The Pen Addict 525/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	525
Title:	Don’t Leave Me
Release Date:	August 10th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 525
Audio File:	Audio Episode 525
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 525
Length:	5252 min <br />0.867 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 525. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and SaneBox. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the radio's own Brad Dowdy.

Myke: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Come on down to the Coliseum. I can't wait to talk about that. We have my wonderful guest appearance on WNYC this week that I haven't showed up about because it was so much fun. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but yeah, that was cool, wasn't it?

Brad: I listened to the entire thing this morning.

Myke: Yeah, yeah. Well, good. I'll be interested to hear your feedback. But first, Myke, we got to do DC Pen Show feedback. Yes. I feel like I've talked about it so much, despite not being there, I was very excited to talk about the DC Pen Show because it is always, as I said before, a complete hot mess. And it lived up to that, Myke. It lived up to the hot and the mess part. I do think following it on Instagram and in Slack over the span of the show, which was really like Thursday night from last week to Sunday, it went pretty well. I think people had fun. Everything that I saw, I was super jealous of everyone that was there. So that's a good sign that, hey, it went generally well. But DC is always going to DC, right?

Brad: I mean, it still had that big, bombastic look about it. It still had that big and more and everything.

Myke: I still haven't seen a show that looks like that in pictures, right? It is big. It's crowded. This year it was hot and cramped and there was a lot of confusion, like table layout confusion, just with the construction of the hotel, right? The after hours was non-existent because of construction. There was nowhere to hang out. They were getting kicked out of the bars at 10 and 11 o'clock at night, which is like a recurring theme at a lot of these shows. It's like it just, it seems to boggle the mind that any show promoters, like I'm not counting DC. DC does not stand alone in this, that there's no like conversation that, hey, could we get like a bar till midnight? And like that's staffed and usable for, you know, people to come hang out at and, you know, spend money and things like that. So, you know, that's just always an ongoing thing. And it was made worse this year with the hotel construction. So I think a lot of the daytime, hey, we're at the show, we're enjoying the show things and we're looking for pens and shopping for pens and seeing our friends was good. And then the show ended and there was like literally nothing for anyone to do, which makes people frustrated who are there for like a three day weekend, right? We talk about how, you know, the having a day trip to a show is a different experience than spending, you know, a night at the hotel and having like an overnight, you know, hangout experience. And just like a full, you know, pen show weekend experiences is very different. And I think the full weekend experience, I think weighed on a lot of people more than the people who were there for, you know, Friday day or Saturday day, right? I think the, the long time, you know, showgoers and people who've experienced a lot of pen shows, I think it was, you know, a little bit rough around the edges. Which, I don't want to overstate it, but like, that's what DC is like, it shouldn't be like, I'm not, I'm not giving them any, I'm not cutting them any slack, right? And there were even more extenuating circumstances this year. But, you know, it just seemed that like the show, you know, open out open to close was fine after that was like, man, well, it could have been a lot better experience. And I think that's a lot of people, we talk about it all the time when we go to shows, we take more away from the not show floor stuff than we do the show floor stuff, right? What do you remember? Well, I don't remember necessarily the Leonardo Memento Zero I bought. Of course, I remember, yeah, I bought this at, you know, the Baltimore pen show. But I remember hanging out with the people at the show. Those are the long lasting memories. And it seemed like there wasn't that much opportunity for that this year. Our friend Joe Crace from the Gentleman Stationer had his big write-up today. We'll probably see a bunch of write-ups coming in. I'm assuming Kimberly's going to do one for the pen addict this week. I haven't talked to her because everyone I've talked to who was at the show is exhausted and is trying to recover from what is just a madhouse of a show. So Kimberly will have her review up. I don't know if it's going to be this week or next week. It always takes, it's always a big review. She does such a good job. But Joe, Joe's review was very good and very telling and thinks a lot of the things that I think about pen shows and community as a whole, right? Not necessarily, you know, take DC out of it, but just the overarching, hey, pen community as a whole, you know, are we seeing a lot of effects of a lot of different things coming into our community? And we definitely are, you know, like travel is tough right now. You know, everything is expensive right now, not just, you know, food and, you know, lodging. But, hey, pens are more expensive now, right? And like there's a lot of it's justified, right? You know, hey, the cost of materials to make the pen is going up. I'm not saying, hey, things, you know, shouldn't be as expensive. Like the cost of things is more expensive. So, you know, and we're in a completely discretionary income hobby, right? Like none of this, we don't need any of this, right? So it's all discretionary income and there's not as much discretionary income right now. So does that affect the shows? Like it was a really good, long, detailed recap of the show environment, you know, not necessarily talking about the actual, hey, you know, we did this on Friday. We did this on Saturday. It's more of what was the feel of the show? What is the overall community vibe of the show right now? And I do think, and Joe alludes to this a little bit, I think we're in a little bit of a transition phase, right? So, and it's always, there's always going to be new people coming into the hobby. And I think we have a lot of new people that have come in from the pandemic and are learning about writing and are just now figuring out what they want. And does that translate from a retailer's perspective to their bottom line? And does it, how does that translate from like five years ago when we didn't have all these new people in the hobby? Was that good or bad, right? Are they spending less because they're just kind of, you know, getting their feet wet, trying to decide what they like? Like we all did, you know, back in the day when we're trying to figure out what we like. Are they limited in the fact that, you know, I'm not picking on Sailor, but it's the easiest one to talk about price increases. Are they buying one Sailor Pro gear this year instead of three, you know, from the previous years? Even though, you know, three would still be more money. It's just like the cost of each individual product is so much more. And that just, you know, it compounds on everything, right? Like the one pin that used to be three pins, you know, or the money got spread around a little bit differently. But now it's all invested into one pin. So there's a lot of change going on. And I don't know that anything, we're going to see any big like sea change type of thing going on in the hobby or the business.

