The Pen Addict 227/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	227
Title:	Myke Was Indeed Right
Release Date:	October 19th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 227
Audio File:	Audio Episode 227
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 227
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 227. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's and Squarespace. How are you this fine afternoon, Mr. Brad Dowdy?

Brad Dowdy: I'm doing great this morning in US East Coast time, which is the only time zone that matters.

Myke Hurley: I would extremely disagree with you, but we don't need to get into that right now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I figured I'd cause a fight right out the gate.

Myke Hurley: Just remember that I am in the location of the time zone that sets all time.

Brad Dowdy: I am actually in agreement with that. If we had one time zone, I would go with GMT.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, even though we're not currently in GMT, which is why I was very careful with my words, right? We're currently in BST, which is also Best. So, you know, it doesn't really matter. I'm either in GMT, the one accurate, or I'm in Best time, which I'm in right now, which is British summertime.

Brad Dowdy: You can't really lose.

Myke Hurley: Nope. Winning, winning. I've got a lot of winning today, man. This is a very Myke is winning episode.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my God. The tweets and texts that I've received from you this past week, and the, hey, look at this, and then the show notes when I looked at it this morning because I told you I was running behind. So you put a bunch of stuff in the notes. I'm like, wow, this is a big Myke was right episode if I've ever seen one.

Myke Hurley: That's how it works, man. That's what I'm all about. So let's do a couple of housekeeping items before we begin today. If you will remember, we asked for people to write in some Ask TPA questions for an episode that we are recording next Wednesday, October 26th. Brad, have you had any submissions yet?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I bet we have like 20 so far. Excellent. I'm wondering how we're going to read all this on the show, and I hope my voice is in better shape by next week.

Myke Hurley: If there is a way for you to scan some or take pictures of some and send them to me, I'm happy to do some reading.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Yeah, yeah. I'll have to figure something out.

Myke Hurley: So we can share that. We can share that out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but I have 20 so far, and I haven't checked the PO box in probably like three days, four days. There's probably a good batch in there. So you still have time. Probably in the US, you can get something here. I'd be pretty close if you're sending something internationally to get that, but send them anyway, and we can always work them in in future episodes. But we're going to do a full episode of letter written, postcard written as TPA, which you guys and gals have already delivered on a bunch of good stuff for us. I hadn't even opened most of them yet. I've got through like five of them.

Myke Hurley: So I'm going to put in the show notes, this week's episode, a link to your address. Yes. So they can find that and they can write in. Another thing, if you are listening to this episode on October the 19th, the day that it comes out, you have under 24 hours to back the Nocco Lanier Briefcase Kickstarter. So if you are hearing this and it is still the 19th or early on the 20th of October 2016, you need to go and back this Kickstarter campaign before it's too late.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. We're almost wrapping that up. It's at $55,808, which is a fantastic number. We'll see if we can squeeze in a few more in the next 24 hours. And we put up, you know, the $50,000 stretch goal for the A5 notebook. So people can go in and pledge for that, pledge for the briefcase and notebooks. And we're pretty excited about getting this thing wrapped up. It was very successful from our perspective. And we'll be ready to get these things cranked out.

Myke Hurley: You bet. All right. I got a question from Thomas Hall. Okay. Good friend of the show. And he asked me, what did I sign my house paperwork with? So the house thing is continuing to be a comedy of errors.

Brad Dowdy: It always is.

Myke Hurley: We're not there yet, but we're getting closer. But we have signed our paperwork. Cool. So I had signed some paperwork before I went to Portland. And I signed it using my custom-made Edison Menlo, filled with a black ink that was given to me by the Franklin Kristoff crew. Cool. It's an ink they don't make anymore. It's in a bottle that says Tester on it. I don't even know what it's called. But it was some nice black ink that I had. So that was done. I was like, great. Excellent pen to sign with, right? Like my custom-made pen. Done. Yes. But then we needed to re-sign it with a new witness on short notice. And I was out in town, was told I had to do this. I had to go to Adina's work. So anybody that has seen my YouTube video, I think it was my first YouTube video, will note that I was using a Pilot Metropolitan to sign the paperwork because that was Adina's pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I noticed that. It was the gold one, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: So that's what signed our house paperwork. It was a Pilot Metropolitan. It makes me very, very sad.

Brad Dowdy: And it was the fountain pen model.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it was a fountain pen, of course. But that still makes me sad.

Brad Dowdy: They make a G2 model, so I just wanted to clarify for the listener. But it was the fountain pen model.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Don't be too sad. It was still a fountain pen. That's kind of cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but it's not even a fountain pen that I like very much. I know.

Brad Dowdy: It wasn't a hotel big, so you're all right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Do what you got to do, right?

Myke Hurley: I know, I know.

Brad Dowdy: But, so, is there more paperwork signing? What's the holdup here?

Myke Hurley: I don't even want to get into it. It's all the other people. It's stuff that they never bothered to do, that we're having to do. And there's this other company that's involved, hasn't got the paperwork together yet. It's just a huge mess of crap. Yeah. But every day we get closer, but every day we also get further away.

Stationery

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, let's switch gears here and talk about more fun stuff like Stationery and a lot of new products on this episode, huh?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's a lot of releases in the last couple of days. Yeah, yeah. First up, Baron Fig have released yet another product, the most prolific of stationery companies that I'm aware of. And it's called the Archer, and it's a pencil. It's a wood case pencil. I have to say, like, Adina was looking for a planner for 2017, and I just sent her a link to the Baron Fig one and was like, this is going to do you absolutely fine. And when I say the prolificness of them, it's not a criticism. It's just they really are. They've always got new stuff going on. They are a hustling company, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: I like that. Like, I like to see... That's a very difficult thing to do. And I like seeing that out of them. And I like seeing the new products, new colors, you know, even if it's the same notebook, different color, different cover type, you know, different pattern. Oh, hey, we got the planner now, you know, and they did the Squire earlier this year, which turned out great. And then they just came out with the Archer pencil, which, number one, I love the name.

Brad Dowdy: Number two, it just seems like a pencil to me. Yeah, I've got to say,

Myke Hurley: like, this just seems really boring. I mean, maybe we're kind of biased, because we're not really pencil people. So, like, a pencil to excite us has to have some flair, like, weird flair, like those black wings that you get, right? Because just, like, the general specs of the pencil is not really that interesting, you know? Like, it is what it is.

Myke Hurley: But the Squire wasn't just a pen. Like, they did some interesting and different things of it. Like, it's shaped unlike any pen that I've owned, right? Like, that really interesting kind of teardrop-ish shape that it has. And they had, it wasn't a click mechanism, it was a twist mechanism, which is not that usual, especially for a pen with the refills that it takes.

Myke Hurley: That was a really exciting and really great pen. The Squire is just a wood case pencil. Yeah,

Brad Dowdy: but what are you going to do, quite honestly? And this is, this is the way I see it. Yeah, but, I mean, and they may eventually do that. But this, here is what I see the Archer pencil as. This is a perfect product for Baron Figgs fans and customers.

Myke Hurley: I mean, that's the most important thing, really.

Brad Dowdy: That's, that's the most important thing.

