The Pen Addict 68/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	68
Title:	It Is Tuesday And We Are Listening
Release Date:	August 20th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 68
Audio File:	Audio Episode 68
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 68
Length:	5050 min <br />0.833 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast on 5x5. This is episode 68. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined today by the Henry Ford of Pen Manufacture. You can have any of these cases, as long as they're green. It's Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome. Getting in on the front end, you know. Starting a revolution like Mr. Ford, right?

Field Notes News

Myke Hurley: So we have a mountain of follow-up today, but to tease the main topic of the episode, Brad has announced that he is going to be starting to manufacture some pen-related products. That's all we're going to say. It's something that is actually happening. It's not a joke, in case you've missed it. There might be some of you that might have missed the post that he put on his blog, which will, of course, be in the show notes at 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 68. The post is in there where Brad announces this. But yes, Mr. Dowdy is going to change the pen industry.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if I'll go that far.

Myke Hurley: I have, though. Now you can't take it back. So we'll talk about that a little later on in the show today.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yes, we will. We will definitely cover that. It's been a busy day.

Myke Hurley: Very excited. Very excited.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I am too. But, you know, I wanted to kick this show off with a little bit, you know, kind of take it down a notch and we'll kind of get some mood lighting, you know, light some candles, turn off the lights. And we got a little poetry to go through, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I wonder where you were going with that, Brad. I'm not going to lie.

Brad Dowdy: I was going in the wrapped up in the moleskin. The moleskin bed again. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. All right. So we got a we got a reader mail that had had a little poetry in it that I had I had to I had to read this. So as soon as I read it, I just started. I loved it so much. So let me read this for you real quick. So is the mood set, Myke? You good?

Myke Hurley: The mood is set.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Paralyzed by ink, the endless affection, now a confession. We are sick and incredible dorks. Workstations adorned with field notes of dreams and progress. Scribbling in a perpetual state of giddiness. It is Tuesday and we are listening. That is amazing.

Myke Hurley: Wow.

Brad Dowdy: That nailed it. Nailed it. That is the pen addict. Who sent this in? Nailed it. A reader named Andy. He said, hey, Brad, figured I would write something meaningful, meaningful and attach a photograph of what Myke and yourself are responsible for. He sent a big old like a pen pen cup full of just really cool pens. I'll send you the link and and you can see the image. And he says you're more than welcome to include any part of this email for the pen addict content. Have a fantastic show. So I thought that was really cool. So that was as soon as I read that, I emailed him right back. Said this is fantastic. I said I'm putting it in the show notes right now. And so he is he is a proper pen addict. He had all his bunch of Sino DXs and I think some safaris in the in the in the image. So we will put that in the show notes for everyone to see.

Myke Hurley: So I'm actually going to I'm going to put the prose of the poem into the show notes. So, yeah, that's people people go to the site. They'll be able to read it. Are we allowed to say Andy's surname in here or should we just say this from listener Andy?

Brad Dowdy: I didn't ask him specific. I usually just go with first names unless I've cleared it with people. But I haven't asked him so we can find out. That's for sure. Because I told him I'd be reading it.

Myke Hurley: Cool. Well, I can update it afterwards. But that will be in the show notes. So if people go to the to the site, they will be able to see it. It will be on the page for this episode.

Brad Dowdy: Good stuff, Andy. We appreciate that. That was awesome. That was awesome. So we've got some big field notes news this week. No new products been announced, but y'all know we've been talking about the new field notes group on Facebook and the revitalization of the eBay field notes market that Myke and I have talked about a bunch. I don't know. I guess that was mostly the beginning of this year or January, February, March. We were watching the field notes market and a bunch of people were selling. Well, now this field notes Facebook group has kind of kicked that whole secondary market off again and something pretty crazy happened this weekend.

Myke Hurley: We spoke about these going up last week, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We knew there was a guy who posted to the group that said, I've got pretty much one of each from the beginning, including the butcher orange or the butcher blue and things like that. And he was going to be putting them up on eBay for everyone to have a have a crack at. So, you know, the two original ones that are the most rare, the butcher orange and the butcher blue. He hasn't posted the butcher blue yet, but the butcher orange went up. And do you see how much this thing went for Myke?

Myke Hurley: Just incredible. Yeah. Incredible.

Brad Dowdy: So it went a three pack sealed of butcher orange, which is the first limited colors edition that field notes did.

Brad Dowdy: $305.

Myke Hurley: Over 23 bids.

Brad Dowdy: 23 bids.

Myke Hurley: The bidding was really interesting, right? Because it took off in the last minute. Yep. So it was up to $201 on August 12th. And then, sorry. Yeah. On August the 12th.

