The Pen Addict 223/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	223
Title:	You Need Top-Zip
Release Date:	September 21st, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 223
Audio File:	Audio Episode 223
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 223
Length:	9393 min <br />1.55 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Kickstarter Campaign

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode number 223. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by the wonderful Mr. Brad Dowdy. We have a massive show today. I'm so excited. So excited, Brad.

Kickstarter Campaign

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm pretty excited too. I don't really know what's happening right now. We're like rushing to jump on this podcast and go live and get it recording. Why is that, Myke?

Myke Hurley: You launched your Kickstarter for the Lanier Briefcase yesterday. We're going to talk about this later on in the show, but we had to rush because there is a goal of $35,000. When I started my intro, the pledge level was at $34,600. We're now at $34,822. I think we're, what, two or three backers away from hitting the goal live on the air. Yeah. So, like, there's nothing we can do about it, because by the time you've heard this, it's happened, but still going back at anyway. You're going to find out later on in the show why, but I know there are a couple of people in the chat room now that I'm sure have been holding off. This thing is going to fund today live on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so...

Myke Hurley: Maybe I'll cry again. Who knows?

Brad Dowdy: Like, 30 minutes before the show, we're about $1,000 short, and I was like, oh, you know, if this thing, the pace keeps just trickling in, which it's been going fine. I mean, the project's been going completely fine. But I was like, well, at this little trickling in pace, it's not really going to get over during the live show, but I think I'll be wrong on that one.

Myke Hurley: I think you're definitely wrong.

Brad Dowdy: I think we're going to hit it.

Myke Hurley: I think you're definitely wrong. We're only a couple of people away. It's going to happen at some point on the show today, so I'm going to keep my eye on that. I've got a little window just open in the background there, so we'll wait until I scream. Yeah. And once I scream, we'll know that it's been done.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Hot Cup 11 called it yesterday. She said, I bet it funds on the show live tomorrow. And I said, well, actually, I hope it is funds by the time I wake up in the morning, which it obviously didn't because we're talking about it now, so...

Myke Hurley: No, this is way better. This is way better to fund on the show than when we sleep in.

Unknown: This is what it's all about, man.

Brad Dowdy: It's not better for my nerves.

Myke Hurley: Of course it is. It's a way better feeling. I mean, I know you've got the nerves, but you wake up and it's like, hooray, but this is like building to something. We're going to capture it live. This is amazing.

Brad Dowdy: We will.

Myke Hurley: But we've got some follow-up. I wanted to just say, obviously, I was away last week and you and Carrie did a fantastic job. Absolutely loved the episode. So thank you so much to both of you for putting that together whilst I was in the air somewhere.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we got a lot of good feedback on that too. Carrie was awesome. I loved the show. I thought we did a good job and I was happy with the outcome for sure.

Myke Hurley: You're a good host, you know. I try. No, you are. You did really great with the ads. You should just take over.

Brad Dowdy: I need some practice ad reads, but no, I don't want to take over.

Myke Hurley: No, you did a good job, man.

Brad Dowdy: No, this is why we've been so successful because we have this mojo. Like you do the hosting and I do the talking and that's how we roll.

Myke Hurley: That is how we roll.

Brad Dowdy: When that script flips like it did last week, I almost forgot like the ads. I had to pull them up right before the show started. I was like, oh, I need to get the reads. And then, you know, I still don't want to read, like read, read the ad. So, you know, I kind of, kind of, you know, just kind of talk my way through them and insert some Bradness into it. But hopefully it went okay for you.

Myke Hurley: I loved it. You did a great job.

Brad Dowdy: Good, good, good, good.

Myke Hurley: Brad, we just hit one more. We're one away.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, then why is mine not refreshing?

Myke Hurley: It's one away.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, there it is.

Myke Hurley: One person away.

Unknown: One away. Like, should we even start on these topics? Do you know what? It might be two away because it's the $80, right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think they count shipping in the pledge goal. Oh, they do, yeah. So, that's why the math is a little bit off from like, you know, how many people have backed versus how many dollars are in kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's such a pain for you, right? Yeah, we'll talk about that.

Brad Dowdy: We'll talk about that at the end. We'll save all that to the end. We're one away.

Top Five Pens

Myke Hurley: Top five pens update. That's what we got first up in the document so I can stop screaming.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it feels like I'm giving that little bit short shrift today. And actually, I have a bunch of links that I saved to talk about next week. So, when y'all come listen to this episode, say, why didn't you talk about this? Why didn't you talk about that? Save them for next week. I got a bunch of stuff already for next week that I knew we wouldn't have time for today. But I wanted to... Oh, someone just canceled their pledge. I know.

Unknown: I know. I wasn't going to say anything.

Brad Dowdy: My money's on Tony. I bet Tony's in there. Well, you know what it is?

Myke Hurley: Someone's listening live. They want to be the one to push it over the edge. So, they've canceled their order. Right? They're going to wait for one more person to jump in and then hitting it.

Unknown: Oh, that's fine.

Myke Hurley: Oh, you're killing us. You're killing us. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Focus, Michael.

Myke Hurley: I can't focus, but I'm trying.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, top five pens. That's been a thing I've always done. And I've refined and reworked how I've done it over the years. And, you know, recently, probably in the past year, I think I've kind of got it down to a science. And the issue with updating it is not a lot of things change. You know, in gel pens, ballpoint pens, all those kinds of things. They don't change that much. Someone's going to have to come up with something really nice to beat the Uniball Sino DX or the Uniball Jetstream and, you know, things like that. So, it's not like I have the opportunity to update this list every three months. There's not enough churn in the market, if you will, on the majority of pens. So, I went through, looked through all the lists. You know, most of the lists didn't change for the standard pens, if you will. I did add a just-miss section because there's some good pens that kind of get left out a little bit. And so, I wanted to make sure they're talked about, like, in the micro gel ink pens.

Myke Hurley: Like a special mention kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. Like special mention. Like, the Pentel Energel Euro is a wonderful gel ink pen. And it just, it never really cracks my top five because it doesn't have as many colors, as many barrel styles, as something like the Zebra Saracic clip. You know, it's never really going to beat that pen. And it doesn't mean it's not an awesome pen for someone who's looking for a great black ink needlepoint 0.35 millimeter gel ink pen. It's killer. So, I added that into all these lists.

Myke Hurley: Did it. It's done.

Myke Hurley: It's done. It's done. See, I knew it, right? You know what happened? It's one of these people in the chat room here.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I can tell who-

Myke Hurley: It went up by one and then immediately made it.

Brad Dowdy: Do you want me to go look? I can see what you guys do, by the way. Do you want me to go look? No, no. Okay, I'm not going to go look because I'm not even logged into the back end.

Myke Hurley: Whoever it was, they claimed their victory. It doesn't matter because they did it. You did it, man! We did it! Yeah! I am so pumped for you guys. My God, less than 24 hours.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like almost exact, like we turned it on at 10 a.m. yesterday, but we did it in, I guess you would call it a soft launch. Like, I just sent it out to the newsletter, the NotCode newsletter subscribers. And because we had a bunch of early bird cases that we wanted to do, so I wanted to make sure they got the first shot at it. So we didn't really kind of go public, like with blog posts and things like that till 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. So yeah, 24 hours. I will take it.

Myke Hurley: This episode is a mess. We're like, here's part of the next topic. We'll do it right now. And we'll just start screaming for a while. Man, I am so freaking proud of you two. Thank you. My God, what a business you have built. I am so proud of you. I'm so proud of you.

Brad Dowdy: I've got a huge smile on my face. And I was telling you how I was feeling nervous before we launched this. You know, it's been a lot of stress. I feel pretty good right now. I bet you do. So I'm not going to lie. I feel better.

Myke Hurley: I cannot even describe how happy I am that we've been able to do it now. And, you know, I feel like a kindred spirit to your company. So on behalf of you guys, I want to thank everyone.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, you're a big part of it. I'm not going to lie.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, I'm a sometimes employee, right? For a week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly.

Myke Hurley: Maybe two weeks next year.

Brad Dowdy: I said in the newsletter that I sent out, you know, I'm not sending out this newsletter out to just customers. I'm sending out to friends. And that's what I feel this business is built on. And now I'm about to cry.

Myke Hurley: Good. You got to get those feels out, man. You got to just get them all out.

Brad Dowdy: You know, that's the kind of business, you know, Jeff and I built. You know, we, our customers are our friends. And that's how we want it to be. And, you know, that I think that makes for a good business.

Myke Hurley: I think history is showing out right now. Yeah. It's making for a good business. I'm so excited about this. Well, thank you. This is amazing.

Brad Dowdy: And thanks to everyone in the chat room. I'm getting lots of thanks and all that stuff. So I really, really appreciate it. And Jeff does too. We got to get him on here soon.

Myke Hurley: Well, I was thinking maybe in the coming weeks before the end of the campaign. So we can kind of talk about the campaign. And maybe as we're getting, you know, towards the end of that or something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the last push.

Myke Hurley: That might be fun. Actually, it will be fun. But that's a good idea. All right. Let's go back to these top five pens. We're going to talk more about the Kickstarter campaign in a bit.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we'll have a whole huge, most of the show will be on the Kickstarter. But I just did want to bring that up. I did, most of the updates were small. There were a few changes in all of the fountain pen price ranges for the most part. There's some different things. There's some price changes. There's some price adjustments. I did add a top five fountain pens between $200 and $500. That's been asked ever since the beginning. But I was never comfortable doing it until I had enough experience in that area. And I've gotten that experience via my wallet in the past year or so. So I felt like I was able to put together a good list and explain why these pens are good for the price that you have to spend, even though they're quite expensive. And I think that's mostly it. Did I add another list? So I added that list.