DC Pen Show Feedback

Myke: But, you know, Joe mentions community a lot in here. And that's my pet project, right? That's my favorite thing to focus on is community. Hey, is everyone having a good time? And is everyone having an enjoyable experience? And, you know, I think there's challenges with that too, right? Like I, my biggest focus when I go to shows is that a new person who's coming to their first pin show does not get overwhelmed. Like I will walk people around the show. Like I'll talk to people and start walking around the show. You've seen me do this a million times. Like it's important to me that people new to the hobby have a pleasant experience. And I want to do what I can to, to facilitate that. So, yeah, it's a good, good article by Joe. I agree pretty much top to bottom with it. And, you know, just all the feedback I got on the show was like, yeah, it was, it was, it was good. But like there, people have been doing this for a while or looking for more. And, you know, there's some challenges that the big pin shows like DC has, like, can DC continue on this path? It's like kind of one, one of Joe's big, big takeaways. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know. So we'll see. So it'll be good for someone like Joe and Kimberly, people who are going to the DC show and the San Francisco pin show to kind of compare and contrast those shows. Because a lot of us who have been to both in the past kind of hold them in a different light. Like we understand that DC is going to be big and messy. And we understand that San Francisco is going to be big and fun. Right. And how do those things correlate, you know, this year? Like, let's, let's see what happens. So I'll be interested to go to San Francisco myself. So two weeks, I think. Yeah, about two weeks I'll leave. And that, that should be fun.

Brad: Yeah. I'm looking forward to hearing your, this will be the first big show you've been to, right? Yep. Yep. Because you did little ones. Because you did Atlanta. Only Atlanta. You only did Atlanta? I thought you, I thought you traveled for one other, but I must have obviously forgotten that.

Myke: Nope. Nope. Nope. Just Atlanta. And Atlanta is tiny compared, comparatively. Come on. Yes. Yeah. It's minuscule. Yeah. Like people were, I mean, as, as biased as I am toward Atlanta, people were asking me like, Hey, if you could attend any pen shows, like in the U S like, what is your, what is, what are the, the groups you would rank them in? And like Atlanta was like in the third group just cause it's, it's small, right? Like, you know, I put like San Francisco, Baltimore up there, like at the, in the top tier. Like I'm just doing this off the top of my head. I could be, I'm going to miss something. And I haven't been to all the shows. Right. So it's not fair. But then I'd have like, you know, like your Chicago's and, uh, Philadelphia's and, you know, probably even DC, like in the second tier, then you have a third tier. It's like Atlanta, the smaller shows and things like that. Atlanta, Dallas, some things like that. So yeah. Um, well, you're not without options for pen shows. So does that mean DC has to step it up? I honestly don't think it does. Right. They've never, DC has always been on an Island where it doesn't matter what they do or how bad a time people have. People are still going to come. So it's a little bit weird in that way. Yep. They got the goods. They got the people, they got the crowds. So, uh, crowds, uh, most people are saying the crowds were a little bit lighter this year, but that's understandable with, you know, travel cost of everything, you know, just life in general. So interesting to get some feedback from people who are doing, uh, uh, both events. So we'll see.

Brad: Do you want to hit a couple of news pieces?

Myke: Yeah. Kind of related to the shows. I didn't get this specifically from the show. This came out before the shows and I meant to bring it up last week, but I've forgotten. This is, uh, very exciting news for pilot fans like myself, especially pilot custom nine 12 fans. So in the U S so we've pilot has always made a huge range of the nine 12 size nib. Um, and in the U S we had about half of those options available. There's 15 different nib options for the pilot custom nine 12 that are now available in the U S where before we had just, uh, like seven of them. I'm going to read this off Myke and tell me how excited you are about each individual nib. No, I'm just kidding. I am going to read them off though. So out of this, this is the number 10 size nib. I believe you can get it in extra fine, fine, soft, fine, medium, fine, medium. My favorite Myke, soft, fine, medium, soft, medium. I'm just making it up now. I'm making it up now.

Brad: My favorite is the super soft, hard, zoom, medium, fine, metallic.

Myke: Gradient. Yeah. Um, then we have broad, double broad stub music, Waverly flexible posting course. So Waverly is like a turned up type of nib. Um, it's kind of, it, it helps with your angles, right? Like, so you can write it a few different angles. Like it's, it's not like a food aid nib. It's not that aggressive, but it's, it's a little bit turned up at the tip. So you can do some different.

Brad: Do they have wet? Do they have intermediate? Yeah. This is, this is, uh, much free compound.

Myke: This is a wider range of F1 tire choices. So I like that pilot has, you know, move this inventory into the U S that's a lot. That's a lot of investment in gold nibs though, when I'm thinking about pilots inventory to be able to stock 15 nib options, you know, adding a country, the size of like the U S or North America, whatever their region is.