Myke Hurley: I think that's weird. It's difficult. It seems like it changes time. Anyway.

Brad Dowdy: The time. I'm ignoring that. The times are not laid out right. But it's basically the last hour.

Myke Hurley: In the last.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It went from 2.10 to 3.05.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Oh, man. I feel so sorry for the person who bid $300.

Myke Hurley: Like, that's just, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because it went from $250 to $300.

Myke Hurley: I think the reason that the bid time is weird like that is because that's when people are putting in their maximums.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Gotcha. But they lost out.

Myke Hurley: They lose out by $5. Because you're putting that money down. You really want it. You know. Yep. I think I went up to a max of $160.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I thought I would stomach that because the conversion would serve me well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I forgot. I put in like. Yeah. Like right when it launched, I think I put in $125 or $150. And then I never went back after that. I don't think I would. I don't think I could go too much. That's too much pain after that. As much as I would like it.

Myke Hurley: Like, I shudder to think how much the blue will go for.

Brad Dowdy: I do too. I wonder if he's even going to put it up there. Because I thought he might have done it by now. Because he put up a lot of. He didn't put up everything he had. And it was a. It was an interesting omission. So I'm wondering if it's actually going to come out there or not. But I would imagine. If that went for $300. The blue is. It has to go for more than that, right?

Myke Hurley: I would probably double. Like. Yeah. If he puts it up. If it didn't go for double. I'd be surprised. And that's because we know. I mean. And I have had it confirmed by the man himself. Which we'll talk about in a minute. That the blue is the most rare. Jim Kudal does not have butcher blue.

Brad Dowdy: Right. You know.

Myke Hurley: So.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So let's. Let's talk about that. Because I listened to. Myke did an interview with Jim Kudal last week on his. Command Space. On Myke's Command Space podcast. Excellent job by you. By the way. I think.

Jim Kudal Interview

Myke Hurley: I think it's my favorite episode of the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean. Jim's a fascinating guy. Oh. Just. Yeah. So much. And he can. And he can talk too. Right. You just get him on a topic. And he's gone.

Myke Hurley: Once we started going. And I had somebody. I can't remember who it was. But somebody tweeted me and was like. The reason that they thought it was the best episode. Was because we clearly had such a shared interest.

Myke Hurley: Especially for the Field Notes stuff. That once we just. Once we got going. It was just. There was no stopping us. It wasn't really an interview at that point. It was a conversation between us.

Brad Dowdy: Right. But even the deck stuff. I found interesting. Yeah. Not to totally turn this into the Command Space stuff. But I mean. You know. Just talking about how that came to be. And all the sites that. You know. He's worked with in the past. And that. You know. You're familiar with. Or you work with. In the case of 5x5. And things like that. So there was just a lot of. Shared common ground. To where y'all can have these conversations. To where it just became that. Like it was a conversation. Not necessarily an interview. So I thought you did a great job. Thank you. But yeah. Jim covers lots of good Field Notes stuff. He talks about. You know. How it came to be. And he talks about. You know. The mistake they made. Which we've talked about before. The mistake they made. When they printed the Butcher Blue. The Butcher Blue. You know. They. They didn't account for the subscription. The color subscribers at the time of their account. So they. Yeah. Because they printed. Through to be able to ship everything.

Myke Hurley: They printed the orange and the blue at the same time. So they printed the same amount. And then. They then. After they. When they launched the orange. They launched the colors as well. Yes. Sold them. But then. So. Then started selling the blue. And then. Realized that they hadn't. Accounted for enough. For the. They. They hadn't pulled any aside. To get to subscribers. So then they had to pull them from sale. And send out. The rest of the head to subscribers.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So they didn't have. Almost. Any available for. You know. Retailers. Or just for sale on the website. Or anything. So. That's. That's the tough one. It's not the first one. That's the rarest. Although it's. It's awfully. Awfully rare. The butcher orange. The blue. Is the real. The real one there. To. To get your hands on. If you're. You're an obsessive. Field notes collector. Like so many people are. So. And then. On. Addition to that. You know. Brian Bedell. Who is. I guess he's the. I don't know. If he's a product manager. I don't know. His exact title.

Art Director

Myke Hurley: I believe. Jim referred to him. As the creative director. Creative director. Art director. I think he called him. The art director. So of like all the movies and stuff. But also with the books themselves. So when. The colors. Additions.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Jim talked a lot about the business side. And the. You know. Creation. You know. Of the company. Brian is going to be joining Myke and myself. On the pen addict podcast. Next Tuesday.

Myke Hurley: Excellent.

