Robbins Testimony

Issuer: Congressional materials
Document type: Robbins Testimony
Date: 2025-05-14
Case: Robbins Testimony

Summary

Written testimony of Julie Robbins, CEO and owner of EarthQuaker Devices LLC, a guitar effect pedal manufacturer in Akron, Ohio, before the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship at a hearing titled "Financing America's Manufacturing and Industrial Boom" on May 14, 2025. The testimony states that the company has thirty-five employees and manufactures in the United States but sources electronic components from abroad, and that tariffs and the ensuing trade war have raised costs and cut sales. It reports additional tariffs on imported components of as much as 185%, changes announced on May 12th reducing reciprocal tariffs to 30% for a total of 75%, sales down 15% year to date with April down 33%, and approximately $1.2m in bank loans. It asks that the tariffs be reversed or small businesses exempted.

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Testimony of Julie Robbins, CEO and Owner, EarthQuaker Devices LLC

U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Financing America’s Manufacturing and Industrial Boom

May 14, 2025

Thank you, Chair Ernst, Ranking Member Markey, and all members of this committee. I
appreciate the opportunity to share my perspective on the topic of today’s hearing, Financing
America’s Manufacturing and Industrial Boom. That is a noble endeavor and one for which my
background in banking, investments and as a small business owner manufacturing in the USA
qualify me to oﬀer my advice. However, without immediate relief from the tariﬀs and ensuing
trade war, US manufacturing companies like mine will not survive the summer and certainly will
not contribute to a boom.

My name is Julie Robbins and I am the CEO of EarthQuaker Devices, a guitar eﬀect pedal
manufacturer based in Akron, OH. I own the company with my husband, Jamie Stillman, who
founded the company and designs the products. Prior to running EarthQuaker Devices, I worked
at a community bank – ﬁrst as a branch banker. Then in the back oﬃce for investment services,
and ﬁnally as a ﬁnancial planner serving many small business owners. I have a degree in
Economics from Baldwin-Wallace University, which was a signiﬁcant achievement as I had my
ﬁrst son, Gavin, a month after I turned eighteen, and a month before I graduated high school.

I founded EarthQuaker with my husband, Jamie Stillman twenty years ago, and after all the
challenges and struggles we have faced over the years, I never imagined that the greatest
existential threat to our company would come from our own government.

I am a third-generation small business owner, and both Jamie and I have always had an
entrepreneurial spirit. I started my ﬁrst business, a cleaning company, when I was twelve. He
started his ﬁrst business, a record label named Donut Friends, at the age of thirteen. When we
met in our late teens, I was a young single mother, having had my son Gavin a month after I
turned eighteen and a month before I graduated high school. We shared a strong work ethic, a
do-it-yourself mindset, as well has the strength and fortitude to forge our own paths, rather
than simply relying on an employer for a paycheck.

Our company grew very much “by the bootstraps,” by starting small and continuously
reinvesting in the business. We were never interested in taking on investors, but we did utilize
the services of the SBA via a 7(a) loan, our local export focused SBDC at Cleveland State
University for export training and matching grants, the Ohio TechCred grant to upskill
employees to promote our workforce from within, as well as foster a culture of continuous
EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
improvement. We used the funds from the Payroll Protection Program during COVID and kept
our staﬀ fully employed during all the lockdowns. We also extensively use the services of
Magnet, a Cleveland based national Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, for
consulting, education, and networking.

Today, we have thirty-ﬁve employees, and we are a 100% USA-based manufacturer. Our
capabilities include CNC routing, powder coating and UV printing enclosures, populating PCBs,
assembly and testing of ﬁnished products. However, the raw materials used for our products are
sourced from abroad. There are no domestic manufacturers of the electronic components used
in our products. They come from a variety of locations, mostly in Asia such as China, Maylasia,
South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand but also from Canada and Mexico.

