The Pen Addict 589/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 589 |
| Title: | 1 2 3 4 Inks |
| Release Date: | November 8th, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 589 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 589 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 589 |
| Length: | 5151 min <br />0.85 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 589. Today's show is brought to you by Ooni Pizza Ovens and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Doughty.
Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke. How are you today? Pretty good. Pretty good. How are you? Yeah, I'm really good, I think. You know, I don't know. I'm sitting here looking at all my pens and stationery and talking to you.
How can I not be, like, really, really good? Oh, you're a good man. I'll tell you that. Yeah, you know what else I'm really, really good for, I'm really excited about?
Okay. The return of Anna Reinhardt for the Gift Guide episode. Dun-dun-dun. Ooh, okay. Yeah, so special guest incoming in a couple of weeks. So what is the date of publication that we were shooting for? 11-29? I'm assuming this is the episode where I'm not going to be here?
Yeah. Yeah, so this is a fill-in episode. So it'll be myself and Anna. And I think that is going to drop on the 29th, but we're going to record this way early. So we'll probably record it somewhere in the early 20s.
So what I need is your specific gift guide questions. Send them into the Pen Addict Feedback site. What's the address? Pen Addict Feedback.com. Or you can just go to the episode page on our website and there's always a little, hey, do you want to give us some feedback question?
It's always there on the page. So you can always click there. And leave your question for us. So let's say you have about a week to get those in to me.
So somewhere around the 15th, 17th, end of next week, get in your gift guide questions because we'll be recording the following week. So Anna and I always enjoy doing this. We talk about, you know, the stuff that we're interested in, stuff that maybe you're interested in, stuff that, you know, maybe surprises, stuff for beginners.
But if you have specific questions, we always like going on the hunt to figure out what we can come up with for the very specific stationery lovers in your life for this upcoming holiday season. So, yeah, definitely get those questions in. So Pen Addict Feedback.com. You can send in a question for you both.
I do realize now, Brad, do you need me to give those to you? I'm just lazy. I actually have access to that. You do. I just wanted to double check. Yes, you can log in and see it yourself and I'll see a message if you want to.
So I'm just going to leave that to you. Welcome to Behind the Scenes where Myke gives me the tools I need to do the job and I just refuse to use them. Hey, look. No, no, no. Because Myke does such a good job. No, no, no. Come on, come on, come on.
Let's be real, okay? The one thing I do is go through the feedback form. That is what I do for the show, which I actually did not do today. I had a very busy morning, unfortunately, so I've only read through our document today.
Well, we have a lot already. But I've read through our document, which is always good. You do everything else. The fact that I go through the feedback form once a week is not the hardest job in the world.
And I will happily go through it for you if you need. But it's probably best if you pick out the questions you won't answer. Yeah, I don't know. This felt like a sneaky performance review, right?
For me? Yeah. No, for you, you giving me my performance reviews. The area of improvement, Brad, is to log into the feedback site that I've given you access to purposefully to handle these things. And we'll score that one a two out of four on my performance review, Myke.
So there is room for improvement. It's a four-point scale, is it? Yeah, it is a four-point scale. Some of the business ones that I had back in my former life were four-point scales, yes.
And the traditional managerial role of no one gets a four because then there's no room for improvement, which is just a large keeping of, you know what? The thing is, most of these corporations, they do the bell curve system, right? So you have most of the people in the middle and then the least people on each end, even the best or the worst.
You can't bell curve on a four-point scale because there's no middle. So what they would do was, it's just, I'm on a tangent now, it's rigged, right? So they do a lot of performance reviews, give everyone the numbers, then they look at the numbers in totality and adjust as needed when they're done.
Oh, yeah. I mean, Brad, there was a- Right, to fit the proper scales. Brad, there was a time in my life when I was the person in the room making those decisions. - And it was some of the worst days of my life. Oh, it's just patently absurd, so.
You know, you would have, like, legit reasons to write someone the way that you want, like, from a good perspective or whatever, but you weren't allowed to do it because it messed up the overall ratings for everybody else. So, like, someone was legitimately good at their job and you wanted to give them a good rating, but there was only some.
Right. Any good ratings to go around? I used to kick up such a fuss in these meetings. Yeah, same. Because I was, you know, shout out me. I was always, like, one of the top percentiles.
And I was the one that would buck the system because I was getting punished, right? Yeah. So, I was like, well, this is what, ah, we'll make it up to you. You know, you might see something extra in your bonus or whatever. I was like, yeah, whatever.
This is a waste of everyone's time. I was rejected a pay rise every single year until I told them I was quitting and it was the first thing they offered me. And it felt so good to say nothing you can do is going to change my mind. Yep.
Yep. Love it. All right. Some morning catharsis for you, though. Yeah. Woof. Wow. Yeah. Good morning. All right. Let's have some stationery catharsis right now. Tell me about something happening to the most popular pen in America. The number one selling gel ink pen in the world.