Brad Dowdy: And he. He can talk more about the nuts and bolts. Like I'll be. You know. Asking him about paper types. And why they choose. You know. The different papers. And kind of more the process. And the real nerdery. As. Jim kept referring to. You know. Y'all can talk to Brian. Brian about that stuff. Jim didn't want to get into the. Into the nerd topics too much. But we'll. We'll nerd out with Brian. Next week. So if y'all have any questions. Like really. Nitty gritty. Field notes. Production type questions. Be sure to email. Myke. Myself. Tweet us. We'll have all our contact information. At the end. Because that's the kind of stuff. We want to cover with Brian. Next week. And I'll send out a reminder. For everyone. Anyone who wants to get some questions in. But we'll. We'll spend the whole show. With Brian. Next week. And kind of get into the. The nitty gritty. Of the whole field notes process. So I think that'll be a fun. Fun episode.

Myke Hurley: I'm really excited for that.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So continuing the. The five by five podcast. Love. I. I got name dropped out of the blue. From an.

Brad Dowdy: Podcast that I did not expect. To. And it's one I subscribed to. But I hadn't listened to the episode yet. So I started getting some tweets. About. Brett Terpstra's. Systematic podcast. Brett does a great job. Bringing in guests. And they talk about. You know. Varying. Various. Tech topics. And they have some. Product picks. And app selections. And things like that. And he had. A gentleman. You've had. You've interviewed. On command space. Dr. Drang. Who is. Anyone. Who's in the. In the nerd realm. Online. Is familiar with. Drang's work. And one of his. One of his. Picks. For. In. In Brett's. Systematic podcast. He picked. The Uniball. Jetstream. 1.0. Millimeter. RT pin. And that. Caught me really. Off guard. Did you. Were you. Did you listen to that. Before people started. Tweeting us about it.

Myke Hurley: No. I had somebody. Sort of say to us. That we should just. Cut that bit. And then just make it. An episode of this show.

Brad Dowdy: He really knows. What he's talking about. When it comes to pens. Like. Yeah. He did. Dr. Drang. When he started. Talking about it. He. He said. Explicitly. Why he likes this pen. Why it works for him. You know. What. What the good features are. About it. You know. What. And he. You know. Why. He doesn't like other pens. And likes this one. And he really. He really nailed it.

Myke Hurley: My favorite part. My favorite part. Was where he's like. He has a little window. So you can see. How much ink is left. Not that you can do anything. With that. Because the pen's sealed. Right. So it's. It's useless. Strangely. That episode. Of systematic. And the episode. Of Command Space. With Jim Kudal. Both episode 57. Of those shows. Respectively.

Brad Dowdy: I. I just noticed that. That's crazy.

Myke Hurley: Doesn't mean anything. But it's just weird. That is weird.

Brad Dowdy: That is weird. So. Thank you. Dr. Drang. For the shout out. And thank you. Brett. For having that. Pen conversation. I thought it was pretty cool. So y'all should definitely. Go check that out. It was a fun show.

Myke Hurley: Like. Drang is like. A very very impressive character. And. Brett. Brett does a. A fine job. He has a really interesting style. That I quite like. With the way that he conducts. His interviews. So. You should. You should go listen to it. Especially for that part. Because I spend quite a bit of time. Talking about. Drang's reasoning. For. For the. The judge dream. So. Yep. Even though I'm not a fan of that pen. Personally. I. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That was a conversation. Conversation him and I had on Twitter. Afterwards. I said I actually preferred the .7. And he's like. Well. I'm old and my eyes are bad. So I need the 1.0. The. The wider line. So I was like. Yep. That makes complete sense.

Myke Hurley: As you kind of expect. With Dr. Drang. Every little part of it. Has its reason.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly.

Myke Hurley: You had perfect reasons. For everything.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It was a good. It was a good listen. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we got. We got a lot more to cover mate. So why don't we do. We got a little sponsor action. You want to take care of. And we'll keep going.

