Kamik’s ‘Made in USA’ Claims

Over the weekend a TINA.org employee was out shopping with her family in Burlington, Vermont when she spied a “Made in USA” tag attached to a pair of Kamik boots (priced at $119.99). She took the photo below.

It’s a good time for a new pair of boots. And given consumer preference for American-made products, it’s never a bad time for a pair of “Made in USA” boots.

But these boots don’t meet the FTC’s “all or virtually all” standard to be marketed as “Made in USA.” For one thing, the outsole is made in Canada.

Upon closer inspection, the bottom of the “Made in USA” tag includes a fine print disclosure that reveals the Kamik boots are made in the USA “with foreign and Canadian components.”

(The “Made in USA” sticker on the box in the first image above has the same mouse print disclosure.)

Here’s what the law says: If marketers want to use qualified made in the USA claims, they need to make sure, among other things, that the qualifying language is prominent so that consumers can read it.

In this case, the qualifying language (“with foreign and Canadian components”) appears in tiny, inconspicuous print. Did you see it until we zoomed in?

Find more of our coverage on footwear deceptively marketed as made in the USA here.