Myke Hurley: It's interesting to see the Aurora Optima straight in on that top five fountain pens $200 and $500 range.

Wooden Pencils

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Before I get to that, I want to talk about that. I did add the top five wooden pencils. That was one I wanted to have more of a range for as well to understand what makes a good pencil. So I've been using pencils regularly for probably the past year or two. But I just had the Blackwing 602 and the Tombow Mono 100 for the most part. So I wanted to get some more pencils in, kind of broaden my horizons until I was able to talk about that. So I didn't want to just put something straight away that I'm going to have to totally revise the next time I do it because I've gotten more experience with it. I wanted to go ahead and have that experience before I commit to putting out a list like this. Because like we talk about, this is a recommendations list, right? This is not a Brad's, what Brad uses every day, even though 90% of it is what I use every day. But this is where people go for recommendations. I'm looking for this X and you can look at this list and get a pretty good idea of what has stood the test of time. So back to the Optima. Kind of like the Pilot Custom 823, it's a pin I can't put down.

Brad Dowdy: And when I started looking at pins in that price range for between $200 and $500, there was two easy ones. It's the Pilot Custom 823, which I haven't shut up about since I bought it, and the Sailor Pro Gear. And both of those are in the $200 range. So they're on the lower end of the price range. But they provide so much value, quality, style, feel, fit, finish, everything about a pin that you want. Those two pins have. And since that price range is so broad, those two are the clear standouts in the beginning. The third one is the Pilot Custom 912. That's a pin I've used for years. It's only now become widely available in the U.S. So that's why it finally made the list. And it's just over $200. It's $220-ish, $230-ish.

Brad Dowdy: Then I was thinking about this price range. I was like, well, what pins do I have that are $300 or $400? There's a big gap right there. That's your custom pin range. Yeah. Edison, Newton, you know, Brooks, anything you're getting into there.

Myke Hurley: Plus, it gets super hard to separate pins at that level. Right. Because you're at the point now where it's personal taste. Right. Because what you're buying is design. Yeah. Because you've already gone past the level of where you can change nibs up. Like the $200 to $500 range is where all the nibs are. And then like $500 plus is where it's just all about design. Would I be right in saying that? Yeah, that's fair.

Brad Dowdy: That's fair. But yeah, like every pin I own that's like in the $300 or $400 range is a custom pin. So those aren't going to land on the recommendations list, even though they're some of my favorites. Just because that's not necessarily a stock item. Right. It's a one-off.

Myke Hurley: And it's unrealistic for most people to really make that choice. Like, oh, I'll go five of them or something. It seems a bit. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So then to fill out that range, what other pins do I like in that price range? And I'm just absolutely in love with the Optima. You're going to see a bunch of Aurora reviews coming up on the blog. I've taken some pictures. Kenro hooked us up with a bunch of pins to review. I've already got – I mean, I've had mine since the DC show, which actually isn't that long ago. And didn't realize how exceptional the build quality and nibs are on these pins. And the biggest reason is they had a huge price drop like in the past six months. This used to be like a $700 to $800 pin. Now they're $450 to $500.

Myke Hurley: Why is that?

Brad Dowdy: I don't really know the story, but I'm going to talk to Kenro about that. And actually, we're going to try to get – we've talked about getting the guys from Kenro on the show to talk about different things like that. So that will be a question for them that I'll have clarity on. But, I mean, that comes from Aurora, not from Kenro, right? So we'll just have to figure out what the answer is. And then the Pelican 600, which is a wonderfully sized Pelican. Like the 400 series is too small. The 1,000s are way too big. The 600 and 800 are pretty good size-wise. And that's a pin I ink up quite frequently because the Pelican nibs are so nice in those gold nibs. So, you know, that's that range. That's probably the range I use the most these days as far as the pins that I'm inking up and using all the time. And I put in the Just Miss section of that. I put in the Sailors that are like the Pro Gear but are a little bit more special, like the Black Luster and the Imperial Black, both of which I use constantly. They're just more – they're worth a mention because they're more of a one-off to the standard Pro Gear line. So, I think that's pretty much the top five in a nutshell. There's – it gets to a point where it kind of, you know, it's at the point where it just – it's kind of answers itself. There's no new stuff coming in a lot of these categories because, I mean, what's tried and true works. And there's not a ton of innovation, especially in the low end of the market, like with Pilot, Uniball, and Zebra, and Pentel. You know, we're going to start to see – I've seen pictures of a few new models out. You know, are they going to be better than what we already have? Who knows? But, you know, we'll see. You know, this is no more than two updates a year at this point to the top five pins list. I think that's a good pace for it with the lack of change in it. So, I'm very happy with the list, though. Like, it's got really good stuff on it. And it's the stuff I stand behind. It's the stuff I point people to all the time. So, I'm real happy with the list.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

TWSBI

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, our buddies at Twisby are up to their Twisby things again. Have you seen these – did you get a chance to look at these two links I put in the show notes?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know what that yet means. So, the first one is the Twisby Lime Green Eco.

Brad Dowdy: It's bright. I kind of like it. I still like the white one the best.

Myke Hurley: I think that might be an insta-buy for me. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I like the color, but it's not my favorite. It's really, really sharp. I mean, it's fluorescent lime green. It's not lime green. It's essentially like fluorescent yellow green. But this one's done. This one's coming.

Myke Hurley: So, this is how they should do it. I mean, our problem with Twisby in the past has always been the way that they just show these products off with absolutely no real information. This one, I'm happy with. They said, like, here's what it is. Available in October. Awesome. Right. Great. Good work, guys. Nailed it.

Brad Dowdy: So, I'm pretty confident that we're going to see an orange, too. I mean, I have no reason to say that. I mean, it's not like they've shown a picture or anything. But if you're doing that kind of color, you're going to do orange. I'm hoping, anyway. So, you know I'll be happy about that. Just blind faith. Yeah. I do. Well, Twisby's always been good with the orange. Orange is one of their colors. So, the other link is a, we're going to call this an update to the 580 line. Like a re-engineering of the 580 barrel. They say we've been working on this new pin for some time. It's almost there.

Brad Dowdy: It's, I don't know. It's hard to tell exactly. But it doesn't have the aluminum barrel. It's the standard, I mean, aluminum section. It's got the standard plastic section. Which I think the aluminum section 580s are better. But if they've integrated that section like they've done with the Eco. Where there's no pressure there. Like there's no more unscrewing and screwing right there. Which makes it a little bit stronger pin. Then that would be a good thing. And then other than that, they've kind of like elongated the barrel cap. Tapered the collar around the barrel, around the cap. A few things like that. I mean, for all intents and purposes, at first glance, I'd say it's the exact same pin. But there's obviously some differences to it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the cap's slightly different. The barrel is shorter. The nib protrudes further. Is your right? It doesn't look like that there is a separation in the section anymore. Yeah. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: You see a threading in the section. So, I don't know.

Myke Hurley: Well, I think it's a threading for the cap.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, I see.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I had the same thing. I was like, is that inside? No, but that's where the cap screws are.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that is on the outside, isn't it? Yeah. So, that's good. I mean, that's a good move. I mean, they obviously did the right thing. I haven't heard anyone's...

Myke Hurley: They're aware of their problems, which is a good thing to see.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I haven't seen anyone complain about like cracking in the eco, like around the section where you used to have problems.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I've had all of my Twissies broken. That one hasn't...

Pen Chalet

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a stronger design.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So, anyway, they're always up to something on Facebook. And it's funny. It seems to come in waves. Like they just unload all these ideas at one time, just brain dump everything. It's kind of funny.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's... It's... They just do what they do.

Brad Dowdy: Twisby gonna Twisby.

Myke Hurley: I just... I just wish that they just gave a little bit more information with some of their stuff. Like this 580, it's like... It's almost that. Like what does that even mean? Yeah. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm glad they're bringing back the full blue barrel, though. That was one of their original 540 colors.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah, it's a good color. I had that one. That was my first one.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Myke Hurley: All right. Do you want to take a quick break? And we've got more follow-up. Yeah, let's... So, we've kind of elongated the show in a strange way because of our screaming.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We'll do it.

Harry's

Myke Hurley: Harry's is sponsoring the Twix episode. I want to talk to you about something different for Harry's, though. Because this is something that they've got that's quite new. So, you may have used Harry's in the past. Or you've never used them before for whatever reason because you wanted a different kind of thing from them. But we have a new offer, Brad. Oh, yeah. This is brand new for us to offer on the show. So, this is pretty exciting. Oh, okay.

Brad Dowdy: I should pay attention then because I don't even know.

Myke Hurley: There you go. See? You know Harry's, right? They're so confident in the quality of their shaving products. They love them. They're now offering you to try them for free. Ooh. Their amazing free trial set comes with a razor, five-blade cartridge, and shaving gel. It's free when you sign up for a Harry's shave plan. All you need to do is pay $3 for shipping and you get that amazing free trial set. Harry's five-blade razors have been updated recently. They now have a softer flex hinge for more comfortable glide, a trimmer blade for hard-to-reach places, lubricating strip, and textured razor handle for more control when your hands are wet. Most companies charge you for more and more money when they upgrade the quality of their products. All the razor companies are maybe the brands you've been using in the past. Harry's doesn't. Their prices are staying the same because they believe in giving a superior experience, superior quality at a superior price. Harry's believes so much in the quality of their razors, they will guarantee their quality. You will get a full refund if you're not happy with any of their products. Their new razors are even higher quality at about half the price still of other big brand blaze. This is why an average and everyday shaver of Harry's saves $150 each year when they shave every single day, which is amazing. You will get the opportunity to have smooth, comfortable shaves every day with great-looking products, stuff that smells great, stuff that feels great. Go to harrys.com right now, use the code PENADDICT to check out, and you'll be able to claim your free trial set. And we've got something extra for listeners of this show. Because you listen to the PENADDICT, you'll also get a bonus post-shave balm added to your order for free. So, because you're a listener of this show, all you'll need to do is pay $3 shipping, and you will get a razor, five-blade cartridge, shaving gel, and post-shave balm as a bonus. All you need to do is pay that shipping. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com, code PENADDICT, to get your free trial set and free post-shave balm. How amazing is that? Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM. That's a sweet offer. That's a great offer.