Since the tariﬀs and escalating trade war have gone into eﬀect, our business has suﬀered dire
consequences. Our costs have increased drastically, while our sales have fallen rapidly. Although
we need to raise prices immediately, lack of clarity and uncertainty for the future hinder our
ability to plan and execute. Raising prices will undoubtedly contribute to an additional slowing
of sales. Our carefully crafted supply chain is disrupted, and we lack the resources to navigate
these changes without the resources of a large corporation.

Our small team has spent countless hours crunching numbers, running models, worst case
scenarios, searching for suppliers, attempting to set up accounts with new vendors, researching
mitigation strategies – only to have the situation change quickly and with no notice. We have
delayed product launches as well as completely scrapped plans for new releases because of the
increased costs and ongoing confusion.

We have heard of news of exemptions and raced to see if our components were included, only
to ﬁnd that they were added to beneﬁt large corporations. Large technology or automobile
companies have departments of lawyers and analysts to help them lobby for and negotiate
policies for their beneﬁt. As a small business owner, I feel an incredible sense of frustration as
the disparity between large and small businesses grows wider. The trade organization which
represents the musical instrument manufacturers has chosen to lobby on behalf of the largest
companies in the industry – guitar manufacturers – for exemptions on imported hardwoods.
This has absolutely no beneﬁt to companies like mine who have no need for wood.

We are typically planning at least a year in advance, but now all of that is complete mystery.
What will happen when the reciprocal tariﬀs kick back in? If customers think prices will go
down, they will wait for the lower price. If they buy at the higher price, they will expect price
protection by way of a credit if the price is reduced. And what if more changes that we cannot
anticipate happen, and how will we adapt? It is exhausting to keep up with the constant

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
changes and unpredictability. From week-to-week things are diﬀerent, giving us whiplash trying
to keep up. Businesses rely on predictability and stability to plan and grow. The changes
announced on May 12th are a great example of this. Are they oﬃcial yet? Can I update my
planning? I have whiplash and things rarely remain the same from week to week.

All our imported components now have additional tariﬀs added, recently as much as 185%. On
May 12th there were again further changes announced, reducing reciprocal tariﬀs down to 30%
plus the 2018 and 2015 executive actions for a total of 75%. It would also seem to be a
temporary plan, and will certainly change again, so it is impossible to forecast and implement a
price increase.

Tariﬀs are taxes paid to Customs and Border Patrol by the small business that imports the
product to release the product from the shipper. There are other fees and expenses that
accumulate due to the tariﬀs, such as “material handling charges” and “brokerage fees” that
add as much as an additional 10-25% onto the price. The tariﬀ rate can change after the product
is shipped, in this case tripling the price of the components with no recourse for the small
business. We cannot calculate the impact without clear data, and that has been diﬃcult or
impossible to ﬁnd.

One of my competitors, Robert Keeley of Keeley Electronics, located in Oklahoma City, OK, place
an order for components which shipped on March 27. The shipment cleared customs on April
16. The price he paid for the components was $7,700. He paid tariﬀs of $6489, slight more than
82%, and the following additional fees “Disbursement Fee $131.14, Export Customs Clearance
Fee $43.99, Additional Classiﬁcations $344, Fuel Surcharge $183.75, AMS Fee $35, Customs
Brokerage Charge $145, Ocean Freight LCL $612.50, Harbor Maintenance Fee $18.04,
Merchandise Processing Fee $49.95, ISF Filling Fee NVO $50, Bundle Origin $320 for a total of
$8,422.37. This represents a 123% increase over the price of the components. These fees are
not transparent in origin and diﬃcult to predict.