Brad: How widely are they going to be stocked? Obviously our friends and sponsors Pen Shelley have them, but they're going to be widely stocked. Like maybe that's how they, they do it.

Myke: Yeah. I mean, right now it's just in the nine 12, which is just a massively awesome workhorse type of fountain pen, but it's also very just standard, you know, it's plain back. Yeah.

Brad: But I mean, like, are they going to be giving it to, are they restricting the amount of

Myke: retailers? It doesn't seem like it. Like I was bouncing around, uh, seeing who had these in stock and I couldn't find anyone who didn't have them. Like if basically if you're a pilot, uh, pilot America's customer, it looks like you have these options. So we'll see how the inventory goes. But the nine 12 is the pen. I've always wanted to see like the orange one or the purple one, right? This is, this is the mainline pen that they should be pushing because the price is still really, really good for the quality. Right.

Brad: It's just a shame that it's just black and gold, black and silver. I was saying just always black and silver. That's it. It'd be a bit, it'd be fun. Cause it's a nice looking pen. It's just a bit like. This is my posting nib pen. I've seen it a thousand times. Yeah. Yeah.

New Pilot Ink Options

Myke: Yeah. So it's great. Um, also, so I am assuming those were some of the options available at the DC pen show. Also at the DC pen show, uh, Narwhal announced a brand name change. Um, I want you to, um, to pronounce that for me, Myke. What do you, what do you have?

Brad: Navalur?

Myke: I'm sure. I'm going to just go with Narwhal because Frank says we can just call it Narwhal, but for No, that's no good. No, no, no.

Brad: That's no good. That's no good.

Myke: Uh, Navalur. It's the, uh, Icelandic name for, uh, for Narwhal. Um, which is, it's cool. Are they based in Iceland? Actually, Myke, let me tell you a story. No, they're not. They're not based in Iceland. Um, but yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna go with that. Like, I, I get it. Like, it's fine. Like, you're gonna have a, uh, a hard time, you know, copywriting, trademarking a very generic, you know, animal name, you know, anywhere in the world. Um, so yeah, I get it. So they had to, they had to, uh, to pivot the name and, uh, just try to bring it back as something else. I think most people will still probably call them Narwhal, but I will actually probably get into the, the Navalur, uh, once I learn how to officially pronounce it. And I'll, I'll ask, uh, my friend, uh, Jared, who speaks, uh, Icelandic, uh, to, to do a recording for me. If he's listening, uh, he will send me a recording, uh, in the mail, in the email. And, uh, well, maybe we can play that one episode. So.

Brad: Yeah. I will say like, just, I'll put my business hat on a minute. And if Frank from, from Navalur is listening, don't say people can still call it Narwhal. Because if you're doing that, then what is the whole point of doing this? Like. I agree. You, you, the only reason it seems that they're doing this is so they have the ability to get trade protection on the name, right? So they can copyright. Which is good. Like. Which you should do. It's important. Yes. Right. Like it's an important thing to be able to do, to have some kind of protection of your brand, especially considering the year that Narwhal, that Narwhal had. Right. Yes. Lots of legal stuff. Right. I'm sure it's related.

Myke: Yeah. Business wise, this is a had to be done. So like I, like I'm pro this name change, right? You have to be done.

Brad: But if you're going to do it, you've decided to do it, then you got to lean into it. You can't like be like, ah, you know, I know it's complicated. So you can still. And so now if you are saying people, maybe you shouldn't have gone with this name. You know, if you were agreeing that it's complicated, you know, there's, there's maybe something else. I like it. I think it's nice. It's unique. It, you know, the spelling of it is going to be tricky for a bit for some people, but you know, we get there. And also I definitely am a person who subscribes to the names and names kind of idea of like after a certain point, it doesn't really matter what something's called. It's just called that thing. So it means that thing. So it doesn't really matter. Right. Like, you know, we had someone ask us recently, why is RelayFM called RelayFM? And there were a bunch of reasons originally, but now it's just, that's what it's called. Like there is, the story isn't the same anymore because the company's different. Right. So like, there isn't, you don't have to worry about it, but you just got to lean into it. Like, if this is what you're called now, your Navajo pens, I like the logo. I like the small logo mark that they've made that's on their Instagram post. And everyone's just got to get on board.

Myke: Yep. I agree with you across the board.

