ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Colorado small business owners said steel and aluminum tariffs are crushing profits.
Denver7 first introduced you to Mike Mojica in 2022. He thought 2024 was a turning point for his small business, Outdoor Element, which makes fire-starting carabiners, survival knives, and other outdoor gear.
Outdoor Element just finished its best year yet, but six months into 2025, Mojica said the business is in survival mode.
“We had tariffs just smacked us down,” Mojica said. “It’s been real. It’s been hard. It’s been a struggle.”
It started three months ago when a 25% tariff went into effect on imported steel and aluminum. Last week, the tariff increased to 50%.
While federal officials say the move is intended to strengthen American manufacturing, small business owners like Mojica say they’re the ones taking the hit.
“Last month, we had $30,000 in tariffs that the government came in and just took away,” Mojica said.
Mojica told Denver7 the fees are automatically deducted before products clear customs, leaving business owners with no time to generate sales to offset the costs. His company sources most of its components from China because domestic options aren’t viable, according to Mojica.
“We don’t have the infrastructure. It’s costly to build in the U.S.,” he explained. “So, I found myself in Asia producing some things.”
The financial strain has forced Mojica to lay off employees, raise prices on products, and rely on unpaid help from his wife and children.
“My wife is working for free right now indefinitely. My kids come in, they’re packing goods," Mojica said. "It’s awesome that my family is saving the business."
Mojica isn’t the only small business owner feeling the tension of tariffs. However, he and some of his ReadySpace warehouse neighbors are optimistic for the future.
Vito Maretski is the owner of Amazing Underdeck in Greenwood Village, an aluminum system installed underneath an existing deck that captures water and channels it away into a gutter and downspouts.
Maretski was unavailable for an on-camera interview, but he did provide Denver7 with the following statement:
“Tariffs, COVID, inflation — it’s like running a small business is the new extreme sport. And yet, here we are. We waterproof the area under people’s decks, turning wasted space into beautiful, usable rooms — and yes, we use a lot of aluminum to do it. So when tariffs go up, it hits us hard. Most companies just raise their prices and pass it on to the customer. But we’re not doing that. We’ve leaned into AI, outsourced admin tasks overseas, and dialed in our systems to stay efficient and profitable — all while still giving our customers world-class results."
Maretski’s brother-in-law, David Lelyukh, is the sales manager at Amazing Underdeck. He said material costs and the uncertainty of tariffs are concerning.
“Our labor cost stays the same, but the product and the material cost has nearly doubled for us,” he said.
Like Mojica, Lelyukh told Denver7 they’ve had to slightly increase prices but can’t pass along the full burden to customers without losing business.
“We have to eat the cost,” he said. “We can’t pass it on completely to the customer, or otherwise we lose them entirely.”
Karen Gerwitz, president and CEO of the World Trade Center Denver, said the impact of tariffs ripples far beyond individual businesses.
“While [the tariffs] may be boosting the aluminum industry or the steel industry by posing tariffs, they’re actually hurting the rest of the manufacturing industry," she said. "So, we might see a temporary job lift in one, but you'll see job reduction in the others. So, it has a residual impact."
Gerwitz said the tariffs are having the opposite effect of their original intentions.
“Tariffs haven’t curbed our imports,” she said. “They’re not good for our economy, they’re not good for industry, and they’re certainly not good for consumers who are ultimately going to have to pay the price.”
Back at Outdoor Element, Mojica said he’s now exploring sourcing options in other countries and closely watching a judicial review that could potentially reverse the tariff increases. In the meantime, the uncertainty is exhausting.
“We need a game plan,” Mojica said. “We need to understand what the true tariff situation is so we can build a business model around it.”
