‘2020 is Going to be a Year of Reckoning:’ Armadillo Enterprises’ CEO and President Evan Rubinson

Evan Rubinson took over the reins of Armadillo Enterprises in early 2017, succeeding his father, the late Elliott “Dean” Rubinson – a much-loved and missed industry icon. Drawing upon a lifetime of experience that found him working at all levels of employment at Armadillo, as well as the wisdom passed down from his father, Evan has helped grow the company’s three MI lines – Dean Guitars, Luna Guitars, and ddrum Percussion – to unprecedented levels of success.

We recently spoke with him after the company’s “Armadillo All Access” (AAA) event in mid-December of 2019 to learn about his own background, how he’s navigated the stewardship of some truly legendary brands, and what’s on tap for Armadillo in the immediate future.

Let’s start at the beginning, Evan. Can you talk about your own background in music and in the MI industry? When did you first become interested in music? Who were some early, significant influences? As far as MI goes, when did you first become aware of and involved with your father’s professional activities?

My background in music started with very humble beginnings. I remember being obsessed with this metallic silver Dean Razor bass when I was 10 years old. My father agreed to give me the bass after I had worked off 50 percent of the cost of it, so I swept the floors in his warehouse every summer throughout elementary school until I could finally get my hands on it. After I got that bass, I was on cloud nine – I thought I was a rock star. I played that thing non-stop while I gargled water, trying to sing Weird Al’s version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with my band at the time.

When high school rolled around, I made my case to my father that I wanted more responsibility within the company, but needless to say, he wasn’t a big fan of that idea. After a little healthy back-and-forth, I finally convinced him to let me graduate from sweeping floors to beginning to pick orders and learning how to drive a forklift (probably to the horror of many of my co-workers at the time). I kept playing bass on the side throughout my high school years, but as the prospect of college approached, I turned the vast majority of my focus toward my sports scholarships with track and football.

During my time at Duke, I remember one of my fondest college memories being the day I got a call from my father asking me to intern with him in the corporate offices at Armadillo, as well as to travel with him to Asia to visit some of the factories that summer. I can’t entirely put into words the feeling that this call left me with, but let’s just say I felt like even more of a rock star than I did when I was 10 years old jamming on that new Razor bass. From that point on, I was hooked – not only was the music industry, itself, incredibly intriguing and invigorating, but the fact that I had the opportunity to learn from a legend (Elliott) and bond with my father at the same time, served to be a priceless experience.

Some of my biggest influences growing up were Steve Jay, John Entwistle, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Alexi Laiho, Joe Satriani, and Zakk Wylde. I know that’s quite an eclectic mix of players, but I appreciate and enjoy a lot of different genres, as well as bass and guitar players, alike. I especially respect players that have the ability to do things I couldn’t dream of doing, and are willing to push boundaries.

Without meaning to dredge up what I’m sure are painful memories, can you talk a bit about Elliot’s illness and the changes that ultimately led to at Armadillo?

My father fell ill in late November of 2015 – I will never forget the call that I got from him. He was always such a big personality, a role model, a leader – almost like an untouchable presence when I was growing up – that when I heard him confused, out-of-sorts, and scared on that call, it was truly shocking to me. The next day, I flew back home to Florida to attend the initial doctor’s appointments.

At the time, the last thing on my mind was the company and succession planning. This entire circumstance came so out-of-the-blue for me that I just went into survival mode and began tapping into all of my biotechnology connections from my time in finance, in attempts to find some clinical-stage trial that might be able to work a miracle. After the initial tests, it was horrifying to realize that the same, incredibly aggressive brain cancer that was currently affecting my father was the one that killed his sister just a year prior. After taking the time to really understand the severity of a glioblastoma brain tumor, it was clear that the prognosis was a 99 percent mortality rate within 14 months or less.

During the next 12 months, my father and I had many discussions regarding his future, my mother, the family, and Armadillo. Being an only child, my father asked me if running Armadillo was something I felt passionately and strongly about – despite the fact I was in finance at the time – and my response was a resounding “YES!” The next few months were some of the most difficult of my life, but also some of the most rewarding. I dedicated all of my heart, soul, and effort toward doing anything I could to improve my father’s chance of survival, while in tandem putting my best foot forward toward the long journey of adequately filling my father’s shoes.

I’m so sorry for your loss, Evan. For whatever it’s worth, I think you’ve done very well upholding your father’s legacy and taking Armadillo even further. Real quickly, what are some “vital stats” for Armadillo Enterprises in 2019: total employees, square footage of main facility, location/size/nature of outside production partnerships/factories, et cetera?

Total employees: 58; HQ: 118,000 sq. ft. – all under air conditioning – in Tampa, Florida with a full USA custom shop. We build our USA guitars here in Tampa from scratch, starting in our in-house woodshop led by Dan Russel, and finishing in our in-house USA assembly shop led by Pat Baker.

As far as overall volume – not money, but units sold – what is the current percentage breakdown in total sales for Armadillo Enterprises across the three main brands: Dean Guitars, Luna, and ddrum?

Great question. The rough breakdown is as follows: Dean – 40 percent; Luna – 50 percent; ddrum – 10 percent. We have seen tremendous growth from the Luna brand, in particular, over the past eight years, with it expanding by more than 770 percent. Dean revenue is projected to see a large increase over last year, primarily credited to a 14 percent bump in USA guitar sales, strategic expansion across international market places, as well as a renewed brand focus toward quality over all else with the ultra-high-end Dean Select Series.

Artist endorsement/ partnerships/ association are significant for Armadillo brands – particularly for Dean Guitars. Can you talk about how important it is to cultivate and maintain these relationships and how it benefits both your brands and dealers?

