Tariff refunds for clothing and sneaker brands: how CBP's CAPE portal works and what adidas and Puma booked

Tariff refunds are the reason some clothing and sneaker brands posted unusually strong margins this autumn. After the Supreme Court invalidated the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in February 2026, importers can claim back the duties through the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries portal, known as CAPE. Adidas recorded a refund of around €200 million in its third quarter and Puma recorded €29.8 million. Both are one-time recoveries of money paid earlier, and both sit inside the margin figures the companies reported.

How the refund process works

According to Supply Chain Dive, CAPE handles refunds of IEEPA duties that the Supreme Court invalidated in February. CBP began a phased rollout earlier in 2026, and until recently the portal addressed only unliquidated payments, meaning those not yet finalized. Law firm Warner Norcross + Judd, writing on September 17, 2026, said the portal went live around April.

The claim attaches to the importer of record, as the Phase 3 rules below show, which are keyed to an importer of record number. That matters for fashion because many brands import through subsidiaries or sell through wholesalers and licensees. By our reading, a refund goes to the party that paid the duty, not to the shop that raised prices when the tariff arrived.

The court history sits behind the portal. The Court of International Trade ruled earlier this year that CBP had to refund unprocessed or unfinalized entries, then expanded the order to finally liquidated entries, according to Supply Chain Dive. The Justice Department appealed, arguing the court lacks jurisdiction to order a universal refund for all finalized entries. That appeal remains before the Federal Circuit.

The numbers CBP has filed

In an October 6, 2026 court filing, CBP reported that as of October 2 CAPE had accepted roughly $136.6 billion in potential and certified refunds for processing, and that $126 billion had been sent to the Treasury Department for disbursement. The third phase, covering finally liquidated entries, was delayed from the end of July to October. It is expected to handle roughly $11.4 billion, or 6.9 percent of IEEPA tariffs.

Phase 3 has a gate. Only plaintiffs who submitted a valid importer of record number to CBP by July 30, 2026 can receive refunds for finally liquidated entries now. Those who submitted one later must wait for instructions, and CBP did not give a timeframe. As of October 6, CBP had accepted 477 declarations for finally liquidated entries covering 425,517 entries. Warner Norcross + Judd noted that more than 3,700 cases had been filed in the Court of International Trade seeking refunds, so importers with finalized payments generally need to sue to be paid.

What adidas booked

Adidas's October 29, 2026 release says that during the quarter it "received the majority of its US tariff claims" and recorded a refund of around €200 million, which contributed to its gross margin rising 2.5 points to 54.3 percent. The release also says higher US tariffs and unfavorable currency movements pulled the other way, and that it recorded around €10 million of interest income related to US tariffs.

Operating profit was a record €1,008 million. By our arithmetic, a €200 million refund is about 20 percent of that. Adidas raised its full-year operating profit outlook to around €2.5 billion. For what importers still pay today, see our guide to current US apparel duties.

What Puma booked

Puma's October 30, 2026 release says its gross margin rose about 420 basis points to 49.5 percent, driven by lower sourcing prices "including tariff refund effects." The refunds were €29.8 million, which the company says contributed approximately 170 basis points. The same €29.8 million is included in reported EBIT, a loss of €11.4 million. Without it, by our arithmetic, the loss would have been about €41 million.

How to read a refund when you read earnings

A refund is not demand. It does not mean a brand sold more shoes or raised prices. It recovers an earlier cost, and it does not repeat once an importer has claimed what it is owed. Three habits help:

• Find the line. Companies disclose refunds in the gross margin discussion, the operating profit bridge or a footnote. Adidas and Puma each named the amount.
• Separate it from guidance. Adidas lifted its full-year profit outlook after the refund; Puma narrowed a loss range with the refund inside it.
• Check the cash. CBP's filing says $126 billion has gone to the Treasury Department for disbursement, so booking a refund and receiving it can be different events. We have not seen either company state when it received the cash.

Other retailers have flagged refunds too. We covered Levi Strauss booking a refund in its third quarter too.

Scale is a quick sanity check. On our arithmetic, adidas's €200 million is about 2.8 percent of its €7,252 million of Q3 revenue, and Puma's €29.8 million is about 1.7 percent of its €1,776.2 million, which matches the 170 basis points Puma states. A refund of that size can move a gross margin by a point or two on its own, which is why the line is worth finding before comparing one company's margin with another's.

Our take

The refund wave is a genuine transfer of money back to importers, and the CBP filing shows it is large. It is also a one-time accounting event that has made several margins look better than the underlying selling deserves. Until a company separates the refund from the trend, hold its margin gains at arm's length. The open questions are the Federal Circuit appeal over finalized entries and how much of the money, if any, reaches consumers who paid higher prices.