The Pen Addict 679/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	679
Title:	Brad's Big Day Out
Release Date:	August 20th, 2025
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 679
Audio File:	Audio Episode 679
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 679
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 679. Today's show is brought to you by Enigma Stationery.
My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by the birthday boy, Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.
Oh, not quite, almost. One day, one day out from being the birthday boy.
Yeah, it is that time of the year. And I celebrated, I guess, on my recent trip to Chicago at the Atlas Stationery Sidewalksdale.
So we're going to talk about that. We're going to recap that event.
39.
39, 39 in perpetuity.
Feeling fine, you know? That's my dad.
Yeah, totally. Totally. Don't get old, chat. Don't get old, friends.
It sucks.
Yeah, it sucks. No, it's great. Hey, another year coming soon to a body near you.
Oh, wow. Oh my word.
Hey, we got another pen from Lamy coming near you, Myke.
Yeah.
What do you think about the Lamy Safari Multicolor Set?
Swing and a miss, you know? Swing and a miss.
It's like, oh, what a great idea, but you didn't really execute on it, did you?
You know, like...
What are you doing?
I don't even understand why they're doing it. I don't know.
Okay, so this is a pen. You can either get a black glossy one or a white glossy one.
And in the box, you get a set of six colored rings.
You know, like, so if you've seen a Lamy Safari, in between the grip section and the body,
it's like a little plastic ring piece.
Normally black for most editions, and then special editions, they'll mix it up.
And, you know, it probably color matches to the pen in some scenarios or whatever, right?
Yeah, like maybe the clip.
Like, I have an all-white barrel. This was a special edition.
All-white barrel with the red ring, red clip, and red finial, right?
So you can get a glossy white or glossy black, and you get a set of six multicolored rings
that you can change out.
Now, the description on the Pen Chalet website, I'm assuming, comes from Lamy, or from the distributor.
And they reference, like, make a colorful statement by choosing the ring you'll use for your Safari each day.
But they ship six.
So, like, if what you really want to suggest is, like, different color every day,
do you know how many days there are?
You can either do five or seven, you know, don't do six.
And then the finial, like the very top end piece, different than usual.
It's not got the little cross on it, which I don't like or understand why Safaris are that way.
There actually is a rule to that.
There's a general rule to where they'll use the cross for fountain pens,
they'll use a dot for roller balls and things like that.
So, if you have two of the same color.
It's totally flat, and it shows, like, a ring, like a color rings of all the colors on it.
But it looks, you know, it's kind of like flat acrylic top,
so there isn't actually any indentation at all.
I like the, like, where, I like what they're going for, right?
Like, here's a pen that you can customize.
But I just, I feel like, I don't, I understand the brief of, like, let's make a Lamy Safari that people can customize.
But I just, I'm not sure how you landed on this at the end.
It's odd to me.
Very odd.
Yeah, I think I, I, they did not go far enough with this design.
Like, I think they got to, like, a minimum viable product, and I'd argue that they maybe even didn't get to there,
and then they just shipped it.
But it's really kind of nonsensical.
Like, it's totally fine, right?
Like, if you're into this, like, it's a great pen.
You can put your little orange band on there.
But then the orange band doesn't match the clip, or, you know, I guess it has the ring representation on the top finial,
which the top finial is static, and then the rings around the barrel.
Like, I would rather this product not exist, and then them give me a black glossy Lamy Safari and a white glossy Safari
with the Lamy etching on the barrel filled in an orange, right?
Something like that.
Like, make it stand out even more.
This just makes it look like it's a regular Safari, and you're paying a premium for these rings to swap out,
and it doesn't look any different than what you're getting except the finial.
And it's, it's, yeah, they just didn't try hard enough on this, I don't think.
Like, this is very, very, like, 101 level of thought went into this.
Yeah.
You know, like, there's no clip matching, which, like, clip swapping out on the Lamy is not easy,
so you can't really do that as a thing.
I don't understand that.
But give me some coloration.
Yeah.
Give me some coloration.
The Lamy etched logo in the barrel is something I very much enjoy.
I always have to have that turned correctly, but it's always, like, monotone on whatever pins you're using, right?
They never add any color to that.
And it would be nice to have that, like, stand out on the barrel.
Like, if you're going to, if you're going to go bright yellow on this, throw me a yellow Lamy logo on there as well,
and then it's going to stand out a little bit.
Like, this does not stand out from anything else they do.
It's like, give me four color rings and put each letter in the Lamy logo as a different color, right?
Like, there's one thing.
Exactly.
So that's, like, making it a bit more fun.
And, yeah.
I just, but also just, like, why, though?
Like.
Yeah.
It just falls so short of just, like.
If what you've heard is people would like to customize their Safari, this is not what they're talking about, right?
Right.
Like, what people want to do is choose different pieces, right?
Like, they want to choose their clip, their cap, their finial, their grip section, and their body, and the ring.
They want to choose all of it, right?
To match their own style.
You know what, Brad?
I honestly forget that the ring is even there.
Like, this is not the thing that I'm thinking about when it comes to, like, the style of my Safari.
Like, they look fine, right?
Like, the colors on the white one, I don't really like the black, but on the white one, like, they look, it looks good, but it's just, like, I just don't, I kind of, I'm a little bit lost as to why this is the thing that they did.
So here's another design flaw with this concept, right?
So the ring, so, like, we're both looking at this picture.
You have the black pin on top of the yellow ring.
Guess how much of the yellow ring you see when you put the cap on the pin?
Zero.
Zero.
Yes.
And guess how much of the ring you see when you grip the pin and hold it?
Also zero.
No, you see, you see, you know, a third of it, right?
I mean, you don't really know.
You literally never see the ring if it's laying there on your pin.
If the pin is not in the hand, it's the only time you ever see the ring.
If I cap the pin, you don't see the ring.
It's just so, I'm actually, I wasn't mad.
I was, like, just, like, sad.
Like, they could do better, and now I'm actively mad.
At the same time, like, I see how you get to a scenario like this, right?
Like, you have limited resources in the department or the team, and you're just like, here's a thing that we can do, and here's, like, a release that we can have.
But it's just, like, fine, but also, I don't really know if this was the one.