From the makers of America's number one gel ink pen. That's how this video starts. Not with that voice, but with those words. But, like, that voice is, like, you know, intended, you know?
Yes, yes. So, this came across the desk yesterday that someone sent me this link to Pilot. But, hey, have you seen the new Pilot G2 Edge? And I was like, no, I have not seen this. So, this was brand new information to me.
So, Pilot on their Instagram feed. Excuse me. Let me be specific. The Pilot Pen USA Instagram feed. This is the U.S. distributor and the big Pilot G2 pushers in the U.S. region.
They came out. They're showing off the newest G2 to hit the market. And let me just read the specs here because I do find this compelling. As the maker of the G2, America's number one selling gel pen, we're thrilled to introduce the new G2 Edge, the ultimate in high-performance writing.
If you're a G2 fan, you'll love the new stunningly innovative laser-etched design on the G2 Edge. G2 Edge comes in striking black archival safe black ink with a 0.7 millimeter fine point tungsten carbide tip. So, what we have here is a new barrel design. And what I need to verify, and maybe you can do this as I vamp, is the current Pilot G2 gel ink archival safe.
Because what they're telling me here and having a focus on this tells me this is something different. And I've never, I sometimes consider the permanence and the archivalness of gel ink pens, but pretty rarely. Usually I'll have to get asked specifically. Someone will want some reason for...
The BLS G2 gel ink refill, as according to Colt pens, is acid-free archival safe ink. Okay, I was kind of thinking that was the case. Because the base Uniball 207s and 307s are also archival safe. So, this is not like new technology.
So, what they're doing here is having a new barrel design. And are blowing up the Instagram feed saying, Hey, look, we made a carbon fiber looking barrel. So, you don't have the translucent barrel like the classic G2. They didn't change the grip.
They didn't change the clip. They didn't change the knock. The refill has not changed. So, for years, I've wanted a new barrel for the G2.
And this ain't it, Chad. This ain't it. Like, it's perfectly fine, but they're going to charge me a premium for this, right? Like, for sure going to charge me a premium for this. And it's not offering me anything different, except like the...
When you have the traditional G2, the clear part of the barrel is now looks like a carbon fiber overlay. Except it's just like an etched design, laser etched design, which is cool. Like, it's totally cool. Like, I will get some to review to see if there's anything different about this.
I very, very much doubt it. But for years, I've been on the campaign train for having an upgraded barrel. Because they make some other products in their product lineup that have really, really nice barrels. And this has been the same barrel for 15 years?
No. 20 plus years. Got to be 20 something years. So, yeah. Like, I'm spending a lot of time on probably a nothing burger. But I do find it interesting because of their positioning, right?
Like, this is different and new and interesting. And it's like, you know, it's literally something every company does like all the time. And their products is make a new barrel design, which is great. Like, we all love to have our cool, fun barrels.
And, you know, this just seems like a lot for nothing. So, we'll see. I will get them. I just don't, you know. I wanted to point this out because it was brought up yesterday.
And I take great interest in the standard pen market. Because there's not a lot of change in this market, right? Pilot G2 is the number one selling gel ink pen. I don't know. Some people who are listening back through the catalog might have hit on an episode where I actually asked Pilot to prove it.
And they sent me the link to the document and the testing, whether that proves it or not. But I was like, they at least had their bases covered on, hey, here's the information we use to determine this. I was like, okay. Yes, fair enough. Fair enough. You win.
But it's a generally uninteresting market. And that's why I fall in love with things like when Pilot does the ILM-ILY series, right? It's similar internals, right? They're not doing anything special.
But they're giving me a different look and a little bit more fun in the brands. But this is their moneymaker. So this is obviously, this is going to like absolutely crush. I really want to see the price difference in these.
So we'll see. We'll see. So again, this is me spending five minutes on a product that I probably needed to spend five seconds on. But I do find this market, this product in the marketplace interesting. So there you go. I mean, it's important.
I mean, this is a pen that was a gateway for the both of us, let alone everybody else. Absolutely. But. Absolutely. Will this one really make that much of a difference? Maybe. But it's just a different body. Yeah. And I apologize. I didn't look at the price, especially when their Instagram says, go check it out on Amazon.
I was like, well, just show me the price on your website with all the other pens. It was a little bit weird. So like, I'm wondering what the, I didn't go bother to check the price because I don't know if that's like the true MSRP or whatever. Oh, so, so $9 for five on Amazon.
So what is that? Like 175-ish. Yeah, that's pretty fair. That's in the ballpark of where their other stuff is. So yeah. Okay. So they're not really charging much of a premium if that's the case.
So interesting. So anyway, I'll continue to talk about this stuff. As you can see, I love rambling about the things that don't matter. I mean, it's literally a podcast about pens. Here we are. What more could you want?
You know, it's what we're here for, isn't it? Well, what more I want is pizza, Myke. Oh, you do, huh? Well, let me tell you all about our friends over at Ooni Pizza Ovens, the world's number one pizza oven company.
