier time absorbing the extra costs and passing them on to the consumer." In the complaint filed this week, Princess Awesome says it has already paid over $1,000 in tariffs this year, with more payments expected on upcoming shipments from Bangladesh, India, and Peru. One of Princess Awesome's sidekicks in the lawsuit is Stonemaier Games, a board game company founded in 2012. Orders that are ready to ship from China could cost the company "millions [of dollars] in tariffs," the lawsuit alleges. "We will not stand idle while our livelihood—and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the U.S.—are treated like pawns in a political game," said Jamey Stegmaier, cofounder of Stonemaier Games, in a statement. "We now face a $14.50 tariff tax for every $10 we spent on manufacturing with our trusted long-term partner in China. For Stonemaier Games, that amounts to upcoming tariff payments of nearly $1.5 million." The lawsuit was filed this week in the U.S. Court of International Trade, a special federal court that handles disputes over tariffs and trade deals, by the Pacific Legal Foundation. It alleges that Trump overstepped the authority granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) when he announced a universal 10 percent tariff on all imports to the United States earlier this month. The Trump administration has also used IEEPA to impose massive tariffs on imports from China. The lawsuit argues that Trump's use of IEEPA is unlawful since the law does not explicitly give presidents the power to levy tariffs. It also argues, as other critics of Trump's tariffs have, that the law allows for presidential action only in response to an "unusual and extraordinary threat," and that the free exchange of goods across national borders does not qualify as either. Separate from the Princess Awesome lawsuit, 12 states filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday, also challenging Trump's tariffs on the grounds that the president overstepped the powers granted by IEEPA. "The president does not have the power to raise taxes on a whim, but that's exactly what President Trump has been doing with these tariffs," New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the 12 state attorneys general who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement. Both the attorneys general and the small business owners are right. Board games, clothes, and other imported goods do not constitute an "unusual" or "extraordinary" threat that justifies a massive tax increase on Americans. Trump's tariffs are economically foolish and legally dubious. Courts (and Congress) should move quickly to strike them down. The post Could 'Princess Awesome' Defeat Trump's Tariffs? appeared first on
