Global tariffs for shoe firms are going up by another five percent, and they could happen as early as this week.

That was the word from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an interview Wednesday with CNBC. He also said that U.S. tariff rates are likely to go back up to previous levels within five months, or by August, noting that the Trump Administration is looking at other legislation it could use to implement new rates that would replace the ones invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.

Essentially, the Bessent interview that tells shoe firms that the only certainty under the Trump administration is that tariff remains the U.S. president’s favorite word, leaving the uncertainty centered on how he gets there.

The increase wasn’t unexpected. At the Coterie by Informa trade show last week in New York, footwear vendors were bracing for another increase — it was just a matter of when. Steve Madden, the brand’s founder and design chief who was visiting his brand’s booth at the show, was riffing with buyers on a wide-range of topics, including tariffs. At one point, he said with certainty that he knew the tariff rate was going up to 15 percent.

When Steven Madden Ltd. posted fourth quarter earnings results last week, the company declined to provide earnings guidance, citing to uncertainty related to recent developments with respect to U.S. tariff policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariffs were illegal because he lacked authority to impose them under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Trump quickly responded by signing an executive order that same day for a new 10 percent global tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a temporary measure where the new duty levy would continue for 150 days through July 24. He walked back on that the next day stating that the temporary global tariffs would instead be 15 percent. But the new tariffs imposed starting on Feb. 24 were at 10 percent, likely due to the initial executive order that was signed a few days earlier.

There’s been rumblings that the newly-imposed Section 122 tariffs could be illegal too. And while the IEEPA strike-down suggests that the frameworks for the reciprocal trade agreements are in jeopardy, U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer told CBS new on Feb. 22 that “We’re going to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them.”

During the Adidas fourth quarter earnings conference call Wednesday, CEO Bjørn Gulden said the company has paid about 300 million euros or 400 million euros of the “so-called illegal” tariffs. He said the company isn’t accounting for the possibility that it might be able to get that back as a refund, noting that “we all know that there’s a long way to get that back.”

And he said a lower rate of 10 or 15 percent versus a higher 19 percent or 20 percent rate, which gives the firm some upside, also was not reflected in its guidance. While there is some mitigation, not all the tariffs can be mitigated.

“You cannot get the price increases through the market now because of discounts. And it doesn’t help if you put up the price on the shoe box if discounts increase,” Gulden explained, noting that in the U.S. market there are “deals from other brands that takes down the realized price.”

And when Wolverine Worldwide Inc. reported its fourth quarter earnings results, also last week, CFO and treasurer Taryn L. Miller said during the company conference call that the company is estimating the “full year unmitigated impact from higher tariffs to be approximately $60 million or an incremental $50 million versus 2025. Any tariff rate reduction would impact the second half of the year.”

She added that should a 15 percent tariff rate be implemented and remain in place through the end of 2026, “we estimate it would reduce the 2026 tariff impact by approximately $5 million to $7 million relative to our current guidance. We are closely monitoring recent trade policy developments and we will evaluate potential changes as clarity improves.”