He made it pretty clear when he switched to Tama that he was 60 and was going to play what he wanted and not apologize for it.
That's too bad he waited until he was 60!
Whether it's DW-Tama, Zildjian-Meinl or whatever, an endorser's credibility/integrity is important, particularly to the company whose products the artist helps to promote with the connection of his/her name with theirs.
For the most part, if an artist moves around too much, they lose their value as an endorser, and the deals and company affiliations begin to wane. There are a few name guys whose word means little these days, and their eventual brand affiliations reflect that. There are also a few guys who can skip around often, and still possess enough name value so that the company doesn't really care, and will take what they can from the artist, while they can... just as the artist does to them. Those drummers' names are worth more than their ethics, and sometime you just have to say 'business is business'. Just to be clear, I'm
not referring to Erskine here.
As for the influence that an endorser has on someone purchasing the product, nobody really expects a drummer to see an ad with a name drummer and a product, and order it just for that reason. The goal is that a drummer sees the ad, and then looks into the brand or product when making a purchasing decision. For example, when I talk about the brands and specific products I endorse, I would hope that you investigate the item before buying it on my word alone. My value as an endorser is that I'm known to make informed choices of the gear I associate my name with, and I'm in the community, not only on forums like this one, but I'm easy to reach via email, and I also chat with drummers in person while I'm in stores and on tour. In fact, I'm rarely featured in ads or some catalogs (Sabian
JUST included my photo in their new catalog after 21 years with them!) yet I'm among the more visible of some of the companies' artists. Anyway, that's where my main credibility lays, it's nothing to do with being a virtuoso player. Of course it doesn't hurt that I've got an extremely long-running gig with a very visible and popular artist.
I don't know how long Erskine was with DW, but if he moves from Tama in the next 5 years, I'd definitely question his choices about gear. In the meantime, I do pay attention to what other pros use, they may know something I don't!
Bermuda