In a Burlington bike shop more accustomed to fitting saddles than filing briefs, President Nik Holm of Terry Precision Cycling declared war on Washington’s wallet-wringing ways, joining a ragtag band of small businesses suing over President Trump’s tariffs that have turned imported fabrics into fiscal flat tires.
With the Supreme Court set to hear their plea next week, Holm’s humble operation – a 40-year haven for women’s wheeling wonders – faces the very real risk of pedaling straight into bankruptcy.
Holm’s office brims with rainbow-hued jersey swatches and walls whispering local love letters in plaque form. It’s the kind of spot where you’d expect debates over chamois padding, not constitutional crises – yet here we are, with tariffs transforming French lace and Italian lycra into budget-busters.
The company, born from women’s cycling trailblazer Georgena Terry’s vision, has dodged market potholes like a pro: slim margins in the ’80s, a pandemic pedal surge that fizzled fast. But Trump’s April tariff blitz on nearly every trading buddy? That’s the hill too steep to climb without a lawsuit.
Picture Holm, a lanky rider who commutes by cycle and geeks out over SPF-soaked sleeves like a fabric whisperer. “Fit and function keep the ladies rolling,” he says, eyes lighting up brighter than a neon-trimmed top tube. Now, those essentials cost an arm, a leg, and maybe a derailleur.
Imports from Guatemala’s guayaberas of gabardine to China’s high-tech wizardry – all slapped with duties that make pricing feel like a game of tariff roulette. One pair of shorts? Jacked from sensible to $199 after a 145% China spike, like upgrading from Schwinn to solid gold.
Holm shrugs: “Tell us the tab, we’ll tag the ticket – then cross our fingers not everyone’s wallet wobbles off the wheel.” Small fry like Terry lack the corporate coffers to cushion the blow, so customers foot the uphill freight.
Fellow plaintiffs? A Utah plumber dreaming of pipe dreams sans penalty, a New York wine whiz toasting to lower levies, and a Pennsylvania angler whose lures now lure lawyers. United in underdog armor, they’re lawyered up by the Liberty Justice Center – usually a conservative cheer squad, now cycling left on trade overreach.
Trump’s wielding the International Emergency Economic Powers Act like a Swiss Army knife for taxes, a law mum on duties but mighty on sanctions. Jeffrey Schwab, their legal pedal-pusher, quips it’s Revolution redux – no kingly coin-grabs without Congress’s nod.
The White House counters: Imports are ours to wrangle, tariffs included, especially against border-busting buddies like Mexico and Canada. Trump, ever the showman, dubs it a history-book blockbuster, hinting he’d crash the oral arguments himself – because nothing says “supreme” like a front-row tweetstorm.
Tariffs have already banked $195 billion by September, double last year’s haul, with trillions eyed ahead per budget boffins. Yale eggheads peg the household hit at $2,000 yearly – enough to buy a bike or two, if only the shops survive the squeeze.
Lower courts twice waved green lights for the suits, but appellate umps split, four siding with executive elbow room. Now, Trump’s trio of justices stare down a power play dwarfing Biden’s loan-lift flop – foreign frolics, they argue, where courts should coast, not coast-check.
Holm? He’s less lofty, more legacy: 20 souls on payroll, a founder’s fire for freeing female freeriders from the curb. “Unaffordable gear clips wings before they flap,” he muses, propping his steed by the door. Surviving uncertainty means more than margins – it’s butts on bikes, not benches.
As autumn leaves swirl outside like confetti for a courtroom caper, Terry’s tale reminds us: Even in trade’s tangled trails, one determined rider can shift the chainring of change. Will the Supremes downshift the duties, or let the tariff train keep chugging? Pedal on, we watch.
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