Myke Hurley: Sounds like a great idea to me. All right. So I want to take a quick moment. To thank our sponsor. The fine folks over at Squarespace. Squarespace. The all-in-one platform. That makes it easy for you. To create your own website. For a free trial. And 10% off. Go to squarespace.com. And use the offer code. Tallyho8. Squarespace are continuing. To do amazing things. Updating their platforms. So frequently. With new features. New designs. And just strengthening. The award-winning. Customer support. That they have. If you want to start. A website. Any sort of website. Maybe a blog. Portfolio. A store. Anything. Squarespace can support. You just pick one of the beautiful designs. To get you started. And you can customize it. With loads of style options. That they have. So you can really create your own space online. Beautiful fonts. You can change all the colors. It's really cool. They take care of all the nasty stuff. Like hosting. SEO. And making sure that your site. Looks automatically fantastic. On any device. They reformat the site. To look great on all screen sizes. Because that's all the difficult stuff. They take care of all of it. You don't even need to worry about it. You don't even need to do anything. It just happens for you. Automatically. So easy to use. But if you need any help at all. Squarespace has a fantastic support team. That work 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. Go over to squarespace.com. Because that's where you'll find out more. Sign up for a free trial. You can watch the awesome videos. That they have there. So they give you examples. Of how different people use Squarespace. To fit their needs. And I want you to go. And sign up for this trial. There's no credit card required to do it. Just go and try it out. If you have a website. Maybe somewhere else. And you know. There are things that are difficult. Or even if you just want to have. Some of the hassle taken away. From running your own site. Or you have an idea. Like Brad. Has a new idea. And he started a new Squarespace site. For that. Go and try it out. And if you decide to purchase. It starts at just $8 a month. It includes a free domain name. If you sign up for one year. And make sure. You'll get 10% off. And help support the pen addict. On all of 5x5. If you use the offer code. If you use the offer code. Tallyho8. That's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O. And the number 8. So go check out Squarespace. Everything that you need. To create an exceptional website. And if you'd like to see an example. Of an exceptional website. Go to. Is it Nookco.com?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Nookco. Why did I say Nook? Nook. Nook. Huh?

Myke Hurley: Nook. Nook.

Brad Dowdy: Nook. Nook.

Brad Dowdy: Nookco.com. So.

Brad Dowdy: So I got the.

Brad Dowdy: I used the Tallyho 8. Last week Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Someone picked that up. That was your little tease. Wasn't it? Last week.

Brad Dowdy: That was my tease. That's what I was up to. Last week. So I needed a code. Because I was launching a new site. And. Nookco.com. Just before we finish. I guess we'll just get into it.

Myke Hurley: I. Before we finish the sponsor spot. I just want to. Yeah. For people that go to Nookco.com. You'll see. On the. In the bottom. Sort of right hand corner. You'll see. Some images. And some little arrows. That go left and right. Now what this is. Is this is the Instagram feed. That you set up for Nook.

Myke Hurley: And you can pull that in. With a. Just one of the. The little blocks. In the. In the page building system. And it allows you to show your Instagram. Pictures as a slideshow. I just think it's really cool. Because it's native. You don't need to learn any code for that. It's just all there. Oh no. And even videos. You can just. You can press them. And it will start playing the video.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's really easy. And just to. To continue on the. The Squarespace bandwagon. Real quick. When we decided to. When my partner Jeffrey and I. Started. You know. Talking about. Forming this company. To make pen cases. And we're going to talk about that for sure. You know. One of our considerations was. Well. We need an e-commerce site. You know. To eventually sell our things from. So we went through. You know. A list of. You know. Kind of all the main ones. And Squarespace was obviously one. And we. We're going through all the plans. And all the setup and anything. So I said. Let's just set up a trial. On Squarespace commerce. Because I'm already familiar with. Just the Squarespace. The blogging platform. And how easy it is to use. And Jeffrey had only used. WordPress sites before. And you know. And he's done some WordPress coding. And things like that. And so we put in the. We did the trial. And he started playing around. With the commerce site. And he said. Boy. This is so. This is so simple. And so easy. To get set up. Let's just go with this. And that. That was what sold us on it. It was just very. Very. Easy. And self-explanatory. To set up. Kind of anyone can do it. And without any. Any real. You know. E-commerce background. And we'll talk about it more. As we go forward. Because there's. There's going to be a lot of things. On the commerce side. That are new to me. And that I'm going to be. Learning about. And things like that. So. That's what really sold us. Was how easy it was to use. And set up. So. With. It was a go. Pretty quick there. So. Thank you Squarespace. Tally ho eight.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. Indeed.

Brad Dowdy: And I. And I use that code. Believe me. No shame in this game. I'm happy.

Company Launch

Brad Dowdy: So. Yeah. So. I started a company Myke. Tell me about it.

Brad Dowdy: It's nerve wracking. I'll tell you that.