They are supporting this week's episode. Ooni Pizza Ovens let you make restaurant-quality pizza in your own backyard. They have a set of surprisingly small ovens that are powered by your choice of fuel. You can go for wood or charcoal or gas.
And now electric, thanks to the introduction of the Uni Vault. This oven works indoors and outdoors with a bunch of super smart technology to give you restaurant-quality pizza in an electric oven. It still reaches those incredibly high heats and cooks those pizzas quick. It's so good. It was just named one of Oprah's favorite things of 2023, which is no joke.
I was hoping this was going to be in the ad because I was going to mention it. Yeah, talking to Christian about it. I was texting Christian and he's like, put that in the ad. And I said, easy.
All of Uni's pizza ovens are super easy to use and super portable. They'll fit into any outside space. It can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit or 500 degrees Celsius, letting you cook restaurant-quality pizza in as little as 60 seconds. The high temperature is what separates these pizzas from what you can make in a home oven.
Another of Uni's most popular models is the Uni Koda 16, a gas-powered oven that can cook up to 16-inch pizzas with an innovative L-shaped burner at the back to give you even heat distribution throughout. Uni pizza ovens start at just $299 and they have free shipping in the US, the UK, and the EU.
They also make awesome apps to help you perfect your dough recipe and give you tons of pizza-making tips. Sprite, do you need tips or are you a pizza chef yourself? So we're always manipulating the dough recipe, right? That's the challenge. How can I do this the best way possible?
How can I change it? How can I do it better? Let's be clear. No matter what dough ends up in the oven, it's always good because the oven is that good. But it's like, oh, do I want this to end up crispier, more solid, thinner, thicker, things like that.
So we're always manipulating the dough recipes. But for my toppings, though, I just keep it really simple so I don't need any real help with that. But yeah, we do play around with dough recipes almost every time. We always go back and forth and never settle and things like that.
It's a great way to experiment very, very easily in making these pizzas, especially because you can make up the dough, let it set, and then you can test it out in 90 seconds to see, did this work or not? And it's like, okay, let's maybe try something different next time.
But it's still going to be good every time. Every time. Because it's just such a great job. And even if you do something wrong, you just make another one so fast, right? Like, no issue. Listeners of this show can get 10% off their purchase of an Ooni pizza oven.
Just go to Ooni.com, O-O-N-I.com, and use the code ADDICT2023 at checkout. When you're there, you'll also find a range of accessories from peels to cutters to oven tables. Everybody wants to make excellent pizza at home, and Ooni pizza ovens are the perfect tool for the job.
They are the way to bring restaurant-quality pizza to your own backyard. Just go to Ooni.com and use the code ADDICT2023, and you'll get yourself 10% off. Thanks to Ooni pizza ovens for their support of this show and Relay FM. All right, Myke, I took a trip last week.
You sure did. I was following along. Seemed like it was a bit of a difficult journey out. Well, the day out was a tough one, but you know, like, everything's come up roses for me in my travel this year, which doesn't always happen. But I had, you know, several delays in travel out of Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport, getting to Chicago for Fountain Pen Day at Atlas Stationers.
But it all worked out in the end. I think it was maybe like a three-hour delay. But, you know, when you get on a plane and you're getting all settled in to go and then they're like, yeah, psych, we're going to need you to move planes. You think you're like, yeah, it's never a good day.
But shout out Delta. One of the last words in the English language is deplane. Yep. But we were lucky enough to be in the Delta hub of the world. So, and I was flying Delta.
So the swap of planes literally took us an hour, which is shocking that we were able to get the same seating layout. Like, what do you do if you don't have the same seating layout and just have to reissue everyone's boarding passes and have a complete nightmare? We were literally on the new plane so fast we were waiting for catering.
That was it. They had the luggage over. They had the people seated. We were ready to go. They're like, yeah, we just want to get you all some food and drinks in this one.
So that's our wait now. I was like, dang, that's kind of, I was kind of impressed at the end of the day. So, anyway, I made it into Chicago probably around, I don't know, five on Thursday. Atlas Stationers closes at five during the week.
And some of my friends were already over there. Kerry Yeager was already over there. And he came back to the hotel to meet me. I tossed my bags into the room.
Kerry took me back over to the store. They were, like I said, they were already closed and got to hang out with Brendan and some of the staff there. Actually, most of the staff was gone. It was just Brendan kind of holding forward, getting ready for what was about to come on Friday.
So we had a nice, nice chat. Got a quick tour of the store on Thursday afternoon. And then we went and got something to eat to get ready for Friday because that was the big day. So Fountain Pen Day, it's the first Friday of November on your calendars.
And Atlas had planned for a big event, obviously having Kerry out there. So Kerry Yeager, who founded Fountain Pen Day and who y'all have heard me talk about and who's been interviewed on this podcast before, is also works for Kenro Industries, which is the U.S. distributor for brands like Aurora, Montegrappa, AutoHut, Y Studio, a bunch of my favorite brands.