Brad Dowdy: You want to know my quick Harry story for the day?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, we're driving to school this morning, and I'm taking the kids to school, and I'm listening to the radio, and a Harry's ad comes on, and my daughter goes, Hi, I'm Brad Dowdy, and Harry sponsors the PENADDICT podcast. I just started dying laughing. She just did that on her own. It was hilarious.

Myke Hurley: That is amazing. That's so funny. See? The brand is seeping in. She's getting it. She's getting it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. She's got it, man.

Myke Hurley: That's hilarious. I love that. That was good. I love that. All right. Do you want to move on? Yes. Thanks, Harry's. Go check that out. Seriously, if you haven't checked it out before, we got to lose now. Three bucks. That's all it costs you.

Brad Dowdy: No brainer.

Myke Hurley: No brainer.

Kaweco Pens

Myke Hurley: So, next up today, more follow-up. I want to ask you a question. I saw an Instagram post of a nice blue Kaweco, which had PENADDICT inscribed on it. What is this?

Brad Dowdy: So, it's like, I'll have to even look up the name. I think it's called Cool Mint. It was a custom job done for a store called City Super. They're in Hong Kong and Japan and I think other places. And I probably got a friend of the show, Glenn HK, who's also in the chat room today. I probably got him in trouble because he kind of did this on the stealth mode. He was being the nice guy that he is. You know, he sends us all that stuff for the podcast. Okay. It's called Blue Lagoon. He sends that stuff, you know, when we did the podcast in Atlanta. He's always hooking us up with awesome stuff. So, he saw these Kawecos and offered to do a group buy for them. You know, he would go to the store, pick up these for whoever he wanted and ship them out from Hong Kong. And which is, like, amazing.

Myke Hurley: It's classic, classic Glenn.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Classic Glenn. And what's even more classic is he doesn't tell me anything except, like, the day before I got it, he's like, hey, did you get your package yet? I was like, no, I hadn't seen it yet. It hasn't come. And then the next day it came. And I opened it up and I was like, you sly bastard. I see why you're so anxious to see if I get it now because he went and got, so at City Super, they offer engraving on the pen. So, he went and got them to add Pen Addict on the other side in my script of the pen. And me photographing it probably hosed him up pretty bad because now he's probably got other people asking him, hey, can you do mine? And I thought about that afterwards. I was like, oh, maybe this wasn't a good idea. But it was so cool. I had to do it. So, thank you, Glenn. That was a huge surprise. I was excited for this pen to begin with and to see that on the flip side was pretty cool. I'm using it for the show notes today. And let's just say I have an email in to Kaweco to have a conversation. So, we'll leave it at that for now. Oh, you do, huh? Yeah. This pen got me all kinds of thinking.

Myke Hurley: You want to make one?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Oh, can you imagine?

Brad Dowdy: Well, you can imagine what my email said.

Myke Hurley: Orange. Can you imagine? That's what it said. Hey, I'm Brad Daldi and I believe in orange pens. Speaking on behalf of the Orange Pen Commission.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: The Orange Pen Commission. You get a big kickback from Big Orange, right? Yeah. That's how it works around here.

Brad Dowdy: You're in the pocket of Big Orange. This is Big Orange's season about to be fall. You know, that's Big Orange's primary season. That's where Big Orange makes all their money.

Myke Hurley: So, that's why they're tapping you up now. Yeah. I get it.

Pilot Pens

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of making all the money, Pilot is trying to make all the money with these new high-end Arushi pens.

Myke Hurley: Can you explain this to me? You seem to be freaking out a little bit about it.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not totally freaking out on this. I think it's really exceptional and it's wonderful. So, Pilot is making kind of their stock high-end pen right now is the 823. And then they kind of use Namiki as their high-end brand where you can get some Arushi work. I mean, some Makiyi work done on some of these pens and some Arushi pens and some various high-end pens. You transfer from Pilot into the Namiki line. You transfer from Toyota into Lexus kind of relationship.

Myke Hurley: A lot of vanishing points are sold around the world as Namikis.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, now the interesting thing about this is Pilot is kind of crossing over into that same price point as a Pilot-branded pen. And I mean, it's no big deal either way. You know, maybe that's the direction they want to take the company. And it's just a really pretty high-end pen. You know, Sailor does this on the high-end as well. You know, they make this style of pen with this type of material, this attention to detail, these larger gold nibs. And they sell between, you know, like $800 and $1,000. So, they're real expensive. And they're just kind of, they're the standard gold trim and, you know, gold banding, gold furniture. But the expense comes from the larger nib and the work done to the barrel to get it this way. So, they're really nice.

Myke Hurley: So, it's just plain black, but it's Arushi. Arushi. Yes. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, and Sailor has the same thing in their high-end. Like, they're king of pens, Arushi models. Like, I actually, they're plainer than these and I actually like them better. And the one Namiki pen that I've been looking at, but it's so expensive right now, is called the Yukari Royale, which is a red Arushi pen. Like, I would buy that ahead of, like, one of these pens. But these pens are really nice. Like, this is not on a shopping list type of thing anytime soon for me. But I think it's just interesting from a brand perspective, you know, what Pilot's doing here. And it's kind of cool.

Myke Hurley: Oh, whoa. I've just found that. The Arushi Vermillion. Yeah, that's the one. Yukari Royale. Yeah. It's even got red feed.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Oh, boy. Like, I would, like, that's one on my dream list. Oh, it must have pens. I keep looking. I've been looking at them. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're expensive. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, go back to Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: For those who don't want to click the link, this is a nibs.com special price of $1,200.

Sailor Pens

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. So, yeah. That's on the someday list. I have another pen that I'm saving up for, so. What is that? The Sailor 105th anniversary pen, which we talked about, I think, a few shows back.

Brad Dowdy: 105th? 105th.

Myke Hurley: That's an interesting year to celebrate. 105th. I know. I'm hoping it's up now.

Brad Dowdy: It's an interesting pen. So, I'm on the waiting list for that. So, that's where my funds are allocated right now.

Myke Hurley: You're getting that one.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I'm on the waiting list. There's only 500 being made, and people are only getting a few of them each. So, I don't know if I'll be able to get one.

Myke Hurley: This page has taken a while to load. Mm-hmm. But just the Google, the very brief Google images that I'm seeing. What is that? Like a hexagonal barrel? Whoa.

Brad Dowdy: It's a pentagonal barrel with a blue-black swirl ebonite.

Myke Hurley: Pentagonal makes sense.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: I say it only, but it's $950. So, it's, you know, it's cheaper than the other one, at least. But, yeah, that's... It's super expensive. I tell you what, though. I'm not surprised. This would edge out for me as well. Like, if I was going to get one of these, I'd get this one. Yeah. Because it's got, like, the different blue colors. And, yeah, this is a... Wow. Okay. That is a good-looking pen, my friend.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That one will be worth saving up for, I think. So, hopefully, I hope I get one of those, because they're really nice, and, you know, I like a good sailor.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: We all do. I'm using my sailor today.

Brad Dowdy: You also like a good field notes, huh?

Myke Hurley: Who doesn't? I mean, come on. So, I got back from XOXO. That's where I was last week. The field notes this year were the best they've ever done. You think? By far. Yeah, by far. They're really cool. I mean, like, the last years were, I think, the best, the black ones. I mean, the purples are great, but, like, you know, I want something, like, more, you know? Like, just a solid color is real great, but, like, if I'm going to be at an event and pick up a special field notes, I want it to be, like, like nothing you can get, right? Right. And these are, like, nothing you can get. I don't even know how to describe it. It's like psychedelic paint splatters.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Who was the artist on this, did they say?

Myke Hurley: I don't know. They may have said, but I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Or there may not have been one. There may have just been something they came up with.

Myke Hurley: Field notes have said that they have some extras again, and they're going to be putting them out for sale on the mailing list, so. Cool. Sign up for the mailing list. They have some extras. I will try and get some more, because I only have one pack.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm going to try to get one, just because I have all the other XOs.

Myke Hurley: I couldn't help you out this year. Yeah. No big deal. They were locked down, and everybody wanted them, because they're so cool. Yeah. So no one was willing to give them up.

Brad Dowdy: Sweet. They look great.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. They're a great addition. Really, really nice addition. They're just great inside. There's nothing special going on inside.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So yeah, I really like it. That's the way I like it. Great on the inside.

Myke Hurley: Great on the inside. All right. Main event time.

Brad Dowdy: We've been delaying long enough.

Brad Dowdy: That's why I cut out a bunch of links that I wanted to talk about, and we need to talk about, but they're just going to have to wait until next week, and probably ask TPA too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. We're just all Kickstarter all the time now.

Myke Hurley: So this accelerated quite quickly, this product, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Pretty quick, I think, in relation to how we do things. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, and I was joking around with you. We were chatting the other day. You were saying, finally, about this, about getting it done. And I was joking with you about the folio. Yeah, right. Right? But I think the folio is a good thing to highlight right now. That product has been in development since the beginning, but that one hasn't been able to be put into market yet. Right. The Lanier has only been around since just after Atlanta. That's when the prototype was created. Exactly. So what's the difference for why the Lanier can exist now, but another product like the folio can't?

