The Pen Addict 630/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	630
Title:	Lamitzy
Release Date:	September 4th, 2024
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 630
Audio File:	Audio Episode 630
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 630
Length:	5252 min <br />0.867 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 630. Today's show is brought to you by Heinz Pens and Factor. My name is Myke Hurley and I have the pleasure of being joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hey Myke, how's it going? Pretty good, pretty good. Stjude.org slash Relay is the place to go. As a community so far this year, we've raised over $75,000 at the time of recording. We need your help. To help us raise even more money for the kids of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, based in Memphis, Tennessee. But sharing their work with the world, which is one of my absolute favourite things about St. Jude. They're not just a hospital that treats children with childhood cancer. They also share their research with anyone that needs it, helping to improve childhood cancer survival rates around the world. But thinking about the hospital itself, St. Jude cares for some of the world's sickest children, regardless of their race, their ethnicity, their beliefs, or their ability to pay. Their patients receive the customised care that they need to treat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases, no matter what barriers they face. And because of its supporters, St. Jude can provide children with cutting-edge treatments that are not covered by insurance at no cost to families. I've seen this firsthand with Stephen. You know, he showed me one of the bills once that he got from St. Jude. Like, you know, it kind of became, they received like an itemised thing, and it had all of the elements and then just zero at the end. Because this is what is so incredible about them. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food, so they can focus on helping their child live. This September, join Relay and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in recognising Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 30 days of honouring those impacted by childhood cancer. As a community, over the last five years, we've raised over $3 million, and we need to raise more to help out this incredible place. So I want you to go to stjude.org slash relay. A few things you can do. You can make a donation. Please do. You can sign up to create a fundraiser of your own, where you can make donations to that fundraiser, but you can also share it with your family, your friends, your co-workers. Extend what you're able to do as an individual by telling other people about the work of St. Jude, which is amazing. You can become a beacon of hope in your community by signing up for a fundraiser. And if you do, there are some great prizes that you will be able to achieve, depending on the amount of money that you raise. Also, if you do make a donation, just a personal donation, there is the ability to check if your employer will match your donation. So then again, you could double your donation if you work for a company that opts into this. So go to stjude.org slash relay. Find out a ton more. Donate or create your campaign today. But of course, Brad's coming back bigger and better than ever in a big way for Pen Addict, for St. Jude. So Brad, what we got going on? Yeah, it might be bigger and better than ever. There are so many donations I've received already from makers in the community, friends in the community, listeners, followers. And I'm finally caught up to the production of the initial blog post, which I put in probably, I don't know, somewhere between 10 to 15 items up that we're giving away with your donations. Just putting some eyeballs on St. Jude and all the wonderful work that they do. So look for that sometime today, if you're listening to the podcast on the day that it downloads. If you're listening to it later, it should be live on pennaddict.com. I'll be promoting it a lot over the rest of the month. And yeah, I'm finally ready to release it out into the world. There's so much stuff, Myke, that I'm not even, well, I always build on it as the weeks go, right? But this time, I'm actually not even posting everything on the first week because it is so much stuff. So I look forward to getting this out there and see what everyone thinks and seeing those donations roll in. Yeah, we'll be talking about it over time. So go to pennaddict.com. But all you need to know is you make a donation. The more money you donate, the more chances you have to win one of these giveaway items. And all of the details will be at pennaddict.com. And we'll be talking about it a little bit more as the month progresses. Yes, yes. So a lot of sailor Japanese exclusives in this one, kind of like last time. Ooh, I'll give you a teaser right now. One of my favorite things, and it's far in a way like not the most expensive thing. But there is a pilot stockholders gift set from 2024 that all the shareholders receive. So I have the full gift set of the pilot shareholders gift set. But it's kind of funny because it has like the pilot Acroball and the pilot Friction. And it's like got a handful of like they're very low level pens. And then like one like steel nib fountain pen. It's really, it's really, really neat. So it's not something you see every day. So yeah, look for look for the things like that very, very soon.

Planner season timing and preferences

• So Happy New Year, I guess. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. I have a lot to say about planner season this year, Myke. I guess I always, I guess I always have a lot to say about planner season. First off, let's say that planner season comes too soon. Like I just want to go on record. I've gone on record many times before. Like I don't need your teasers on August 1st. I think some of them came in July. This is for 2025 planners. I don't need teasers in July 2024 for my 2025 planner.

Hobonichi product launch and website issues

• Hobonichi is, which we're going to talk about primarily today.
• Their big launch, they start teasing things like around August 1st. So on September 1st, everyone's ready to go click the buy button. And apparently, Myke, they prepped people a lot because when they went to go click the buy button, when the availability became live on Hobonichi's site, which is 1101.com, crash central. So what do you think about a planner site crashing on launch day? Like just as a concept in our world.
• In regards to Hobonichi, I am not surprised that this happened. Yeah. Because of what they do. Like. Right. And I'll explain this. They are an incredible marketing machine. And if you create such an incredible marketing machine and you're able to get people to join in that kind of hype with you, and you have limited edition products, and over time you are collecting up a bunch of people who rely on this product, so get scared about the possibility of not being able to have their journal ready for January 1st, does not surprise me at all that the site crashes when they put all their new stuff up. Right. So let's be clear.