Brad Dowdy: But. But. All right. So. I've always. Wanted to. Do something else. Besides blogging. That was. You know. Somehow affiliated with. With the pen addict. Whether it's. You know. Designing a pen. Or starting a pen store. I just wanted to do something. A little bit more. Than just necessarily. Writing about. You know. Pens and paper. And pen cases. And things like that. Just do something. That you know. I could put my name on. And be proud of. And something like that. Just be. You know. Add on to that creative vibe. That. You know. Which I'm enjoying. Doing. On the pen addict blog. Writing. And. Reviewing pens. You know. I wanted to kind of. Take that next step. And. Get a little bit more creative. And. For those that read the post today. On pen addict dot com. You're probably familiar with. Jeffrey's work. From a company called. Alter manufacturing. Where I reviewed a pen case. That he had sent me. It's probably been a year ago. It's called the motto. Motto two. And it's a pen case. That I really. Really liked. It's just. It's very utilitarian. Design. In its form. In its function. It's very well. Constructed. Feels very durable. And. You know. It's a case that I've. Always carried. Ever since I got it. So. Jeff and I. Over the past year. Have just kind of. We've kept that friendship going. And. You know. We throw it around. Boy. We really need to do something together. Or. We need to make a. Design. Come up with a pen case design. Or something other.

Brad Dowdy: And so. Just. Maybe a month ago. We finally said. It's time. Let's do it. No turning back. Let's put it down on paper. Let's get everything formed. We've got some ideas. That we want to do. Let's meet up. Go through these ideas. And see what we can come up with. So. Jeffrey lives about. An hour and a half away. So. That's why this. This relationship. Works out really well. We drive. Meet halfway.

Brad Dowdy: The first time we met. In person. We went through. A bunch of sketches. Went through. A bunch of designs. And. Said. Okay. I think we've got something here. You know. We. Went through that initial meeting. We came up with some product designs. And. From that.

Brad Dowdy: Notco was born. I mean. It was. It was really. That simple. We felt. We felt comfortable working together. We felt good. About. The ideas that we had. That we wanted to do. That we wanted to get out of this company.

Brad Dowdy: And. I. I just think it's going to be a real. Real positive thing. We got a lot of work ahead of us. We went ahead and launched today. Well. Not. I wouldn't say launch. We went ahead and announced today. Because we wanted to share with everyone. Just kind of our.

Brad Dowdy: Growth process. You know. We've gone from sketches on piece of paper. To now we're in the prototype phase. So we're showing people. You know. Here's some of these ideas we came up with. Here's what our plans are. Here's. You know. A sneak peek of. Of what's to come. And we're still working on perfecting the designs. Working on perfecting. What we're going to launch on Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: And. And things like that. So it's. It's.

Brad Dowdy: The. Ball is. Is. Fully. Fully rolling. At this point. We've spent about two or three weeks. Just going hardcore at it. So we felt it was time to. To unveil today. If you will.

Myke Hurley: Will you allow me. Will you permit me. To interview you a little. Sure. Yeah. That would be good. You can feel. You know. I mean. I don't know what you're willing to share. We haven't had a discussion. Up front about this. But. So. You're launching a Kickstarter project. In September.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. That's the plan. Hopefully early September. So. The. There's some dates. That are fixed. Just back end type stuff. That we may not. May not be able to get around. So I didn't want to give a specific date. So. September should be. A non-issue. Yes.

Myke Hurley: And what will the Kickstarter entail? Because. I mean. If you look on the Instagram page. For example. Which is. Instagram.com. Slash. Knock. Co. You've got a bunch of prototypes here. So what is the Kickstarter going to be for? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You'll see one. One of our. Our pictures just has like a pile. Of prototypes. So. The Kickstarters. We're going to narrow it down to. Four or five. Product designs. That. You know. Involve different. Different case designs. Um. And then. Within those designs. We're going to have different colorways. For each design. Um. So there'll be. You know. We're. Everything is kind of in this black and gray color right now. Because that's just where we're using for prototypes. But. Almost all of the. Production models. Are going to be some type of color. Um. Color. Um.

Brad Dowdy: You know. Color. Canvas. Color. Binding. Um. Colored. Lining. Things like that. So. Um. They're going to be. Um. Really good looking. And. We got. We have the color samples in. We're getting some of the color. Um. Prototypes made now. So we'll be able to share some of those. What these colors are going to look like. And then we're going to do. Um. We're going to do a couple of. Kickstarter. Limited. Uh. Limited colors. That will only be available on Kickstarter. Some. And. We'll pick a certain. Product. Say. I don't know. Most of the. Most of the Kickstarter products. Right now. If you. I'll go through them real quick. We. We haven't finalized the list. But we have a case. That. Jeffrey and I. Two cases that we love. One is the. What I call the three plus one. Oh god. Just take.

Myke Hurley: Just take my money.

Brad Dowdy: Take it.