Brad Dowdy: I think the usefulness within the product lineup, the differentiation within the rest of the product lineup, and us wanting to spread our wings a little bit within the product lineup, and as well as working with the outside manufacturer that we finally have a comfort level with on making the quality quantities that we need.

Myke Hurley: We'll come back to the outside manufacturer a little bit later on, because I have a lot of questions about that. But I'm pleased to hear your reasoning, because that's the reasoning I would have wanted to here, because it shows you're taking the business seriously. Right. Because the folio is a really nice product, but it has not got a big market. Right. Bags? Everyone needs a bag. And more importantly, computer-based bags, which this one is. Anything based around computers, iPads, laptops. That's where the money is. Because everybody needs to put their stuff in bags. And me and you have had this conversation, and I still genuinely believe this. As you guys move further and further into this world, it's game over. And I genuinely believe that. I think that's what helps Knock Co. just blow up. And for some reasons that we'll probably describe later on, I think we both know that this is not the product that does that, but it's an incredible first step into that. It's a very bold first step. It's a bigger first step than most people would make, I think, for a few different reasons. Do you think I'm speaking out of turn, or does that make sense to your thinking?

Brad Dowdy: No, that lines up directly with mine and Jeff's thoughts completely.

Myke Hurley: So we should talk about the design then, and maybe a little bit about why this isn't that bag. And it's in form factor. So explain the form factor and the decisions for the form factor, and answer the question, you know I'm going to ask.

Brad Dowdy: Sure, sure. So I guess let's start at the beginning on how this even happened. We were at the Atlanta Pinshow, and I saw two or three people carrying around the Lihit Lab bag-in-a-bag, the A4 size. Really big.

Myke Hurley: And it made such an impact on us that we both spoke about it on the show, didn't we? Bag-in-a-bag. And I wanted to buy one and couldn't, remember?

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. Right. So it's very large, A4 size, and there's some things I loved about it, and there's some things I didn't like about it. But it's really a stationary-only bag, I find, because it has a three-quarter zip on it. So what that means is if you take a rectangle shape of the bag, the zipper runs from the bottom left corner all the way around the top all the way down to the bottom right corner. That's great for paper, but if you have any kind of digital devices in there, you need the protection that they're not going to slide out when you're not expecting it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you need top zip.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you need that security on the sides of the bag. I was like, well, you know, it really came about, like, if you think about what we're carrying these days, everything's a little bit smaller than what we used to carry, right? I don't need my backpack to carry my iPad in. Yep.

Myke Hurley: And laptops are getting smaller as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've been carrying this 13-inch MacBook, and Jeff's like, well, how about we make one around, like, your MacBook? I was like, well, how about we just make one A4, because that's going to fit all those things. Like, we're a stationary company at heart. A4 is a wonderful full-size pad. It's a common size. Because, you know, people can fit their large A4 Rodias and Leuchtturms and, you know, Life and all these other brands that make A4. And, oh, by the way, that dimension also fits a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It fits MacBook Air.

Unknown: Both iPads.

Brad Dowdy: All iPads. All iPads, including the Pro, which that was a big, big thing for us, you know, fit the Pro and a keyboard. Thank you. You know, an external keyboard. You know, it fits the Acer Chromebooks that are so popular right now, and that's a 14-inch laptop. So, like, A4 fits so many digital things. So, we decided, well, what if we build something to carry, like, your laptop and then the few other things that you need? And I was like, well, this is what I need today. Like, on a daily basis, when I'm driving from my house to knock, I don't need a backpack full of crap, full of bricks, power bricks, and extra hard drives. And, you know, I need my laptop, I need a pad, and I need some pens, and, you know, a place to carry my earbuds. So, we started sketching out the design, working on that. And, you know, like, our first prototype, it fit the 13-inch MacBook, like, super tight. I was like, okay, this is cool. I think we got something. I started carrying it, and I started showing it off to our friends in Atlanta, and, you know, they were like, oh, that's kind of cool. It's a very small bag. Like, it's not, this is not a do-everything-for-everyone bag, and that's on purpose, right? It's designed to do just enough for today. Yeah. And, you know, it's a bag that you want to load up, go to a meeting, load up, go to the coffee shop and work for a few hours, go to your co-working space, you know, go to the office. It's not made to be a messenger bag or a backpack that you can throw everything in, you know, your lunch and your water bottle, sling it on your back, and off you go. Those designs are great.

Myke Hurley: The way that I've been describing this to people is the linear is your other bag. Yeah. It's your other bag. So, like, and it's so small, it fits into your other bag, and then you just take, you know, so you're going somewhere. Like, I think about when I go to conferences and stuff, right? And sometimes, like, I'm in a conference, like, I'm going to one later on in the year, I'm going to UL, and UL is in a hotel.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So, I've taken my Topo bag, and I don't like to carry my Topo bag around because it is full of everything. Like, my Topo bag is my go bag. Like, I have every charger, every cable, every power brick. I have two power bricks in it. Like, it is the bag where, like, everything is in there, nothing's forgotten. So, I hate just taking that around on a daily basis. Mm-hmm. So, I bought a Tom Bin Ristretto, which I kind of like. Mm-hmm. I don't like the one shoulder thing, to be honest. I like either handles or backpack straps. Like, I took the shoulder strap off of my Topo. So, when I'm in somewhere like UL, I just need to put my iPad and a pen and paper. Now, previously, at conferences like that, I'll just carry them down. Right. From my hotel room down to the conference thing, and then I'm carrying them around all day, and then I'm kind of leaving them on the table because I don't want to, like, be carrying around all this junk when I'm going to get some coffee or whatever. But now, I'll have something like, well, I will have the linear because I already have one. Talk about that in a minute. And I can just throw my stuff in there, and I've got it on hand securely, and will also have a little bit more than I would have carried, right? Like, I'll have extra little things in there just because I can put more stuff in. It's great. I really, really, really do like it. I was sent one a little bit early, and I have been using it. I've been taking – basically, when I've been leaving the house, I've been taking a bag where I may not normally take a bag, so I can just kind of get used to it. Right. And I'm just getting used to remembering to pick it up, right, because it's a little bit different because it's always put down. It's not on my back. Right. But I really like the form factor. I really love the bag-in-bagness of it all, and I like that it's forcing me to travel lighter than taking my Topo. So I am a big fan.

Brad Dowdy: Well, thank you. I mean, I think you understand what we're trying to accomplish, and the design was purposeful. I mean, the biggest feedback we have so far, and ever since we started taking pictures of it, is it needs a strap. Yep. And I understand if you want a bag with a strap, this bag is not for you, and we're okay with that. It's not big enough to handle a strap properly for the design of the bag. It's – we would – the bag's so thin, it's one inch in thickness. So you can add loops and D-rings to the side. That's fine. That would look fine. And you can have the clips for a strap to go on there. So the strap we would have to provide if we did something like that would be as thin as the handles on the bag, which is one inch webbing.

Myke Hurley: That's an unacceptable strap.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That's not a quality strap. Yeah, I would prefer – It's going to hurt.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I would honestly prefer no strap because that strap is just so kind of like nothing.

Tombin Bag

Brad Dowdy: Right. Or you pivot over to a padded messenger bag strap, which is way overkill for what this bag is. And even the size of it, even if you did have a strap, the size of it's going to fit awkward on your side or on your back.

Myke Hurley: So that's another issue I have with the Tombin. I feel weird wearing it because it's like this small bag. I mean, not casting aspersions or whatever, but I feel like I'm wearing a purse because I'm like one shoulder and it's like this little thing on the side. And it's just not comfortable for me because I've always carried backpacks. And it just feels too small in a way that I don't like. So this is – a briefcase just makes more sense in my brain than something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it would feel – if we added a strap, it would feel like if you took out your laptop and attached straps to the side of your laptop and then threw it around your back. And no one wants that. That's not comfortable. No.

Myke Hurley: I bet there's a Kickstarter for that. I should say, the Tombin, I just want to say real quick because I've been ragging on it a little bit. It's a great bag and I really, really do like it. But as much as I like some things about it, there are some things about the form factor, whilst it's very convenient, that I don't like. And it's kind of related to wearing it on my body.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, sure. The Tombin makes the amazing, amazing stuff. Like I aspire to be Tombin one day. You know, it'd be pretty awesome. Yeah. That's the dream. Their stuff is amazing. But, yeah. So the bag, I've said it already once and I'll say it again. It's not everything for everyone. You know, it's not going to fit everyone's style of carry. And we hear that constantly. It's like, well, if it had a strap, I'd back it. Well, I mean, I understand that. You know, it's not going to have a strap. It's not designed for that. It's on purpose, you know.

Myke Hurley: I think that you would be biting off a little bit more than you could chew if you went straight to Messenger Bag.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yeah. Yep. So, and that's the thing, you know. Hopefully, eventually, we'll do a Messenger Bag or a backpack or something like that. You know, that's in the long-term plans for Jeff and I. That's a goal of ours. But this was an important bag for us because it solves, like, some problems that we have with our carry these days. Backpacks are getting too big for the things we need to carry. And this solves that problem. Can you sling it across your back? No, you can't. It's a briefcase. You know, and if you're looking, if you need more space, if you need a strap, you know, you should look at a Messenger Bag or a backpack, which I use frequently. I use this more for what I need. And that's the way digital products are going. And for all the people that are our customers, they have analog tools, too. They want to carry their pads and their pens and different things with it. So this meets both of those needs in a very simple way, a very clean way, very durable way. And we're really proud with how the design came out and the quality and feel of the bag.