Brad: All right. This episode is brought to you by a new sponsor for the pen addict. It's SaneBox. Inbox Zero is a thing of the past. In my opinion, Inbox Zero these days, it's but a dream, you know, to imagine such a thing. We're all so inundated of email. It's not about responding to everything. It's actually, and really part of the original idea of Inbox Zero. It's just about responding to the important things, the messages that really matter. SaneBox gets your email in order by working on top of your existing setup. You don't need to create a new email account or download a new app. SaneBox just makes your existing app, your existing service more awesome. If you've ever met someone who used SaneBox, you'll know that the initial SaneBox purge could be a very powerful experience. Even Twitter is flooded with people going from thousands of emails to single digit number of emails. And then the program will allow them to manage daily from there. I have been a SaneBox user for maybe five or six years now. And the main thing that I love about it is it just goes in there and tidies up my inbox for me. And I'm given control over it. It's like you can have it, you know, you can kind of get it set up in a way that if this person's emailed you for the first time, they're going to be put into a folder, the SaneLater folder. And like you just deal with it later on. But I have and continue to, in some regard, work in a sales part of the business. So we get a lot of inbound email. And when I was setting up SaneBox, I was able to say like, hey, I work in sales. I get a lot of inbound stuff and it tweaks the system to work best for me. So I really love that. SaneBox has a bunch of nifty features like the SaneBlackhole. You could drag messages to the SaneBlackhole folder from whatever service that you're using, you know, whatever app that you're using, from people you never want to hear from again. You drag their own messages to the SaneBlackhole. And it's better than unsubscribing because sometimes clicking unsubscribe can do one of two things. It can let people know that you're there or put you on other lists. Using the SaneBlackhole folder, you're never going to hear from those people ever again. And it will make your unwanted emails go away. They also have SaneReminders. So this can remind you if somebody hasn't replied to an email that you set by a certain date. And best of all, you can use SaneBox, as I mentioned, with any email client, on any device, anywhere that you check your email. It's so, so smart. SaneReminders can actually remind you when you need to send that follow-up email. Plus, you can snooze emails, which is a great way to defer or de-emphasize less urgent emails. So just read them later. See how SaneBox can magically remove distractions from your inbox with a free two-week trial. Go to sanebox.com slash penaddict and start your free trial and get a $25 credit. That's S-A-N-E-B-O-X dot com slash penaddict. Our thanks to SaneBox for the support of this show and RelayFM. Yeah, I need this in my life. I've got to get on that train. Buddy, it's so good. The setup's really good. And it makes a huge difference.

Myke: Yeah, I used it, I don't know, maybe five years ago. So I just need to, like, things have changed and that it's going to be a really good tool for me. So yeah, I'm going to look into that. Myke. Yes. I did a radio hit. That's the first time I've ever been able to say that. I like to say that. I did a radio hit. Like, hey, I'm doing a hit at 99.799x.

WNYC Radio Appearance

Brad: Well, it wasn't. It was WNYC.

Myke: Way cooler to say WNYC, right? So this is the NPR station out of New York City. Very apparently popular station because I got a lot of feedback from being on there. This was cool. I've never, can I tell you about this, the experience of doing radio? Have you done, like, terrestrial radio type of stuff before?

Brad: I have done a pre-recorded segment that was played on radio. Okay.

Myke: So this was live and it was part interview with myself and host Allison Stewart and part call-in. So let me just explain my feelings about this process. Number one, Allison kept me in the loop via email. She was so detailed in prep that she made everything easy. She's like, I'm going to talk about this. Here's the links. This is my favorite pin. These are the pins.

Brad: She is an A-star host. I was blown away by how good she handled the entire segment. I just couldn't. I was like, this person is all over all of this. She's so good, man.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: She's got to be on the radio, you know?

Myke: Right. So if y'all don't know who Allison Stewart is, she, I go way back with my love for Allison into like the early nineties MTV. She was basically after Kurt Loder for all you olds like me. She was basically MTV news back when they were big and like rock the vote and doing all these things like in the early mid nineties. And then she's parlayed that into just, I mean, she's just exceptionally talented, obviously by her, her career path that she's gone on. And so you can imagine that, okay, in the prep and the scheduling, you know, she was on it, right? She's like, this is what we're going to talk about. And she's like, I'll just drive the whole conversation. You're not going to have to worry about a thing. So don't even worry about it. I'm like, cool. Like she made me feel at home and like, she doesn't know me from Adam, right? She's doing like a sec. She like literally does this every day and she's taking all this care to make sure that I'm comfortable coming on and joining them. So day of call is Monday and my schedule time is one Oh six PM, right? It's down to the minute in radio land. So I get the email from the producers. So there's three producers. I'm on an email chain with three, three producers and engineers, Brad at 1255, you log into this zoom channel. I'm like, okay. So I log in and they're like, Hey Brad. Okay. You sound good. Yeah. Um, we're wrapping up this segment and then we're going to do the ad and then we're top of the hour. Then we do like the meditation minute and then you'll be on with Alison. Sound good. I'm like, yeah, I'm like literally in the, I dialing in, they verify me, you know, just the, the, the connection and that I'm ready and Alison will be with you in a minute. And then it's where you're just on the air. Yeah. Like that's it. It's the scariest thing.

Myke: It's just like, and Alison does this intro and then we just go. And then like, I tell people who, you know, on a, um, um, you know, when we do like friends of the show or podcast, people have never done podcasts before. I tell them, you know, don't worry about it. I'll drive the conversation and I'm just going to ask you stuff that it's going to be easy, like right in your wheelhouse to answer. And, you know, one minute into this, you'll forget that you're being live and being recorded. And then all of a sudden 30 minutes will pass. Well, that's the same thing that happened to me in this. Um, I could not believe that it went 34 minutes, the segment we had some, we had other things in the notes she wanted to get to, but we were having so much fun with the callers that I think she just wanted to bring them in.

Brad: And I was like, I could hear in the way that it was being set up where I was nervous of like, she has to be ready for if nobody calls. Yeah. Right. Like, right. There is a possibility that no one's going to call in. Right. Like, and that could just happen. It's nothing about you. Like that. Yeah. You've got to have the right people listening at that right moment. Right. Yeah. And you did. I mean, obviously there were tons. It was constant. Yeah.