• I know people got upset about this and not being able to get the things that they wanted. And I'm going to dig into this a little bit more. But Hobonichi has to be pleased, not that the site crashed, but at the trajectory of Hobonichi. It worked too well, right? Yeah. There's no complaint about this if you're Hobonichi, because I do not believe, here's what I will not believe, and people will tell me, no, but I don't believe it. If you were there at that moment and didn't buy, you're coming back.
• Like, you're not like, oh, well. That's what I want to get at today, yes. Now I'm just not going to buy it. It's like, no, because otherwise you wouldn't have been there. Like, you will come back. So for them, all this does, they now have more hype, right? Exactly. This is more hype. Like, the website going down is increased hype. Because it's like, in a vacuum, you're like, I care about this. I know I want this. But then you've seen the impact that, like, they unveil the products and the website crashes. Like, I'm sure they would love to not upset people, right? Like, because it's the two parts of it. Like, this is upsetting people. When you upset people, they tell you how upset they are. And then you're having to take that on, even though it's not your fault, right? It's not their fault. Like, they definitely didn't want this to happen. But the fact that it has happened helps them, just in a different way. So, like, you know, it's not... We're on the... No tears for Hobonichi. Right. We're on the same page as consumers, but also business owners. It's like, yes, this is bad for a minute. But big picture, we did a good thing, honestly, as a business. But just to give people who are not familiar with Hobonichi or are new to the podcast or don't really use planners, Hobonichi does two things. They create a yearly planner, okay? So, there is basically a planner insert, and it could be a different size, a six, a five size. And then they create covers or different patterns or different accessories for these planners. Those are the things that are limited. Generic patterns. Some are collaborations and artist editions. Like, they have a 101 Dalmatians one this year for some reason. Yeah. Like, if you want a Hobonichi planner, you can always get a planner, right? Those don't sell out, right? You'll have those into early 2025. No worries. But if you want this really unique artisan cover where one of your favorite artists has designed this cool pattern and they only have this available this year, those are the things that get sold out, right? They also have, like, just random accessories, too, right? Which people want. So, like, there's little bits and bobs like that. They have, this year they have a Jetstream, which is a brand of Hobonichi Jetstream. Did you see this? So, they've done this before with Jetstream products as the gift with purchase. Oh, okay. And they actually had a handful of these Jetstreams at Stationery Fest for their preview party. That's what you signed your NDA with, Myke, was one of their Hobonichi Jetstreams. You know, I wanted to ask you now if you were able to talk about what exactly was NDA'd.
• I mean, nothing special. Like, everyone's YouTube videos are up now. They just had to hold them. There was no secrets there. Incredible. Everyone could take all the content, pictures, and videos that they wanted. They just couldn't release it until the 25th. So, that's why you saw, if people follow YouTube, everyone who was at Stationery Fest released their Hobonichi preview party content that day. So, that was all it was. There's no secrets there. But anyway, going back to this sale. So, the launch night was rough for people.
• A lot of people, you know, like in the U.S. would have to stay up late to match the time of the release. So, that gets people angsty anyway. They're already up late and frustrated. So, I went over to the Hobonichi site today. This is 1101.com. Went to the store. And you can go in. I'm on a page that's essentially all the planner products, including the covers and accessories. And there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of items on here. So, I started scrolling. I was like, I'm not finding a lot of out-of-stock items here. So, I finally found one. And that's the phrase they use. So, out-of-stock. So, I just did a command F on the page to find out-of-stock. How many products do you think I found out-of-stock? Let's say there's 200 or 300 products on here. How many do you think I found out-of-stock? How many times did that phrase come up? I mean, realistically, I would assume it was like 50 or something. Yeah.
• It was 12. It was 12 products came out-of-stock. Which, given the drama I heard that night, I would have thought 150 products were out-of-stock. Everything cool is gone. And what I'm seeing is everything's cool here except for a few things. Yeah. So, it's one of those, like, I know you want the thing. And I know you want just the site to work to have a chance to get the thing. And you have every right to be upset. But, like, these things, like, became available pretty quickly. And even, I think, given this, what I'm seeing on their website now, hopefully, they'll be able to restock some of the retailers. Right? This is if you buy from Japan. Yep. And this was the site that went down. But if you're buying from another retailer, say you're in the U.S. base and you're buying from JetPens or Yoseka or any stationery place that you use. And they probably did sell out pretty quick and have a wider range of sold-out items. Hopefully, they can get some of these. Or if you can't find it there, you can get it from the Japanese site, which I've ordered from before. Right? Like, it all kind of works out shipping-wise. Right? Like, the base price is a little cheaper on the Japanese site, but you have to pay for shipping. So, you know, it's always – I love watching this from the sidelines. Right? Because what we're going to talk about in a second, I don't need to buy anything because I'm not using Hobonichi Techo for my planner. And I was just curious. I'm always curious at what Hobonichi does because I think they're just a fascinating case study for stationery. And especially as a publicly traded company, too. They're just operating at a different level. Like, this is like – I'm looking at this store and I cannot fathom what it would take to maintain this level of product. Like, the amount. Every year. The inventory. And, like, the planning required in not, like, going bankrupt every year. Right? Right. No, it's a joke. I can't even begin to understand it. And so, like, when I look at this, I'm like, yeah, well, of course they start talking about this in July.

