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‘Just got our first tariff bill’: Seattle-area hardware startup Wyze reveals trade policy impact
Wyze Labs, a Kirkland, Wash.-based maker of popular smart home devices, went viral this week after posting about the impact of new tariffs on its hardware business. The company said it paid $255,000 in tariffs after importing $167,000 worth of floodlight inventory — and shared the actual customs document to prove it. Wyze’s original post, shared on Wednesday, has garnered nearly 10 million views on X. Wyze co-founder and CEO Yun Zhang also posted about the tariffs on LinkedIn. “We got hit with the new tariffs for the first time this week,” he wrote. “After importing $167k of inventory we paid… Read More
Wyze Labs, a Kirkland, Wash.-based maker of popular smart home devices, went viral this week after posting about the impact of new tariffs on its hardware business.
The company said it paid $255,000 in tariffs after importing $167,000 worth of floodlight inventory — and shared the actual customs document to prove it.
Wyze’s original post, shared on Wednesday, has garnered nearly 10 million views on X.
Wyze co-founder and CEO Yun Zhang also posted about the tariffs on LinkedIn. “We got hit with the new tariffs for the first time this week,” he wrote. “After importing $167k of inventory we paid an additional $255k tariff. Yikes! That’s literally more than my salary. Heading to Vietnam this week. Pls wish me good luck.”
U.S. companies with overseas operations are scrambling to adjust to new trade policies, including the 145% tariff on China. Some tech devices are exempt.
Companies are starting to raise prices for consumers.
In a separate post on X, Wyze said “historically the factories in china do absorb some, we absorb some, our retail partners will absorb some, and then we will probably have to raise prices. Depends on how much the tariffs are and how much we can get China to take, which is the first step.”
Wyze has been trying to move manufacturing out of China for over a year and said “we’ll probably be out in 60 days,” according to another post on X.
The company said it would be “amazing” to build in the U.S., “but the entire supply chain needs to move to the US. It’s way bigger than just us. All the chips and materials need to move. It’s not just moving a factory, the whole neighborhood has to come.”
We reached out to Wyze for more details and a spokesperson said the company did not have anything additional to share.
Founded in 2017 by a trio of Amazon veterans, the company raised $110 million in 2021 and ranks No. 20 on the GeekWire 200 list of top Pacific Northwest startups. Wyze started with security cameras but expanded to various other smart-home devices, now offering more than 70 different products.