Myke Hurley: They don't need to excite me and you.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, I think they did exactly what they needed to do. I think, I want to try them because of the, the thing that interests me the most is the feel of the barrel. It's a little bit of a textured, they call it a slipless finish. Okay, that sounds cool. So, it's not like a glossy painted finish. So, it'll have a little bit of a grip, a little bit of a tactile feel in it. So, I'd be interested to try that. I love the, I'm a fan of non-eraser pencils, you know, the dipped ends. Yeah, I like erases. Yeah, yeah. But outside of that, you know, it's not something I'm rushing out to get, but, you know, it's also not a product made for me, necessarily.

Myke Hurley: Friend of the show, Andy Welfly of Woodclinched, the blog and the Erasable podcast, he is the pencil guy and he seems to be very happy with it. He seems like he really likes it. So, I mean, if Andy likes it, I'm sure it's a good product, but it's just not something that excites the non-pencil person, I think, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, one lead grade, which is totally fine, except that, you know, now that we've been spoiled with 23 different lead grades or whatever the whole range is, you know, like, I have a specific lead that I like, hardness, so I know I can get a specific hardness that I enjoy. So, this is just like a regular pencil, which is great. So, they interviewed Joey and Adam on the Erasable podcast this week, and I did text over to Joey this morning just to find out where they're made and what the wood is, because weirdly, Andy didn't have that information or didn't ask that information of them, and, you know, it's just, it's regular cedar wood and they're European-made pencils, so he didn't specify which country, but I was just curious, you know, where they're made at.

Brad Dowdy: I love the packaging, although I'm not, The fact that they fit

Myke Hurley: 12 in that little box is really interesting.

Brad Dowdy: It's really cool. Like, I'm on, I'm on, I'm on team no packaging, like, I don't care, because I pay for that, right? So, that $15 pack of pencils, I don't, the cool packaging doesn't come for free, it's built into that price, right? So, I'm on team no packaging, but it looks cool how they did it. They, they spent a lot of time and effort on it,

Myke Hurley: You only feel that way because you know what packaging costs now, though. Right.

Brad Dowdy: I'm super biased on that, it's really expensive.

Brad Dowdy: So, but it's really good, it looks good, it's, I mean, it's a bear and fig product and I think that's a very high compliment. It looks like their stuff. I mean, and they spent a lot of time and effort on it, so I will check them out one day. I'm not like, jumping through my computer screen to grab them like some other products we're going to talk about later, but, yeah, perfectly fine. and what'll be cool is when they make this in an orange barrel with a dark orange tip on the end, then I'll think differently of it.

Myke Hurley: You know what? As you said that, like maybe if it was orange, I would be like, best pencil ever!

Brad Dowdy: I know, right? It's, that's totally it. And this is what you do for your base level, right? Your introductory base level is standard. So now they have the whole rainbow of options open up to them, right? When they want to do, you know, they can make a set, you know, with their next limited edition notebook and make it a set with some uniquely colored pencils, colored, you know, paint jobs on the pencils, not colored pencils, but you know what I mean? So yeah, it sets them up perfectly for that type of stuff. So looks good and I'll be anxious to try them out. I'm just, you know, not in a super rush to go grab them.

Myke Hurley: Talking about this next one though.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm on this. I'm all over this one, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Really?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: Okay. So a million people have sent this to us. It is a $20,000 pen, which is, I mean,

Brad Dowdy: you're way underselling it.

Myke Hurley: I got like two minutes into the explanation of this thing and just had to close the tabs because it was just too much for me. It is a, it's like, it's a rocket pen with a huge base. I've just, so I'm, I couldn't be less interested in this because it's just, it just, it's just, I'm fed up of this ridiculous crap where these companies are making these pens for tens of thousands of dollars just to get publicity. It really, I'm fed up of it. I'm fed up of it.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. I did not expect this. Jeez. Settle down, Myke.

Myke Hurley: It's like that pen, who made that pen with the four inks that went in it? Right? Was that Monte Grappor or someone?

Brad Dowdy: Visconti. Right. It was one of those. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And it annoys me because it's these pen companies that know that this stuff is crap. Right? Because this one was a collaboration between MBNF, which I think is a design studio, and Caran Dache. And like, Caran Dache know this is dumb. Like, they know this is ridiculous, that nobody can afford this. Nobody would buy it. The people that would buy it don't care. And they're only doing it so they get the press for it because this has been everywhere the last few days. It's, it's just dumb publicity stunts which undermines the stuff that, that is to be enjoyed about these things. I'm fed up with it. Wow. Didn't expect that, did you? I did not expect that. That's a Brad Downey level

Brad Dowdy: anger there. Excuse me. Yeah, that was like, wow. I did not see that coming. But, I mean, I disagree with you just in the, I just laughed at it. Like, it didn't get me all hot and bothered like you. I just laughed at it. I think it's funny.

Pen Design

Myke Hurley: At first I laughed at it. Then I started reading through their press stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you went further than me. About how amazing

Myke Hurley: this thing is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, now that's, that's too much. If I, if I did that, I, I'd probably have the same feeling. But the, I mean, you know, this is on Elon Musk's desk and Jeff Bezos's desk and that's about it. They've probably sold two of them so far. But, you know, sometimes designers and builders want to sow their, sow their wild oats and, you know, they get a, they get a crazy idea and, you know, I'm all for that. Flex their creative muscle a little bit. I'm all for that. They went for it.

Myke Hurley: But then it starts showing up in general news.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, now, okay, that bothers me. Right? I don't need this on, do this, like, Gizmodo and Engadget.

Myke Hurley: Do this and sell it direct to millionaires. Right? Right. Don't then start sending your PR press release out to Engadget and Nerdist. Like, these companies don't find these things randomly. You've sent it to them.

Brad Dowdy: I will agree with you on that part. Yeah, this needs to go in the Rob report, you know, or some other, you know, high-end luxury stuff, you know, instead of just the full, the full press slam for, you know, tech and gadget sites where the...

Myke Hurley: Put it in Harper's Bazaar,

Brad Dowdy: right? Like,

Myke Hurley: you know. Right. It just really annoys me because people send it to me that don't listen to this show, I think, to kind of make fun of me. I don't know. Right? Because they think, like, not to be mean, but to be like, it just undermines the fact that people think this is a weird hobby. So I think that people send it to me because they're like, oh, look at this dumb hobby of yours and this silly, look at this silly pen that I'm sure you would love. And it frustrates me. Because, yeah, it just, I don't like it. It just annoys me. I mean, this is a really great looking pen. But you don't need it. It actually is. You can make a pen that looks like this that doesn't cost $20,000. You could do that. You could make it $2,000.

Myke Hurley: Right? That's way better. It doesn't need to be $20,000. It doesn't need that huge stand with a tiny astronaut on it.

Brad Dowdy: That says you.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. We should take a break.

Myke Hurley: No, say what you wanted to say about it. I'm being probably unnecessarily angry about it.

Brad Dowdy: No, there was nothing I want to say about it. It's insane and it goes in the bucket with all the other insane pens that we always make fun of. It is beautiful. It is beautiful.

Myke Hurley: It is. And everything about it, like the way that it stands up with that little thing and you take the pen, it's amazing.