Conspiracy theories and secondary markets for Hobonichi products

• Right? Because they need to pick up every possible customer they can to make sure that they're selling enough of this stuff that this continues to, like, be a viable thing for them. And, like, I read a good article that you put in the show notes from Ask a Planner Nerd. Like, one of the things that they were talking about was, like, conspiracy theories that people now are posting online about, like, oh, so many things are saying they're out of stock, but they're not out of stock, right? Which is what you mentioned. But, like, this just comes back to the online logistics issue. Like, if 50 people put something in their car and then the website crashed, like, that inventory is just locked up. Yeah, like, where are we at? Yeah. It's like, this to me seems more that just, like, oh, the website was just disastrous more than, oh, they're trying to get you. You know? Right. They're trying to get you. Because that doesn't make any sense, right? Like, they want to sell you the products. Like, trust me. You want to buy them, but they want to sell you the more than you want to buy them. Like, that is how this works. Like, there isn't, for a company the size of Hobonichi, there is just not a reason at all to produce a scarcity thing like that. Like, to artificially meter a product. It doesn't make sense to me. Right. I feel like that would be a really bad idea for them to do that.
• Yeah, because they're selling dated goods, right? Yeah. That seems to me, that seems like a horrible business to be in. Yeah. Than when I think about the inventory and how to manage that and not lose your shirt. Like, the covers. Eh, some are, some aren't. But, yeah. Okay. A lot of the covers, a lot of the covers are, a lot of the loose covers are not. But then the hard cover stuff is dated. So, yes, that's true. So, yeah, you can use your cover from year to year to year. God, this just seems... I would love to be in a situation where people cared about the products that I make to this degree, like, because of the success that it would grant. But, like, my word, would it be horrible?
• Yeah. So, last little comment on this. If you got caught up in not getting what you wanted because of site issues, just be patient. This, one of the things, one of the not-so-great things about Hobonichi's success is there is an instantaneous secondary market, right? Which you see for a lot of products. Just hold off. Like, you can probably find your item at one of these retailers that is carrying. Like, if you really specifically wanted a cover and it's sold out and it's really sold out, you can probably find it before having to go to a secondary market because there's so many retailers around the world.
• And, you know, I know some products are more limited than others for sure. But just, you know, take a breath before going to the secondary market and you might have a chance of getting what you want. So, that's just a thing. Because I noticed an odd thing. Like, when I was clicking through, like, some of the out-of-stock versus the in-stock ones, they have a limit of 10 on each product. Like, a cover. Like, someone could buy, like, 10 of, like, a really popular one and probably just put it out there to resell, which is uncool. But, yeah. So, just be patient. They have a lot of great stuff out there for you to get. And I super love them. And, you know, we're going to talk about what we're using in a very small fashion because, for me, nothing's changing. And for you, maybe there's something changing? I'm currently using two journals every day. Like, they're two distinct things. I have my theme system journal and another journal that I'm making. And so, I'm testing it out right now. And I'm very happy with it. It's a new kind of take on an old idea. Okay. In a way. I've told you about it. Yeah. In a way that I'm kind of surprised that nobody's done it yet. So, like, I am convinced somebody's going to do it before I put it out. Because, I don't know, it seems obvious to me. But maybe it isn't to others. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a bad thing. I'm not sure. But, yeah. This is a product that I'm hoping, hoping we can have on sale next year. But I've got a lot of irons in the fire right now, Brad. Sure, sure, sure. So, I'm hoping we can do it. Because I have, like, the production of the product, like, is completely finished. I think. Like, all of the hard work has been done. Because I've been working on this idea for, like, two years again. On and off. Trying to get it to function the way that I want to. Like, it's not.
• This product is more interesting in its layout than its function. But, like, I had some specific things that I wanted. And I wanted to get them just right.
• So, I'm happy with that. Now, I'm kind of just using it. And making sure that it makes sense for me. And I'm pretty sure that it does. And now, I need to work out how to visually represent the layout. That's kind of the only thing left. I think at first I was overthinking it. But I've got to work that part out. But now, I think it really is just a case of, like, I've got to wait for an opening.
• Okay. To have it. But I'm really hoping that we'll have it on sale next year. Kind of, like, immediately. And this will be Cortex. Cortex brand. This is a Cortex brand product. Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. So, I'm hoping that we can have it on sale, like, summer. With the idea of it's. Because it's. You know, it's like all these things. I don't like any product that is, like, so strictly dated. That I can only sell it one time a year. That's the thing with a theme system journal. A theme system journal, you just write your own date on it. Right? Yeah. That works for me.