And, like, were you aiming for a Pride product and gave up?
Like, what are you doing?
You know what I mean?
No, how did we get here?
Like, I don't even, I don't get it.
At this point, just give me another limited edition Safari.
Like, two colors Safari, limited edition, you know, third or fourth release this year for Lamy Safari limited editions.
And I would probably enjoy it much more than I'm enjoying what they did here because they didn't do very much, and it stinks.
Hire me, Lamy.
Yep.
So, anyway, like, I still, I'm just, like, totally rolling my eyes at this product.
If you want something more colorful, Myke, though, you can get the new Keith Haring Blackwing, so everyone knows I'm a big Keith Haring fan and a big Pop Arc fan.
Dude, this goes so hard.
They did this one extremely well.
This goes so hard.
I love it.
Yeah.
I love it.
So, this just came out, I want to say yesterday.
It's definitely this week.
So, the latest volumes edition, they just crushed the pencil design.
And that's mostly what I'm looking at.
There's a lot of other accessories with this, which we can show you all.
Yeah, like, the notebook is fine, right?
Like, in a way where it's like that, this is what I would expect the Keith Haring notebook to look like.
But they just did such a good job with the pencil.
The design only goes, like, two-thirds of the way up.
Like, I don't know why, but it's like, yes, that's the way to do it.
It's actually a little bit more of a statement than just being just all over.
Yeah, it is.
Because then it breaks up the top of the pencil barrel to the black finial to the red eraser.
It just makes that piece work where, like, the finial and eraser would get caught up if that design went all the way to the top.
It would get washed out.
So, it's legit good.
I'll be ordering these.
Probably the last set I ordered was the Basquiat set, which was, I don't know, a year or two ago.
And it's funny, like, seeing, you know, we all see, you know, for us that are Haring and Basquiat fans, like, we see all the merch coming out with them.
And it's funny, like, this is all through, like, the same – when this one came out, I was like, who has this license?
And then they actually have the licensing down there.
It's a company called Art Star out of New York.
And so, they have, you know, a bunch of different, you know, designers from that timeframe, which is why you see, you know, like, the Coach Purse, you know, Basquiat or Haring.
I can't remember which one they did.
But I still like my pencils and my stationery.
You know, I bought the Keith Haring Caran Dashes last year, which I love.
And so, yeah, I'll still buy them, even though it's kind of a little funny going through all these things, all these hoops.
But I think they just absolutely – they did this pencil so right.
I definitely want to get them in hand and check them out.
I will say, out of the ancillary products, so they have two different notebooks, and then they have, like, a couple different sets.
And then they have the – they went all in on this one.
They did – I think this is the most accessories I've ever seen.
And they also have the point guard, like, the cap over it, and then a colorful sharpener with the dog, the famous dog on it.
I think the Smiling Heart notebook is the best.
It's my favorite thing.
Like, I'm not going to buy any of the accessory stuff because I don't really need another notebook or a pencil sharpener or a point guard.
But I think I love the Smiling Heart notebook because the main notebook design is what you would expect.
And then the Smiling Heart takes a single piece of art and does a nice job.
I agree that that is actually – while it is not – while it doesn't scream Keith Haring, it's actually just a better-looking design.
Yeah, to me.
I mean, I agree with you.
Like, I just think – like, the Keith Haring one is, like – I like it, of course, but it is just – it's the obvious.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I would have liked to have seen them maybe kind of emulate the pencil design here where it doesn't cover the entire cover, say, and there's a little bit of extra space or something.
Right.
Yeah, it's cool.
Like, fans of these artists like Haring and Basquiat all have, like, our favorite pieces, and you're never going to get that one favorite piece on there.
But, like, I think this is a good representation.
The pencil is exceptional, and I'm definitely going to grab some of this.
The point guard has an etched design on it, too.
Does it have a – so it's got a heart on the end?
Yeah.
Okay.
It doesn't have anything on the sides, though, right?
But that's pretty chill.
Like, I like that, too.
So, like, the radiant heart and the barking dog, and, you know, those are some of the classic Haring visuals that people who don't know who Haring is, you know, like the crawling babies on the notebook, you know, things like that.
So, cool stuff.
I'm a huge fan.
So, yeah.
Definitely in on this.
I don't know if I'm in on Hobonichi's new paper, Myke, and I have – we've covered this, you know, previously and many times over, and we will cover this many times going forward.
But there – now that some of the Hobonichi stuff is out in the wild, people are putting it through its paces.
So, Stilo and Stile did an Instagram post.
So, they got in all their paper products, and this was, like, five days ago.
So, they got on all their paper products, and they opened up essentially one of each and ran them through a test, just, you know, pens and ink testing.
And this is an Instagram post.
So, there's a bunch of posts on here.
This is called a carousel, I have learned, Myke, when you have a bunch of pictures in there, which I just throw a bunch of pictures in there.
You didn't know?
I didn't know it's called a carousel.
You did not know that.
I just – I mean, if you just throw a bunch of pictures in there, it's just a bunch of pictures.
Like, I didn't know specifically it was called a carousel, but now, as a carousel maker myself, I'm like, oh, it's a carousel.
So, they took – I'm glad I couldn't make you laugh.
How many followers on Instagram do you have?
Let me check.
It was like 30-something thousand.
He's like, have you heard of reels, Brett?
Do you familiar with those?
I did some.
I did some with the pin show.
We'll talk about that.
Wow.
I did a thing, Myke.
He knew reels before carousels.
So, they – Steel on Stele took the – I don't know, different formats of all the different Hobonichis that they got in.
And I have to say, just looking through their Instagram photos, it looks so much better than last year.
It looks – I don't want to say anything's fixed, like, with the way this runs.
Like, I see no issue with everything that they've put on these pages.
And I flip back and forth and embiggened.
And I was like, yeah, this looks pretty clean.
The ink colors look representative.
There's no real bleeding, feathering, anything like that.
So, and this is across, like, the Techos and the Weeks and a few of the other products that they had in there.
And, like, it seems, like, totally fine.
It's like it – I hope – I hope Hobonichi has a good paper year.
Or Sanzen has a good Tomoe River paper year.
Because, like, this is frustrating to me, to people buying these products, right?