Pen Price

Brad Dowdy: It's technically awesome and it looks great and it's $20,000.

Myke Hurley: Makes me, this is like the same kind of feeling I had about the Visionaire.

Brad Dowdy: Of all the things I thought you would get bent out of shape on, this would have been at the bottom of my list.

Myke Hurley: It's the opposite of that. It's like the opposite of the Visionaire thing because it's undermining the thing that we love.

Brad Dowdy: I agree with you. The problem, the difference in our opinion of this is you saw it everywhere you didn't expect to see it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And now you get called out, hey Myke, look at this because, you know, Joe Tech guys found it on his site. Exactly. People send me it

Myke Hurley: and they're like, I bet you would like this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Oh, this is the pen guys thing and it's like so unrelated to what we talk about. I see your point.

Myke Hurley: And I find it frustrating and it would annoy me less if there wasn't a company like Caran D'Ache involved. If this design agency just went out and did this, fine. Sure. Because they're making like a publicity stunt for themselves. But this is like a respected pen company who are doing this because who knows why they're doing it.

Brad Dowdy: Because they can, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Because they can. This week's episode is brought to you by a company that is well above all of this and that is Harry's. This is a company that makes incredible products and sells them at fair prices. This is the kind of company that we love. Harry's are so good and they are so confident in the quality of their shaving products that they're now offering you to try them at the best possible price, Brad. That is free. Their amazing free trial set comes with a razor, five blade cartridge and shaving gel as well. 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 all of those fantastic products. They're just yours. Harry's have amazing five blade razors that include a soft flex hinge for comfortable glide, a trimming edge for a little trimming blade so you can get those hard to reach places and just keep that facial hair that you might keep in good condition, good shape, get those lines cut in and get a lubricating strip on these razors so that glide will feel nice and smooth and you get a textured razor handle for more control when your hands are wet. Most companies charge you when they upgrade the quality of their razors, when they make new products, when they make great stuff. Harry's doesn't. Their prices are staying the same. That's what they believe in. Harry's believes so much in the quality of their razors that they guarantee that quality. You'll get a full refund if you're not happy. Harry's new razors offer an even higher quality shave at about half the price of the other big brand blades. That is why, on average, an everyday shaver saves $150 each year on blades using Harry's. Now, I have a friend over here who is an everyday shaver with Harry's products. Did you get that? Did you get that shave cream that you were looking for?

Brad Dowdy: I did. I did. I got four tubes of it and now I just made a note. I made a note to go adjust my subscription to include that instead of just blades. I need to have that included so I don't have to think about it anymore. And I will admit to making a Harry's mistake. I made a rookie traveler mistake. So I was on vacation last week and I brought my Harry's razor and I didn't bring an extra blade or swap out the blade and I was gone for seven days. And I noticed after my first shave, I was like, wow, I really needed to replace this blade. So I was kind of ticked off that I had to go the rest of the week with kind of a dull blade and I couldn't wait to get home and the first thing I did was shave with a fresh blade and I was like, ah, okay, back to normal. So yeah, I failed, right?

Myke Hurley: Like I think everybody's used to using the same blades over and over again. But once you've used Harry's products and because of their cheap prices, you can change the razors out way faster than regularly. So now you're used to being like, oh, this doesn't matter. I'll change it every day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'm not quite at that level, but yeah, it was always good. Always good to get that nice, fresh blade snapped in there. So good stuff.

Myke Hurley: Go to harrys.com right now, enter the code penaddict to check out to claim your free trial set. And because you're a listener of the penaddict, you also get a bonus post shave balm added to your order for free on top of that great free trial set. All you need to do is pay the shipping. That's harrys.com. Use the code penaddict to get your free trial set when you sign up for a plan and you'll get a free post shave balm as well. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: So I did a fun thing on the sly a few weeks ago, Myke. I was on a podcast called Ear Snacks. Which is a great name for a show. It's a great name. And it's by a duo named Andrew and Polly. And they're like kids entertainers, if you will. They go around, they like tour, play music, do shows for like, you know, younger kids like, you know, that are just learning their alphabets and colors. And, you know, at a very, very young age. And they, they dropped the episode last week. And I started getting, I got several tweets say, oh my God, I just heard Brad on the Ear Snacks podcast. You know, a bunch of people were like super surprised that I just like dropped in there. So it was nice to get those tweets from people who were, happen to be Ear Snacks listeners for themselves or for their kids. And, and me have a little sneak appearance on there. It was like a two minute little bit. And, you know, I just talked about a few pens, talk about fountain pens for kids. And they were talking about letter writing and things like that. So that was super fun. So thank you, Andrew and Polly for having me on.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I have to check that out. I didn't even know it happened. So I'll put it in the show notes so people can grab it as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. I kept that one on the download. I wasn't sure when it was going to launch and then it launched when I was, I was gone. So it's very cool. It's only a 20 minute show and you can, you know, skip over to my part, but it's a good show. If you have kids, young kids, you know, like probably like five and younger that you like to listen to, listen to different things and help them learn different things. I thought it was very cool. It was cool. They, they have all these kids like saying all the letters of the alphabet and they edit them in. So when we talked about a fountain pen nib, they like edit in little kids like going in, I, B. It was very cool. That's awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. It was very cool. So what is not awesome is the hype train around the Lamy 2050th anniversary edition. Did you know that's actually available?

Myke Hurley: The, um, Amber thingamajig.

Brad Dowdy: Honey, Amber, what's it called? Black.

Myke Hurley: It's Amber something. I've seen one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So one at the pen show, the London pen show. I picked it up and looked at it and was like, all right.

Brad Dowdy: So this fell extraordinarily flat. Like we were all hyped about it when they said they're doing something like early in the year. And then was it late spring, early summer, the pictures came out and that's when we're starting to kind of not understand what they're doing a little bit. Like, okay, it's very meh. And all of a sudden it became for sale and I didn't hear a single peep. I didn't catch it until, uh, Drees at the pencil case blog picked one up on, uh, and reviewed it. And I just saw that link over the past weekend. I was like, I didn't even know this thing launched and it's supposed to be like one of the hottest pens they've ever released. And I didn't hear a word. Like, it's not interesting. Nothing. It's not interesting. I am. I mean, it's perfectly fine, but I, I would rather have the stainless steel model than this one. Um,

Myke Hurley: the problem was it's like, this is the problem with, with rumor cycles and stuff like that, right? You build up your expectations and then they get too high. Like we were all expecting like a blue one or a red one or a gold one or a green, you know, we all had our own expectation of the Lamy 2000 we wanted, but what we got was just a different material of the exact one that we're used to. That was the problem, right? And this is, this is the issue with the rumor cycles, but honestly though, like rumors or no rumors, Lamy didn't really do anything exciting. I don't think that they did something worthy of their 50th anniversary. They may as well have made it out of like solid silver and charge tens of thousands of dollars for it. Sure. Right? Because this is the thing that I would get on board with. It's like, all right, like this is a, an anniversary edition. You don't want to sell or make too many of them. Like make it a super exclusive rare thing like a bunch of companies have. Like I see that as, as reason enough to do something crazy rather than just deciding you want to put out a press release for a pen that you made that looks like a space rocket.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They played it safe. They played the middle and it fell totally flat. I mean, they will see no effects from it because they'll sell every single one of the 5,000 that they made. Yep. So they don't really care. But it's just, it was just so uninspired after, you know, we admittedly built it up. Like this is going to be great. It's going to be epic because we all love the 2000. I love the 2000. You do too. It's one of my favorite pens. It's a classic pen. It's one of the best pens ever made. It's a pen that's displayed in museums because of its design. And it's just,