So the list goes on and on. Esther Brook, I should fail to mention. I'll fail to mention plenty of things throughout this. So Kerry was kind of like the main host that day.
He was doing kind of, I guess you'd call it like trunk show-ish, you know, for all the brands that Kenro has. So we had to get there a little bit early. So they opened up at 9 on Friday for Fountain Pen Day. And we got there about 8.30 so Kerry could get all his display stuff set up right.
So he brings like all kinds of stuff from the Kenro catalog for people to test, check out, to purchase, all kinds of stuff. So it was a really good, really good setup for him. And I was just basically there tagging along, doing some Instagram lives, which were really fun.
I wanted to give people a taste of what the store was like. So I went live on Instagram and all this stuff is saved on Instagram. So we'll have a link in the show notes. You can go live vicariously through our event last Friday as I did a couple of store walkthroughs.
I did one early in the morning when it was quiet and then one later in the afternoon when it got a little bit louder. A lot of people come through. Yeah, yeah, it was nuts. By the afternoon, you could just tell like, you know, when you hear just that, that, that den of the crowd.
Yeah, like the volume, the base volume is raised in the room. And this is a big, this is a big store. Like you can just tell, right? So we did that.
I hung out. I obviously met a bunch of people. A lot of people traveled in for the show, like outside the city, like, like different states over. And some people had flown in to come to the event, which was wild. It was really cool to meet everybody.
Got to meet some people, you know, I hadn't talked to online, but hadn't met before. So that was cool. I got to help, help sell some pens, which, you know, is right up my alley. I love helping people out.
Sold a Pilot Decimo. I was pretty proud of that one. So that was fun to play around with. And, you know, just generally hung out, took in the store, just was there for Fountain Pen Day.
It was so busy the whole time. It just went by so fast. Like everything just like flew by. We were all just kind of just running around, like really, really having a really fun time with everyone in the store.
So, you know, we went through lunch and in the afternoon, it was getting jam-packed in there. The Atlas staff was amazing. I just wanted to make sure I gave them a huge shout out. They were put to the test on this day.
Probably one of their busiest days in store ever. And they just handled it wonderfully, especially having to deal with me. You know, people asking me questions and not being able to like get to the products that they need. And I was like, hey, can you help me do this while they're doing other things?
And so it was a great day for them. They did such a good job. So shout out to the staff there. And we just kind of built up through the afternoon.
So one of the highlights of the day was Brendan and his brother Brian, who pretty much are running most of the store now, along with their parents. And obviously the staff, this is a whole team operation for sure. Brendan and Brian had set up a live stream for us to do a little in-store podcast.
They had a little area in the store that could seat like, I think it was like 25, 30 people and a couple of people standing room only. But it was like kind of open to the floor, right? It was just like a portioned off part of the open floor plan of the store.
That went really, really well. So we just did, we went for a little over an hour talking, you know, Brendan wanted to make sure to get our backgrounds. My background with the pen at it carries background with the fountain pen day. Just did a little bit of that.
And then we took questions for like 30 or 45 minutes from people in-store, people online. Brian was tracking the, you know, the YouTube feed, people asking questions. And we just did a bunch of live Q&A. I would implore y'all to go watch. If y'all don't watch anything, go watch that video.
We'll have a link in the show notes again to that. Is that on your Instagram? It is on the Atlas Stationers YouTube. And I have a link for you if I didn't put it in there yet.
I have it in my doc, but not in the show doc. But it's really fun. It was a fun experience because you had three different and sometimes competing viewpoints on a lot of the questions. So you had Brendan on there from the retail perspective.
You had Carrie on there from the distributor perspective. And you had me on there from the independent perspective, right? So like we were getting some questions that, you know, I basically told them I would fall on the sword, right? Because I am not restrained on anything I have to say, which is very important to me, right?
As not just in that environment, but for what I do as a whole, right? My entire like pen addict career and writing and podcasting is, you know, I don't want to be tied down to have to answer a question a certain way. And it was just funny that we could get a singular question and have vastly different answers because, you know, they have to, you know, answer from a retail perspective or answer from a distributor's perspective.
And then I could make a joke at their expense, you know, like, okay, now I'm going to tell you the truth. You know, kind of thing. Not that fierce, but no. It was just, it was a very good, it was a very good conversation to have.
And you know, I wouldn't do anything like that. But it was nice to have, I didn't realize it before we sat down. I was like, oh, we really have like three different experiences, right? Like someone asked, what do you think about the, you know, the rise and like the limited edition pens, right?
And so we all have like different answers on those types of things, right? There's different perspectives. There's different perspectives to have. And it was great to be able to share all those in a nice cordial, like fun. It's like different biases.
Interesting, man. Yeah. So it was great. Biases, I feel like becoming a bad word, but we can also just accept the fact of biases. And like, that's where they are, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we each look at, we look at all these things differently.