Myke: It turns out they had a full phone bank. So we stopped doing our question, the questions that she had prepared to talk to me about. We didn't even approach any of them except like her favorite pen. We didn't even get into fountain pens hardly. She kind of wedged that in at the end just because she wanted to.

Brad: By the way, there's a link in the show notes. You can go listen to this. Like I listened to it online. They have no website. Like I listened to the whole segment today before we recorded. So you can go get it if you want to, which I recommend people should go listen to it.

Myke: So the call in questions like being put on the spot, even though I like I didn't technically have to answer any of them. I felt like it was my job to like comment on some of the stuff and talk about some of it. Like not knowing what's coming. Like that's pretty scary. And I was like, oh, okay. I did that pretty good.

Brad: What was very funny to me is like I could like, I know you, right? Like I know, you know, you know what you're talking about, right? Like you've got an answer for all this stuff because you are the expert, right? And the problem for you is you're used to what we're doing right now. Right. And a lot of the time she just like takes the call and is ready to move on. And you're like, no, I have something to say. Yeah. And I want to tell you. It was so good.

Myke: Yeah. Even one time, one time I went, uh, and she was trying to move on. She's like, oh, do you want to say something? I'm like, yeah, I do.

Brad: That really made me laugh. It's like, oh, Allison, he's always got something to say.

Myke: Yeah. I wanted to get, I wanted to get, I wanted to make sure I got a shot in at the pilot G2. So that's why I wanted to make sure I had that covered.

Brad: It was very funny to me. It was like, no, you have an opinion. Cause it's like, you, you knew all of these things, right? Like, yeah.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: Like I enjoyed when like, there was like one guy's like, oh, I bet your guest doesn't even know this. Yeah. All right. Nice try, buddy.

Myke: I got some comments on that one. And then the people, people who know me were just laughing. It was like, oh, that was hilarious. It was, it was so much fun. So apparently it went well enough. I'm already going to be booked to be back on, you know, come around holiday season. Amazing. We're going to do a, we're going to do a.

Brad: Brad, this is how we take over the world. Yeah. We're going to do a gift guide. Because this happened to Jeremy Birch, right? So, you know, our friend Jeremy, he ran Emojipedia. Yep. Jeremy was on the news all the time. Like anytime there was something emoji related. Because once you're in. All the new releases. Yeah. Like once you're in to the systems of these, like, of, of like radio and TV and stuff, if they ever want to talk about a certain thing, well, now they've got their person. They've got their expert. Right. I do. In listening to it, I couldn't make it. I was, I had another show to record. It was too complicated to make it around. And like. Myke was invited. Yeah. I was invited. But really this, you know, I felt like I wouldn't, I felt like I'm not going to be able to add much here. In listening to it. Definitely. I would not have been able to, honestly, I think, add much to that conversation. Like other than just like, hey, we do this thing together.

Myke: Yeah. Unless we were doing like a straight interview.

Brad: Yeah. Like if, if it was just like, oh, let's talk about the pen addict. Right. Like I could do that forever. But like answering these specific, like, I don't, I just don't think that that, that was my, really my skill set. And so I was happy that I couldn't make it because I would have felt really out of my depth, I think. But I'm so pleased that you did it, both for you and for us. It was fun.

Myke: I, I'm pleased that it went as well as it did. You just never know. Right. You never know. But it was, it was, it was just cool. So the question.

Brad: You never know with what we do here, you never know what you're walking into. Yeah. Because there is always the possibility that, that we're about to be treated like weirdos. True. Right. And so like you never truly know what you're getting into with these kinds of things. Mm-hmm. And this is the same for me with all of the shows that I do. Right.

Niche Interests and Growth

Myke: Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Brad: Because there are all these niche things. Right. And, and it's like, yeah, like people, you just never sure if it's about to become like a thing. Right. Mm-hmm. Ryan in the Discord is asking, how did you secure the WNYC spot? Like, how did she find you? And me and Brad above convinced, convinced it was the office ladies. Yep. Because it happened within days.

Myke: Within days. Yeah. Of the office ladies release.

Brad: Like, they, they emailed us and DM'd us. Mm-hmm. Like Allison did. Personally. Allison did. Wild. Like. Exactly. She was, she was after it. You have like a hundred producers. Like, can't they do this way? But I understand that at the same time where it's like, if they want it to be, if they really want to have you on, if she does it, then you pay attention. Yeah. Right? For sure. Just like, because I get this kind of stuff, I've been getting someone email me every two days for the last week and a half about doing some TV thing. Mm-hmm. And I like, I don't know what this is. Right. And I keep asking for more information. And they're like, why don't we just set up a call? And I'm like, no. Yeah. Like, why didn't you tell me what I'm here for? Yeah. So like, this kind of weird stuff happens a lot.

Myke: Right. I mean, you couldn't, you couldn't be much safer than WNYC and NPR. Like, I felt pretty, pretty safe about doing it. Yeah.

Brad: That's why like, that probably felt like a safe environment, but you still never sure. Right. Like the hosts got to be into the idea. Like, not necessarily they're going to make fun, but they got to be into it. Right.

Myke: And so Allison is very, very into it by her choice of favorite pen, which was, if you haven't listened to it, is the Zebra Blin, which we've talked about on the podcast before, because it came out of nowhere. And I kind of shared that little, little anecdote that we've talked about, how like three, two years ago, it just came out of nowhere to finish number two on the OKB48, which is a annual vote in Japan on, on pens. And I was like, what is this pen? And why is it number two? And it turns out that's her favorite pen. So she is, she is definitely a pen addict among us.