Myke Hurley: you know, to be completely frank, I would just wanted a reason to buy another one. Sure. They haven't given me that reason.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I agree completely. So, you know, whatever. I mean, I'm just surprised that now that it's actually available for sale, I haven't heard a peep about it. No one's asking me about it. No emails. One blog post review, which was a great review. Dries made it look as beautiful as I've seen. His pictures are better than any pictures that Lamy put out. His pictures made it look at least intriguing and sexy and nice. But it's still the fact that it's not different enough. But Lamy's pictures are actually pretty poor. Dries actually could show some of the differentiation in the models between the black and the stainless steel and this black amber.

Myke Hurley: What blog was that on?

Brad Dowdy: The pencil case blog. Yeah. So, yeah. What? It's, it's, you know, it's another pin, whatever. But I mean, there'll be plenty of people that buy it. They'll absolutely sell out of it and, you know, that's, you know, all Lamy cares about really. I mean, if they sell out the pin, they're doing a good job as far as they're concerned.

Myke Hurley: His pictures are way better than the ones that I've seen. But it really, like, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this and the stainless steel model. Right. Right. Like, if you just show them to me, I'll be like, uh, it's the stainless steel one. Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't know.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, it's a shame. It's a shame.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let's turn around into something that's not a shame. I'm going to, I'm going to let you, let you drive here because, uh, you had a big week. You had a big week on the Twitter, Twitter machine.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: Every week's a big week on the Twitter machine for me and my friend. All right. So, there was, uh, an unexpected, um, amount of field notes news. I think before that we should maybe talk about our impressions of lunacy a little bit. We both got them now, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, but, I haven't opened mine yet.

Myke Hurley: Oh my God, you're the worst person.

Brad Dowdy: Are they near you? I've been gone. I've been gone. Um, they're maybe 20 steps away. I can go get them if you'd like me to step away real quick.

Myke Hurley: Go get them and I'll start talking about them.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So,

Myke Hurley: the lunacy edition is the, uh, the most recent field notes edition. Uh, as a subscriber, I have the four pack, which includes the no moon cutout. They are the moon cutouts. So, I have a four moon cutout, a half moon, uh, a crescent moon, and then a new moon, a no moon edition. Um, and they've got the kind of gray paper inside with the reticle grid. Something that I didn't know from when we were talking about it last time when we just had pictures is that there is a slight texture to the cover, which I quite like. Um, this is a very interesting, very different edition. It is a beautiful edition. Um, but it's a weird edition at the same time. So, like, the complete full moon one, the cover feels very strange because there's just this big hole cutout in the middle. Uh, but then it has, like, the shiny paper on the inside which has the photo of the moon which you see through the cutout, the hole cutout, and then you have some moon information on the inside of them. So, it's got a little bit extra rather than just the practical applications, the story, and the specifications. It's got some moon facts and some moon information which you can look at which is kind of cool and has some spacey stuff in there. Um, I really like this edition because it's black, all black. It has something weird to it. You know, I love my weird ones and it's also got a reticle grid. It's basically a winner for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, I'm back. I'm gonna undo this here. So, I was gone all week last week. They came in the day before I left. Um, I didn't have time to open them.

Brad Dowdy: So, now I'm...

Myke Hurley: You're gonna have to listen back to the show to get my, my quick review that I just gave.

Brad Dowdy: That was a trick.

Myke Hurley: All in all, I really liked them. I really, really do like them. It's not my favorite edition ever, but it's up there, I think. I think it's quite close to the top.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so the little moon designs are kind of glossy. Yeah. They're like, they're like magazine stock.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I thought it might have been that, um, indestructible paper.

Brad Dowdy: It is not,

Myke Hurley: because I ripped it immediately.

Brad Dowdy: Um, the gray background is a little bit subtler than I thought it would be, which is great. Are they different shades in each one? The paper, do you mean? No, they're all the same. Huh?

Myke Hurley: Do you mean the paper?

Brad Dowdy: The paper.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, no, it's the same. It's way, it's really, really subtle. Like, I, I don't even know if I would have known. Yeah, so I've heard,

Field Notes Lunacy

Brad Dowdy: I've heard, I've gotten two tweets on this. One said, have you tried the lunacy? They're extremely fountain pen friendly. I've seen that. And the other, the other tweet was, have you tried the lunacy? My fountain pens don't work at all on them. So, I don't know what, what's what.

Myke Hurley: I've tried it, and it's as, it's as good as any standard field notes.

Brad Dowdy: So, which, um, which one did you choose to start first? So, you have the full moon, the half moon, and the, the crescent moon.

Myke Hurley: I went with full moon. That's,

Brad Dowdy: yeah, that's a tough decision.

Myke Hurley: I went with full moon.

Brad Dowdy: You seem, you seem like a full moon guy.

Myke Hurley: The, my favorite of the four though, is the new moon.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's pretty rad.

Myke Hurley: It's just completely black cover. And I was saying, like, I didn't know that the, the covers were textured. They've got like an interesting texture to them, haven't they? Which I wasn't expecting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you would almost call that, it's almost like a subtle, like vinyl.

Myke Hurley: It, yeah, it feels like fake leather, like plastic leather. I really like this edition. It's got a lot of the things that I like in a, in a, like if I just went to set up, what is my perfect field notes, right? Reticle grid. Yeah. I really love black covers on them.

Brad Dowdy: Black staples go black staples.

Myke Hurley: Like it's, it's a total like murdered out edition.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right. And the, the embossed full moon on the back of each is a, is a great touch.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's a really nice, I like that one a lot. I showed these to Adina and she was like, Ooh, so she's going to get a pack of mine.

Brad Dowdy: What I don't like is how, and I don't know if this is just my pack. I don't like how the reticles not full bleed through the top of the page. There's a larger gap. There should be a bleed reticle. Oh yeah. Cut through the top. Is yours the same way? Yeah. That's weird. It's a longer dimension there. It should be a full bleed, uh, dimension because the bottom's not spaced as evenly.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It should either go, there should either be another one or there should be more even spacing on top and bottom.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: But I'm, I'm all over these. I'm just picking up. I'm not,

Brad Dowdy: that's the kind of stuff I,

Belly Bands

Myke Hurley: I am missing the belly band though. Like I've got the whole pack sitting on my desk and they're just like the front covers popping open. I wish I could just put them back in there. Oh, I see what you're saying. You know what I mean? Well,

Brad Dowdy: that's what the, that's what the bands of rubber are for.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I have a, I have a whole new bag of those things coming with the extras. I bought, Oh, I love them. I love them for some, use them for so many stationary related things. Like I'll get like a bunch of pencils and just throw one of those thick rubber bands around it. I had one of those snap on me once. My word. That was painful. That's all this business. They are some serious rubber bands. That, that thing, uh, that's, that snapped me. That hurt a lot. So yeah, I give a huge thumbs up to lunacy. At some point, I'm going to, I think I mentioned this, like I'm going to make a field notes vlog episode.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm going to show them all off. And at that point, when I've got them all, all of the ones that I have in front of me, I'm going to rank them again. I need to see all of my additions again to really give them a proper ranking again. So yeah,

Brad Dowdy: I need to update my list. I, I, I usually do it every five and I think I'm, I missed the last group of five. So I need to look at that. It's really hard to rank them from memory. Yeah. Yeah.