• And so, I'm hoping that we will be able to put it on sale middle of next year to get some feedback from people in case there's any tweaks we want to make. And then maybe next holiday season, like, make a big push. Gotcha. Yeah. All right. So, yeah. So, short answer is I'm doing two different journals right now. Okay. What I'm using this other one for is kind of more just, like, gratitude-y, reflection-y stuff. It's not like a system, like the theme system. Right? Like, it's not like a thing. Right. And I think that's what I'm looking to add, more of a just a reflective type journal. So, I have my Plot or Narrow. That's my planner. Right? I use that all the time, just, like, consistently.
• It organizes my week, and then it has a place for, like, notes. And it's generally work-related stuff, anything related to anything that I have my hands in. You know, I'll put notes in there, things like that. Then I also have my Hobonichi five-year. That kind of counts reflection-wise. But it's such a short, short little paragraph space. I just put one of those up because I was, like, interested in looking at that. And I was really surprised, like, that the three-year and the five-year are the same physical size. Right. So, if you had a five-year, you basically can, like, write a sentence, which, I don't know. That's not for me. Especially, yeah, like, for someone who doesn't have handwriting like me, who does stay in between the lines on those, like, four-millimeter grid lines. So, yeah, for me, it's, like, five lines. Like, I can hit all the lines. But it's relatively limiting, and that's the idea. It's supposed to be easy on the daily aspect of it, but it's difficult in the longevity of the product. How long have you been using it for? So, we're a year and a half. Okay, so you're getting the wraparound now. Yes. So, it's pretty cool when you start to see the previous year stuff. Like, you have to, like, not only do you have to commit to that first year, but to really get the value out of it, you have to get into year two. It's a really difficult product to sell, I think. But I did it. Like, I'm committed to it. And, you know, at the end of this year, that'll be two years in. So, it's going well. Actually, rewinding to the Hobonichi talk, I did buy something around Hobonichi time, but it wasn't, like, a new product. I bought a cover for the five-year journal just to pop on it since I've stuck with it. I bought a cover for it, just, like, an inexpensive, like, if it's, like, a $30, $35 cover for it, which will be cool because I'm very happy with that. So, between that and the plotter, I don't really have, like, a journal journal. Like, you're talking about, like, reflection and stuff. So, I'm looking to add maybe something next year, but if I do, it'll just be in one of my regular notebooks, just kind of rethinking how I use some of my notebooks on a daily or weekly basis. So, yeah, no specific product. And, as a matter of fact, I could go back into the theme system journal, which I haven't been using, but I've been kind of looking for a little bit more somewhere along those lines. And then maybe a little bit looser. So, I'm playing around with that a little bit, just in my own just blank notebooks. Yeah, I meant to mention, I was listening to a video game podcast recently, and they were talking about the Mother series. Sure. And they stumbled across the fact that the guy who created Mother now has a notebook company, and I found that very funny.
• 20 years later. I was also talking to Tom and Dan about Obanichi recently, and they were blown away by the URL that they have, 1101. Yeah. Just like two funny things about that company. Yeah. It's great. It's great. And still, some of the Mother covers are some of the best that they do every year, but it's for a very specific audience. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Factor. Summer's coming to an end. Fuel up for fall with Factor's no-prep, no-mess meals. Meet your wellness goals thanks to the menu of chef-crafted meals like options like CalorieSmart, Protein Plus, and Keto. Factor's fresh, never-frozen meals are dietician approved, and they're ready to eat in just two minutes. So, no matter how busy you are, you'll always have time to enjoy a nutritious, great-tasting meal. Make today the day you kickstart a new, healthy routine with Factor. There's so much to love about what they do. They have 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons to choose from every week, so you're always going to have a new flavor to explore. You can reach your wellness goals with dietician-approved meals and ingredients that you can trust, and make your day delicious from breakfast to dessert. You can stay fueled with easy, nutritious options, and you can also treat yourself to restaurant-quality products with premium ingredients like filet mignon, shrimp, and blackened salmon. With Factor, you can keep kitchen time to a minimum. Their meals are ready in just two minutes with no shopping, prepping, cooking, or cleaning up, so you're able to enjoy an effortless support for your lifestyle and choose from six menu preferences to help you manage calories, maximize protein, avoid meat, or simply eat well-balanced. They have the options for you. I know that you've been a big Factor fan, Brad. I'm actually kind of mad right now, Myke, because I forgot to order my Factor for last week, and I needed it so bad. So like I was telling you all last week, we did our SpokePen launch, right? And it was great. It was really busy. And up until yesterday, like yesterday was a great example where I could have used Factor, I didn't eat lunch yesterday, right? Like I ate breakfast, worked all day, and just worked right through lunch, ate a granola bar, and boy, I could have used Factor. So what I'm going to do today is when we're done is I'm going to go get my order in. So I'll have these meals that will take me two minutes to cook in the middle of my work day, and it will be an awesome break in the middle of the day with some really, really exceptional food. And I actually look forward to picking out my meals. So I was just mad that I didn't have it ready last week. It feels like you can like tactically deploy them that way, you know? You're like, all right, I know I'm going to have a wild week coming up. I'm going to be in the shipping department. So I'm going to get my two-minute meals ready to go. That was my point. And, you know, sometimes you get too busy to help yourself be less busy. And so that's what Factor is going to help me do very, very soon. So, yeah, I'm going to get that order in. Go to Factor. You can't do this, but go to factormeals.com. Go to factormeals.com. That's Pen Addict 50. Yeah, I'm way past this. To get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That is the code Pen Addict 50 at factormeals.com slash Pen Addict 50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. Thanks to Factor for the support of this show and Relay. Hey, that's a good sale, good ad content that I'm full price boy over here and still ordering. So it's the good stuff. Exactly. All right. We got a shout out of the week, Myke. Shout out of the week. Pen Fount. Now, I think we might have shouted them out a while ago because they've been doing things on Mastodon and I follow them on Mastodon. It's a good little pen community on Mastodon. But they put out a fun article this week, which is always one of my favorite questions in the stationery hobby. Myke, what is precious resin?