So it was fun to have that perspective, which I didn't think about before we started. And it ended up being like a pretty valuable thing, I think, for people to hear. Because like Brendan and Carrie are like, are so smart and so good at their jobs. And of course, like, I'm not going up there and like crushing anyone.
There's no need to crush anyone for any business decisions they make. But, you know, it was good to have these different perspectives. And it was great. So I actually want to go back and watch it again.
But just because I haven't totally gone back and done that to, you know, obviously you live through it. You remember some of it, but I don't remember a lot of it. But it was great. It was fun. So yeah, like we were basically having to shuttle people out the door at five o'clock.
That's how busy it was. Like it was crazy. Like obviously not forcing anyone out. But, you know, it was like, hey, you know, at some point, you know, the store does need to close.
And, you know, we need to take care of a few things and clean up and get some orders packed and shipped and things like that. And I told Brendan that, you know, if he wanted me to do anything for the store, you know, promotion wise, you know, if he needed me to ship, if he needed me to get, you know, behind the counter, whatever I'd do.
And he said, well, there is one thing I want you to do, Brad. And we choose an order. I don't know if they do it like once a week or how they exactly lay it out. But they basically have this thing that went viral on TikTok and they cross posted over to their Instagram feed where they do a dropkick ship package.
And what happened, the story behind it is that Brendan just one day like packed someone's order and then took the box outside and just like kicked it down the street. Why? And doesn't it destroy the order? Maybe. I don't know. I don't think they've had any complaints. Right.
So, without context, this was a very strange end to a video I was enjoying. It was very weird to me. I watched the whole thing and I didn't understand what happened at the end because I really liked the video. Like it honestly made me feel like I wish that you did this all the time.
You're like going through and you're like, this is what this person ordered. This is what I like about it. Let me tell you what's good about it. Let me tell you what's not.
And in typical Brad fashion, you are absolutely blowing out the microphone. Like that microphone is dead. So you probably saw it. I just had my lapel mic or whatever they're called there.
And even with the pop filter on there, I get excited, Myke. The stationery excites me. It was just too loud. Like this wasn't necessarily your fault.
I'm just teasing you. But like the audio was set too loud when it was recorded. And like once that's done, that's the end of it. But it is very funny to me.
But the video is very entertaining. And then at the end, you take it outside and you just boot this package down the street. So the question I have is like, was that box, did it have the products inside? I mean, you'll never know, right?
Only the person receiving the box will know. Like did they, does the box have a big dent in it? I don't know. We'll find out. You never know. You never know. So that was fun. Kind of a highlight of the day.
Brendan does such a good job with social media. They're for Atlas Stationers. So it was pretty cool. So that was kind of the day.
We went to a darts bar afterwards, Myke. Yep. So do you play darts? Do you shoot darts? You play. You play darts. Okay. So that was really fun.
So we had a nice nightcap at the dart bar. That was really fun. And yeah, it was just, it was one of those times. And it's funny how this keeps happening, Myke, in our little world.
You end the day and you can't stop smiling. Like this happens like all the time. Yeah. Like whether it's a pen show, whether it's this podcast, whether, you know, it's an article I had fun writing. It's just such an enjoyable experience.
And, you know, I definitely have more to talk about. I want to talk about the store. I want to talk about some of the things that I picked up that came home with me, my own fountain pen day shopping. But first, let's figure out where you can get some other awesome stationery.
Yeah. If you hear this kind of conversation, you're like, oh man, I want some new pens. Let me tell you where you can go. Enigma Stationery. They offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imports. Some of Enigma Stationery's new in-products include the Bennu Euphoria Hallowed Harvest Limited Edition.
There are only 500 of these available worldwide. And you can grab one at Enigma Stationery. They have the Kaweco Collection Perkyo Infrared, which sounds like fun. And new custom-made nib holders from River City Pan Company.
Each nib holder is unique, hand-turned by Rich using Enigma blanks. And the versatile inserts in these nib holders can hold many popular nids, including Kakamori, Speedball, and more. Additionally, 2024 planners and calendars are also available, like the newly added Dick Brunner's Miffy calendars in multiple sizes and designs.
Travelers 2024 Traveler's Town items, which is a new thing. What's Traveler's Town? I don't know, but I'd like to go there. We'll go find out. Midori Hibino. And there are limited supplies for the Chikawa Comic Diary and Mofu-san monthly planners.
Honestly, at this point, I am thinking that Dan is trolling me. You know? Just by throwing these words in and just seeing, like, what ones can Myke say? That's what I think is going on here. I can actually talk about the Midori Hibino because I think it's one of the fascinating products that Midori makes.
So it's a planner, right, for this upcoming 2024. And we always talk about planner layouts. This is a two-page per day planner. So this is a 768-page planner.
So it is a big, big planner. So we talk about how little space I need to plan my day. But if you're someone who needs two full, what are these, A6-sized pages? Let's see. I think they're A6-sized pages.
Gosh, they might be A5. Sorry, I'm blanking on this part. Anyway, it's a big, big, big journal and something that's very cool for someone who likes to capture a lot of information on the day, do a lot of different, you know, details, task lists, paint, paint. I was going to say painting.