Brands Hall Pen

Myke Hurley: Yeah. All right. Um, now we've got one of two new products. Um, we have something called the brands hall pen, completely out of left field. wouldn't have expected that this would occur. Um, this is a new pen that field notes are making. It is priced at $160. There are 1,500 of them in total. It's limited edition. Um, the pen body. It's a, it is a rollable, right? It's a rollable, isn't it? I believe. Yes. Yeah. It's a rollable. The body of the pen is wood, but it's reclaimed wood from a building called brands hall in Chicago. That was built after the great Chicago fire of 1871, which is amazing. So they've worked with a local company, um, to make this thing. And it's made out of wood from Chicago allegory goods. It's the company. Um, and the wood has like a, uh, is it debossed or embossed? I think it's debossed where they've cut field notes name into it. It's an absolute stunner. It's got, um, Chrome on the, the, the ends of it. Like it's got Chrome furniture. Uh, it has a stainless steel tip and uses a, it comes with a Schneider top ball, eight 50 refill, but we'll take any pilot G2. And it also comes in a leather sleeve as well. This is a beautiful, beautiful thing. It's not, I don't think it's a pen for me. Um, but I absolutely think it is a beautiful addition and a, any worthy addition. Um, I like that. It's got a clip on it.

Brad Dowdy: So to me, this is extremely similar to the Baron fig Archer. This is a good pen for the brand.

Myke Hurley: It fits field notes perfectly,

Brad Dowdy: right? It fits fields perfectly. It's not a product for me. Doesn't mean anything about the product, whether good, bad and different for me. It's not something that interests me whatsoever.

Myke Hurley: But I'll tell you though, like if I, if some, if, if it was holiday season and I opened this on Christmas morning, I would be really happy with that. Like if somebody absolutely correct as a gift, like I would be like, wow, this is amazing. Like absolutely not just anyone like me, but I just wouldn't go out and buy it myself because I don't love roller balls enough,

Brad Dowdy: but I think it's the same with the pencils. I mean, that's, that's the correct sentiment. If I got a box of those pencils in my stocking, that would be sweet.

Myke Hurley: This is like a great thing for any field notes aficionado, but it's up to you. If you want to buy it, I mean, they did call out, especially on the page that it takes Schmidt refills. And when I saw that, I was like, like I thought, thought about it for just a second. Uh, I'm not, I'm, I'm not personally going to get it yet. I'm not actually going to say I will never get this. Cause the more and more I look at this pen, the more enchanted I am by it. Um, but I just, I just, it's just not really my thing. If you lived in Chicago, like as well, it's like perfect, right? Cause this is right. Very like true to Chicago thing. Like they do, which is awesome. They really love their town. Uh, and it's, it's a nice looking thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I definitely wanted to point out the Chicago thing. They super love Chicago. And I love that they just like bring that out and, you know, teach us, you know, non Chicago ones just about their city and how much they love it. I, I, I really like seeing that.

Myke Hurley: Like yesterday, I learned that there was a great fire in 1871. Right. I didn't know that. Right. Now I know this one. Yeah. This is a, this is a really nice product. It's a nice addition to their line. I think in the same way of like, um, you know, like the leather covers covers that they do, like the pony express pouch and the everyday carry thing. It's like, I think that they are amazing. I just don't buy, I just wouldn't buy them for myself. But again, like if they were given to me as gifts, I would be ecstatic.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And same with the archival box. I think the archival box is one of the coolest things they've ever, ever made. I own zero.

Myke Hurley: That's one that I would buy. Cause it's like, yeah, but yeah, they, they make these things and I think they're great additions to their line. Um, especially if they can just sit there and they could just sell them, you know, they're just every now and then someone will buy one. Yep. Um, yep. I think it's, I think it's really cool. And I like that they're doing some little extra things now. I think it helps kind of in the exact same way as Baron Fig flesh them out, you know, like you can come and buy a whole collection of stuff if you want it. So I think that adding more stuff like this to the line is, is only a good thing.

Brad Dowdy: I can see Jim and Brian while this pen was being made up, but they were pretty jacked about this pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They care a lot about this stuff and, you know, doing something really cool with Chicago and the, the history.

Myke Hurley: This isn't something that was just thrown together. This wasn't a pen that they just bought and stamp their logo into rather. You can see that.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So why don't you talk about what you really want to talk about? You've been burying the lead, the whole show. So let's get to it.

Myke Hurley: No, I'm going to bury even further. 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 use the offer code INK, I N K at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. Squarespace gives you all of the power that you need. They put it right in the palm of your hands to create something, to put something out into the world, to capture every detail of what drives you. Squarespace believes that if it's worth the effort for you to want to do something with it, it's worth sharing with the world. So they make sure that they give you all of the tools that are necessary to do this. They give you tools and templates that are easy to use, professionally designed, updated. They're powered perfectly. They kept secure. They kept stable. This is what Squarespace is all about. It is a platform to allow you to put whatever it is that you make, do, or want to say online. They have 24 seven support in case you need it. They have a commerce platform in case there's anything you want to sell. Many companies use Squarespace to sell stuff. Relay FM does. Not Coco. We use Squarespace to sell stuff because they have everything. They have all the integrations that we need. They have all of the inventory software that we need at an incredible price. And also with the ability to add things like blogs and galleries. And if we wanted to, we could have music pages. They are a full fleshed out thing that you can use. This is why Squarespace are trusted by millions of people around the world and some huge companies as well. Everything features responsive design. It looks great on all sizes of device. And if you know what you're doing, you can go into the dev platform and tinker around and make some changes. But if you don't, if you have no idea, if you've never built a website before, you're going to find it a breeze on Squarespace just like me. I don't know how to do any of that code stuff. And I've been using Squarespace for years because they allow me to express myself without needing to spend hours and hours and hours trying to work out the HTML code to center this header on my website. You don't need to worry about any of that with them. If you sign up for a year with Squarespace, you'll get a free domain name allowing you to choose exactly what you want your site to be called. And their plans start at only $12 a month. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required and start building your own website straight away. It's a fully featured trial by going to squarespace.com. Then when you decide to sign up, make sure that you use the offer code INK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the pen addict. Thank you to Squarespace for supporting this show and RelayFM. Two weeks ago on this show, we were talking about lunacy, right? It had just been released. And we got into somewhere talking about arts and sciences and the byline edition. And I said on that show that I would give up my quest to make arts and sciences, like to try and convince field notes to make arts and sciences a standard edition in lieu of making byline a standard edition, because byline is way better for what I was using than arts and sciences are, which is just for my on-desk notes that I take during the show. Because it's perfect, it sits flat, it doesn't take up a lot of room, it's nice and long so I can stand it up and see my notes in front of me when I'm editing. I said, come on, field notes, let's make this a standard edition and then I'll stop my quest. You know, we know it makes sense here. So a couple of days ago when they announced the brand's hall pen, they also announced the front page edition, which is a standard stock edition, which is the byline in every sense of the word except a different color cover. And it came out, I immediately sent it to Brad with a, hell yeah, I've done it. And then I received many, many, many tweets and emails about this, to the point where the field notes Twitter account, hello there, whoever runs the field notes Twitter account, you're a lovely person, tweeted a few tweets. They said, there have been more mails to the HQ today about making a reporter's notebook a regular part of the line in any subject in 2016. And then said, we blame Myke.