• So I love this article that Paradoxmo put out. They pretty much run the Pen Fount in the whole community. But this is a great article to send people who are always just kind of curious because marketing, right? Like some companies market things a certain way. All you have to do is go to the conclusion to realize what you probably already assumed reading this article. There's not really such a thing as precious resin. It's just we're a fancy company and we have marketing, right? Right. So great article. Enjoyed this thoroughly. I just smiled when I read this because they put it together well. So it's good stuff. So go check them out. Go follow them. And if you're on Mastodon, give them a follow. It's a fun community. So good stuff. Like, look. All right. We use words like bespoke, perfection, satisfying, right? Like this is just how you sell your product, you know? Yeah. Artisanal. Artisanal. Made in the USA. Yeah.
• It's good stuff. Precious resin. Precious resin. We should use that on spoke because we're all metal pins, but we should just say precious resin in there. Well, no, what you're looking for is aerospace grade. That's okay. Aerospace grade aluminum. So I'm going to get Brian on the podcast one day. So Brian's my partner in spoke. He's the quiet partner, but he's the engineer, right? He gets so mad at that stuff because he's like, do you know what this is? Do you know that's worse than what we get? I'm like, yes, Brian. I know. It's like planes are made of paper. He gets so mad. It's like we have this conversation. You should call it like space grade, you know? Yeah. International space grade. Intergalactic. Intergalactic. Yeah, I love it. Yes. Intergalactic grade aluminum.
• He's like, you know, that's a poor. I'm like, yes, Brian. I know. Don't tell me. I didn't say it. I just let him cook on that one. It's always good.
• You know what? All right. I want you to do. What? Go ask Brian to come up with the better phrase for the spoke stuff. Okay. Right? If it's not aerospace grade, what is it? All right. That's what I want to know. Okay.

New Pilot Oroshizuku ink lineup changes

• All right. Speaking of name changes, how about new products over in the Pilot Oro Shizuku Inc. lineup, Myke? So this is a new thing that they're doing. They've all of a sudden gone for a, what was and is still a really consistently good premium ink lineup. They started to mix in some changes. Last year was a big year where they took three inks out and put three new inks in. Or did they take three inks out? Yeah. They took three inks out last year. And this year they're doing three more in, three more out. So we're taking out Misty Rain, which is a light gray Kirisame. We're taking out Tsutsuji, which is the azalea, pink azalea color. And then we're taking out Kosumosu, which is another pink. It's called Fall Cherry Blossom. Last year they introduced a pink. Hana Ikata, I believe is the name. I don't have them all pulled up right in front of me. So they introduced a pink last year. They did not reintroduce a pink this year, but took two pinks out. So that still leaves them with like three pink shades, which is okay. But they added a blue. It's called Rika, Snow Crystal, which we'll circle back on. Sion Jio, Spring Dawn.
• And Toro, which is Warm Lantern.
• Now all of these three new colors, unlike last year, look amazing to me. Right? Last year's was kind of a womp womp type of situation. They were fine. They were completely fine. I thought the pink was too light. The green was too basic. And the bamboo was probably the best. But it's still a really, really light color.
• Or sorry, the Fireflies one. Hatoro Bee. I get that confused with Chikuren.
• But what's weird this year is they added a blue without eliminating a blue. And there's already like five or six good blues in this pool of Roshizuku Inks. They only keep 24 going at a time. Seems to be their thing. And it's weird to add in another blue, even though I'm sure I'm going to like this blue. But they finally, I think, branched out a little bit in their color palettes with Spring Dawn, which is a blackish red. Which that's, maybe that's a Southern Hemisphere Spring Dawn type of situation.
• I don't know.
• It's more of like a fall color here in the Northern Hemisphere. But I think that ink is going to be really, really popular because it's really dark. Leans black. And like, we'll have to see like the images. They show the digital images. Make it look like a burgundy red. But the ink color does not look like that in the bottle. It looks really, really dark, which I'm very interested in.