Brad: I very enjoyed the shock moment in you there. Cause I could feel like, wait, what? The blend?

Myke: So yeah, it was great. It was great. So that was, that was such a fun experience. Hopefully I'll do it again. Hopefully we'll, we'll be back on WNYC for the holidays doing a gift guide. That's what they were thinking about right now. So we'll see how it goes.

Brad: Oh, that'd be awesome, man. Make sure you save some of the goods for this show though. Don't give away WNYC. I will. Don't leave me. All right. Don't go. I know. Don't go start the pen addict on radio now and then like leave me. You know? Yeah. I won't. No, no worries. It took you a long time to say I won't. Like I just want to, I want everybody to be aware of that. The hesitation in Brad's voice there.

Myke: I mean, if Alison asked me to co-host, that's going to be, that's a tough call. We're going to have, we're going to have a problem with me and you. I mean, there, there's a short list of, of people and I mean, I mean, she's pretty great. Right? Turns out I'm not on that list anymore.

Brad: All right. This episode is brought to you. We're going to take a break. I'm going to let you go deflate your head over there. All right. This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet sell the very best products from all of your favorite brands. They sell fountain pens and roller balls, mechanical pencils and ballpoints. They also sell accessories too. So if you want some carrying cases, they're really good if you're going to pen shows to have some nice carrying cases, especially large ones. They do like the large pen carrying cases. I appreciate those, but also refills, inks, fountain pen converters and so much more. Pen Chalet have fantastic prices. They're doing discounts every couple of weeks, close out specials as well, along with adding new styles of pens every month. You're going to find new stuff going on at Pen Chalet. They sell internationally with very, very reasonable shipping rates. I've had things shipped from Pen Chalet a bunch of times and they do free shipping in the US on orders of over $75. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction, guarantee. They want you to be happy over at Pen Chalet. So go right now to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. When you're there, enter the password Pen Addict. You will get there the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet and some special offers for Pen Addict listeners.

Myke: If you read my Diplomat Magnum review recently, which is Diplomat's entry-level fountain pen and are interested in that pen, I don't know if Ron is coordinating this based on my review. I kind of don't think so. The price he has, the new Magnums, the translucent ones, the blue, purple, and orange ones is ridiculously good. You got to scroll down a little bit to find that. That's the good thing about going over to the Pen Chalet Pen Addict page. There's all kinds of deals. You got to scroll all the way down to the bottom sometimes to find the best stuff. Like it leads with the Pelican Stola Ballpoint and Rollerball, which is a shockingly good Pelican product. That's kind of an entry-level Pelican product, right? And it's a really cool, very classic German design, very high quality, and very low prices for both of these pens. So definitely check that out. And a little sneaky Pelican Moonstone M205 in there, Myke, which Ron is always prone to sneaking some stuff in there, like the Magnum, the Pelican Moonstone. So make sure you go check out the whole list over at penchalet.com.

Brad: That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Big Headed Brad Episode

Brad: Big news today. Big news today. Big Headed Brad episode today. We've gone from Big Head Brad to Big Nose Brad. Are you still there? Did you just go away from me? Like, what is that? Are you being quiet now?

Myke: Sorry, I was seeing where you were going with this, then I decided to see how long I can hold out on you. Okay.

Brad: Have I got to lead you in now? Am I not a good enough host for you anymore? No. Now you've got to experience someone else?

Myke: You're the number one host in my heart, Myke. So the next phase of Knock Co. is here. I guess that's the best way to put it. It's hard to know how to describe what we're doing with Knock. And we talked about early this year or late last year. I don't even remember when I was winding down Knock. And deciding what to do with the brand going forward. Knowing that I really didn't want it to go away. Right? But I just can't make things anymore. It's a full-time job. I can't do it anymore. So I had been talking over the past few months with Mark Dwight at Rickshaw Bags, who a lot of people in our community know as a really great manufacturer of soft goods. And their style has always been similar to Knock in that we make, you know, very colorful, fun, functional, cloth-based bags, generally speaking. You know, synthetics and cottons and things like that. And the quality has always been top-notch. So we started talking. What could we do with Knock and have Rickshaw manufacture them? Some cases. Essentially be a Rickshaw product with a little bit of Knock co-branding on there. And, of course, I wanted to continue the Sinclair more than anything, really. I think the Sinclair is one of the best cases that we made at Knock. So Mark and I noodled on this for a couple of months, making some prototypes, making some changes, some minor changes, some really good improvements that kind of needed to happen to the original design while keeping the aesthetic of the original Sinclair. So now we have the Sinclair Model R, which I'm launching alongside Rickshaw. It's a collaboration, right? So this is a collaborative process with Rickshaw. We'll have, starting with the Sinclair, we haven't even talked about doing a next thing. We haven't looked at it this far. You know, we were looking at, hey, let's do this cool case that everyone loves, that I love, that Mark loves. Let's tweak it a little bit. Let's make it in the different options that you can get at Rickshaw, right? So different materials, different fun colors, plush on the inside, things like that. Things that Rickshaw are known for. And bring them out to the market and see what the market thinks. And we're going to launch these at the San Francisco Pen Show in a couple weeks. And then you'll be able to buy them online through Rickshaw. And you will eventually be able to fully customize this case just like you can with any other Rickshaw product. This is a full, full lineup Rickshaw product. It will be at retail. If retailers are interested in carrying this model, they will have this option. If you're interested in doing like custom patterns, you know how Rickshaw is known for that type of printing, you know, on the fabrics to do different logos and things like that. This will be part of that. And there will all be not co-branded and collaborated with Rickshaw. And the case came out great. Like I'm really, really happy with the case. I've been carrying it for one of the prototypes for a couple months. I don't have a final version yet with all the proper labels and the final design tweaks. But it's great. It's the Sinclair, man. And it's an upgraded Sinclair. It's like it's got added features and it's just got cool stuff going. And I'm excited to get these in people's hands. So we announced it yesterday on Rickshaw's Instagram. Feedback has been exceedingly positive and I'm excited to get these going.