Lanier Sleeve

Myke Hurley: I think the great way to think about the Lanier is it is a laptop sleeve, right, that you can put into your rucksack, which then converts into a briefcase when you need it. Sure. Right, because you've got a bit of padding in there, too. Yes. So, you know, you can, like, put your iPad in there, put your iPad in, like, in the Lanier, then put your Lanier in the backpack, and then you've got it when you're there, when you've arrived at your destination. So you can carry it around. Here's a question for you, because it's the pen addict. Why are there no pen, like, dedicated pen holder slots in this bag?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we thought about that a little bit. It's like, well, should we add, so the A5 pouch, which we'll talk about, that's one of the common questions we get, too. That's the bag, in bag. Yeah. So that's the inside bag in the front pouch. So the vision I had for the bag is I take this bag to work, you know, every day, and then, you know, if I go on my lunch break or go into a meeting, I can take my, basically, the analog kit out the front, just grab that bag and go. You know, I don't have to muck around with pulling out other things. So within that A5 pouch, there's two side pouches, and they're both open. They're both a little bit bigger than memo book size, for example. And we thought about, okay, do we make one of those, like, a three slot, like we did, like, for the Sinclair, right? Do we make one of those dedicated to pens, and then the other side, you know, open? So, like, the Hightower design, if you will. Do we put the Hightower design inside of there? And we decided against it to give people more flexibility for what they're using it for because there's a lot more digital use for this bag. There's going to be earbuds and small dongles and other little charters. We didn't want to totally pimp people into pen slots on one side when you can easily clip pens vertically there. The pens are going to touch, which is obviously one of my things. But pro tip for all of those not customers already, if you own a lookout, it is made to fit that. But it'll fit a lookout inside of one of those pockets. So, that's it.

Myke Hurley: Can I make a recommendation that I'm sure you've already thought of? Sure. Lookouts in those colorways.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. We're thinking about those types of things for the future, for sure. We didn't want to confuse people for the Kickstarter. Sure.

Myke Hurley: I mean, but, like, just sell them on the Nock website, right? Like, those lookouts that are in the same colors of the bag. Right. So, people could just buy their, like, little lookout and pop it straight in there. Yep. But I actually think that's a good decision, right? To make it a little bit more, make the bag what you make it, rather than this is the pen addict's bag. Right. Because the pen addict's bag would just be, like, 16 brass towns, right? With some straps on the back. And, you know, it's like a fishing vest that straps around the front. You know? That's what the pen addict's bag would be. But luckily, if not made that. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, we wanted to leave those options open and not just totally tell people what to do by putting that in, right? That's your dictating how, you know, we're dictating how people use the bag overall. But we want you to be able to do the things you need to do on the inside of it.

Myke Hurley: Can I talk about a completely non-endorsed by NotCo little hack for the linea? Sure. So, my friend John, John Voorhees, wrote a review at Mac Stories. He writes at Mac Stories. And he was able to get his 15-inch MacBook Pro in the linea. Now, this is unsupported by the NotCo corporation. This is one of the common questions, yeah. He can fit it in there. But he says it's super snug, but it fits. You should go read John's review, by the way, because the bag got run over by a truck and survived. So, you should go and read that.

Brad Dowdy: So, can I say something about John real quick? Yeah. So, you know, we didn't have too many prototypes to send. And John was probably at the top of my list because he talks about pens and stuff all the time to me. So, I know he's into, like, the stationary stuff. And, you know, I mean, he's a perfect technical guy, too, right? I mean, he's into app development. He obviously writes for Mac Stories. And so, I was like, he was number one on my list. Sorry, Myke, you weren't. Sorry. Just to get feedback from, right? I want, this is the kind of person I need feedback from that uses, you know, different devices on a daily basis and, you know, carry stuff and also uses stationary.

Brad Dowdy: So, what did he tell you the first thing, like, after he got it, like, a day or two?

Myke Hurley: No strap.

Brad Dowdy: No strap. So, like, I send these things out without giving the full details of our vision. Like, the conversation we're having now, I don't explain this to people before I send because I need their honest feedback. So, he tells you no strap. And I'm like, yeah, that's how we design. So, about two weeks later, he DMs me and says, he's like, hey, can I get your email? I got some feedback on the Lanier. I'm like, yeah, here's my email. He didn't want to, you know, put it in Twitter, obviously, because it was longer than he thought. And he sent this email that if I could have told the story of the bag once you got it into use was, like, exactly what I hoped someone would said. It would be in John's email. And he was like, you know, I thought I had to have a strap for this bag to be useful. But as soon as I started using it, I realized exactly what it was and how perfect it fits into everything that I do. I was like, John gets it. It's like, that's the answer I was hoping for, you know. But, you know, I don't want to say these things in advance. You know, I want someone to use it.

Myke Hurley: You don't want to taint people's view when they're prototype testing. Like, when you're selling it on Kickstarter, you should tell the whole story so people can understand it, right? Because they're buying it. But when you're sending it out to a tester, I completely agree. Like, let them use it because you might learn something. Don't, like, pigeonhole them in.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, it was very nice to say, okay, I think we've got something here. You know, even if he didn't like it, we're still doing it anyway. But it was nice to have your vision validated. It's always nice, right? So, it worked out really well. And I hope other people, you know, it's, we can't get it to, everyone can't try it before they buy it. So, they have to kind of hear these things, trust these things, you know, get some different opinions on it. What it's good for, what it's not good for. Will it fit into the way you carry things? And then decide if it's a good fit for you. But it's nice when you have a vision for something and you create something and people understand what you're trying to do. It's a cool feeling. I'm not going to lie about that. One thing I forgot to say about talking with John and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Ed Jelly did our photography and project video. So, thank you, Ed. He did a wonderful job. He has a 15-inch...

Myke Hurley: Ah, you answered a question that I had.

Brad Dowdy: Well, there's a point. He has a 15-inch MacBook Pro and it didn't fit. So, you know, or he didn't feel comfortable with that super tight fit. So, I just wanted to mention that. So, yes, it is an off-label use.

Myke Hurley: Does Ed have the Retina MacBook Pro, though? I don't know. Right, so that's the thing. If he has a non-Retina MacBook Pro, it won't fit. But the Retina MacBook Pro is much thinner. So, that's what John has. Makes sense. So, it might be a different product. Yep. But that has answered a question that I had, which was that the production values of your video were vastly improved over last time. I cannot even express how much of a chuckle I got with the way that Jeff was doing his part to camera. You have this little grin on your face the whole time.

Unknown: It's perfect. It's amazing. He even sent me a screenshot of the look in his face because you can't see his lips with his beard, right? He just looks terrified.

Brad Dowdy: He sees his eyes staring at you and he sent me this picture, like a screenshot capture of the video and he's like, oh my God, I'm a serial killer.

Unknown: It's just like dead cold, right? It's just, you know, buy this bag or it's curtains for you. So, you see his beard, eyeballs, and a bald head and you can't see where the voice is coming from. It was great.

Unknown: Oh God, that was so good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it is brilliant. But the whole video, you know, comparing it to the first one, you guys really, really nailed it this time. Like, it was great last time for where you were. Sure. But this time it's like, yep, yep, totally perfect. Like, the key thing here, like, is showing the product and you really show the product. And now I understand why it was so good. Because my question is, because I know that you're good at photography and stuff, but I know you don't do video. And I was confused a little bit as to how you achieved the great production values that you did. But now you tell me I jellied it and it's obvious.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, some things are worth paying for. That's one of those things. The photography and video. Well, yeah. A hundred percent because. That's way worth any amount of money that we spend on that.

Myke Hurley: That's what people are buying it on, frankly. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And looking at Ed's work recently, I knew he could nail, like, what we were trying to accomplish. Good work, Ed. And he did. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Good work, Ed. Amazing work. Seriously. Like, I was very surprised by how good it was. And now I'm unsurprised. Right. Let's talk about the production a little bit. Okay. So, how are these things being made? Because this is different for you.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. This is different for us. So, we found in the, to continue Nock as a business, we had to have outside manufacturing help. We've tried hiring people to ramp up quantities to build inventory and have not been successful at that. There's a large gap in what we would need to hire and what we'd be comfortable doing. Like, we would have to, we, there's basically two choices for us to continue this business. It's become a manufacturing facility or contract manufacturing facility. Jeff and I don't want to run a 20 person manufacturing shop. That's the difference it would take for us to get to where we need to be. That's a massive investment to have the facility, the machinery, the people to accomplish that type of thing. That's not to say we would never do that. Like, Tom Ben does that. You know, I talk about them all the time. Rickshaw does that. They make their, they have large factories, lots of employees, lots of equipment, and lots of investment in building that. That's money we don't have. So the other option, if we're going to grow this company, is to contract with someone who already has that. They have the facilities, they have the capabilities. And we've talked several times over the years how we've never been able to find that person. We've either had to fail them on price or we've had to fail them on quality. And keeping it in the U.S. is the only option for us. So finding a U.S. manufacturer to tick all these boxes has been a challenge for us. We finally found someone.

Brad Dowdy: And the first thing that they're doing for us is getting our retail going. So we're going to be in retail hopefully by October.

Brad Dowdy: Knock on wood that everything continues to go well with getting that done. So the Sinclair and Brasstown will be in retail shops for October.

Myke Hurley: And this is all the same production company.

