The mechanism: Since February 2026, the White House's Section 122 tariff regime layered on top of Section 301 and Section 232 actions has pushed effective duty rates on imported textiles and apparel to roughly 19%-26% depending on country of origin — with a live Section 232 national-security probe into robotics and industrial machinery imports running in parallel. At the same time, federal procurement rules keep tightening domestic-content thresholds (some Section 232 "Buy American" carve-outs now require 85% U.S.-origin components, down from 95%, but still a real bar) for any apparel brand chasing government and government-adjacent contracts — think military-adjacent athletic gear, uniforms, and federal supply schedules. That's the catalyst pushing NKE and LULU to pilot small, automated domestic plants using robotic knitting, cutting, and machine-vision-guided sewing instead of reopening labor-heavy U.S. sewing floors that can't compete on cost even with tariffs.
Here's the trade most people miss: the apparel brands are running expensive, uncertain pilots with no guaranteed margin payoff — reshoring under automation still costs more per unit than offshore labor, tariffs or not. The companies with a genuinely durable, repeatable revenue stream are the ones selling the actual automation stack — controls, machine vision, and robotic work-cells — into every pilot plant, regardless of whether Nike's or Lululemon's specific bet pays off.