Black founders across many industries are gravely underrepresented, but that fact is especially true in the spirits industry.

According to Digiday, Pronghorn research reports that while Black Americans represent 12 percent of alcohol consumers across categories, they only make up 7.8 percent of the labor force and two percent of executives in the industry. With DuBlase, Eakins hopes that his whiskey brand will help change these statistics and inspire more ownership in the industry.

One way that Eakins is focused on this goal is by forming strategic partnerships with other Black-owned businesses to promote more growth. To him, the No. 1 challenge for diversity in spirits is the lack of distribution for Black business owners, so his solution is to share information and resources to increase access.

“Every state has its own laws on alcohol. So, just having that access to different distributors is challenging,” he says. “There have been quite a few brands to try to come to market, but they get shut down at the distribution level, so they’re never really able to [make that happen]. Unless you have your own distillery, which few Black-owned brands do, it’s difficult to [break through].”

As a newer brand on the market, Eakins finds it helpful when other, more experienced, Black-owned brands are able to extend a helping hand by sharing their own knowledge of the dos and don’ts in the spirits space.

“Getting that success and paying it forward” is a method he believes builds unity amongst other Black founders and stimulates change.

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Darrin Eakins

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