Because, like, I put in the show doc, it's not whether, you know, this year's paper is good or bad.
It's that can we trust anything that lands on our desk after what we went through last year and some of the answers that Hobonichi put out there.
Just what was it last week where we were reading that where I didn't really get, like, a warm, fuzzy feeling that they were putting the onus on the buyer, on the customer.
I wouldn't say partly.
To just deal with the paper.
Partly they were doing that.
I felt, like, more like they were just trying to protect themselves.
They didn't want to make any statements that were –
Yeah, but my point is –
That people could pull apart later on.
Yeah, my point is, though, now you have a trust issue of paper performance, right?
Like, nothing is, like, clear and perfect.
I will say the testing looks good, though.
Hobonichi have a trust issue, right?
Like, I feel like they outlined that.
And so, like, the trust issue is being passed to the customer.
But I did – you know, they can't do anything to help you make your decision because they're not feeling confident themselves.
Yeah, they can.
They have to put the screws to sans in and get some type of commitment of production.
I would assume they have done that.
You know what I mean?
Like, I just –
Yeah.
But then at the same time, like, I expect that that is what's happened.
And that's why maybe this paper is in a better place.
But it's still not the same paper.
So, like, there's – you know.
Right.
If I'm Hobonichi, I would handle it in a similar-ish way where it's at least for this year to just be like, we make no promises.
And then see how it goes, right?
And then maybe next year, they're like, we've had such good feedback from our customers.
We feel very confident now moving forward.
Because, unfortunately, everyone is out for blood.
Right?
I don't think so.
Like, I have very strong opinions.
They are.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's kind of making – I'm sure I haven't dug through it, but I have no doubt that the comment section of every Hobonichi post is just a nightmare.
I imagine so.
I just feel like, you know, this is one of those things where, for me, it's like I just – I wished that people could talk more freely and openly, but it just doesn't really work like that, right?
Because if they were like, you know what, gang?
We're just not sure.
Just hoping it's going to be all right this time.
And, you know, we tried, like, but people just aren't going to accept that.
Like, you say you would like that, but, like, that level of, like, I don't know.
That kind of honestly, I just don't think it's accepted from a customer, like, buying.
It's tough at this scale.
I totally agree.
Like, I imagine this past year, year and a half working for Hobonichi has been just brutal just in trying to – like, the amount of time you're having to spend dealing with this.
It's like they're big enough that it's a problem for them.
They're not so big that they can just make their own paper.
Exactly.
You know?
Yeah, they're right in that spot.
They're, like, in the absolute worst spot, right, where they're taking all the heat, right?
Yeah.
I don't know.
They're probably in the range where they could probably think about making their own paper.
I wonder if that's something they might have cooking, you know, in years down the line.
Like, a project starting now for three years.
That is a current concern.
But the problem with that, then, is, like, you – then any change falls directly squarely onto you, right?
Yes.
Give me that.
Yeah, but when the mill closes down, you haven't got a supplier that can offer you a new paper that they've been working on, right?
Right.
You're, like, step one in the chain, not step two or three in the chain.
Yeah.
Well, like, at least when the Tomoe scenario –
There's bigger overall problems in the chain.
Yeah.
When the Tomoe scenario changed, their distributor or whatever, or whoever it is that sells them the paper, could be like, yeah, but we've been working on this other thing in the background.
And you know what I mean?
It's just like –
Yeah.
Totally.
Totally.
I don't know.
Yeah.
When you're not making your own stuff, like, you're just – like, it's going to be that way.
Yes.
And this is tough.
So, long story short, this test looks nice.
And then you shared – we got some feedback.
Why don't you take this?
Yeah.
Rachel wrote into the feedback form and said, your conversation on Tomoe River paper made me think of this YouTube video from a small planner company named Aura Estelle, where they broke down all of the paper that they've considered for their planners this year and showed how the 2026 Tomoe River works.
You would like this video a lot, Brad.
I watched it.
Oh, good.
Okay, good.
I figured – I wasn't sure if you had because I put it in the document, you know, not last night, this morning or whatever.
Yeah.
But I liked how, you know, the person in the video, who I assume is the owner of the business, which is going to be my assumption, or at least a designer, is, like, going through all of the different papers.
So, current Tomoe, last year's Tomoe, some other papers that are not Tomoe River, and then also, like, a couple of batches of Tomoe River.
And made their kind of decision about what worked for them and then kind of spoke about how they're going to be ordering that specific paper.
So, it's good.
And there's, like, a good chart at the end where, you know, basically she's like, the last Tomoe River was only good for gel pens.
It's in her estimation.
But now it's, like, got a much greater – you know, across highlighter, brush pen, gel pen, and fountain pen, she felt that it was sufficient for her product.
Yeah.
So, this – I'm assuming, and it – I don't – maybe it's not an assumption, maybe it's just a fact – that the paper that she tested and ended up on is the exact paper that's in the Hobonichis this year.
I assume that is the case, yes.
Yeah.
Which is good.
Like, I am happy that she did all this test and this latest batch is – or this latest version is the best of what she's tested.
The thing that did catch me off guard – not off guard, but, like, it makes your eyebrows raise and how these little paper changes affect these small businesses like this.
Yes.
Because, you know, they probably got raked over the coals with last year's product.
And it sounded like at the beginning of the video she was definitely saying that it was an issue last year for them as a business.
Yes.
And she referenced it how – and, like, you can see – sometimes you can see in, like, the decisions that small businesses make, you can work backwards.
Yeah.
And, like, she's like, I'm making it possible for you to order a paper test set.
That was so good.
Yeah.
Now, before you buy the – and it's like, oh, like –
That's such a good answer.
I think that's a great idea, but it's like you can see this thing of, like, trying to counteract customers saying, I'm not going to buy this product.
If you can't confirm to me, it's going to work with my – you know.
So it's like you just, for a small price, like, get a couple of sheets of this paper.
Yeah.
You can make sure it works for you.
And then, you know, move back.
Yeah.
It was just for the cost of postage, so –
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Sorry.
However that works.
That's the small cost to use the custom app.
So one of the points that she made is that she is guaranteed she has bought papers all from the same batch.
So whatever she gets and whatever these planners are going to be made of are going to be consistent throughout.
