Forget tariffs — this U.S. shoe company vows not to hike its prices

Steep new U.S. tariffs on imports are rattling businesses large and small, with many companies planning to absorb the higher costs by hiking prices for customers. Not footwear company Keen.

Although the midsize company, based in Portland, Oregon, operates in an industry that is highly exposed to tariffs, Keen tells customers that it will keep prices steady this year no matter how tariffs affect its costs. That's no idle pledge calculated to preserve market share — Keen has been steadily retooling the business for years to protect itself from sudden shifts in global trade and the vagaries of geopolitics. 

"We have been preparing for this for over a decade. Early on, we saw the risks of being overdependent on any one country, so we made the decision to diversify our supply chain well beyond China," Chief Operating Officer Hari Perumal told CBS MoneyWatch.