I was going to say ink sampling and things like that. So it's a really, really cool product. I was actually checking this out the other day, not for me, but for someone else because it's kind of wild. Super cool. There's always great stuff there.
I love just going to Enigma's website and just, like, poking around. Like, I got to see the, have you seen the Bennu Euphoria Hallowed Harvest? Oh, yeah. It's fantastic. I love them. I love all the Bennu pens. It's got spooky vibes, you know?
Yep. That's like, you can buy that ready for Halloween next year. That's the one. It's a good looking pen. All right. If you want to grab yourself discounted shipping on orders of over $40 or more plus a free gift, go to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict to check out.
Go there now and check out the new stock that Enigma have available at enigmastationery.com slash penaddict, and you'll get discounted shipping on orders of over $40 or more and a free gift when you use the code penaddict. Our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and Relay FM.
All right, Myke, we have a shout-out of the week, but it comes with a question. I always interrupt you. I want you to do that every time. No, no, no. And not once if I stop.
I think it's good that it just happens in the background, you know, and you just keep going. You're always ready, always ready. So this shout-out comes with a question, Myke. Do you dip your bananas into coffee?
What does this mean? Like, I saw you posting about this on Instagram. I don't understand. Why would – does someone do this? Someone's actually dipping bananas into coffee?
Like, no. I mean, it's like kicking the box down the street, Myke. I mean, maybe the products are in that box when you kick it. Maybe they're not. You'll just never know. Maybe the bananas have got coffee all over them.
Maybe. Maybe. I mean, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you dip bananas into coffee? Right. Because I can't understand how that what doesn't just, like, make both things worse. No. I mean, that's like a pineapple's pizza thing, right?
Like, we can start a whole thing. You can't just be like, you take this thing and take another thing. And it means that it's like all other two things that are put together, right? Pineapple and pizza is good for the sweet savory.
Like, what, are you dipping the banana before you take the skin off? I mean, this seems like a sweet savory type of concoction for me. Coffee's not savory. Could be. I don't think it is. This is sweet. So I have not determined the name origin from my friend Alex, who has now started to write on the internet.
I've gotten to meet them the past couple years at the Orlando Pen Show. Just absolutely wonderful, wonderful person. And I'm glad that their perspective on pens is out in the world. So you too can go read, I dip bananas into coffee, which is the name of their sub stack, the name of their Instagram handle, and a lifestyle, I believe, Myke.
I just think you just have to go for it and get into the whole dipping bananas into coffee. That's the next thing. That's what the kids are doing, Myke. Very good. We've broken him. We've broken Myke. No, I mean, I can give you a little, like, this episode's already had enough, like, behind the scenes stuff.
Our website is completely broken right now. So, like, I was trying to add something to the show notes, and it's just, like, not working. But it seems like there is an issue with our cloud service provider. Yeah, I was trying to give you some space there to get through what you were working on.
So, yes, I was working alongside you, knowing what you were doing without having to say anything. So let me let you work on that a little bit while I tell y'all. Let me tell you. Yeah. If Myke Hurley is the one working on that, bad things, bad things happen to the company.
Like, if I'm the one left to try and resolve that problem, terrible. But also, I think this is one of those things that just happens sometimes when you own a website. There's nothing you can do about it. It's got nothing to do with you.
One of the parts of the chain is broken, and you just have to wait until it resolves itself. There's just nothing you can do about it. Yep. I literally, when this started happening, Myke and I are, like, watching this happen as we're recording. In the Discord, yeah. Yeah.
I'm going to go check my QuickTime and make sure it really is recording, because I don't want to, like, add fuel to the fire. Like, if at the end of the day, like, Brad doesn't record his file, which hasn't happened in hundreds of episodes. But it's going to happen again at some point.
Well, that's why I always have a backup of you going. Yes, you do. Just in case. We always do. But I literally went and go, I'm going to go double check this real quick. He's like, he's having a bad day. I can feel it.
I'm not going to make it worse. Appreciate you. So, yeah, there we go. Appreciate you. All right. Let's bring this back around. I want to talk in general about Atlas Stationers.
Okay. The physical brick and mortar store. But this is a broader discussion on how important these stationery shops are to their local communities. And there's not that many of these shops around the world anymore, especially in the U.S. And probably there's maybe a little bit more in Europe and obviously a lot more in like the Asian markets in Japan, things like that.
But in the U.S., it's pretty few and far between. So, at least like in this market in the U.S. where I'm at, I think it's vitally important to support these brick and mortars like Atlas Stationers, like Anderson Pens, like Yoseka, like Flax Pen to Paper. I'm 100% going to leave 100 stores out.
But you get my point. Because they play such an important role in the stationery landscape, not only for us as consumers, but really for the communities that they build around these shops. And that's what I got to see over and over and over at Atlas Stationers this week.
