BY KAREN BOSICK
While other Wood River Valley residents were counting down to the fireworks, Nick Harman was counting down to his 15 minutes of fame on CNN.
Harman, who works at The Argyros in Ketchum, was invited to be on CNN a few days ago to talk with Dana Bash, CNN’s anchor and chief political correspondent, about the effect of President Trump’s tariff policies on the upcoming holiday toy season.
Harman, who co-created the hybrid plush toys with fellow Ketchum resident Casey Finegan, was featured in a segment titled “Toy Creator Fears Tariff’s Devastation on Holiday Inventory” as part of a CNN Business segment.
“It was really nerve-wracking,” he said. “I practiced for a week with questions I thought they might ask me, but nothing prepares you for the countdown to being live on national television!”
Harman dressed up in a Hork get-up--a half-horse, half-shark creature--as he explained that the unusual children’s toys went along with a book by the same name that exhorts that “Our differences are what makes a difference.”
The Randimals have become a worldwide sensation with orders coming from Amazon, Ripley’s Believe it or Not museums and elsewhere. Harman said he was about to push a button to accept three 40,000-pound shipping containers full of the children’s toys from China when Trump’s tariffs went into effect, prompting tariffs to skyrocket and leaving Harman looking at paying $145,000 more in tariffs than he’d planned on in addition to the $100,000 bill he’d already paid.
He was able to regroup after the 90-day pause went into effect with tariffs edging back to 30 percent. But he just placed another order for three 40,000-pound containers, which are due to arrive in September.
“And it’s nerve wracking because we don’t know what will happen between now and then,” he said. “It’s like playing a game of chicken, as we don’t know what the prices will be.”
This isn’t the first time the Randimals have made it onto CNN. They were featured on the news channel in early May as the tariff wars began.
He was supposed to have made CNN a couple weeks ago but got bumped by the bombing of Iran.