Brad: I have a bunch of questions for you. All right. So you mentioned the collaboration. Yes. What does that mean? Do you still own?

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: So IP?

Myke: I own everything. I am not giving up anything. I am basically, it's just a straight collaboration. Like I will get a royalty on a case, if you will, kind of thing. Right? No ownership of the brand. No ownership of the name. No ownership of the design. Anything like that. It's just, hey, let's do this together and let's see how it goes. So I can work with other companies. I can work, make other cases with other brands. Whatever I want to do. Like I don't have anything working right now. But like, yeah, it's nothing more.

Brad: Make another Sinclair though. Yeah.

Myke: Probably not. But, you know, maybe I can make a leather one, you know, something like that with a manufacturer like that. You know, I don't have anything in the works. But I'm just saying there's no ownership change or nothing proprietary, nothing ownership wise or anything like that. So, yeah. So it's just a straight up collaboration. And if it goes well, which I think it will, maybe we can do some more cases down the line. You know, we haven't even talked about that whatsoever. We wanted to get this going. See how it goes. See what the feedback is. And all of that. So, yeah.

Brad: Okay. Are these co-branded?

Myke: Yes. So, Knock has always put like a label on the inside, right? So we have the Knocko label on the inside and the rickshaw label on the exterior. We actually have a better exterior spot now on the design of the case. There's an outside kind of like little slim pouch on the outside, which I think is a great addition to the case. So, like there'll be a rickshaw label there and then the Knocko label where we normally would place it on the inside. And it looks good. It's our traditional Knocko tag. Same tag we've been using for all of our goods before. We wanted to make sure we kind of kept that branding going on there. Keep it the same. So, yeah. It's actually the original Knocko tags that we use.

Brad: Do you have a role in this?

Knock Co. Collaboration

Myke: No. Like I have no requirements other than like Mark and I basically collaborate on the design, right? You know? So we'll talk about like what's good, what's bad, what we want to change, why we're doing certain tweaks, why we don't want to do certain things.

Brad: You get a say in what they want to do. Like if they've proposed a tweak, you can have a say in that at least. Yes.

Myke: Yeah. But that's it. Like I'm not involved in like and I will certainly, I'm sure, market it, right? Because I want people to know that these cases are out there. But I don't have to. You make money on it, right? Yeah. And I'll make money on it. Yeah. Exactly. But I'm not like required to do anything whatsoever, which was the goal with this, right? It's like completely hands off other than like some design discussion. You know, we talk about materials. We talk about colors. You know, if we change certain pieces of the design, you know, let's have these conversations, right? Let's make it, you know, we want to keep it as true to the original design. But it's also time for an upgraded product too, like just in shape and materials and things like that. So yeah, it's mostly hands off once the product launches, right? So it's really, really good. I'm happy with this setup.

Brad: And like it's saying about being hands on and being in San Francisco or not being hands on, being in San Francisco. Would you ever step behind a pen show table?

Myke: Hmm. That's a good question. I hadn't even thought about that.

Myke: I mean, I wouldn't say no, but there's no plans of that. Like, I'm not doing anything, you know, like I don't have like a rickshaw not co-event or, you know, Brad's going to be at the table, you know, working on San Francisco. Like literally, it's completely hands off. Obviously, I will be there and be around because I want to talk to people about the product because I'm happy with how the product turned out. But yeah, like no requirements, like I'm not working for rickshaw or doing anything like that. And, you know, no plans at pen shows to do any of that type of work. That's not really in my want to do's these days, right?

Brad: And how did these models compare to the originals? Like what's changed? Because there are quite a lot of changes, right? But I think they're all for the better.

Myke: Every single one of them for the better. So it's slightly larger. You'll mostly notice the size difference in the length, the height of the case. The height of the case is about probably like a half an inch taller to fit just some of the biggest pens that people use a little bit better, right?

Brad: So also they use a thicker lining, right?

Myke: Yeah. And so the thicker lining that did force us to change like some of the side panel width. So some of the depth is fractionally thicker, but that is very, very minor size diameter. So the width and the thickness is fractionally larger to account for the thicker plush interior, but the height is noticeably larger. But like you would notice them if you set this side by side to an original Sinclair that it's taller. But on its own, it feels like the exact same product. My favorite addition is the pocket on the outside. I've been using that pretty regularly in my prototypes. I like having that external pocket just for more storage. Like if people, a lot of people use the Sinclair, you know, has always had three pin slots on one side and then an open slot on the opposite interior side. And I always use that for paper goods and small notebook note cards. Well, a lot of people just stuff more pins in there. So now they can have either more pins on the outside, even more pins, or they can move the paper goods to the outside. So I like the addition of that external pocket. So it's been very good. Like I'm using an X-Pack material one. That's I think the thing I'm most excited about with Rickshaw is the variety of materials like to start with, which I think is really cool. We're doing a bunch of traditional thousand denier Cordura materials in the original Notco colors.

