Like many creatives, Chicano designer Rio Uribe has felt the brunt of U.S. tariffs change how he operates his business.
When U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn into office, his inaugural address promised to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” a promise that would come to fruition and lead to economic whiplash as the country plunged into an international trade war. While Trump continues to negotiate (and threaten) sweeping tariffs, consumers and small business owners are left footing the bill. Higher costs for imported goods are not only affecting our shopping carts, small business owners are also forced to absorb, or straight up pivot sales strategies and merchandise.
For Uribe, the designer behind Rio World (formerly Gypsy Sport), the rising cost of material and production have forced him to choose between sacrificing his design integrity, raising the prices on select merchandise, or pausing production of select merch altogether. The UFO bags, which gained a steady following after its release a year ago, is the first product on the chopping block.
“It took about a year to produce that bag with all of the different factories that we were testing and just trying to get the price right, trying to get the details of the hardware variety,” says Uribe, who details the challenges of producing his first handbag under his new design label, Rio World.
After several samples and testing with different factories to produce the bag, Uribe went with a factory in India, known for handbag production. As for his reasoning, he said, “The pricing for them was at the same place we wanted to be. I wanted it to be accessible to my fans and followers and we were able to achieve that with our factory in India.”
Launching a new line of handbags was a challenging endeavor, as reception of the bags were initially slow to rise, but within a year, the bags were worn by Becky G and Rico Nasty, artists that inadvertently brought the bag into the mainstream. And just as sales were climbing, Uribe received the news of rising costs.
“In February 2025, we got an email from the factory saying that tariffs were going up.The factory and I both wanted to keep our production going for a summer delivery, but it was already costing…a pretty good amount just to make the bags, but then adding like a 25 or 27% tariff on top of that… I personally wasn’t able to afford to make them at that price.”
In April, Trump implemented a 27% tariff on Indian imports, with the aim of pressuring India to concede by reducing its tariffs, primarily affecting the textile and machinery industry and impacting Indian exports in the US market, such as the vegan leather used in the UFO bags. The US is India’s largest export market, accounting for 28% of India’s overall exports.
The jump to 27% in tariffs was a steep cost that Uribe is attempting to reconcile. And he shared the news of the bag’s shaky future on Instagram in a post detailing the impending pause on bag production.
Uribe told Remezcla, “I just know that our fans, maybe I didn’t want them to think that we were like trying to come off bougie or be like, oh, our bags are $250 now. And I think because I’m such a community rooted brand, I wanted to be transparent about what was going on and that’s why we made the post on [Instagram].”
Uribe originally went with the factory in India not simply because of the favorable costs, but due to a combination of shared values. “It just so happens that we found a really good company in India that was just amazing to work with. There’s such an attention to detail, and there was a process of finding a factory that was fair wage, fair labor, equitable staffing, like it was a perfect fit for us. So I’m kind of sad.”
While Uribe is not cutting ties with the factory just yet, he explored alternatives to make the bags affordable. “We’re considering dropping a couple of the features of the bag, like, maybe the strap will not be removable, it’ll be a lot cheaper if we make it just permanently fixed to the bag. Also there’s a lining in the bag that we don’t need.. so we’re trying to find ways to cut the cost a bit, but honestly, I don’t want to do that. I feel like we introduced a bag at a certain quality already, and I would hate to make a cheaper version just because of tariffs.”
While Uribe has confirmed the pause of UFO bags for now, he’s exploring other leather factories, in Los Angeles, Mexico, and Bolivia. But the search is shaky. “I’m just a little nervous about moving forward with anybody because the administration is so finicky with the tariffs and they could change any day now. They went from 10% to 27 to 15 to 20 back to 27, and it changes like every week. So I’m just a little nervous to take a step with anybody.”
While the rest of Uribe’s garments which are produced in Los Angeles remain relatively unscathed, sourcing material such as sports mesh, a popular texture used in his designs, has been difficult to come by, as the Vietnam-made material is not being delivered to US ports, shrinking its availability to garment manufacturers and designers alike.
Small business owners and designers are feeling the pressure of limited stock and rising prices, but according to Uribe, they’re nervous to share due to public perception of producing fashion abroad. “I think a lot of people don’t want to admit that their clothes are outsourced and I know that the luxury market is going through this because some Chinese factories expose that you’re making Louis Vuitton bags and Gucci bags, and then Louis Vuitton Gucci came out saying, it’s not true, they don’t make all of our bags.”
Uribe added, “But then I think the proof is there, they do make the bags in China, but I think they just didn’t want it to be public knowledge. So I think the same as some of us as brands, we don’t want people to know where we make our stuff sometimes.”
To learn more about Rio Uribe and Rio World, you can visit their website here.