Myke Hurley: And then I, I was tweeting at them and they use that. I said that Myke was right. And then they said, hashtag Myke was indeed right. I'll put those tweets in the show notes. If you want to see them, I just want to say, I have no delusions of grandeur here. I was obviously not responsible for this. Like they did it like two weeks ago. Go right, change the color in that printer. We're making these standard. But I have to say that I do feel very vindicated in it, at least.

Myke Hurley: This is, this is now, because now I can use my bylines that I have, because I bought a bunch of them and I won't have to worry about running out of them. That was always the thing of arts and sciences. When I had that panic and begged the listeners to sell anything, I don't have to worry about it anymore. Cause this is a standard edition. I think this is a great addition to their lineup, a better addition to their lineup than, uh, an arts and sciences size book would be, in all honesty, because it's different and it's something else. Uh, I huge thumbs up field notes. I love you guys and gals so much for doing this. Um, you're a fantastic company. I will be your brand advocate for life. I have that in me. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: So I replied when I saw that I replied, hashtag Brad was wrong. And I'm only wrong in the fact that I didn't think they would do it until they sunsetted the steno pad. Like, I think this is a great stock product. I think the name they chose is killer. This has obviously been in the works since their original production. It's awesome. I'm so glad that they did this. Um, I just didn't think it would come, um, at least not this quickly. So we'll see if the steno gets retired. Then, uh, then I'll, I'll, I'll remove the Brad was wrong, but Myke was so right on this one. Um, it really needed to be a, it was time for a new stock item anyway. So I couldn't think of a better, uh, better product than to, to pick this one because it's really different than what they have. Um, although it's awfully similar to the steno. So we'll see what happens with that, even though that's Jim's favorite book. That's what I was going to say.

Myke Hurley: The canary and the coma. Byline is finding out what does Kudal have on his desk now.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: If he still keeps the steno on his desk, that product ain't going away. Right. But if he swapped it out for byline now, maybe it will. Yep. Or for front page. Great name. Great name change. Byline to front page. Um, and I liked that they kept it exactly the same. Yep. Right. Like the, even the inside of the product has got all the stuff on it. It's got like the nice logo on the front, like the winged, uh, the wing beagle with the pen and, uh, whatever the other lightning. Uh, yeah. The lightning bolt. Like they've kept that and they've just changed the color. I love the color. Um, so yeah, huge, massive thumbs up to field notes. Um, thank you for giving me an awesome day.

Brad Dowdy: I could see like, I could see the smiles just in your texts, the way it came. It was just funny. It was pretty awesome. Uh, there was something else cool in that email, huh?

Myke Hurley: There was the XOXO edition is the 2016 XOXO. The incredible, I think probably the best, um, of all the XOXO editions is for sale. I think even now there are still some left available, which is very surprising to me. I checked before the show went up and it didn't say it was sold out on the website. Did you buy any?

Brad Dowdy: I did. I bought two. Um, and, uh, Tiffany, if you're listening, um, our deal still intact. Um, I know I owe you an answer on that. So she, she made me an offer. I couldn't refuse for a pack of them, but I went ahead and bought a couple too. So I want to let her know that I'm going to come through with a hold up my end of the bargain as soon as I get a little less busy. But, um, yeah, I think they're great looking addition.

Myke Hurley: I didn't buy any extras. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I bought two and I want, cause I wanted to buy one of the front page as well, just to compare.

Myke Hurley: Because I have a pack, right? I figured I would let other people get in and get them, but it looks like they haven't sold. I thought they were going to set out like immediately, but that doesn't seem to have been the case. Cool. But, uh, yeah, I would suggest people go and pick them up because I think that they're awesome. I'm not going to buy any more. I would have bought some, I would have bought an extra pack if I was making an order of something else. Like when I ordered, uh, the extra lunacy, I would have had, just thrown a pack in there, but I'm not going to set up an entire order for just one pack of these. I've got a three pack. Um, I can just keep one of the books as I do and use the other ones. This is a conversation I was having with Stephen Hackett yesterday. We were talking about them. Like he bought, I think he said he wasn't also not going to buy a pack because he had one. And he was like, I already have more of these than I can ever use. And I keep buying more anyway. And I couldn't agree more.

Brad Dowdy: He's such a stealth pen addict. Like he has his one pen in his notebook, but he, he, he burns through that stuff.

Myke Hurley: He uses notebooks faster than I do.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. I love it.

Myke Hurley: Tony in the diary room just said, Myke, just toss them in with your order of 500 front pages.

Brad Dowdy: Now that's our, that's our friend, Anthony, um, our good friend of the show and friend of the world. Anthony, uh, well, or he, he bought, I think it was when he told me it was 14 extra packs of byline. And then by the time I had talked about it, it was some other number of hike higher number. So yeah, it's good. I mean, if you find something that fits you perfectly, go for it, man. Buy it. Great stuff.

Myke Hurley: Buy it all. All right. Now we have some, uh, some fun knock news to round out the show today.

Retail Launch

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Speaking of buy it all, um, we, we launched to retailers on Monday. So this isn't stuff you see like necessarily publicly. Um, but we allowed retailers to begin purchasing not goods at wholesale so they can sell them on their sites or in person, whatever. So we launched that on Monday and we sent it out to a bunch of retailers. And, um, like you can see like on Goulet pens, they've already like preloaded, like for when their stuff arrives, they've got the pictures up with the new colors, um, of the Sinclair, you know, like the brass towns aren't ready yet, but those are coming soon. So they have like a placeholder. Um, so yeah, we're really excited about this. This is why I've been so busy and like, haven't been like super responsive on Twitter and email and stuff is not my vacation that we planned like six months ago. Could not have come at like any worse time the entire year than last week. It's just how that stuff happens.

Myke Hurley: Let's go man.

Brad Dowdy: Right. With the Kickstarter wrapping up and the retail launch coming, it was just like I was on the, I was driving back from the game Grand Canyon, like on the phone for like an hour, just like yelling, just trying to get things done. So, um, it's a, this is a start. So we're trying to figure this thing out. Retailers are trying to figure us out. It's, we've put a lot of time and effort in it. It's gone very smoothly so far. Um, I like the response we're getting from the retailers that are going to, going to be carrying our goods. So just, you know, I don't want to, you know, put all the names out there and, you know, there's still some coming in some, you know, they're going to, you'll just start seeing,

Myke Hurley: who can you say?

