Charles R. Goulding and Ryan Donley explain how top fashion minds—from UNTUCKit to CargoTrans—are reshaping U.S. import strategies and boosting innovation with 3D printing and R&D tax credits.
On June 26, 2025, Ryan and I attended a Fashion Industry tariff presentation in Manhattan.
We were guests of Fashinnovation, an organization focused on educating the Fashion industry about innovation opportunities.
The panel presentation featured Nunzio De Fillipis, (Nunzio): co-CEO of CargoTrans, a licensed customs broker, Bjorn Bengtsson (Bjorn): Chief of Product & Supply Chain, UNTUCKit, and Carlos Belmonte (Carlos): Former SVP, Calvin Klein.
Nunzio is a friend of our firm whose expertise was recently subject to a front-page Wall Street Journal article (WSJ).
This event follows a meeting with Fashion’s top industry executives at the White House, including Anna Wintour of Vogue and Conde Nast. Many leading fashion brands are major importers. The fashion industry is a $500 billion industry in the U.S. The industry makes up 5 percent of U.S. imports but pays 25 percent of the customs duties.
Nunzio De Filippis, Co-CEO, CargoTrans
Nunzio De Filippis is Co-CEO of CargoTrans, and a visionary leader driving the evolution of this family-owned enterprise into a benchmark for tech-driven, comprehensive supply chain management solutions. Specializing in International Freight Forwarding, Customs Brokerage, Domestic Distribution, and Trade Advisory – Nunzio’s approach is rooted in innovation, efficiency, and fiscal prudence – constantly raising the bar and championing continuous improvement.
Our firm does a lot of work in the fashion industry, which has a major presence in New York, LA, and Miami. There are some major fashion companies with large onshore operations that are mostly insulated from customs duties, including New Balance for footwear and Stuller, Inc. of Louisiana for jewelry. Stuller is a large jewelry manufacturer that makes extensive use of 3D printing technology.
We have previously published multiple Fabbaloo fashion 3D printing articles for footwear, including our most recent one on Nike and our previous one on eyewear. Calvin Klein has 3D printing experience with footwear components and could potentially utilize 3D printing onshore for more product lines.
About the Event
Nunzio described a key tariff mitigation strategy, the ‘First Sale Valuation,’ which helps importers establish the lowest defensible dutiable value for customs purposes.
Bjorn described bonded warehouse strategies and supply chain diversification to countries with favorable tariff treaties including North Africa.
Carlos described tariff classification strategies with alternative fabric materials and on shoring opportunities highlighting an attendee who recently onshored an apparel product line he to California.
This event follows a meeting with Fashion’s top industry executives at the White House, including Anna Wintour of Vogue and Conde Nast. The next day after the Manhattan event Anna Wintour stepped down from some of her corporate positions where she served as a long-term fashion icon.
About Fashinnovation
Their mission is to transform the way companies think about the future of business.
Fashion & Innovation are two strong words that can never walk apart.
Marcelo Guimarães, Founder, business development, and Jordana Guimarães Co-Founder, relationship manager, are both highly experienced professionals in the industry.
Fashinnovation created a new word to show that real transformation takes place through connections and forward-thinking. Their global platform connects voices from the fashion & innovation ecosystems, inspiring an entrepreneurial mindset, combining creative minds, and encouraging a more sustainable & inclusive industry.
The Fashion Industry inspires. Technology Facilitates. Entrepreneurship Makes It Happen. Together, they multiply their effect. When these universes join, the impossible becomes possible. If companies want to be avant-garde, they need to join other restless minds to achieve a stronger impact. The place where all changemakers & entrepreneurs come together to rewrite the future of fashion is at Fashinnovation.
The Research & Development Tax Credit
The now permanent Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit is available for companies developing new or improved products, processes and/or software.
3D printing can help boost a company’s R&D Tax Credits. Wages for technical employees creating, testing and revising 3D printed prototypes are typically eligible expenses toward the R&D Tax Credit. Similarly, when used as a method of improving a process, time spent integrating 3D printing hardware and software can also be an eligible R&D expense. Lastly, when used for modeling and preproduction, the costs of filaments consumed during the development process may also be recovered.
Whether it is used for creating and testing prototypes or for final production, 3D printing is a great indicator that R&D Credit-eligible activities are taking place. Companies implementing this technology at any point should consider taking advantage of R&D Tax Credits.
By reshoring to the US, particularly in states like California, companies can utilize the lucrative state R&D tax credits in addition to the Federal (such as California’s) for their U.S. innovation activities
Conclusion
This was a timely event that succeeded in providing the participants with an understanding of the tariff issues and practical mitigating solutions. A panel of three leading experts at the helm of the industry, leading the discussion, was ideal.