Brad: I was so happy to see that in the post. It would have been so sad for me if that wasn't an option, like the original material, like that would have been a bit of a bummer.

Myke: Yeah. So we're doing it the Notco way in the colors and materials, right, for some of the original launch. But then we're doing the Rickshaw style with the new materials that, you know, we didn't have access to or couldn't afford at the time, right, that Mark has inventory of. So we have things like X-Pack and just different materials that I enjoy from a carry perspective. But I like that we're going to have these original kind of colorways, models. And they'll be the same because we use the same fabric manufacturer to order like the base fabrics from. So you're going to see some very cool original Notco colorways that people have wanted us to redo for years. You'll be able to get that in the Sinclair Model R now, which I think is I'm most excited about that. Seeing like some of our original colors, it was like, oh, yeah, I want that one. And I want that one. And I want that one. Just because those are the cases that I remember most fondly, right? It's really cool that way.

Brad: And then because of the materials, they have like a bunch of optional features you'll be able to add at some point. Yeah, exactly. A Velcro loop patch for Velcro backed patches, webbing loops for other EDC gear to be attached to them, and a belt loop. Like just stuff like that. It's like none of those things are for me, but they're for someone. Exactly. The ability to be able to offer all this stuff. I mean, I don't, this is not meant as a slight to you, but like this is the ideal place that Notco could have gotten to is like this kind of manufacturer, right? Like to be able to say not just like we have all these colors, that you just choose what you want.

Myke: Right. And the style and aesthetic Notco has always had has been that, right? Even though we couldn't make them like Rickshaw does, make them to order, right? Essentially, Rickshaw is made to order shop for all intents and purposes. Like Notco could never have done that, right? But the aesthetic and the ability to mix and match colors and just to have this really standout aesthetic for the product, we always believed in it, Notco. You know, we wanted to make something that stood out. Even if it was just basic black, right? You still knew what it was. You knew that was a Notco case. And, you know, we can get that at Rickshaw now. And I think you will see that as we go through and keep producing these cases. I'm pretty excited about this. I am too. I'm really happy with the product as it turned out. Like it's super high quality. It's super well made, which like there was no doubt in my mind, you know, that it would turn out this way. But like it's also like a hard process for me. It's like, okay, well, do I am I giving up some of like the DNA of what made Notco? And it's like, well, it's not always going to be what it used to be, right? And understanding that from like a personal perspective and not letting go, but being content with like different phases of different businesses in your life, like that's a hard thing to do. And it's important. You know, it's an important thought process to have, you know, to just kind of kind of if you want something to happen, like, you know, what do you have to give up or what changes do you have to make or what sacrifices do you make to continue something that you love? And, you know, want it to like be in like a really good place. And I think we are with this Sinclair Model R. Like I'm really, really ecstatic with how the product turned out and working with Mark has been has been very good. And, you know, the the style of the case is exactly what I want. And I'm I'm excited to get these in people's hands.

Brad: Yeah, like you could be staunchly in the camp of like, no, like this has to come from me 100 percent. Like this is my idea. Like I know better than anyone how this thing should be made. You could do that. But then right now, this it wouldn't exist at all.

Myke: Yeah, exactly. I'm not in that place in my life to do this. I'm in my place, the place in my life to do this. Yes. And I'm very, very happy with how it turned out. And I think it's going to be really good. And like if it goes well, like this is just literally scratching the surface. And it's, you know, just seeing how, you know, we can can work on different projects and with different companies and and keeping the knock name out there and the knock design aesthetic and the feel and look and functionality of a lot of these products. Like I'm excited to see what happens next. But we got to get this launched first. So San Francisco Pen Show, they will be available physically. And then online right at that same time from the rickshaw.com. So we'll have the links in the show notes. And I'm sure we'll talk about it as we get closer to the show or in the show recap of my trip to San Francisco. But it's going to be nice to have these cases there.

Brad: My kind of dream for you now is like you become basically like a one man design studio. Mm hmm. And come up with these ideas and other people can make them or people come to you and they're like, Brad, help me, you know. Yeah.

Myke: Make a pen case. We got ideas. I am never lacking for ideas. That is one thing I promise you.

Brad: All right. If you want to find links to all of this stuff today, go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash five to five. Just a couple of weeks away from the San Francisco Pen Show. Excited for that. Yep. Very excited. Anyway, I'm not going to be there. Yeah. I'm excited. I'm excited. Be nice for you.

Myke: The best part about a pen show week is we don't have to miss any episodes, right? Yeah. I travel after an episode and I'm back before the next one. So we'll have a good preview and a good recap here coming up soon.

Brad: If you want to find Brad online in the meantime, go to penaddict.com. You can go to spokedesign.com. You can find Brad. He is at Dowdy. He is on Twitter. Penaddict on Instagram. And he's also twitch.tv slash penaddict. Streams three times a week. I am at imyke. A-K-E. Thank you to Pen Chalet and Sanebox for their support of this episode. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.