And that's just such a huge problem to deal with, like, Myke, on a go-forward basis.
You know, we've got a business here a little bit.
That's such a huge problem to deal with, like, batch variation in paper.
Yes.
Like, that's a real thing.
That's what got Tomoe, like, in the situation that they're in right now was last year was the batches were different.
You know, you could put two products – similar products side by side.
And if the papers came out of different batches, oh, there's notebooks, paper, and there's notebooks that would behave differently.
So that's something else she made a point to say in the video.
A couple of good comments I wanted to make about her testing process.
Well, before she even did that, she did get an answer on what changed last year.
Like, why was there more of a problem with the 2025 version?
And it was because Sanson, they test their papers, right?
You know, they have to, like, for consistency.
She said that they changed – the main test that they do on paper is ink drying speed testing.
Mm-hmm.
And that they moved the needle to a faster drying number that they were trying to hit.
So previously, I guess it was a slower drying paper.
So this, the 2025 edition, they tested and they lowered that number, and now they've reverted back.
And what that means for paper is for, like, planner people, like her and us, we want slower drying paper because that prevents bleeding and feathering, and it gives more proper ink representation on the page, right?
There's a balance point where, like, you need it to dry.
But if a paper's drying quickly, that means it's usually too absorbent.
And when you look at her samples of that 2025, the bad stuff, like, it goes straight through the paper, right?
So they've reverted that metric, that testing metric back, which seems to have helped.
And also, just for other people testing paper, if you have a bunch of different papers in your testing, I think the best things to test with are one thing that she mentioned, which are highlighters.
That's a really good ink to test papers to see for bleeding and feathering, like that highlighter marker, that fibrous tip.
And then rollerball ink is a very good way to test because it will go straight through the paper if it's not, you know, manufactured up to whatever standard we have as fountain pen users.
Because it's a water-based ink, like fountain pens are, right?
But the way the rollerball ink is such a dark, saturated ink, you can see the ghosting and the bleed and the feathering much better.
So those are two of my go-to ink testing pens for sure.
And she did a really great job of showing the close-ups of the feathering and how the different papers worked.
And in the end, if we didn't already say this, I think we did, ended up on the 2026 Sanzen, like the Tomoe River, the classic Tomoe River, which, I mean, I'm just crossing my fingers.
Like, I don't want to be talking about this, right?
I want them to have like a good year with paper and regain some of that goodwill that was lost through this whole debacle.
It was a mess last year for sure.
So signs are good so far, I'll say, but like way too early to tell.
Even last year, we got some, that was the problem last year is people were getting different things, the same book but different performance, and no one was understanding each other, right?
No one, well, people would just say, well, that's not how mine's performing.
Until, it took like months for it to like all shake out.
I think this time we'll know quicker.
Remind me, Tomoe River, what is its primary use?
The old one was, the old one, like the very original was magazine paper.
Okay.
Because it's thin, right?
So you could have a lot of sheets, you know, and still have great print quality on a thinner sheet.
So less weight for shipping and all kinds of things.
Kind of like the different trickle down effects from that.
And like in the test on the video that you shared.
I wondered if that might have been some reason why they would like want to optimize for faster ink drying or something.
It's like some of a commercial application.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Different like printer ink applications, you probably want it to dry faster, right?
Because you're just running through those sheets at like epic speeds, right?
Yeah.
And it's like, again, it's this scenario.
We've been talking about this for tomorrow the whole time of like, well, this is the problem when you're kind of like a side effect of this paper.
Yeah.
That it is good for findings.
You're a secondary, we're a secondary, we're off-label usage.
Yeah.
It reminds me of medications, right?
Where it's like we created this medicine to treat one thing, but it has such a strong side effect impact that it can actually treat other things.
Exactly.
But that's kind of the funny way of it.
It's very strange.
But I'm genuinely really happy to hear that people are like cautiously optimistic because I think it's going to make the lives better of a lot of companies and customers.
If they can get this to just close enough to make enough people happy, I think that will be really, really positive for the planner market.
Yep.
Agree.
Agree.
Let's have a good planner year, y'all.
This episode is brought to you by Enigma Stationary.
Anyway, Enigma Stationary offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard-to-find imports.
I have big news for listeners of the show.
Special edition number 12 has landed.
Gemini's Potion is Enigma Stationary's latest exclusive fountain pen made by Michaela at White Bear Pens in her Ursa model.
15, just 15 pens are available in this edition.
Each features twin caps, one made with the body material and a second transparent cap loaded with colorful chameleon flake.
This is awesome.
I saw pictures of this.
That's so cool.
And I assume there's two models.
That's amazing.
I've never heard of that before.
What a great idea.
Yeah, Lamy.
Yeah.
Do better, Lamy.
Like, Michaela can make two different caps for one pen.
Why can't you do it?
But this is really cool.
It did take me a second.
I was like, oh, there's two pens.
I wonder how you pick which.
It's like, no, you get both caps.
And, like, I love the glitter cap, like Michaela.
And Michaela's pens are so cool.
So, yeah.
This is, I just, I don't know.
I love it.
It's really cool.
Great idea.
Yeah, it looks fantastic.
It's all the right swirl that you would want.
But I really like the clear cap because you see the grip section in, like, the swirly acrylic.
And then also just, like, the chameleon flake, which is just, like, is basically like an explosion of glitter.
It looks really good.
I really, really like it.
Yeah, I think I'd be rocking the glitter cap most of the time.
Oh, definitely.
But if I'm going into, like, the business meeting, we're going to put on the standard cap.
I mean, like, come on.
But, like, you know, business in the front, party in the back type of situation.
What business meeting is this one?
I don't know.
Super before?
I don't know.
Yeah.
All of them, Myke.
You just have to own it.
I just feel like I'm not sure why if you would take the solid cap into a business meeting that you wouldn't take the clear.
I mean, it's a little more subtle.
A little more subtle.
It depends on the meeting, too.
It does depend on the meeting.
I just want to rock the glitter cap.
Makes perfect sense to me.
A limited number of these pens are available now online, and they will also be at Enigma Stationery's booth for the San Francisco Pen Show from August 29th to 31st.
That's so close, Brad.