Brad Dowdy: This is all the same company. So once we saw that they could have the quality and obviously hit the pricing, we were very comfortable with them going forward and doing other projects like this. So the case you have in your hand is made by them, not by Jeff. And, you know, we had those we paid extra for these prototypes because we wanted to, you know, I mean, we've already signed off on so many design versions. You know, we've already gone through the design process for the Lanier and we've gone through this design process for the Sinclair and the Brasstown. That's what we've been working on for months is the back and forth tweaking and perfecting the design and signing off on final samples. So we've actually signed off on the Lanier that you have in your hand today, you know, and I don't know how you feel about the quality, but I would guarantee you can't tell any difference from anything that we've ever made at Knock. I mean, it looks like a Knock product. I mean, it's dead solid.

Myke Hurley: You could tell me Jeff put it together and, you know, I would believe you.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So we do contract with an outside manufacturer and that's how these are going to get made.

Myke Hurley: All right. So this Kickstarter is going to be very, very different for you because you're not going to be breaking your backs in Jeff's apartment or even in the warehouse or in your place. Right. What will you be doing? Anything? Are you shipping them?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to ship them.

Myke Hurley: So they're going to come to you and then you're going to ship them.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Now we're going to get work on getting some custom boxes made. Like that's the kind of things we're doing. And, you know, because we want to ship the, like, we're not going to ship them how we shipped them to you. Right. You know, we're going to ship them flat and have the, you know, thin box to, you know, with the, like the Knock logo on and things like that. So.

Myke Hurley: So this is, this is very different. Like, this is way more hands off than the previous Kickstarter and obviously anything else that you've done really up until now that people have been getting in their hands anyway.

Myke Hurley: How are you going to be able to assure the quality standards if Jeff isn't putting his finishing touch on every single one of them?

Brad Dowdy: Because I can be kind of a jerk.

Myke Hurley: Yep. But that's what people want to hear, though. Not the manufacturer, of course, but the buyers. People that believe in your products, they believe in them because they're so good. And, you know, it is completely possible to build as good a product, if not better, outside. And you look at a company like Studio Neat, right? The majority of their stuff they do not make. Like, they make, like, one product themselves. And that's so simple. Like, if you like their kind of products, which I obviously do, everything is made by manufacturers outside of them because they couldn't do it. Right. You know, and really, looking back, it's kind of funny that it was the two of you doing it all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. In retrospect, like, that was like, I mean, five years from now, we're going to look back and say, like, holy cow, what were we thinking?

Myke Hurley: Because quite honestly, for products like the ones that you guys make, the key is in the design. Yes. That's not what anyone can do. Right.

Brad Dowdy: And that's what we're really freaking good at, I think.

Myke Hurley: Because the design comes from your intimate knowledge with how products should be stored. And Jeff's incredible ability to turn these things into real products. Yep. He takes your dreams and makes them real, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, I say, you know, I can be kind of a jerk tongue-in-cheek, although some people are nodding their heads probably going, yeah. Although they're probably not listening to the show if they think I'm a jerk. But anyway. You've never been a jerk to me. No, but what I mean by that is I take our business very seriously, which means I take our quality of our products very seriously. And we've had some, a lot of back and forth to nail what we feel is a knock product. And, you know, I, there's no shortcuts. There's no missteps that are allowed. Like, you know, when we're working through these things with our manufacturer, you know, it takes them a few tries to get it right. Because we're going back, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. And then when they come back with the final thing and we look at it and we go, there's nothing wrong. It's like, wow, that's like, this is legit good. So, yeah, that's a process that we stay on top of. You know, I pick up the phone and have a conversation. We're going to go out there. We haven't met them in person, but it's a, it's a large, it's a large manufacturer. So, we're going to go visit them. In the U.S.

Myke Hurley: No, but like, whereabouts in the U.S.?

Brad Dowdy: That's not something I want to say.

Myke Hurley: Just in case someone tries to steal them from you, right? Yeah. I like that. I like this. Look at this. This is businessman Brad again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, if someone wants the exact location and the exact manufacturer, that's just not something that you're going to share. Like, you know, that's a, that's a business. That's your proprietary information right there. Right, right. That's up to Brad. Because then someone can just pick up the phone and say, hey, I want to make this exact thing. Yeah, you can't have that. They're made in the U.S. No white labeling. Yeah. You know, if for some reason you don't believe me for that fact there, I mean, there's nothing I can really help you out with, you know. But I'm not going to give the exact location of the, of the facility. You're getting the Muji stuff around here. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah. So, we're going to go, eventually, the long-term goal is they make all of our cases.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You know, that's, that's the plan. And then that allows us to design more. That allows us to work with partners more that want to do special things that we've had to turn down in the past.

Myke Hurley: You guys can get your hands more around the business.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. But we'll still be doing shipping, obviously. Shipping, customer service, all that stuff.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I don't.

Myke Hurley: So, one good thing, right, to know is all those bags will be touched by you guys. Oh, yeah. That's your final quality check, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Oh, absolutely. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So. This is crazy. We won't have the over-the-machine labor going on, but that's, the transition will allow us to be just as busy doing other things to continue to grow the company.

Myke Hurley: All right. That makes sense. It makes perfect sense. Let's take a break. Okay. And then there's a bunch of, like, Kickstarter-related things that I want to talk about. All right. So, I'm proud of you guys. My words. I'm so proud of you. You're such a real business now. I know, right? You know, like, last time you were making these things in Jeff's spare bedroom. Yep. Now you've, like, contracted a manufacturer who's putting them together for you. This is, like, this is real stuff now.

Manufacturing Process

Brad Dowdy: When we moved out of Jeff's bedroom after the Kickstarter, we're actually, we were handing sewing machines through the window because that's the best way we could move them. That's how, I mean, we've done it ourselves, you know. I mean, this is, yeah. We're all grows up.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace, the simplest way for anyone to create a beautiful landing page, website, or online store. Start building your website today at squarespace.com and enter the offer code INK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. With easy-to-use tools and templates, Squarespace helps you capture every detail of what drives you because, if it's worth the effort, it's worth sharing with the world. With Squarespace, you'll be able to very easily put together a website that looks professionally designed, regardless of your skill level. You don't need to know any coding at all because, with their state-of-the-art technology and their stunning site templates, you'll be able to make your website look and feel exactly how you want. It's going to look great on all sizes of device, and they have security and stability completely locked down. They're trusted by millions of people around the world because of this. We use Squarespace at RelayFM for our store, so I'm doing an ad within an ad now. We just put up some new t-shirts and stickers on the RelayFM store, and it was so easy for us to do. We knew how many we ordered. We just added the inventory into Squarespace Commerce because that's what we use to sell our stuff, and it was super, super simple. By the way, the stickers that we have now, they're the stickers. The artwork is what I had tattooed on my body, so I really believe in that sticker. It was funny, when Brad received that sticker because NotCo do our shipping, he's like, is this a printing error?

Brad Dowdy: Legit thought it was a mistake.

Myke Hurley: Yep, because it does just look like the artwork's missing, which is kind of the point because it's the basic representation of RelayFM artwork. That's kind of the idea. But anyway, Squarespace makes it so easy we can integrate with the shipping software that we need, so when the orders arrive at NotCo, they can get them sent out. And that's why we use Squarespace, because they give us the ability to make this stuff, put it together real easy, and we know it's rock solid. We know the hosting's good. We know it's all set. Sign up for a free trial today with no credit card needed, and start booting your own website straight away by going to squarespace.com. When you decide to sign up, make sure that you use the offer code INK at checkout. You'll get 10% of your first purchase when you do, and you'll also show your support for this show. Thank you to Squarespace for the continued support of The Pen Addict and RelayFM. Printing error, man. Those t-shirts are sweet. I can't wait to get mine.

Brad Dowdy: I legitimately, when we got those stickers, I didn't want to tell Steven.

Unknown: I was like, oh man, these are screwed up.

Brad Dowdy: I waited like a day, then I finally said something. I was like, is this for real? Is this a mistake? I was very nervous.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we got the new, it's called the RelayFM art sticker. I had the colors inverted, because I didn't want all of the dark ink. Yeah. Because I didn't want to cry my eyes out. And then we got a new gray horizontal RelayFM logo shirt, which is a really nice version of our logo, which you may have seen. They're very soft. They're very soft. Yeah, we got Teespring to do them up for us. We found out that Teespring can actually, something called Teespring Direct, because you know we've always used them for campaigns in the past?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because when y'all told me y'all were doing that, I didn't realize that they offered that as a service, so that was pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: This is a newer thing, so you can just say, I want 20 of these, 30 of these, 40 of these, and then just print them all up in cinema in one order. Cool. So, it's pretty cool. So, the quality's good. Mine's on the way. Shipped out by you guys.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, sir.

Lanier Ship Date

Myke Hurley: Talking about shipping, what's the ship date for the Lanier? By the way, am I saying it right? Lanier?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's Lanier. Lanier. But it's okay. I like how you say it. What if I say Lanier? You say aluminum, and that's just fine, too.

Myke Hurley: That's true. That is true. If anything, it's better, so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. I'm good with that, so.

Brad Dowdy: Ship date is probably the single worst thing about Kickstarter. Yeah. And the reason is, you have to estimate how many you're going to sell before you launch the project, which you obviously have no control over. That final number before you launch, but you have to say it ahead of time. So, we have to guess. How many do we think we're going to sell? And then how long do we think it's going to take to make them? So, we have our retail order in, so we know kind of what the time frames for the company are to manufacture certain quantities. And then you account for a 30-day Kickstarter project.

Brad Dowdy: And 15, 14 days for after the project ends to transfer the money. So, that's a month and a half from when we launch the Kickstarter before we have $1. So, that puts us at, what, mid-November before we get the money to be able to pay for the production to start. So, I have a question for you about that. Yep.

Myke Hurley: But in the changing landscape that we have now of Kickstarter projects and companies, are manufacturers not starting to wise up a little bit and are willing to do work based on the fact that the Kickstarter is successful?