• Rika. I mean, it's fine. It's going to be like a grayish blue. But like, they have so many good blues already in Orozhuzuku. I'm a little bit confused on that one. But it's blue. It'll do fine. Like, they know how much blue ink they sell. Toro looks awesome. So I did a review of one of the 101st anniversary Pilot Orozhuzuku inks called Daikokuten. I'll grab that link from the blog. And it looks like this ink. So I'm curious how close it is to the ink I reviewed a couple years ago from their anniversary set to this one. But this is a good, these last two, the blackish red and the golden yellow, are both really, really exceptional additions. Which I don't think I could say about last year's additions. Last year's additions were fine. Like, I don't know why they added them. I don't know why they removed things. And it didn't seem to be like a huge additive thing other than the initial burst of, oh, new Orozhuzuku inks. And then they just kind of fell flat, right? They didn't really rate amongst the best of what the Orozhuzuku ink lineup has to offer. I think these, a couple of these have a chance to be, you know, in the upper echelons of Orozhuzuku. But we'll obviously wait and see. Out of the inks that were eliminated, Tsutsuji is getting the most grief. That is a really, really strong pink with, it has a golden sheen on it too. It's a really interesting ink. So if you look around at some of the places that had this in stock, you'll see probably all three of these eliminated inks going out of stock. Like, you know, they're selling the last inventory and people are kind of hoarding them. Tsutsuji is the one that's getting a lot of the blowback. It's like, how can you eliminate that one? Especially when you added in a rather weak ink last year in the Hana Ikata. It's a very light pink. Like, it's not really that good for writing. I think it looks so much better than Tsutsuji though. But I'm only looking at swatches here. I get it. Tsutsuji is a very strong ink. It's a very powerful hot pink. Like, it's aggressive. And that's why I like it. And the Hana Ikata is very light and I wouldn't enjoy writing with it. So anyway, that's kind of the shakeup coming. These inks will be out in November. November 15th, I think it was the release date. And I just, I don't know. Overall, yeah, I think it's a win in the trade-off of what's leaving and what's coming in. And after last year, this could have been a little bit worrisome because I thought last year was a little bit of a letdown.
• Yeah.
• And it's, I like where this one's headed more than last year. So I'm interested to see if this is going to be a continued thing. Next year, maybe they can knock out a couple blues though. Like, we don't need a quarter of the lineup being blues, which is pretty much where we're at right now. I mean, I've always got to think though in these kinds of scenarios, like, they're only selling more of what they're selling. Like, it wouldn't make any sense, right? Like, if they were selling zero blues and loads of pinks, they wouldn't add more blues and get rid of the pinks. That's right. And like, I'm lumping in Kan Pekki with Shinkai as blues, but those are two drastically different inks, right? Yes. No one would say those inks are comparable, but they are in the overarching scheme of things in the blue category, right? But they are not close to each other. So yes, things like that can live independently of each other.
• You know, there's a couple others that are a little bit closer. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. And I'm actually, I would actually be surprised if this continues to be an annual thing, because they're getting down to some inks that they can't remove at this point. So they're doing a good job thinning the herd. So we have more news this week. And that's pretty much what we're going to talk about the rest of this show, because I've been having to save up some of these links, like the Roche's Zika Inc. lineup that came out a couple weeks ago. Just been busy, man. This one came out more recently. And I think this is probably the most interesting article this week. So this came out, was sent to me. The article is on news.yahoo.co.jp. So reasonably good sourcing here. That with the Mitsubishi acquisition of Lami, Mitsubishi is now going to equip a Lami pin with Jetstream Inc.

Lamy pens and Uniball Mitsubishi ink collaboration

• And this is kind of along the lines of what we were hoping. Like when we heard about this acquisition, it was like, oh, you start dreaming about what could happen. And it's like, well, Lami's pens could start using Uniball Mitsubishi inks, right? The Jetstream being primary amongst them versus Lami's traditional ballpoint inks. And that's exactly what they're going to do. Just a couple of, it's an article I had to run a translation on. So take these with a grain of salt. But it's a pretty basic, straightforward. It's almost like a press release. So it says, as one of the initiatives after the acquisition, of course, Lami Safari plans to launch products equipped with the Jetstream Inc. That's huge, right? So that's a really, really interesting statement. In addition, with the transformation of Lami into a consolidated subsidiary, the Lami sales system in Japan will be changed from January 2025. And Lami products will be sold through the Mitsubishi Pencil Sales Network. So we talked about that during the acquisition time. Are they going to be absorbed into the Mitsubishi Uniball supply chain? And that sounds like that's what's happening too. So we'll see even more. Lami's done a good job at getting their products around the world. And now they'll just have more opportunity. But back to the ink, which is the interesting piece of this. So the Safari ballpoint is one of my favorite pens. The ballpoint ink is fine, right? Standard blue ballpoint ink. It's fine, blue or black. The refills are a proprietary shape. So what I'm curious, since they say they're going to put this in the Safari, and in the image they use the rollerball pin as the image in the article, not the ballpoint.