It's crazy close.
Yeah.
If you want free U.S. shipping on orders of $50 or more plus a free gift, go to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict25 at checkout.
That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get a free gift and free U.S. shipping on orders of over $50 or more with the code penaddict25.
That's also where you'll find more about Special Edition 12.
Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and Relay.
All right, Myke, we got our shout-out of the week.
Shout-out of the week.
Paper and Pencil Chicago.
So this is going to lead up to my talk on my trip.
But I wanted to sneak them into the shout-out of the week because they just produced an awesome Instagram carousel, Myke.
Oh, is this where you learned it, Fred?
Yeah.
No, I kind of learned it like a month ago.
Okay.
Because you're really throwing it out there today.
Well, because this is.
So this is, we get asked a lot about, hey, can we talk about tariffs?
And we've done it before in the beginning of the year just randomly.
But it changes, like, by the minute.
So we've never been able to, like, really solidify something.
But Paper and Pencil made an amazing Instagram post that goes into the nuts and bolts of details of how this is going to work,
especially in a lot of industries.
But they did it directly for their business, which means the stationery industry.
And it breaks it down in very clear.
It's the best breakdown I've seen.
Yeah.
On how this is going to work.
And let me just say, it sucks.
Like, all of this.
Oh, it's horrible.
All of this sucks.
I'll just say, like, I can give, like, a very quick top line to this.
Mm-hmm.
The tariff situation hasn't changed.
The de minimis exception has been taken away.
Correct.
And what that means is the de minimis exception basically meant that any product under the value of $800,
you didn't have to pay any customs fees on, like any tax fees.
Mm-hmm.
You know, like, yeah.
Like additional costs.
Yeah.
Which is, and this is, the de minimis exemption is kind of an American thing, right?
We're like, we don't have anything like that here and never have.
Like, you have to pay the customs and the tax fees on anything that arrives.
I mean, that, well, it used to be that you could end up paying it on anything and you'd get a letter in the mail afterwards,
which I've spoken about on the show before.
But then it got changed just, it got changed around Brexit time.
But it would have, if we would have stayed in the European Union, it would have got changed like a year later because the EU now do it too.
Where you pay those fees to the company that you're buying from up front.
So I'm seeing a lot of British companies saying that they're not going to be sending to the US for now.
I'm very confident that all of the platforms will be able to handle this because it works in America, shipping overseas and stuff, right?
Like, I know this because I had to work with our friends at Cotton Bureau to make sure that it was in place for when it was all kicking off after Brexit.
And so, I don't think it was just after Brexit, but it was an after Brexit thing.
And people thought that it was because of Brexit, which probably it was, but we would have ended up having to do it with the EU anyway.
Like, it's a similar thing.
And so, the de minimis exception meant that for products under the value of $800, it would just go through.
And essentially, to me, it seems like what is going on here is the US administration want to kind of kill Timu and Sheehan and Alibaba.
Right.
Which, like, I don't, like, really disagree with that as a thing because it makes things incredibly hard for local businesses to produce products, right?
When you can get something just absurdly cheap for essentially free shipping, right?
Like, there is a lot of loopholes that can be closed.
The problem is they've closed this loophole of a blunt hammer.
Yeah, I was going to say this is a hammer.
That is the problem.
Where there was maybe a different way to handle this because I do think that it's not great for your local grown businesses.
If somebody can get a product shipped from China for cheaper, then you can produce and ship to them, you know?
Like, so, you know, I have somewhat sympathy for something like that, but not at the point where it now crushes legitimate businesses all over the world.
Dog shipping in.
Because now what's going to happen is, and so where the tariff of all of it comes in is now the de minimis exception has gone away.
Anything under $800 will now be subject to the tariffs that have been in place since, I don't know, earlier this year.
Well, they kind of didn't.
Yeah, they were kind of, like, I think August 1st was kind of, like, they've been coming for this whole time.
Well, the tariffs, there were tariffs because I got hit with them way earlier in the year, and then they changed again.
They keep changing, right?
But since that original, what was it called, Liberation Day thing, there have been, like, tariffs and the tariffs changed again.
And the de minimis got taken away for, like, a week and then came back.
Right.
But now it seems like it's actually gone, gone, like, that it's done because people are freaking out now, understandably.
But that's essentially the scenario.
Yeah.
And the reason I bring this up because this is a good layout for our industry because pretty much even the biggest companies in our industry,
outside of, like, the large manufacturing distributors are these small businesses that are waiting in these waters on a daily basis.
And it's going to impact them at, like, a greater rate than, you know, some of the big global manufacturers.
So keep an eye out on this.
Definitely go read this post.
It was really well put together and just super, super clean.
Yeah.
And, like, I think part of the problem specifically for the pen world is that you actually, the tariff amount is decided based on where the product was produced.
Sorry, manufactured.
Manufactured.
Not where it's being shipped from.
Correct.
And Japan has, what, 15% tariff?
15.
Yeah.
So.
So, and that's the thing is, like, you know, not to belabor this too much, but, you know, your refill in a pen is coming from one place and your barrel from the pen is coming from another place.
And your knock mechanism is coming from another, all these different country origins in a single pen.
Yeah.
Right?
So.
Which makes it incredibly difficult.
It sounds like a mess.
Yeah.
To work out how much to charge and all that kind of stuff.
Good times, Myke.
Yeah.
Good times.
But I had good times at the Atlas Stationers sidewalk sale.
So, let's move on.
There were no tariffs in place directly on the street in Chicago at the Atlas Stationers sidewalk sale.
So, I spent a couple days last week hanging out at the brick and mortar Atlas Stationers shop in downtown Chicago.
Wonderful spot.
Wonderful location.
Really large store.
Storefront.
And since I was there last time, they've redone it and worked on the layout and made it, like, super efficient and really, really great shop for everyday stationery users to swing by and see what's going on there.
But then the sidewalk sale, Myke.
This is something.
This was the 38th annual sidewalk sale that they've had at this shop.
What?
Yeah.
I think the shop's been around for, like, 80 years.
I'd have to double check.
That's crazy.
Maybe you can find that while I'm rambling here.
But what this sidewalk sale is, is kind of Atlas's way to bring in most of their distributors, a lot of companies that they work with directly, have them all come to one big event for two days.