Myke Hurley: Just take my money right now. Why do I have to wait?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I know. That one's getting a lot of good feedback. I just. I just. That was a design. I just thought was very useful. That I didn't have right now. Like. Everyone's. Carries their pens. Everyone carries. You know. Their memo books. You know. Be it field notes. Doan. Moleskine. Rodeo. Whatever. And. I just wanted a case. Where I could have pens. I could have pens on one side. The case in the other. And have just like a simple bifold case. And. You know. It. It's not rocket science. But it's something that's just not that available. In. You know. The materials that we're using. You know. There's lots of higher end leather type cases. That kind of. Sort of. Do something like this. But I really wanted. The impetus of this whole company. Is. I thought there was a space. I thought there's a. There's a gap. Between. Like. Some basic pen cases. That are available. Like. On the low end of the price. Price point. Like. It's staples. Or things like that. And then it jumps. You know. Really up into like. Really high end leather stuff. So. We. We. We wanted to make a nice. Durable. You know. Canvas cloth. Case. That's. That's. It's going to wear well. It's going to hold up well. It's going to protect your pens well. And it's going to look good. So. That three plus one case. Is something that. I was really. Looking forward to. And the prototypes are coming out really good. That's the one. I'm. I'm carrying that a bunch now. Oh.

Myke Hurley: I hate you man. But you're. You're just using it now.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And. You know. And what's good about me and Jeffrey. Is. You know. We're. We're sharing these prototypes. Back and forth. And. You know. He's really easy to work with. And hopefully I'm. The same to him. And we. You know. I get it. And I say. You know. Here's what I don't like about it. And he's like. Okay. Let me. You know. I'm going to look at this tomorrow. Then I'm. I'm going to send you another one. And I'm like. Okay.

Myke Hurley: I'm happy that you're using them daily. Because I know that you're going to be very meticulous. About it. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And that was. That was one of my hesitancies. About. Just. Announcing this. The day. The Kickstarter launched. Right. I.

Brad Dowdy: I. I kind of didn't want to do that.

Brad Dowdy: In one way. It helps. That. You know. Now that we've announced. And there's this lead up time. Until. There's actually products. People can buy. You know. You're kind of running the risk of. You know. Burning people out. Or. You know. Driving people crazy. By not having. By announcing and not having a product available. But on the flip side. I didn't want to just turn on the Kickstarter. One day. And say. Hey. Go buy. These cases. You know. I wanted to have. People have that background information. Ahead of time. And knowing how much we're putting into this project. Before just flipping the switch on Kickstarter.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think. So another.

Myke Hurley: That's the right way to do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So. And that's why. And we felt that we're going to do it soon enough. To where there's not going to be any burnout. Or any. You know. Forgetfulness. Or lag time. In between us. Announcing. And the Kickstarter really going. We're pretty far along. The whole process. So. It's. It's. A September launch. With. Without question. At this point. But another case. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I was going to say. I think I kind of sidetracked you a bit. So. You're looking. Launching with multiple products. For one Kickstarter.

Multiple Products

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We're going to. We're going to launch with multiple products. I think there's going to be. At least. Four designs. Maybe five designs. So. The second design. That I'm really excited about. Is the roll. Pen case. So it'll have. Like a. A pouch. A pouch style case. And the inside has a tongue. That rolls out. And it's going to hold six pins. You know. It's. Everyone's seen me. You know. Take pictures of that nomadic. That I use. It's kind of along those lines. A little bit different style. A little bit larger. Hold a little bit more capacity. In the roll. And in the case. It's. It's. It's. It's working out really well. So far. That design. It. I've been really happy. With it. It. It's. It worked perfectly. Really. And. The sample. The prototype. That I'm using right now. Is. It's actually pretty large. So I think you'll be able to hold a lot of pins. In just the pouch itself. So. And there's. There's a couple other things we're tweaking on that. As we go along. But then. Aside from those two. We're going to have.

Brad Dowdy: You know. Like a three pin holster. Design.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: That's one of the main things I wanted to do. Because I don't think there's any real good options for.

Brad Dowdy: Canvas. You know. Holsters. You know. Most of the holsters are leather. And it's not a wrap. Where you just wrap it around itself. And tie it. You know. It's a holster. With like a tab over. Flap. That. That tucks in nicely. We're going to do a five pin. Pin case. Which is kind of like the. The three plus one. Bifold. But it'll just be.

Brad Dowdy: Five pin slots. Three on one side. Two on the other. To hold different size pins. Things like that. So those are the main four. And then we're working on. We have two or three other ideas. For. Both. The fifth product. That we're going to launch.

Myke Hurley: So I assume that you'll just have like. Different configurations. So by. One. By you know. This one. This one. This one. This one. This one. By these two. These two. These two. And then all five. Or something. I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a little weird. With design products. Manufactured products. You can't. Include. A product. In more than one. Reward level. Like. I can't sell. A three pin holster.