Brad Dowdy: Well, I mean, the Goulet's have put, I mean, it's no secret. The Goulet's have put it on their site.

Myke Hurley: So you can say that the Goulet's are getting them. So Goulet pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I mean, I would just start looking from, from your like favorite retailers. Like, you know, I mean,

Myke Hurley: those Goulet's, they're tricky, man. They know. They're like, oh, we're just going to put it up now. Cause, cause nobody else is saying it. Yeah. Everyone,

Brad Dowdy: everyone has the same opportunity. Yeah. What they choose to do with their opportunity is on them. So, yeah. I mean,

Myke Hurley: so frankly, just as a quick aside, this is what makes them such a great company, right? They understand this stuff. Like if you are one of those retailers and you listen to the show, get the page up, get it up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Get it up and get the order in, but you know, so apparently a Venice has it up on their site. They've ordered, so they must have it on their site. So I don't know how, you know, what release timelines and all these, every retailer does something different, right? So, you know, it'll, I'm hoping it's going to be at all of our friends that all love us here at the pen addict podcast. So that's the plan.

Myke Hurley: So I also got them up. They got the same page up. So it's sold out. They understand what's going on.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So Ed jelly took some sweet pictures for us. He's our official product photographer. Now he's on, he's on the payroll. I love Ed. He does a great job. I tell him what we want and he delivers. There's no back and forth. Um, so we have three new colors. It's the Raven exterior, which is black and the Aqua interior, which is really bright. Then we have the Peacock exterior and charcoal interior. And then we have coffee brown exterior with amethyst purple interior.

Myke Hurley: This purple is killing me. It's killing me.

Brad Dowdy: So this is a funny thing that Jeff and I crack are cracking up so far. Every picture that people are sending us like tweeting at us or commenting to us is all about the purple, the brown and purple.

Myke Hurley: It's killing me. I want it so bad.

Retailer Sales

Brad Dowdy: So far it is the least ordered. Item by retailers. You know, I'm not sharing any like top secret information. This is, this is the lowest.

Myke Hurley: It is all over again.

Brad Dowdy: Right. It is. I told Jeff. So like I'm auditing all these cases. Me and Jeffrey like going through, you know, we're hand inspecting every single case. Do you want to make sure they're up to our quality?

Brad Dowdy: Every time I open up one of those brown cases and that purple hits me, I just smile. I tell Jeff, I just keep smiling at this case. It's going to kill. And so far it's been the lowest ordered. It's been the lowest order case. That's what happens to our stuff. Right. It happens all the time. Yep. We talk about how different we sell cases like in person than online. Like we could never sell sky blue and pink online. We couldn't carry enough of it in person once people saw sky blue and pink. Right. So it's this purple coffee amethyst is I keep calling it. It's the hot fire case. That's what I just call it. It's just so good. And I love every, I told Jeff that Peacock and Cole is going to be the top seller. And I think I'm going to be wrong. I think it's going to be the coffee and brown black will sell the most probably just because it's black and that's, and it plus the blue came off really, really good with that. So, but something about this brown and purple really is really cool. So, but this, this is a start. We're starting slow. You know, I've contacted maybe like seven retailers, you know, it's, we're not going full bore wide open yet. We're still having to manage inventories at first and things like that. So it's going to be a process for us. It's going to be a process for the retailer. It's going to be a process for the retailers working with us. We appreciate their patience. They've been wonderful to work with so far. They understand everything we're doing and we're trying to do right by them. And I think we are. And I hope the products do really well for them. You know, I hope.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, of course. As always, I have a million questions. Sure. So these colors, are they only available through external retailers, not from you?

Brad Dowdy: No, they will eventually be through us. We just don't know when we're definitely. So that's a hard thing.

Myke Hurley: It's basically an exclusivity period because of, because of the amount you can make effectively. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Right. But it's, it's not a hard, fast line. Right. It's just kind of depends. We don't want to. Take away from our retailers. So we don't want, there's no reason for us to launch the product ahead or at the same time of a retailer. You know, we want them to, we want to manufacture cases. We want them to sell our cases. At some point, we will have them up on our site in the same colors, but we're basically giving the retailers a head start. If you will, I want them to be able to sell the cases first. I think that's a good business practice. There's no, they wouldn't enjoy it. If we launched before them, it's kind of defeats the purpose of doing that. So, you know, that's, that's kind of how I see that there's no hard, fast rule because all retailers go at different paces, right? I don't know when they're going to put them up. I can't wait forever. You know, at some point I'm going to put them up for sale on my side. It's just not going to be before or at the same time.

Myke Hurley: All right. Hot seat question for you.

Brad Dowdy: Sure.

Myke Hurley: Any outside of us retail?

Brad Dowdy: Discussions. There's discussions happening. It is extremely difficult. Yep. With our price point to make it worth everybody's while. We're trying hard. We've had conversations. We've had phone calls. It's not there yet. It's, we're really trying. So. I mean, I don't have any more details than that. Cost.

Brad Dowdy: So. I mean, cost of goods, cost of shipping, cost of, you know, what, you know, the retailer will have to sell it for. The prices can be higher. Conversion, conversion rates. Yeah. The price would definitely be higher because you wouldn't have to pay the shipping. So there's that. It's, it's definitely like a math problem. And that's what we're going through right now.

Myke Hurley: Because, you know, if you charge like 35 us, you could just charge 35 local currency. And typically that's going to be more. I mean, you know this. Yes. No, these are the conversation.

Brad Dowdy: Right. These are the conversations that we're having. It's just not straightforward. It's a difficult thing.

Myke Hurley: it's not. It's not, which is why it's a hot seat question because there's no good answer for it for anyone. Right. Because everybody wants it.

Brad Dowdy: We're trying. We really want that to happen. That's one of the questions we get. Will you have, you know, a retailer in Europe? Will you have a retailer in Asia? So that's the things we're working on.

Myke Hurley: The reason I ask you this is because there's people asking in the chat room. I didn't come up with that question.

Brad Dowdy: That's one of the most common questions we get. Right now. And all I can say is it's a work in progress. Nothing's a done deal. Nothing's set in stone. And it's not easy. It's, it's a difficult proposition. We hope to make it work. That's, that's the plan.

Myke Hurley: When are these expected to start going on sale?

Brad Dowdy: Oh gosh, probably as soon as next week.

Myke Hurley: Because the sun's way, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And these are the ones that are being made by the vetted third party.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. All of these are made with our contract manufacturer here in the U S and they look really, really good. I love that. You're perfect.

Myke Hurley: It's like you can't, you can't help yourself. Let's say like here in the U S I know how important it is. I mean, well, it's part of the brand. It's massively important. You guys have built the fact that you're made in the U S company. Like your labels have said that,

Brad Dowdy: like it's important. No, for us, it's a big deal for me on the pen addict. And talking about other brands, I don't care where they're made. I just want them to be upfront and honest. I, what I want a company to do is say, my product is made in Bangladesh. And here's why it is awesome. And I'm proud of that fact.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think that's too much to ask for.

Myke Hurley: No, no.

