A number of fabric distributors have added tariff surcharges to invoices over the past year. Before getting into which ones and by how much, there is a structural point worth understanding, because it shapes how these surcharges work.
Most Fabric Brands Are Distributors, Not Manufacturers
Nearly every trade fabric “brand” is a distributor or converter. They source from mills in China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Turkey, apply their branding and sampling infrastructure, and sell through trade accounts. A small number own manufacturing capacity. Most do not.
Kravet is one of the largest importers and converters in the North American trade market. They source from mills in India, among other origins, and own several legacy brands including Lee Jofa, GP & J Baker, Brunschwig & Fils, and Donghia. The fabric you are buying under those labels is coming from overseas mills regardless of the brand name on the memo sample.
Fabricut, headquartered in Tulsa, sources heavily from Asia across its product lines and represents several sub-brands. They are among the most transparent about the tariff impact: no-surcharge order windows closed in late April 2025, a price increase of approximately 6.5 percent took effect July 14, and country-of-origin-based adjustments followed in late October.
Maxwell Fabrics is a Canadian distributor, family-owned since 1953, based in Vancouver. Their sourcing depends on the product line: India, Turkey, and the United States. They are not a manufacturer. Canadian shops dealing with Maxwell are not buying from a domestic producer; they are buying from a company that imports and warehouses fabric.
Alendel, out of North York, is a Toronto-based distributor that has operated since 1981. Same model: they source internationally and supply the Canadian trade market.
Charlotte Fabrics operates in the Canadian market similarly. None of these distributors are insulated from upstream cost changes. The question is only how quickly and directly those changes pass through to invoices.
What Got Hit and by How Much
Chinese-origin textiles have been hardest hit. US tariffs on goods from China reached 145 percent in 2025. Any distributor with significant exposure to Chinese mills is carrying substantially higher input costs, which is why surcharges on these lines are common and in some cases steep.
Vietnamese fabric faces US tariffs of 30 percent or more, up from 20 percent. Cambodia has been similarly hit. India and Turkey have seen smaller direct tariff impacts, which is why product lines sourced from those origins have been relatively more stable on pricing.
European wovens from Belgian, Italian, and UK mills face a different tariff structure. They have not been directly hit by the same surcharges. Currency exchange has affected their pricing separately.
Calling something “domestically sourced” does not mean it is cost-immune. US mills often source yarn internationally, so even nominally domestic fabric carries embedded import costs that have moved.
The Canadian Complication
Canadian shops using US-based distributors like Fabricut face a second layer. Canada implemented 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on US goods effective March 2025. Fabric purchased through a US distributor is a US import for Canadian customs purposes. Your cost structure is different from a US shop ordering from the same catalogue.
Canadian shops with access to domestic distributors like Maxwell or Alendel avoid this specific exposure, though those distributors carry their own import cost pressures from their supply chains.
How to Protect Your Margins
When material costs rise, the instinct is to add contract language about future price changes or bill the surcharge as a separate line item. That approach creates friction and invites clients to negotiate on the wrong thing.
The more durable solution is to charge a margin on materials as standard practice. If you are billing fabric at cost and marking up only your labour, a material cost increase sits entirely on your margin. If you are marking up fabric by 20 to 25 percent, a distributor price increase narrows your margin but does not eliminate it, and it does not require a difficult conversation.
Shops that treat material markup as an afterthought have discovered that cost volatility hits them differently than shops that have always priced materials as a revenue line. The markup is earned: you are sourcing the correct specification, taking on procurement risk, and absorbing the administrative work. It is not a convenience fee.
Ask your distributor directly whether surcharges are included in the quoted price or whether they appear at invoicing. For large orders, confirm it in writing. The surcharge labelling varies: “trade adjustment fee,” “duty recovery charge,” and plain “tariff surcharge” all describe the same thing.
If you have current information about specific distributor surcharge policies worth sharing with the network, contact us at info@upholsteryguild.org.