Brad Dowdy: As a reward level. And then have another reward level. That's. The three pin holster. Plus. The three plus one bag. I can't duplicate. The holster. So there'll be. Several individuals. That you can. Purchase via the Kickstarter. And you can buy multiples. You can buy. Multiples. I just can't offer. The same product. In more than one. Reward level.

Myke Hurley: But I've seen that though. Like. So. Say for example. I know.

Brad Dowdy: They just. They just changed it. Not very long ago.

Myke Hurley: But you can buy multiple. Pledge levels. Yes. Oh. Then there's no problem then.

Brad Dowdy: No. No. Not at all. I didn't know that. I didn't know you could do that. Yeah. On the. Buyer's end. They can buy. The multiple pledge levels. I believe. You know. You just put in the amount. And then at the end. You know. You can choose. It was. You can allocate it. Properly. But on the front end. I can't. I can't offer. A reward level. That says. One. Three pin holster case. And then another. Reward level. That says. Three. Three pin holster cases. Something like that. It's a little bit confusing. And. Yeah. It's not going to be easy. Is it? Right now. Yeah. So I'm trying to sort it out. To where it's laid out properly. So that's. That's some of the things I'm working through right now. So it's. It's a. Definitely a learning process.

Myke Hurley: So have you already started the process at the Kickstarter?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. I've already started building the page. There's some back end stuff. You know. Where you have to tie in all these. All your. You know. Accounts and things like that. And there's some. I think the only delays in getting this launch. Actually will be. You know. Kind of. Paperworky type delays. You know. You just got to get. All these accounts tied in together. And things like that. So. You know. It takes. Three days to get this approved. Seven days to get this approved. Stuff like that. I think. Jeffrey and I are going to have our ducks in a row. It's just a matter of getting all the approvals. In a timely fashion. So.

Myke Hurley: So an interesting thing about Kickstarter. I don't know if you've known this. But I've come across it. Through talking to people that have done it. Have done them. You. You sort of say. Right. Here we go. We're done. And then it goes to be approved. And then they just put it live. So it's difficult to be like. It's going to go live on such and such day. Because Kickstarter. Okay. Turn it on. So you might say on Monday. Right. Okay. Kickstarter. There you go. And then Kickstarter will approve it. And it might come to Thursday. And then they'll just flick the switch.

Brad Dowdy: Oh. I did not realize that. So that's good to know. I knew there's an approval phase. But I didn't know when it's approved. It's active.

Myke Hurley: That's the impression that I got. When I had a conversation with Jonathan Colton. On Command Space. Was that. Okay. It was just live. One day. So. Well.

Brad Dowdy: I've got some good. I've got some people helping me out. With the Kickstarter piece. So hopefully. Yeah. I mean. That's the question I will. I will try to clarify.

Myke Hurley: If there's one thing that we have. It's friends that do Kickstarters. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. There's no doubt. And everyone's been super helpful. And wanting to. To help us out. And give us information. And. And things like that. Helping out with that design. So. What we're going to. When we. Have everything finalized for Kickstarter. And what we're going to offer. You know. The four or five designs. And each one of those designs. Is going to have. I think. Three. Colors. You can choose from. For each design. So. There will actually be quite a lot of. Variety available on Kickstarter. And then we're going to have. I believe. I know one. And if not two. Kickstarter only colors. That. We're going to be able to. The way we've set this up. On the back end. Production wise. We're able to do. A lot of customization. Type work. And limited runs. Special runs.

Limited Colors

Brad Dowdy: So. We're able to do. You know. Particular color ways. In a limited fashion. So. We wanted to offer one. That's only going to be available. On Kickstarter. And one of the designs. So. That's to be determined. But there is going to be. Something like that. Available on Kickstarter. As well.

Myke Hurley: Will that be able to pay. To get it monogrammed?

Brad Dowdy: Not right now.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Maybe when you start. But maybe.

Brad Dowdy: That's not going to be. Right. That's not on the table. For Kickstarter. But that doesn't mean. That won't happen. Down the line. You know. We want to be. The end game. Of this. After the Kickstarter. Project. Launches. Hopefully it's successful. And hopefully it funds. But regardless. Of whether it funds or not. We're starting this business. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because there will be a store. Won't there. Afterwards. That you will be. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because we're going to have an online. We're going to have an online store. After that. That's where. We're going to be able to. Expand the product line. Even more. We'll have. When the Kickstarter is over. We'll be turning the store on. We hope to have new product designs. Even by then.