It's a Thursday and Friday event.
And they set up basically vendor tables for all of these.
You know, it could be everything from manufacturers, you know, like, or distributors like Pelican, Lamy, you know, Platinum, like all the U.S. distributors for these brands were there.
Uh, Kenro Industries, all the way down to, like, smaller makers, uh, pen makers, and basically people that have been working with Atlas or Atlas has, has been working with over the years.
And there were 35 different vendors here at this show.
And that might sound like a small number, but when some of these vendors have two and three tables each, it was massive, right?
It was, it was so many tables.
I didn't do, like, a table count, but I could probably get it on, like, the chart.
And just for a visual, so you have a downtown shop.
So it's in a busy, bustling business district downtown.
You have the store.
And then they get a permit every year to block off the lane closest to the storefront.
And there's, like, literally tables running down the street with, like, barriers out behind them.
And it's just a really cool experience.
It's something I've never experienced before.
Like, I've been to Atlas for an in-store event, and it was all just inside contained.
This was both inside and outside.
So some vendors were outside, some were inside.
And the amount of people that came through this two-day event was astonishing.
Thursday was completely packed from, like, 9 a.m. to after 4, 5 o'clock.
And then Friday was busy, but not, like, wall-to-wall people.
So I know Brendan and Atlas shared that they had at least 3,000 people come through in two days.
Which, for a brick-and-mortar event, is astronomical.
I think, I could have my numbers wrong.
I might have to rewind this next week.
But I think D.C. said they had 6,000 attendees for the D.C. Pen Show for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
So it just gives you a little bit of context.
And, like, Atlanta, which is a small show, I think their big year was, like, 1,000, maybe 1,200, right?
Through the show, something like that.
So, yeah.
It's a very interesting, unique event.
Is there a lot of, like, drive-by business?
Like, are people kind of, like, stumbling on it?
A few.
Yeah.
We definitely had some conversations with, like, people walking to work or home from work or walking to the, I don't know, you know, the coffee shop next door.
Going, what's going on?
And I was explaining to one gentleman who had stopped, and he was like, this is fascinating.
He was having, like, the best time just checking all this stuff out.
Like, what is going on?
And he just stumbled into it.
So that was cool.
The thing that impressed me most was the logistics of how they worked with vendors to get their tables set up.
So you have these outside vendors, right?
And, like, at a Pen Show, you can just lock the ballroom door, right?
But you're not going to leave your stuff out on the streets of Chicago overnight, Myke, let me tell you.
Oh, I didn't think of that.
Yeah, right.
So people aren't thinking about this.
So they would literally, vendors had shipped their, most of them had shipped in products.
Or if they haven't, they've come with products.
And then the Atlas staff would help them break down every night, store all their products inside, and then have them out and ready to go set up when they got there in the morning.
Just like the tear down and break down every day that they had to do, even though it was only two days.
That's a lot.
That's a lot of vendors and a lot of products moving in and out every day off the table.
So I thought that was fascinating.
Due to the size, they did run into some checkout issues.
So this is another logistics thing that seems like I've never seen this at any show or event.
But apparently at the Bangu Joshi event in Japan that we talked about recently, they do a similar thing where you acquire products from the table.
And then you go to a singular point of sale to check out.
So they got so overwhelmed.
They had, at one point, Atlas had like seven point of sales going.
And there was still like a line to check out.
Like it was crazy.
So like not each vendor has like, like if you go to a pen show, you're checking out with that vendor, right?
Yeah.
But a lot of this is run through the Atlas system since these are companies that have already worked with Atlas.
Their inventories, you know, in the system, they're getting checked out through there.
So that was like the one, if there was any negative, that was it.
Like I think a lot of customers ended up waiting, you know, like 30 minutes in line to check out, which I get is rough.
But it was that busy.
I thought the vendor range for this event was pretty cool.
Like it wasn't just distributors, right?
Like you had a maker like Heinz Pins was there.
And then you had Plotter being there.
But then you had your regular distributors like Pilot and Platinum or Pelican.
All of that was there.
I was sat in between when I was at my table, which we'll talk about here in a minute.
Between Kenro Industries, which, you know, Estabrook, Aurora, Y Studio, all that.
And then the other side was Tom Studio, which we've talked about their products before.
Tom was actually supposed to be there.
He flew in from England and then had to go right back home like the same day he landed because of a family personal emergency.
So I hope everything's good there.
So I was hoping to meet him.
But both of those tables were just packed completely the entire time.
Like they put us, like Brendan said, like, yeah, I put y'all in between them for a reason.
I was like, because I knew like those are going to be popular and we want people to come.
Like we'll spread them out a little bit.
People come say hi to y'all while they're kind of hanging around the Tom Studio or the Estabrook products.
It was really cool to see all the vendors.
I've never just seen like consistent busyness at all these tables.
Like usually if you go to a pen show, it's like maybe a little slow in the morning and then maybe a little slow in the afternoon.
And the middle of the day is packed.
This was like packed, like from the jump.
They did have some meetup tables in the middle of the store.
There were like three kind of, you know, like high top, you know, three by eight tables where people could hang out, share inks, test pens.
Yeah, use the stuff they bought, that kind of stuff.
Yeah, use the stuff they bought.
Or like I know a lot of people brought ink samples to, you know, trade with people, things like that.
So they were doing that at these tables a lot.
They also had classes and seminars, right?
They had some like paid classes, like some journaling classes you could go and take.
And then they also had like free seminars, like that was one thing.
Myself and Hemingway Jones, who was also, he's a YouTube creator.
He was, we were manning the, manning our booth.
And then we had a, like a one hour Q&A session, right?
With people could come and listen to us babble.
Titans is the word I saw.
Titan.
Oh yeah, Titans.
We're at the Titans table.
Titans of the industry, Myke.
You know me.
Titan.
I do not hear.
So yeah, like it was a good mix.
I really did like the schedule.
I like the Thursday, Friday.
It was essentially eight to four, but it was really more like nine to four, nine to five.
It's kind of how it, how it just like default ran.
A lot of people were asking me, so what's the difference between this and a traditional pen show that you might go to?