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: Interesting. They don't care, right? They just want the money.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they have other business. I mean, we're not their only customer.

Myke Hurley: I mean, it's not a criticism. It's just a question. Because, you know, I think that, you know, within a level of acceptance, because orders get cancelled at last minute and don't go through, like, it's kind of like as good as gold, right? Right. Because the money is with Kickstarter. It's coming.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, like, one thing I say all the time is manufacturing is hard. It just is. There's so many variables. There's so many things that can go wrong. There's so many pieces that have to move together to get from point A to Z. And, you know, it's just hard. It takes time. So, the way our project launched, the timeframe, you know, we get the money right when we're going to have the end of the year holidays. There's going to be Thanksgiving, Christmas. So, we're figuring there's going to be a delay by the time we're ready to start making these cases.

Myke Hurley: Just to clarify, not a delay on the ship date you stated. No, no, no, no, no. Just a delay in general.

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, yes, thank you. I'm trying to say why we put April 2017 as the date. Sure.

Myke Hurley: Just that word delay when referring to Kickstarter projects is a hot word to use.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's a complete, you know, under-promise, over-deliver type of situation, what we're shooting for. So, I have to say April, knowing that that's very much in the realm of possibility of happening.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We think it's going to happen earlier, and that would be great. But you very easily know it could go to April. Yeah. Yeah. Easily. That's well within the possibility of happening. So, when you launch the project and have to put that in advance, you just don't know. So, we tried to take our best guess at what we think we can for sure deliver on, and still could miss. You just don't know.

Myke Hurley: Because, like, it's funny, because, like, last time, when you guys were making them, you didn't know how many you could make, right? Like, realistically, at scale. Right. So, it was like, we're going to make this, we're going to kind of guess it. And you were a little bit late, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like, two to three months late.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, in Kickstarter terms, that's a little bit late. It's not a lot late.

Myke Hurley: And so, like, now, if you guys are making them, you could probably make a better estimation, because you know how quick it takes you to make stuff. But you're not making them. Right. So, it's back to square one again. It's like, you have a good idea how long it takes, but what if this happens, and this happens, and this happens? So, you have to overestimate again.

Kickstarter Campaign

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, it's our best guess of when we think the highest percentage of us delivering is going to happen is April.

Myke Hurley: Can I ask, do you negotiate, like, is there, like, a kind of a negotiation with the manufacturer for them to deliver on a certain date?

Brad Dowdy: Probably. Probably. I mean, we haven't had those specific conversations yet, because we haven't had to. Right.

Myke Hurley: But if you guys are going to be ordering... Sure. If you guys are going to be ordering a really large number, which hopefully you are, there might be a little bit more, like, leverage there, maybe. Yes. Who knows?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. No. Those things definitely happen, and are a possibility.

Myke Hurley: Because the hope is, you know, let's, in wildest dreams time, hope that this is successful as the previous one. Right. It's a big first order.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. That's our goal. I mean, like, we don't know what number we're going to hit. We'd like to beat last time. But we understand, also, this is a different product.

Myke Hurley: What do you want to beat from last time? Backer number or money number?

Funding Goal

Brad Dowdy: Money.

Myke Hurley: I think you're going to beat money number, because the product's more expensive.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We can't beat backer number. It was, like, thousands of... Why can't you? It was thousands. So? You can do anything you put your mind to. Oh, I know. But we're just looking at a number.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, like, a dollar amount. So, I mean, it's not about whether you can or can't beat the backer number. It's just not the one you're aiming for.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Because it's so different. Like, it's apples and oranges. Yeah. But we had no idea how this... We had a... You know, we take our best estimations on how we're going to... What we're going to achieve. You'll notice that, you know, our funding goal was massively higher than what our original one was. We just wanted to buy some sewing machines the first time. So, our goal was $5,000, right? Or $7,000, whatever it was. It was pretty low. So, like, we need some sewing machines.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: This time is... We need to make lots of stuff and pay someone to do it. So, it's a much bigger number. Much bigger goal, right? So, this is a definitely change in the business model.

Myke Hurley: So, what are you paying for this time, then? Like, why $35,000?

Brad Dowdy: Because we have to meet certain minimums to guarantee the pricing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that makes sense.

Pricing Strategy

Brad Dowdy: So, that's what we're trying to... We're trying to lock in a good price, and that's the number that would take us to get that good price.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's as simple as that.

Myke Hurley: What drove $88?

Myke Hurley: That's the post-early bird. Like, the early bird's probably going to run out by the time this show publishes.

Brad Dowdy: So, this was a lot of conversations between Jeff and I. How much is this case? How do you price this case?

Brad Dowdy: Obviously, it depends on how much it's going to cost to manufacture. That obviously plays a role.

Brad Dowdy: What we're going to do with the case afterwards. Is it going to go to retail?

Brad Dowdy: You know, those things are in consideration. What is the price of other similar things in the market? What is a good value for our customers?

Brad Dowdy: And there's lots of machinations that go into coming up with a final number. And that's probably one of the biggest pucker factors in the whole thing. When you put that number on it, did you do it right? Did you do everything right to not short your customers? To not short yourself? To not short the business? To not short retailers? It's a super hard thing to come up with. Because just like a shipping date, it's kind of arbitrary. Like, you have these things that give you a base number. And then you have to decide, okay, what's it going to sell for? That's a really hard thing to answer. Did you sell it too high? Did you price it too high? Price it too low?

Brad Dowdy: We feel like with all of our other cases that this is actually a good deal for the quality and construction and the feel and the usefulness of the case. $88 we feel is like a steal for what it is.

Brad Dowdy: But at the same time, we understand what it is and couldn't charge $150 for it because it's not that, right? So it's a balance on figuring out what the price is. And we actually think we're rock solid on our decision for the price point. We think it's perfect for what the case is. The value it provides. And taking all those things into consideration.

Myke Hurley: That makes sense. It's a difficult thing to land on, though.

Brad Dowdy: It's very difficult. I mean, looking back, if I say it took us weeks to decide on that, it doesn't seem like a very long time. But at the time we were trying to decide that, that was a very long time. Because once you commit, you're committed.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Customer Engagement

Brad Dowdy: So one of the things I've noticed about this campaign, the two topics we just approached, I've had almost no questions on price or ship date. So I'm pretty happy about that. Like, the comments are on the strap. You know? No one's said anything about the price. No one's said anything about the ship date. Which, those are things that I worry about. Do people, what do people think? Right? You know, those are the things that keep me up at night. Well, when they see it's $88, do they think that's a good price? Do they think it's a bad price? When they see the ship dates in April, do they not consider it because it's not going to be here for Christmas? Things like that. I've had no comments on those types of things. Which makes me happy.

Myke Hurley: So, looking at dealing with comments and stuff like that, how do you keep up with all of that? You seem to have been super responsive in the last 24 hours, assuming that it's you doing them. With one of you, at least.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Me. So, I planned on yesterday being sit in front of the computer all day. Like, I planned that, you know, a week or two ago. Knowing that that's when the most amount of questions and things are going to come. So, I want to be part of running a good campaign is being available for people who have questions. Because they're inevitably going to come up. You hope you've covered everything on the front end. There's always going to be something missed or some question that you didn't think of. You know, up front. And so, I want to be there. You know, if people are going to trust us enough to purchase a product, you know, I want to give them a good experience if they have questions and be responsive. So, that means, you know, tracking it on Kickstarter. Tracking all the comments that come in. Replying to them quickly. Tracking all the emails that come in. Tracking any social media posts. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Anywhere we are. Getting people answers quickly. If they have a question. So, that was my goal yesterday. Is to be on top of everything from beginning to end yesterday. From when we launched until I went to bed last night. When it looked like things were slowing down. So, I mean, that was just a... The day was dedicated to that. And, I mean, there's no other option. That's the way it should be.

Myke Hurley: And, is it like a nerve-wracking thing to do with it? Like, what is everyone going to say? Did you feel like that?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's very nerve-wracking. Like, I'm a nervous person anyway. The last week has been... Like, the nerves hit, like, pretty much all day. Every day. Leading up to the launch. Pushing the button. Going live. Waiting for the comments, questions.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's super nerve-wracking. I take it, you know, like, physically. If you know what I mean. It's very nerve-wracking. You know. But, you know, and Jeff's always tells me. Like, I tell him how nervous I am. He's like, you got this, man. We've, you know, we put in the time ahead of time to ensure things go as smoothly as possible. And I know that. But it still doesn't keep me from being super nervous about it. Just because, just like in any other part of life, you want people to like the things that you do. Yeah. And you work really hard at delivering on something good for them. Especially when you're asking people for money. In the case of our business, you know. That's a very... It's not easy. And you want to do right by your customers. But you never know until you push that button. So, yeah. I've been super nervous. Like, for some reason this morning, I was more nervous this morning than yesterday. That doesn't make any sense. It makes no sense at all. But yesterday, I guess I was business Brad. Man, I had the hat on, right? You know. You know, I had the hat and the shades on. You know, not really. But, you know, I was just like, this is what I'm doing today. And, you know, I'm going to kill it. And then today, I didn't have that same plan. So, maybe I was thinking more. And that's never good. You know, thinking more what ifs and things. And for some reason, that was making me nervous. I don't know. I don't know what it was. But that made no sense whatsoever. But, yeah. I was more nervous this morning. Which I was telling you before the show. And I had no idea why.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, what is... What's going to happen here? Looking forward for the rest of this campaign. Do you have any... Do you have any ideas for stretch goals? Or think that you might end up with any?