It is a priority for me to make data driven decisions. My inventory manager has been adjusting
the data as the changes roll out, and as our demand falls. We used to forecast for one thousand
pedals per week, but due to the decline in sales we are forecasting only 750 pedals per week.
Because we have inventory on the shelves it takes us about 6 months to completely turn over
our parts and begin use of new stock. The following is a chart demonstrating the weekly impact
of tariﬀs forecasted as of April 14th:

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
And here is the data expressed as a table:

Ending date Month Weekly increase Weekly pedals Cost per pedal

4/27/2025 April $ 15.57 750 $ 0.02

5/31/2025 May $ 510.76 750 $ 0.68

6/30/2025 June $ 1,810.72 750 $ 2.41

7/31/2025 July $ 2,898.48 750 $ 3.86

8/30/2025 Aug $ 4,239.44 750 $ 5.65

9/29/2025 Sept $ 8,200.76 750 $ 10.93

10/31/2025 Oct $ 8,552.41 750 $ 11.40

11/30/2025 Nov $ 9,435.59 750 $ 12.58

12/28/2025 Dec $ 9,598.23 750 $ 12.80

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
We have consistently been net exporters, where our exports exceed our imports by two times.
In fact, the SBA awarded EarthQuaker Devices the 2019 Exporter of the Year. This year our
exports are down as much as 50% to 100% in some countries. Our customers say this is due to
anti-American consumer sentiment and the global ﬁnancial fallout from the chaotic rollout of
US tariﬀs. It is devastating to see America’s reputation fall so swiftly.

If our primary objective were to make the highest amount of proﬁt, it would have always been a
more aﬀordable option to outsource our manufacturing to another country. It would have
minimized complexity as well. However, our values are to create and maintain good jobs in our
hometown, so we absorbed the extra expense to make this work. Akron suﬀered after rubber
manufacturers moved their operations abroad in the 70s and 80s and growing up in that
environment shaped our mentality on this.

We are considering for the ﬁrst time oﬀshoring manufacturing to reach our export markets,
something we would never have considered if these tariﬀs had not been implemented. The
increased cost of continuing to manufacture our products in the USA will make them
uncompetitive in the global marketplace. We could manufacture in China to serve other
markets and remain competitive and relevant. With our income declining so rapidly, I fear I have
no other choice.

Our domestic sales have also slowed rapidly. We sell primarily to music stores. The feedback I
am receiving is that they are loading in heavily on imports before the reciprocal tariﬀs kick back
in and prices go up. Just another example of how this is backﬁring, and American small
businesses are paying the price.

Overall, our sales are down 15% year to date. April was down 33%. We already operate on a
thin margin to pay our employees’ living wages and competitive beneﬁts such as health
insurance, 401k match and paid parental leave. If these losses persist or widen beyond the next
month, we will have no option but to scale back beneﬁts and reduce our workforce. This would
have devastating consequences for our employees who have worked so hard for us and rely on
their jobs to support their families and provide health insurance.

Today, we have perfect credit and have never missed a payment, but sustained losses threaten
our ability to repay our debts and put us at risk of bankruptcy by the end of the year. We have
approximately $1.2m in loans from a local community bank. The loans have ﬁnanced the
purchase of two manufacturing facilities in downtown Akron, a state-of-the-art PCB assembly
line as well as a line of credit to even out cash ﬂow. We are rapidly running out of liquidity.
Banks typically attach a covenant to their lending which requires the borrower to maintain a
minimum Debt Service Coverage Ratio. As our sales decline, we lose borrowing power and

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
could soon ﬁnd ourselves under the required ratio and considered to be in default – without
even missing a payment.

Another concern is that our home is collateral for the bank so if we default, we will lose
everything we have worked for, just as our two daughters are in college. I do not see more debt
as the answer, and I do not know why a bank would loan money to a business without a clear
path to success. To be truthful, the suggestion that I borrow money and pay interest to ﬁnance
taxes and fees abruptly imposed on me by the government is oﬀensive.

The idea that the government can abruptly change the playing ﬁeld with no apparent concern
for the impact the changes have, taking massive amounts of money from small businesses by
way of taxes and fees does not feel American to me. It sounds more like a policy you might hear
from a country with an authoritarian government who does not value free enterprise.