And while this is like really, really big and busy, I think this is an event that you don't need more than a day for, right?
Like people were running like, oh, should I travel to this event?
Like people think of pen shows as like, oh, should I, you know, book a plane ticket or make an eight hour drive to go do this event?
And like, I think this one would be worth it as like part of a Chicago trip, which is kind of what I did, right?
Go to Chicago for a long weekend, spend a day or even a half a day doing this.
And like, you'd be good.
I think like you can see everything.
You can test everything you want.
You can experience the event.
You could probably even mix in a class or two or seminar.
And then like, you're probably good because what the pen shows separately offer from say the sidewalk sale is the pen shows have more of hangout space, downtime.
You have a hotel room you can go back to.
Yeah.
You have a hotel room.
You can go and chill.
You have a wider array of classes.
Um, you have like, there's no, like at a show like this, there's no individual sellers, sellers, right?
It's all basically who vendors who would work with retail.
Like it's not going to be like, um, I'm not going to go and roll up with like Brad sticker shop and, and get a table here where I could go to the Chicago pen show and roll up with Brad sticker shop and just buy a table just like anyone else.
Right.
So it was a little bit more curated in that aspect.
So you'll get a wider range at larger pen shows, but it was such a cool event.
Like I would recommend this event like highly, if, if it's easy for you to get to, like we had so many people telling us like, Oh yeah, we just came in by train for the day.
And you know, it was like an hour or two hours came in, came in to do this.
It's easy to get to, you know, in downtown centrally located place like this.
And I don't know, everyone just, everyone just had a really good time.
It was, it was so busy.
It was, um, it was, it was pretty wild.
Um, it's, I, I do think it's different than like a traditional pen show.
And I like more, I like some of these like festival and event type of situations.
This, like this is in the second stationery fest.
And I know people enjoyed little craft fest in Houston last year.
And you're seeing a lot of these things pop up.
Um, and I do think they're more of like a one day spectacle.
Like if you're not like me, who's like working and doing other things at the event, like in taking advantage of the time I like the two days I have there to talk to people and, and, you know, put on my business Brad hat and do things like that and network and connect and all, all of that stuff.
Like, it's a great, you would have a blast going one day.
I don't know that I would book like to go and hang out there for two days unless I had like a really full class schedule and could, could take some breaks in between.
So that's where a pen show comes, comes in handy where you have those breaks kind of built in for you and you have a good contingent of folks who are staying like overnight.
And you can have this downtime to spend with like your pen family and stuff like that and hanging out.
So it's like really, really fun.
I would go to this event every year if they'd have me, or even if they didn't have me, I'd just show up.
Um, I had that much fun at it.
And plus like it's Chicago.
I'm a huge Chicago fan.
I love, I love Chicago.
There's never ending stuff to do there, um, which I took a well advantage of.
We can talk about that here as I wrap it up here in a minute.
But, um, yeah.
Do you, do you have any questions about what you saw or anything, anything going on there that, you know, I haven't kind of broached the subject?
I have an important question.
Sure.
How was your, your signing?
Oh yeah, I actually, I did not.
I said I was going to talk about that.
I didn't.
It was amazing.
So I've never done anything like that before where I just basically, I was at a table, uh, just to see me.
And Hemingway Jones was also, uh, with me.
You know, we had like schedule blocks where we were, we had to be at the table, but we ended up just hanging out at the table.
Cause it's nice to talk to people and it was fun.
And, you know, like I said, I can only walk around the show so much and like see all the people get everything I need for work or, you know, specific show content or things like that.
Um, so I just hang out at the table and both of us hung out a lot and it was great giving people a place to come like find me like specifically.
And then Brendan, uh, of Atlas stationers made these little Polaroid type stickers.
They're like a two inch by two inch stickers in a Polaroid style with a space for us to sign at the bottom.
And people got our autographs and it was hilarious.
And everyone just thought it was like the funniest thing.
And like, that's how I want to do this thing.
Like this stuff is not like, I'm not like, Hey, come, you know, come for, to a signing with Brad of the pen addict.
It's not like that.
It's just like hanging out, like, and we had a bunch of silly stickers.
And if you wanted us to sign them, we could, and it was fantastic.
Like I, I, I enjoy being on that side of the table where you can interact with people directly.
Um, as opposed to like bouncing around all day, like I get tired of walking in circles, right?
When I'm there for two days, I can't just spin around in circles for two days and go to the show.
I can only do that so much, even at a regular pen show.
So I like having a spot to hang out.
People came up to chat.
People were so kind.
People in Chicago are awesome.
Um, I autographed my pictures with orange Sharpie as you do.
And, uh, it was great.
I had the best time.
Good.
So I did pick up a few things.
So my haul from the sidewalk sale, I got two pens.
Both were provided to me for review.
Um, which means I didn't pay for them.
Uh, just for full disclosure, I got the Estherbrook funky town, which they launched in,
at the DC pin show.
And they said they were going to get me one and they brought it to, uh, Atlas.
I got the orange one, uh, which I will take a picture of.
I haven't really had time to like share any of the stuff that I bought yet.
So I'll work on that this week, which is, it's like a neon orange, uh, pin.
And it's really awesome.
I'm very, very happy with that.
Also, one of my goals was at, uh, at the DC show was to get a brown pin.
And I ended up finding one.
I'd seen it at DC when I was like, well, I know I'm going to see them in Chicago.
And that's the Galen leather.
They work with a few different companies, make some exclusive pins for them.
This is one from Leonardo that they collaborated with Galen leather and Bob Dupress, his material
called Peacock Springs.
I'm in love with this pin.
Um, so this scratched my brown pin and itch, even though I've inked it up with a blue ish
ink, uh, which we'll talk about in just a second.
So I, I have not, um, use the Magico size from Leonardo before.
And I really like it.
It's not overly large.
Like the Memento Zero Grandes get a little bit too big and too hefty for me.
This is more like a Memento Zero, but just a straight up piston filler.
It's built really, really well.
I like it.
Um, it's turned out to be a really great, great size, which is why I decided on it.
Not just the materials, but the size of it, um, is, is really nice and has rose gold trim
and it's beautiful.
Love it.
Um, so those are the two pins I came home with.