Brad Dowdy: Obfuscating, obfuscating.

Myke Hurley: Makes it looks like you're hiding.

Brad Dowdy: It makes it look like you're hiding. This notebook is made in China. We work with this killer factory. They made these products to the perfect spec that we made. The paper's awesome. I love how the binding come out. These notebooks are great.

Brad Dowdy: I don't understand. If you don't believe enough in your product to do that, then that's where our questions come in. So yes, it's a big deal for us to be made in the U S. That's what our company is going to be built around. It's a pillar of knock.

Myke Hurley: Because it's the way you started.

Manufacturing Locations

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Right. But I say that as two different people. Right. Like, I don't, as a consumer, I don't care where your product's made. Like, I'm not going to knock someone for not being made in the U S. I am going to knock someone for not believing enough in their product to own where it's being manufactured. Does that make sense?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it makes perfect sense.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I completely agree with you. It's like, I don't want to have this U S manufacturing versus, you know, China manufacturing talk, because I think it's irrelevant in the big picture. You know, it doesn't mean anything about quality.

Myke Hurley: It means literally nothing about quality.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly.

Myke Hurley: You know, like it, and it's not even a price thing. It's nothing. It's just where you say, and if you have them made in Belgium, then just, just say it, be, be proud of it. Right. But I think that there's this whole thing now about made in America. Like me, it's like this incredible badge of honor. Like you have to say, otherwise you may as well not had them made at all. So I agree with what you're saying. Like made in America, it doesn't, it's not a thing that obviously I care about. Right. I would prefer made in the UK. Right. Sure. Cause it's, you know, it's my economy, but it's about being upfront. That's, that's what the made in America thing means to me. It's like, you're just being upfront about where it's coming from. Like I could personally care less if it was made in America. Cause I have not got any patriotism for it, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Right. I mean,

Myke Hurley: I know that's why a lot of companies do it. And I think it's part of where you do it. Like you guys are proud that you make them in the U S. Like it's part of your whole thing. You know, you name your products after the place, where it's all made. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So yeah, when I put my, when I put my knock hat on, it's super important that it's made in America. Cause that's what our company is built on. Right. It's the brand. That's been our goal for our brand. I mean, we have the flag on the back of our notebooks that, that our friend, Hey Matthew designed. That's just this killer flag logo. I mean, it's important. All of our stuff's made in the U S.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like it would be kind of scandalous if you had them made in Bangladesh for that reason. Right. Because it's like, it's, it's undermining what you're talking about. Outly. But anyway, massive diversion,

Brad Dowdy: but yeah, it's an important topic. And I wanted to get just the general thoughts on that too. Right. Like I love that we're made in the U S. Everything's going to be made in the U S for, for knock. And that's, I don't care where other companies make their products. As long as they're say that this is where they're made. And it's awesome because of that, you know, just stand behind where your products are made. If you don't believe enough in your product to say that, then I don't believe in enough in you as a company. So that's that anyway. All right. I want to get back onto it because the video that we shot for Goulet pins came out this week as well. We did this at the Atlanta pin show. It's a fantastic video. I've watched it a couple of times. I think we did a really good job, but there's so much that has changed. Like in, it's been six months since we shot that video. There's so much different that things that did not happen that we said didn't even exist.

Myke Hurley: Then the linear didn't exist.

Brad Dowdy: We're talking about buying a cutting machine and hiring more employees. We actually fired our employees. Didn't buy a cutting machine because we found someone that could make them for us at a better pace. We talked about this a few months ago when we were talking about doing the made to order stuff about how we had to make some really hard decisions. So like within a month after that video, we kind of changed about two months after that video, the path of not changed. And, you know, everything I said on the video at the time was very, very true.

Brad Dowdy: It just happens that things change in the span of six months and a bunch of the manufacturing stuff change. It's not all in house. We realized that that was not going to be, doable for us, mostly from a money perspective. Like we have no investors, you know, we have no seed money, no back capital. It's me and Jeff. So we don't have 200 grand from some investor saying, Hey, you know, let's build out a 20 person workshop and build it all in house. You know, we don't have that type of flexibility. So we had to make some hard decisions. And finally, what we think came out to be like a really, really good decision because we found someone that could, could meet our quality standards with the, with our manufacturer. So it's been really good changes, but there's a lot of information in that video that was true at the time. That's not true currently. So I just wanted to point that out. I mean, it's no, no big deal, but you know, but we definitely talk about things and, um, you know, um, you know, about having employees and buying a kind of machine and making it all in house. And, you know, things have changed,

Myke Hurley: man. You guys don't stop, right?

Brad Dowdy: It's really busy right now. And I'm really happy. So we're doing, um, I don't know where we're, we're definitely stressing like all in a good way. It's I'm super busy right now, which is good. Got anything else? Good. I don't even know.

Myke Hurley: Anything else you wanted to add?

Brad Dowdy: Um, brass towns are coming later than Laniers.

Myke Hurley: Are they the same colors?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, Laniers, Sinclair's, but they'll be in the same colors. Yeah. Jeez. And then, uh, so future planning, you know, people wanted people, as soon as these hit and then the brass towns hit, people will start wanting lookouts and things like that. So that's in the works for down the line. It's not an imminent thing, but we're, we're trying to figure this all out. It's, we can't go guns blazing right out the gate for the same reasons. We couldn't start our own factory. You know, it costs money and it takes time. So we're working on it. Things are like super trending up. Things are going really, really well. And we're busting our butts to make it happen. Pen show planning is starting to happen. For 2017. So I'm starting to get those questions. I don't have answers for you yet. Although I know we're doing Atlanta and we're doing DC and then everything else is kind of up in the air. So I know a bunch of people are asking is not going to be at this show. We're going to, now that we have started the, down this path to where we'll have some inventory, we're going to try to be at some of the shows on our own this year. I just don't know what that is going to be yet, but we were working on it and you will know as soon as we know.

Myke Hurley: Man, I can't even believe we're thinking about that already.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I'm getting a lot of questions about what shows we're going to be at for 2017. And I'm like, wow, this is a thing already.

Myke Hurley: Like, I mean, for serious, we need to start thinking about the Kickstarter again in like two months.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I know. I know. So fast. I can't believe it. I can't believe it.

Myke Hurley: So you've got to get your brain wracking on the thing for this year.

Brad Dowdy: I already have a headache.

Myke Hurley: I'm sorry.

Brad Dowdy: No, it's all good. Just really, really busy.

Myke Hurley: If you want to catch the show notes for this week, head on over to relay.fm slash pen addict slash 227. Thank you so much to our fantastic sponsors, the great folk over at Harry's and Squarespace. If you want to find Brad online, he is at the pen addict. Wait, your pen addict or is it the pen addict? How have I forgotten? The pen addict.

Brad Dowdy: I'm both. Remember you made me buy the pen addict.

Myke Hurley: Because I kept getting it wrong. The pen addict. Com. He's pen addict on Instagram. Dowdy is on one Twitter. I am at I Myke. I am Y K E on Twitter and Instagram. And you can find some more of my interesting work over at youtube.com slash Myke Hurley. Thank you as always for listening to this show. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Bye.