How important of a community space this is, how diverse the customers are and the friends of the store are that come in, and that everyone all has this same love for stationery that brings them through the stores. And they're allowed to experiment with products and test things out and hang out and learn and share with other people who are into this super niche hobby.
It's really rare to have these spaces. So, if you do have a space in your local market, I implore you. I implore you to take advantage of that and support them any way you can. So, like I said, that played out over and over and over again this weekend.
And it just showed me how important these local brick and mortars are. So, Atlas is in the heart of downtown Chicago. And it's in a historic building. It's been in the same area since 1939.
Not in the same exact space, but close. Like, I think the last store was just like two or three blocks away from where they're at now. So, it has a huge open space floor plan, right? It's just like a singular large room and then obviously shelving and display counters and things like that.
You can get a feel for it through my Instagram. So, I just wanted to point that out. If y'all haven't seen like what a space like this can look like, it looks really cool and it's set up really well. So, in a store like this, I was impressed with just the volume of inventory, right?
They have a big space and they're almost out of space, which is weird to say. It's like, that's a lot of inventory. So, they have a ton of pens, like a ton of display cases, you know, shelves upon shelves of ink and paper, just endless paper, endless inks.
It's just unbelievable amount of product. And then they had several tables throughout one of the aisles in the store where they had all kinds of testing supplies, tester notebooks, tester pens, you know, ink swatches, things like that. So, it was just really, really cool layout. And then, like, that, like, completely, like, doesn't include the shipping department, which for any brick and mortar store, they're also going to kind of live and die by, like, their online sales, too.
Like, that is a part of the totality of the experience. It justifies having the inventory. Exactly, exactly. So, they have a large shipping space and, like, some little small offices. And, like, it was packed.
It's fun. And you can check all that out between my Instagram and Atlas does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. So, it was really cool. So, I picked up a few things. They have one of the things I like to do when I travel is pick up, like, the store exclusives or shop exclusives.
Or if I'm at a pen show, the pen show exclusives. A lot of times, that is ink. So, I came home with one, two, three, four inks from Atlas Stationers. All their exclusive inks.
I mean, there was more I could have bought. But I got two Robert Oster inks. I got the famous or infamous Vampire Pigeon ink, Myke. We have the Polar Vortex ink, both from Robert Oster.
We have some Atlas Iron Ore, which is a cool kind of homage to some of the exterior, like, columns and exterior work on the location of where the shop currently sits. And the Colorverse Wolf Point, which is – a lot of these are obviously Chicago-themed brands or, excuse me, names.
Like, Wolf Point is where the confluence of rivers is. Chicago is very unique. And I really love Chicago. And I just haven't been to a lot of other big cities that frequently to speak on them.
But I know they're similar. But they're very neighborhood-centric and area-centric. Like, everyone knows, like, you know, when you're talking about things, you say, you know, this area, that area. And so a lot of these things are named after that, which, you know, Chicago is very proud of their heritage.
And, yeah, I came home with a lot of those products. I came home with some Fountain Pen Day Estherbrook goods. So I bought one of the pen holders, pen-to-go cups, which in this magenta, which is really neat. I got these wonderful Keith Haring notebooks that Caran D'Ache makes.
I mentioned those before. I'm going to get some of those pens as well. I just didn't have time to – I had no time to shop, basically. I did all of this after hours, just grabbing the things that I wanted, because I knew there was one single thing that I wanted to pick up.
And this had been brewing since I had seen this pen at the Orlando Pen Show, the Auto Hoot Design 03 Orange Pink. And this is an image that I shared. I don't know. When was that? September was in Orlando. So they had the prototype at the Kenro table.
And I said, when is this going to be available? They said they weren't sure. They think October, November. And as it turns out, it just appeared like right before I arrived to Atlas Stationers for Fountain Pen Day.
I don't even think it had made it up on the website, but they had them in store. And this is that orange and purple looking barrel. I call it pink because that's the product name. And we're going to have more discussions.
It's not pink. It's very not pink. I was like, oh, this is interesting. It comes in a pink box. I was like, why is that?
It definitely comes in a pink box, but then the pen is purple. So I don't really know what they were doing. I'm going to have a follow-up post on Instagram for the label because no one believes me. The label says orange pink.
And I've been calling it orange purple. I've been saying orange violet. They say auto hoot has it listed as orange lilac. All of those things are more accurate than orange pink, except for the box.
Orange lilac I would take. Yeah, 100%. I would take every one of those color combinations. There is, this is not pink. But anyway. I have a question about this pen.
Yes. And I wonder if you know what that question is before I ask it. I don't actually. What's going on with the cap? Oh, so people were commenting on the racing stripe. Is that what that is?
Yeah, so it's hard to see. I'll have to take a non-eye-searing photo of the pen because, so on like the 180 degrees, so on two sides of the pen, on the purple side, there's an orange racing stripe that continues into the cap where the cap has a purple racing stripe.
So it's a line continuation. It's literally a racing stripe. I can see the line now on the cap. I don't like that line at all.