You may ask, why don’t we just manufacture all the raw materials here in the USA? To start, I do
not know how to make these 1000s of individual components. Second, I do not have the money
to open more factories and invest in hundreds of new machines to make them. I cannot imagine
the cost, but I know I do not have it. Finally, I do not have time. It would require years of
planning and investment, not weeks or months. The tariﬀs are impacting me today and I need
an immediate solution.

In mid-April, I decided to invite other USA based pedal manufacturers to a Zoom support group.
The group now has over thirty members from across the USA. We are all in the same position
and trying desperately to survive this massive disruption. As I understand, the intention of the
tariﬀs is to help US manufacturers. I can assure you, not one of these companies have beneﬁt in
any way and we all are at risk of going out of business.

We have shared ideas on how to adapt. What would it take to manufacture just one of these
components in the USA? One of my competitors, Jon Cusack of Cusack Music in Holland,
Michigan, researched the possibility. The component selected is a 16mm Potentiometer (used
to adjust parameters on a product, such as tone, level, distortion, etc.). His current annual
volume of the component is around 130,000, and his current cost is $0.22, for an annual cost of
$28,600.

The analysis showed that the cost per part would be $3.75 at an annual volume of 130,000, for
an annual cost of $487,500, or over seventeen times our current cost. This number does not
include the upfront tooling charge, weeks, or months prior to receiving parts. The lowest
estimate for tooling is $238,500, which is over eight times the current annual cost.

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
As you can see, it is not a cost-eﬀective solution to source our components in the US. Both the
up-front tooling cost, and the ﬁnal component costs are just too high to justify even one
component.

If we cannot manufacture them, could we ﬁnd a domestic supplier? I received an email from the
SBA recommending the NIST sourcing tool to ﬁnd domestic suppliers and decided to search for
one of our most necessary components, blank PCBs. Prior to the new tariﬀs in 2025, we paid
approximately $1.40 per panel from our long-time trusted supplier. Most of the companies
recommended by this tool were manufacturing abroad but had an oﬃce in the USA. The prices
ranged from $20.70 to $31.19 per panel. That is not a viable option and would push our prices
up beyond what the market will bear. Finding a new supplier is not as simple as ﬁnding the best
price, and we must consider lead time, business practices and most importantly the quality.

Another frustration we all share, there is also no government support available. There are no
grants or loans available like there was during COVID, but this threat is much worse than COVID
for my company. No webinars about how to adapt. The SBA and MEP network is losing funding
at a time when they are most needed. Prior to implementing the tariﬀs, no one asked how we
would be impacted or what we needed to succeed.

As I have shown, we are already manufacturing in the USA. We cannot manufacture electronic
components, and we cannot ﬁnd a new domestic supply chain. We cannot borrow more money.
We cannot continue to sustain these losses and market disruptions. We are oﬀered no support
or resources to navigate these rapidly developing changes. If the tariﬀs are not swiftly removed,
our options are to close, sell or oﬀshore our manufacturing.

If we close our business, it will have impact on our employees and their families, our dealers
and distributors, our vendors and suppliers, the artists we pay royalties to for their
collaborations, our community bank and musicians everywhere who rely on our products for
their sound.

If the objective of this committee is to increase investment in the USA, then they must consider
how to repair the trust lost by those who have already invested heavily in the USA and now run
the risk of losing their investment. The idea that the government can abruptly change the
playing ﬁeld with no concern for the impact of the changes is devastating.

I have concluded that there are no other options - these tariﬀs need to be reversed by the
administration immediately to prevent the mass extinction of American small businesses.
Rescinding the tariﬀs or exempting small businesses, as ranking member Markey’s proposed bill
does, would be the ﬁrst step of many needed to rebuild trust in doing business in the USA for

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com
current and potential investors in US manufacturing. Any changes to economic and trade policy
should meet the needs of businesses where they are today, not years in the future.

EarthQuaker Devices
350 W Bowery St
Akron OH 44307 USA
www.EarthQuakerDevices.com

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Robbins Testimony

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