Think of iconic artists in the same fashion that we do professional athletes – how important is it for Nike to be associated with the best of the best in sports? It’s the same way in the music industry. There’s no better way to gain credibility amongst dealers, players, and consumers, alike, than to have the third-party verification of a legendary artist who’s willingly endorsing and promoting your products for no other reason than they genuinely love them. Great players want to be associated with great brands, and vice-versa, but of course in music, “great” can be a pretty subjective term. With that in mind, I strive to cultivate artist rosters that are uniquely suited to each of the Armadillo brands in their respective niches. There’s nothing more important to me than ensuring that an artist truly aligns with my brands’ mission statements and core identities.

In recent years, Gibson has taken legal aim at a number of suppliers, including Dean and Luna – in those cases for the V and Z, and ES-335 shaped guitars, respectively. What is your reaction to the initial filings and ongoing litigation?

We believe Gibson’s claims are entirely baseless and its attempts to assert ownership over commonplace guitar shapes (some of which Dean and others have used for decades) are unfortunate. Dean will continue to vigorously defend its brands, products, and legacy.

Across all three brands (Dean, Luna, ddrum), what are your current “hot sellers” for each and what new or upcoming releases are you most excited about?

I don’t have enough room to write about all of our top-sellers and exciting new stuff, so I’ll try to focus in a few key points for each brand! Let’s start with Dean.

Last year in 2019, we launched the Select Series, which is the absolute highest-end import guitar Dean has ever made, featuring our iconic Dean shapes – the V, the Z, the ML, and the Cadillac. This series starts at $699.99 stock, with salt and pepper Seymour Duncans, satin-finished neck backs, Grover tuners, and 5A flame maple tops. This year, we rounded out that top-tier line with some classic, crowd favorite shapes: the Nash Vegas, the Thoroughbred, and the Exile. Separate of these new, ultra-high-quality product releases, the story of the year for Dean is by far the signing of Kerry King from Slayer. We are honored and humbled to have such an amazing guitar player in our camp. Kerry King, Dimebag Darrell, and Dave Mustaine under one roof makes up quite the iconic guitar roster.

Luna is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year with a beautiful new ukulele that will only be available during the 2020 calendar year. Get it while you can! A few other crowd favorites from the Luna family center around our Vista Series. The Vista guitars became so popular, in fact, that we decided to model a ukulele series off of them. Now you can get the same, beautifully intricate detail in your ukulele that you have become accustomed to in your acoustic guitar. For those that prefer a solid-top guitar, the Luna Artist Series still remains king.

As for ddrum, we have some exceptionally interesting electronics in the works, of which some are slated for a mid-year release this year, while other components are planned for a 2021 release. Separate of these incredible electronic innovations we have been working tirelessly on, we have rounded out our top-tier, acoustic Dios Series by bringing back a ddrum classic – the Dominion Series in Birch. This was a top-selling kit for us for many years, and we are proud to announce that it is officially back in our line. Lastly, for those players that crave versatility, the ddrum hybrid kit is truly one-of-a-kind with its built-in triggers – whether you want a fully electric sound, fully acoustic, or a seamlessly integrated hybrid of both, ddrum is here to help. It’s truly everything a novice-to-touring drummer could want and more.

For interested MI retailers, what’s your distribution model? How does one go about becoming a “Dean dealer” or a “ddrum dealer” et cetera?

We use a pretty basic model in terms of our distribution and sales channels. We are a B2B company who greatly appreciates its dealers. In the U.S., we serve as our own distributor and sell directly to music retail stores. Internationally, we sell to country-specific distributors who then, in-turn, sell to their local music retailers.

I am a very relationship-focused guy, so I seek above all else, to cultivate long-lasting relationships with top-notch dealers and distributors around the world. Business is best done amongst those you know and trust. By the same token, it is of equal importance to always be on the lookout to develop new relationships, as we are constantly trying to increase our brand representation globally. In short, all it takes to become an Armadillo dealer is to give us a call and place a simple buy-in order. We don’t require any of our dealers to carry a specific assortment of products, nor do we ask them to maintain certain product mixes, nor do we mandate that they carry all of our brands – it’s truly the dealer’s choice as to what they want and what they feel will work best in their unique market. Of course, many of our dealers enjoy carrying all three of our brands, but we also have some that specialize in only one or two of the Armadillo brands.

Expectations for the coming months and year for the industry, in general, and for Armadillo, in specific?

Let me start with mentioning our huge, pre-NAMM, Armadillo All Access (AAA) event that we just recently hosted at our HQ in Tampa. This was a never-before-done feat, not only for our company, but for the broader music industry as a whole. The excitement and positive feedback from dealers, distributors, industry publications, and artists alike was overwhelming. We spent the better part of a year planning this invite-only event which came complete with appearances by Kerry King, Michael Batio, and Vinnie Moore. To boot, we reassembled our entire NAMM booth in our Tampa facility and rolled out the red carpet (500 feet of it quite literally) for all of our guests, did factory tours of the facility and USA custom shop, unveiled new 2020 product, curated Q&A sessions, and put on artist clinics. This was, by far, the event of the year, and I couldn’t be prouder of my team for facilitating it so seamlessly.

My primary focal point concerning the macro-industry outlook is that this a crucial weed-out year for a lot of brands and dealers alike. As the overall musical instrument industry continues to contract, it becomes ever more so a market-share game where the cream rises to the top at a rapid rate. The industry is forcing people to be at the top of their game to survive – that constitutes consumer expectations of increased quality, quicker lead times, better customer service, more robust distribution, greater operational and logistical efficiencies, more innovative product offerings, and a renewed focus on intangible value-adds. 2020 is going to be a year of reckoning that separates the men from the boys – so to speak.