Yeah, I like it. Why did they do that? I never noticed it until someone said it looks like it's cracked. It looks like it's cracked.
I thought it was cracked. I was very confused by this. It's definitely not cracked. And luckily, in person, that line is purple enough to not have thrown me off.
I never noticed that once other than going, ooh, that's a cool stripe. And now I have to line them up. It's just a very thin. Yeah, see, that's the problem is one, you'd need to now line the lines up.
So like that would drive me mad. Two, it's very thin. Like for an accent, like I feel like they could have maybe made more of a deal of it. And that might look a bit better, I think.
So here's the thing to elaborate on your very smart comment there. Just this pen's existence in this colorway is an entire deal for Otto Hoot. Because this is a classic German pen manufacturer where, you know, they're known for making like silver pens. Not just silver in color, but silver material pens.
They're known for making very like classic, you know, you're black and silver plated or black and gold plated pens. This is such an outlier in their product lineup that I'm just happy exists to begin with. Yeah, I agree. But I mean, that makes it even more peculiar to me, though.
Right. Like if it's so out there for them. Yeah. I think what's funny is they have a vertical line in their logo. Like an OH is divided by a vertical stripe. And I wonder if they're just like playing off of that.
Probably actually looking at it. Yeah. I guess. But anyway, what's funny is the stripe on the purple. So the orange stripe is so faint you might not even notice it. Yep. I didn't. It just looks like a reflection.
Well, yeah, you can't see it on that pink image that I posted like at all. But then that makes the one the purple line on the orange cap stand out even more. So what I'm saying like in person, it's like it's not as striking as that photo made it out to be.
I don't believe like I literally never crossed my mind as an outlier other than I thought it was cool kind of thing. But now people who like see it can't unsee it. And I get that. So I'll have to look.
So they made a second one that is a blue green. And I think blue is the barrel and green is the cap. So I wonder the blue stripe on the green cap probably doesn't stand out as much. So, yeah. But anyway, it's good stuff.
This is a pen that I reviewed the basic black one that is part of their standard product lineup. I don't know, a few years ago and really, really enjoyed it. So I was happy to see this more colorful model come out and I knew I was going to get it.
This is not a pen like for everyone. This is a very heavy pen. So this is one that you definitely want to test out if you can and notice. It does not look like a heavy pen.
That's not what I thought you were going to say. That's very interesting. Yeah. If it shows up, like if you buy this without ever holding it or testing it, you will be surprised when you receive it. But like it's completely balanced. You'll just have to go read my original review of the Black 03.
We'll put a link in the show notes to that if anyone wants to check it out. Like all my commentary there stands, right? It's a great pen. It's a great pen for me.
It may not be a great pen for you because it's also a narrow grip section and a number five nib. But that is a setup that I latch onto a lot. Like my Y Studio pens are that way, right? Like I love that type of style in pens.
So it works for me. This also may not be everyone, not just because of the color. Fair enough. Well, I'm happy you had a good time. It seemed to have gone pretty well.
It was spectacular. Like it was just a really fun event. That's the first time I've been out for Fountain Pen Day. Like doing like an in-store thing or like at a pen show or anything. Like just this past weekend was the Columbus Pen Show for Fountain Pen Day.
Also the Tokyo Pen Show was this past weekend all on Fountain Pen Day. So yeah, this is the first time I've actually been somewhere for Fountain Pen Day. And I kind of want to make that a thing. Like it was really, really enjoyable, fun experience.
And just like I couldn't speak more highly of the experience. It was great. So there you go, pen store owners. If you want Brad to come and kick things, he's up for it. He's ready to kick.
Yeah. Yep. Yep. I can be made available for Fountain Pen Day next year. You have what? About 360 days left to get in touch. If you want to go and see the show notes for this episode, including Brad kicking, you can find the links in your podcast app of choice.
So you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 589. When you're there is where you can also submit feedback, which we need for the pen addict gift guides to send in your questions about products you'd like to buy for people, products you'd like for yourself. Whatever it is you want to know about how stationery should be gifted or received over the holiday period, Brad and Anna will be there for you.
Put gift guide in the subject or something so I notice it's related. Make sure I see it. I'm going to do, Brad, because that's not how that works. There is no subject.
See, again, again, I don't. What I'm going to do is that people have like a little dropdown that they can choose from. I'm going to create a gift guide dropdown so people can select gift guide. And then when you log in, you'll be able to check a button that says gift guide and you'll be able to get it that way.
Isn't that great? Thanks, boss. Thanks, boss. Anything for you, Brad. Anything for you. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to a few places for that. Go to penaddict.com. Go to spokedesign.com.
Penaddict on social media and twitch.tv slash penaddict for Brad's stationery streams on Twitch three times a week. You can find me. I'm iMyke. I-M-Y-K-E. And you can also find my products over at cortexbrand.com. Thank you to Enigma Stationery and Uni for their support of this week's episode.
But most of all, thank you for listening. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Bye, Brad.