• Are they going to change out the filling of the existing refills with this different ink? Are they going to put Jetstream ink in these proprietary cartridges, or are they going to switch around the interior design of the ballpoint pen to fit a more Jetstream shaped cartridge? So I don't know. Basically, will the refill shape change, or will the ink inside of the existing refill change? I have no clue. They didn't explain that. But what I want to know is it's going to expand further, because while Lamy ballpoint inks are fine, their rollerball inks are not. And Uniball has a pretty good rollerball ink product in the Vision Elite, and they could really ramp that up. Like if the Vision Elite ink got into the balloon, then we might have a pen. That is more interesting. So this is just the beginning of what I hope is a very successful relationship between maybe two of my favorite stationery companies in the world that I think highly of both of them, and having them work together on something like this is like, hey, let's put the Jetstream ink into the Safari ballpoint. I was like, yes, that's exactly what we should do. So I love to see this, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. But then the further question in my head is like, well, are they going to use the new fancy Jetstream light touch ink or the regular Jetstream ink? I don't know. What are you going to do, Lamy? So there's all kinds of questions that I enjoy exploring here. But these are the simple things that really, really keep me going. And I love seeing the beginnings of this. It makes sense. Yeah, I think back to like Sailor's acquisition. Sailor got acquired by a larger company, but it doesn't seem like much changed with Sailor. Like what are our benefits from Sailor's acquisition? Maybe it was just a money thing, right? Maybe they just more had to be saved from themselves, and now they're stable or something like that. But this we're actually getting to see like some material effects and changing of the product, which I enjoy seeing. All right, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at the Heinz Pen Company. Whether you prefer classic elegance or loud, sparkly, colorful resin-based pens, the Heinz Pen Company has something to suit you. Founded back in 2017, Heinz has grown from a one-person shop to an internationally recognized brand. One of their unique signature features are their color electroplated nibs with matching hardware. Available in more than 20 colors, and this little addition is what can take a stunning pen that little bit extra. I'm going to take it that further. Heinz has recently incorporated an integrated piston filler mechanism dubbed the Kolbenfühler as an option on their pens, a rare feature for small independent makers. They've also introduced multi-colored nibs on some select pen models. Heinz offers a wide variety of pens to fit your personal preferences, from their Tachinstift pocket pens to their giant Koenig and sizes in between, and you'll be able to find a comfortable pen to fit your hand based on what they have. Artisans Jim Heinz and Rachel Neal craft each writing instrument with great care in small batches using traditional methods, while Francisco Lopez provides top-tier customer service and sales support, as well as driving product design and development. You can find Jim Heinz and Francisco Lopez, also known as the Heinz Guys, at most major pen shows around the country between now and the end of the year, including the Orlando Pen Show, the Dallas Pen Show, the Detroit Pen Show, Scriptus in Toronto, the Chicago Planners Conference, and the Atlas Stationers Holiday Sale. And of course, you can always find their products online at HeinzPens.com. We're both fans of Heinz Pens products around here, whether it's, for me, I have a collection of, a couple now, of Heinz Pens that are just Heinz Pens, and I have some pens that have those electroplated Heinz nibs in them as well. And I agree, not only are the products high quality,
• they go that little extra, right, Brad? Yeah, so I got to hang out with them for a few minutes in San Francisco. I don't think I got to spend more than a few minutes with anyone in San Francisco because it was so busy, but I got to see the new piston filler in action, got to test it out. It's really nice, really well done, of course, I wouldn't expect anything less. And then, then Jim basically says, all right, Brad, come over here, and then shows me the, the, the multicolor electroplated nibs. I was like, okay, I was like, okay, just stop because that's sick. And I really, really like them. So while I was standing there, a little, a little self plug, um, one of a long time reader of the pen addict came up while I was standing there with Heinz pen and, um, with Jim and Francisco and took out his break of dawn, which is the Tash and shift style that I make for the pen addict shop. He said, this is my favorite pen ever. Thank you so much for doing this, uh, right in front of me and Heinz. We were all there together and he, he broke it out and, uh, showed it off. And, uh, that, that made me pretty happy. So that was pretty cool. So I love what they do. I wouldn't choose them to make a pen for the pen addict shop. If I didn't love what they do and definitely go check out, they're always doing something new and unique like these piston fillers or these multicolored nibs. So, uh, definitely worth checking out. You can find more information today and check out these products over at Heinz pens.com slash pen addict. And there are special, there's a special offer for listeners of this show. You can get 15% off your next purchase using code pen addict. And by visiting Heinz pens.com slash pen addict, this is a good for one use and expires at the end of November. A thanks to Heinz pens for the support of this show and all of relay. So I just finished praising my good friends at Lamy and now Mitsubishi because they're all the same. And then I have to ask. La Mitsubishi. La Mitsubishi. La Mitsi. La Mitsi. La Mitsi. La Mitsi. It's a new Italian. It's a La Mitsi. The new Italian brand made by the Germans and the Japanese. Yeah. Well, this could be the new Italian release with the pink and green fall special edition Lamy all star. I have questions. What is happening? What's wrong with this? Nothing's right. Nothing's wrong with that. Great. They're great. This red is so close to the one that they just released in the spring. I mean, it's okay. It's like three shades lighter in the barrel. Fine. It's also pink and green. That's spring colors here in the Northern Hemisphere. So maybe again, this is a Southern Hemisphere release. I don't want to forget our fall Southern Hemisphere. Maybe we're getting warmer. Maybe that's when the flowers are blooming. Maybe that's when the pink and green is coming out. This is a spring edition here.
• I love the green. Genuinely, I think the green is fantastic. The pink slash red I've seen a thousand times. It's more to the, wow, they have really done something different with their product lineups this summer. Like they did the Pina Colada and Cherry Blossom Safaris, which were awesome looking. It's just all of a sudden now we're getting all the things. And I'm just a little bit curious, like are we moving into sailor territory here where it's just constant, constant, constant, constant releases.