Future Products

Brad Dowdy: So, I can... So, yeah. This is a long answer. So, let's talk about what's not going to happen. Because those are the questions I'm getting right now. So, the two primary ones are... Number one. Will there be more colors available? Right now, it's a no. And that's probably not going to change. Unless something crazy happens. And the numbers go like... Pinball high scores. There's probably not going to be an option for another color. We're real happy with these two color choices. There's probably not going to be a third. The second one we get a lot is... Can I have the A5 pouch by itself? That's not going to be a stretch goal either. Because if we did that... We would probably do something different. That's more of a stationary only product. And... You know, we feel... We would maybe tweak that a little bit. It would just be different. It's not... It's sold as a set for a reason. And if we just had the pouch available... We'd want to do it a little bit differently, I think. So, that's probably not going to happen. That's definitely not going to happen. More colors is more likely than A5 by itself. At this time. Yeah. And probably... Those are probably 99.9% not going to happen.

Myke Hurley: Frankly, A5 by itself is a whole new product line. That's like a whole thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Which is something we'd like to do. We've always talked about doing that. We hope to do that in the future. I mean, that's on the future near-term radar. Like 2017 type radar type of thing. That's a different product. So, will there be stretch goals? We have one idea. I don't even know if I want to say it yet. I mean, it's not like, oh man, this is going to knock my socks off idea. But it might just be a thing. Like if we hit some number. Like we're not a big fan of stretch goals to begin with. Just from a Kickstarter point of view.

Brad Dowdy: But we might add in a something.

Brad Dowdy: That's a maybe. There's a discussion on that we might release our next paper product early. Okay. As part of this campaign. I'll say that.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's not like, you know, oh, amazing new Lanier and rainbow unicorn colors. You know, it's not going to be that type of thing. But we might do something later in the project if we hit a certain dollar amount that we might.

Myke Hurley: Don't say the word unicorn because you know you're going to upset people.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I mean.

Myke Hurley: Who want the blue and pink.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that would be pretty stellar. I think that would get kind of dirty in that case though. But just don't say that word. I know. The unicorn barf colorway has to come back at some time. Me and Jeff know that. It's not imminent. It's not happening in this project. But, you know, maybe we can work on that next year. I mean, that's a real thing that people want. And we know that. So, we hope to bring it back. We love it. So, yeah. So, there's no defined stretch goals. That's just not the way we build our campaigns. A lot of them are faux stretch goals in most projects anyway. You know, they're built in from the built in up front. We don't do that.

Myke Hurley: And, okay. Okay. You said you had a goal, like, to beat last year. Mm-hmm. Lay it out on the line. What do you think is going to happen?

Brad Dowdy: As far as where is this project going to end? Yeah. I want six figures.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, boy.

Brad Dowdy: Look at you. I mean. All right. The way it's at right now, I don't think that's going to happen. But we're still early. We'll see.

Myke Hurley: Hey, there's nothing wrong with saying what you want. Right? It's not necessarily what you think you'll get. But it's what you want.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And hitting six figures, I mean, that's an arbitrary number. Right? It doesn't mean anything. You know, that's no different than, you know, $94,383. I mean, it's completely arbitrary. But it's just, that would be a nice to have. Hey, we hit six figures on this project.

Myke Hurley: That's kind of cool to say. It would just be nice, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I think I get a minimum, like the best, minimum best thing to happen is you beat last year. Right? Because that's just cool. You just beat it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right? If we beat the first project, even though they're so different in the way they're laid out and what the projects are. But if we hit 80,000, which we did 78 and change for three years ago to start our company, which was still amazes us to this day that we did that. If we can beat that, that would be great. But it's irrelevant if we don't because they're just not a match. They're total apples and oranges. But it would be nice to say, hey, we beat that last project. It would be really nice to say, hey, we hit six figures on this thing. That would be kind of cool. I would be like, this is cool. We did 100 grand on a Kickstarter project. That would make me feel fancy and warrant this pen addict engraved pen that I'm currently using. I would be happy about that.

Myke Hurley: So I'll say it right now. If you haven't, just go and back it. It's going to be in our show notes, relay.fm slash pen addict slash 223. You'll find a link right at the very top to go and back the linear on Kickstarter. You should because this is a great product. You should back it and give it to someone if you don't like it. Like gift it.

Brad Dowdy: We've actually had a lot of people buying these for gifts. That's most of my emails have been Kickstarter spam or how do I order more than one? So that's been the second one has been a good one. The first one has been terrible. Why don't you have a buy two option? I probably should. Put it on there. What's the worst that could happen? Yeah. But what's the difference in buying three? I mean, people just add the amount of the case into the pledge and it's just as easy.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: You know, not a big deal because I mean, honestly, you're not going to get a break for buying more than one, right? And I don't say that to be rude. It's just the way it is. You know, if you want to buy three, it's X amount times three and that's how much you pledge and you just pay once for shipping. So it's easy enough to explain for the people that want to buy more than one.

Myke Hurley: I'm so proud of you guys.

Brad Dowdy: This is fun, even though I'm stressed to the freaking hilt. Yeah. It's...

Myke Hurley: Do you expect that to calm down over the next couple of days, maybe?

Brad Dowdy: No, we have too much going on.

Myke Hurley: What do you mean?

Retail Launch

Brad Dowdy: We're getting ready to launch retail. I have a live Kickstarter for a killer bag.

Myke Hurley: What, like you're getting ready to launch retail within the Kickstarter campaign period?

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Are you a madman? Yes. Okay, good. It's good to know. I just wanted to check that. And now we know that we can frame every other decision within that piece of information.

Brad Dowdy: This is... I mean, this is it, man. I mean, we deliver now or we don't exist. And we're confident we're going to deliver in what we're doing right now. This is what we do. I don't know what to tell you besides that. It's going to happen. We're going to make it happen. And... You guys are total bosses. That's right. This is... We don't have a choice. And I don't mean that in like some sad negative way. But if we want to grow this company and if we want to exist five and ten years from now, we deliver now. And we're doing everything we can to do that.

Myke Hurley: Trust me. I get Go Big or Go Home, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I did it too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Exactly.

Myke Hurley: Right. And talking to the Studio Neat guys, right? Like it's the same kind of thing. I think a lot about... I look at Studio Neat and I look at Nock. And I see the road that you guys are on. You know? Like moving towards the road that they're on. Right. You know? Like starting small. And they did a lot more themselves with the original Glyph, you know? Right. Than they do now. Like at this point, they're big products. Like they don't pack a lot of them. They're all packed for them. And they have all these warehouses. And I see a future for NotCo, which is more akin to that, right? Like and that is the future you're already moving into. Where there's like... There's a product being made. You're not stitching it.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: So that's... You know? This is... This is big person time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is... I mean... And we feel that this is our time. Like it's been three years. We've succeeded up until this point.

Myke Hurley: Three years? Yeah. Oh, you're making me feel old.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean... You know? You look at all the numbers that say, you know, some insane percentage of businesses fail in the first year. We've made it three. We feel good with where we are. But it has to move into this different realm for it to keep going. You know? Another three, five, ten years. Yeah. Yeah. And it's... Now is that time.

Brad Dowdy: And we're working our tails off to make it happen. So hopefully that shows.

Myke Hurley: I think so, man. I'm ready. I'm really excited. I can't wait to see next week where we've got to. So we're going to wrap up this episode right now. We're on $35,272 with 383 backers. 28 days to go. Go and get yourself a linear. You're going to love it. Trust me. I really, really, really love mine. And if you don't love it, give it to someone. Or just buy it as a gift for someone. Support this lovely company. Because let's say... I'm putting words in your mouth right now. If you're thinking to yourself out there, man, I really wish this was a bag of a strap. Do you know what will help them make a bag of a strap in the future? If this one sells really well.

Unknown: Then you'll get your bag of a strap later. That's a very good point, Myke. Basically.

Bag Design

Brad Dowdy: I didn't think of it that way. But I mean, we know we want to make bigger bags in the future. And that's messenger bags and backpacks. I mean, those are things we like.

Myke Hurley: Consider this like a future investment.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Right? In the bigger bag later. And then, when you get the bigger bag later, you'll have this bag that can go inside of that bag. And everything's going to be okay. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode. If you want to find our show notes, I already mentioned this, but go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 223. It should also be in your app of choice. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting this week's show, Harry's and Squarespace. If you want to find Brad online, go to the penaddict. You can go to penaddict.com for that. You can go to knock.co, which you must go to. You just must. I assume there's all links to the Kickstarter there as well. Yep. And also, you know, you can still buy all their other products. They do tons of great stuff. You can buy some cases in advance to put into your linear. I'm going to grab one of mine and put it in now.

Brad Dowdy: Blue note cards are coming back today. Everyone's been wanting the blue to return. I think they're coming back today or tomorrow. Blue note cards. If you made it to this far in the podcast and you've been wanting the blue note cards, they're back.

Myke Hurley: It's a very specific person, right? They made it this far and also want the blue note cards. But I'm sure there's a few of them. So we just made a few people very happy. We did. Thank you, as always, for listening. Thanks to everyone who is helping support that lovely little Atlanta-based company as well. We'll be back next time. Find Brad on Twitter. He's at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. He's penaddict on Instagram. I'm imikeymyke. Thanks so much for listening. Again, I will say it because I just keep saying it over and over again. We'll be back. Bye-bye. Say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Jeff.

Myke Hurley: What? That was the best. I screamed when he said that.

Brad Dowdy: I was like, I got to do this, right? It's perfect. Yeah, we got to do it. I was like, okay.

Myke Hurley: I felt like I was in your video.

Brad Dowdy: I'd make this funny little head nod giggly thing at the end. I was like, oh, man, that's terrible. But it was funny.