On today’s episode, I sit down with Seamus Menihane, Co-Founder and CEO of Armada, an entertainment merchandise company that works with artists and brands to design, manufacture, and distribute merchandise across e-commerce and live touring.

Seamus started his career as a touring musician, playing drums in bands for years before becoming interested in the business mechanics behind the scenes, particularly the role merchandise plays in how working artists actually make money. In 2017 he launched Downright Merchandise, originally as a scrappy operation helping bands run their own online stores and sell tour inventory directly to fans. Last year, the company merged with Overcast Merchandise to form Armada.

In this conversation, we talk about how the modern band merch ecosystem actually works, from product design and sourcing blank garments to screen printing, fulfillment, and the logistics of getting inventory onto a tour with almost no margin for error.

We also explore Armada’s evolution as a company, including lessons from attempting to vertically integrate manufacturing, how the company thinks about financing larger artist deals, and why Seamus believes customer data will become increasingly important for artists over time.

I learned so much from my conversation with Seamus and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.