• We'll see. You know, I'm, I'm still, you know, we're going to give it the rest of this year and we'll give it, you know, some more time as they, they find their way with this new ownership group and we'll see what they do. Big picture. But like,
• it's, it's just new for me with Lamy. Like it's, it's on one hand, like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth, right? It's one. I want to see them do fun, interesting, unique things, but just throwing out like build a bear releases over and over and over again. I want to see something a little bit more, a little bit different. If this isn't like inspiring me necessarily. And this is a brand I love above most companies.

Overabundance of product releases by Lamy and Sailor

• So yeah, it's just like sailor, like we're going to talk about sailor in a minute. I love so much of what they do. They just do so much. Right. It's like at some time, at some point, I just want to stop being beat over the head with this stuff. Um, and you know, but again, it's another cool Lamy pen, but I'm just, why? Like, I don't know. I don't know. We got, we got parts to sell, I guess, before we, uh, we go full, full, uh, what did we say? Lamy, Lamy, Lamy, Lamy, Lamy, Lamy, Lamy, before we go full Lamy, we got a, we got some, we got some barrels, some barrels and parts that need to move here. And I guess that's what we're doing. So let's go into these sailors, Myke, um, off the moratorium pretty much all year. They've been doing some great stuff again, which they like sailor always does great stuff that I think they're one of the, they, they do the best designs period of anyone in the large manufacturing scale. And this year's tea time series is no exception. I'm kind of wondering if you had time to look at this and understand the, the theming here. Can I get your take on this? Because this is, so this is the third release of the tea time series. And this one is the first one that's doing a literal British tea time theme. Yeah. Other ones have done some different themes, like a different around the world themes, which is what I love. What do you think about this one? I think it's great. So there's two pens. I mean, I'm only looking at the Japanese, um, yeah, page here, but what I'm assuming is they have a blue and white pen to evoke fine China. Yep. And then a cream and red pen to evoke, uh, like scones with, with jam and cream on them. I think it's great. I think these are beautiful. These are beautiful pens. They, they absolutely killed it. Like it's awesome. Yeah. Like I just, it's funny how just, they have an ink, like a brown ink. And then they call it ink. Like, yeah, it's like an orangish brown. I'll be interested. I I'm obviously very interested in the sink. That is one of my shades. Like, like the pens don't necessarily speak to me on like, on a, like, Hey, I want to use this all the time level, but for what they're trying to create, this is what I love seeing, right? They have lean. They, I wonder if they were thinking like when they did this first series, uh, probably like two or three years ago and, you know, Hey, let's take a chance. Like they do so many things that, you know, just, I think like they're just throwing out there, see if it sticks, you know, like jellyfish and space and all these weird things. Well, someone is like, Hey, let's do this tea time series and, you know, make the similar types of pens. And I think the first one did so well. And then last year's they did it more around the holiday theme. Like it was like, um, I forget, I'm not pulling it up right now, but it was like a spice, spice tea and some like greens. And, uh, I don't know. Heck it might've even been like, I don't know. One of the cakes or something. And then this one, just the theming is so good. Like I just really respect, I really respect their design team on these. And, uh, these always tend to do very well. You don't see a lot of these out there. I don't think they do like a mega release on these, but they've grown in popularity over the years. And I just think like Lamy, I'm talking about the same thing. Like it can be a lot and it can be a lot of the same things, but then give me a little twist, right? With the sailor tea time, I got the little twist, right? It's a little bit of a twist. It's like, Hey, we designed this pen after this. We're continuing a theme that's been successful. We're moving it forward by, you know, picking a new theme every year. And we're executing almost to perfection across the board. And Lamy is like, Hey, here's a pink and a green pen. It's like, it's cool. I mean, they're not the same company. I don't expect the same things from them, but like, you know, I've gone through my moments with sailor where it's just like, just stop releasing the same build a bear pen. And, and, and this is, they did it. Like, this is exactly what I want to see out of a company. And I think it's just excellent and gorgeous across the board. Yeah, no, super good. Really, really good. Yep.
• All right. I think that wraps it up for today. All right, let's do it. If you want to catch links and all that's good stuff, go to pen addict.com. No, go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash six, three, zero. Also go to pen addict.com. Yes. I was getting ahead of myself because I want to say that's where you want to go and find all the St. Jude info for how you can enter the pen addict for relay for St. Jude, uh, giveaway that we've got going on.
• Um, but also please just go to st. Jude.org slash relay. Find out more about this incredible cause during childhood cancer awareness month, which is running all September, make donations, sign up to fundraise. That's what this is all about. Uh, thank you to factor and Heinz pens for the support of the show. Uh, if you want to find Brad online, go to pen addict.com, spoke design.com. He's at pen addict and at twitch.tv slash pen addict. I'm at I, I Myke, I am Y K E, uh, also a cortex brand.com and here on relay.fm for more wonderful podcasts. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the pen addict. And we'll be back next week until then say goodbye, Brad. Bye, Brad. Bye. you