I also got some of the Van Demons Natura Dialis ink series.
So there's like eight of these inks, I believe it's their new chroma shading dual shader series.
And I was curious if these inks were going to be readable, um, when they're inked in a
fountain pen, especially with the nib, the finer nibs that I like.
And it turns out they are.
So I actually have Nightfall inked up in this Leonardo that I was just talking about from
Galen Leather.
And it works really, really great.
And then I have another one called Daybreak, which is a pink one, which I haven't inked
up yet.
I got my Plotter Bible, which is new to me before the show.
I got the corners put on that, which is always a nice little touch to have on my planners
and notebooks.
I like that.
And I always love everything that Plotter does.
And then that was most of my Atlas stuff.
And then I spent, so that was Thursday, Friday, and then I spent Saturday going around Chicago.
And my first stop was the aforementioned paper and pencil Chicago.
So they're just brick and mortar.
They don't do online sales.
Wow.
And it is, it is.
Yeah.
I like, I want to interview them and like talk about this a lot.
So like, we're going to, we're going to get some time to chat with Tyler and Eric, who
are the owners of the shop.
And I just think that decision is so, so interesting to me, but I get it.
Like seeing their shop, it's so tiny.
And also like they open at 11am most days.
And so I was there on a Saturday, like I got there like a couple minutes to 11 because
I had a schedule to keep Cubs game and all that stuff.
And there were people waiting outside to get in.
Like it was so cool.
And like from the moment they opened the door on 11 at 11, I was there for maybe 30, 45 minutes.
There was just people coming in and out constantly, just buying things constantly and just great
people.
They've built a great community around their shop.
They have great inventory.
It's super cool.
So I bought a few things there.
I bought a few pens, like I couldn't carry stuff the day, that day at Paper and Pencil
Chicago.
Cause I was going from their shop directly to the Cubs game and from the Cubs game directly
to the Flaming Lips concert.
So I just had like a little sling bag.
So I couldn't carry much.
So I bought some stickers and some pens, some PIN pens.
And then I bought some PENS pens.
I bought the, one of the Uniball one pocket pens, which are the little short chunky ones.
They had a 0.38 millimeter one and like this blue marbled one, which I really liked.
So I just bought a lot of smaller accessories, like a little life notepad that is like has
sticky notes in it that came up in our sticky note conversation.
They had them there.
So I bought one of those.
So a lot of few things like that.
I bought a hat, which is what I really wanted.
I'd seen a hat at the Atlas station or someone had been walking around.
And I was like, is that a paper and pencil hat?
And they're like, yes.
And I was like, okay, I'm going to get that.
So yeah, I got that hat.
And so, yeah, but I could wear it, right?
Like I planned on wearing it.
Like I didn't have to carry all this stuff.
So it all fit.
I'll fit in the sling bag on my way to the Cubs game at Wrigley Field, where I bought another
hat because they had a pink Cubs hat and it was pretty sick.
And I couldn't, I could not buy that, even though I'd already just bought a hat.
It was a pretty cool hat.
Cubs game was great.
They had the air and sea show going on outside on Lake Michigan at the same time.
So we got a baseball game and a bunch of flyovers at the same time, which is a weird
thing.
They stopped the game a couple of times because it was so loud, like in the middle of action.
And then I went directly from there, took the train back towards town and went to the
Flaming Lips concert, which was amazing.
And they led with Yoshimi, Battles of the Pink Robots, was essentially the opener after
like an instrumental opener right into Yoshimi.
So it was great.
Had a big, big day out.
Brad's big day out in Chicago.
But like the Atlas Stationery event was, I've never experienced anything like that before.
Like Yoseka Stationery Fest I went to last year.
I thought it was very different.
It was more traditional pin show and event type event than like this Atlas Stationers event,
which I don't know how to explain the difference, but they were different, but both in a cool,
unique way.
And like, I don't know, I just highly recommend if you had the opportunity to like spend the
day at Atlas during the sidewalk sale, it's worth it.
You know, I got to, I got to talk to one last, one last bit and then we'll wrap this up.
So Zebra was there, you know, like Zebra North America representing like basic, you know,
gel pens, mild liners and stuff like that.
And I got to talking to them and the people behind the table there and like hit it off
with them and was joking around.
Like they had this character in these commercials they did a couple of years ago named Todd.
And I was doing the live stream and Todd was like one of the office guys and he was always
complaining about his pen and being like very specific about the pens.
I was doing an Instagram live stream and I was at Zebra and everyone was telling me to
ask him, where's Todd?
Where's Todd?
So I asked her where was Todd and she loved it.
She thought that was like the funniest thing that people actually watch these commercials
and know who Todd from Zebra is.
And then I got to like checking out the pens and now like they want to do, they're, it's
interesting to talk to traditional pen brands about what we do, right?
And by that, I mean like people at the Atlas sidewalk sale, that's not their normal customer,
right?
Just like when I went to Uniball, like, like I'm not necessarily their normal customer and
the people that listen to the pen out are not their normal customer.
Their normal customer is buying black, blue and red pens in bulk for office supplies,
right?
So it's cool to be able to go in person and get that feedback from someone like Zebra at
a show like that.
So it was very beneficial to me to be at this event, just not just personally and professionally,
right?
It was, it was a great mix of both.
And I can't really think of like a better type of event to attend for me.
And I think even if you don't have like professional things to do at a show like this, it's, it's
well worth your time to go and go and check out all the goings on and come get a Brad laser
beam autograph.
If you'd like to find links, show notes or more for this episode, you can find them in
your podcast app of choice.
You can go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash 679.
If you'd like to ask a question for us to answer in a future episode, go to penaddictfeedback.com
and you can submit your question there.
But that link is also in the show notes of every episode too.
If you just want to tap it from the podcast app that you're listening in.
If you want to find Brad online, there's a few places to go.
Go to penaddict.com.
Go to spokedesign.com.
Twitch.tv slash penaddict.
And you'll find them on social media as penaddict.
You'll find me as imike, I-M-Y-K-E.
You can find me here at Relay.
You can find me at theenthusiast.net and at cortexbrand.com.
Thank you to Enigma Stationery for the support of this week's episode.
But most of all, thank you for listening.
Say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.