Brad Dowdy: And then we'll have more. About. What all. You'll be able to do. With our products. And what we're going to offer. You know. Hopefully we'll be able to do some. You know. Some seasonal stuff. With you know. Special fabrics. And things like that. That we can do. You know. For. You know. Winter or spring. And things like that.

Myke Hurley: Will I be able to subscribe? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't think about that. Get a subscription. Yeah. No. I don't think we're going to do that. But you know. It does. It does give us the freedom. To have fun with it. And not just. You know. Have a stagnant product line. And. You know. We'll be able to keep it fresh. All the time. And. You know. I think it's going to be really good.

Myke Hurley: I'm so excited. I know that everyone listening. Is just like. Just shut up. And just give me. A place to put my cash.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. And. You know. We're actually. We're actually shooting the video. This weekend. For the Kickstarter. So. You know. That's how far along we are. In the process. I mean. We're pretty. Pretty far along. So. It's hard to give an exact date. For the. The reasons. That we. We've talked about. For the Kickstarter. But. It's. It's. Not too far down the line. At all. We're. We're getting there.

Myke Hurley: Let me know. If you need a fancy British voiceover.

Brad Dowdy: We might.

Myke Hurley: We might. I would happily do it. I can put on my. My best announcer's voice. In 2013. Brad Dowdy. There you go. Like that. You definitely have those skills.

Myke Hurley: Not that I'm asking for you to reveal it. But do you. Do you have a goal. Set. Yeah. In your mind. Not yet. You don't. I. I mean. Knowing you as I do. I know that you're going to have a. I reckon you'll have a pretty modest goal. Yes. Which means that. You will meet it. Like you will. I just can't see why. Not. Like. And it's one of those things. It's like. You know. Don't jinx it. But. I. I can't see this being anything other than a massive success. In my opinion.

Product Goals

Brad Dowdy: Well good. I hope so. But yeah. I mean. Jeffrey and I have talked about it. And I do think our goal will be pretty modest. Just putting down on. On paper. Like the things we really need. To get this business off the ground. Um. It will be able to keep the. Um. Kickstarter goal pretty modest. And I. You know. I hope we will be successful in meeting that. I. I don't see any reason why not. I think it will be very attainable. Um. So. I hope so.

Myke Hurley: Because you're going to get a bunch of people like me. That will buy like. Four. You know. Right. Like I'm just going to get. Like. All of them. Any of that interest. I'm just going to get them. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: One of each.

Myke Hurley: I'm so excited Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Well good. I'm glad to hear that. Because. I can't say. You know. I'm actually sleeping. Sleeping well these days. I don't sleep well to begin with. But. Um. Getting. Getting this all. Uh. Done. Has been. Extremely fun. But you know. When you're putting it on the line like this. And you know. Making a. Making a product. And you know. Putting. Putting your money where your mouth is. You know. It. Uh. It's. Uh. It's nerve wracking. You want to do. You want to do the right thing. And make the right product. And. And. And have a sustainable business on top of it. Because that's what we're looking to do. This isn't going to be. Like a one and done. Kickstarter thing. This is going to be. An ongoing. Sustainable. Um. Business. That we. Uh. We hope surround for a long time.

Myke Hurley: I personally hope that this is just the start. Like. We start seeing different products from you. Not. Not just. Cases. And. Holders. Like. Other types of. Yeah. Of products. That are in our wheelhouse. Because. As I've said to you time and time again. As over. What. What the. The listeners don't know. Is over the course of. Of our. Professional. Relationship. And friendship. I have. Constantly. Bugged you. Into. To try and get you to do something. In this. Space. I mean. What I have asked you to do. Is something different. That I still hope that you will do one day. And I hope that this will be such a success. That. That you will be able to. To devote even more time to it. And. And that this will become. A big thing for you. That's what I really. Really hope.

Brad Dowdy: Well. Cool. I appreciate that. And I hope. I hope so too. And you know. Definitely the long term. We already have. You know. Just. You know. Groundwork. Not groundwork laid. But you know. We have ideas. Down the line. That may not necessarily be directly related to pin cases. But just other. Other products. I think other products that. You know. People that. You know. Listen to this podcast. And you know. Read the blog. Would enjoy. But you know. It's not the same. Product that they can just. You know. Walk into a store. And get anywhere. So that's kind of our goal behind. The whole project.

Myke Hurley: This is great. And you know. What I love as well. Is this. I think this is. I. I mean. I don't. You never really know how people feel. But I think this is going to be really interesting for the listeners. Because from now. We will now be able to follow this through. Like. So. You know. Every week or whatever. We'll get a little update from you. And then. When it. You know. When it comes to the point. That you guys. Launch. On Kickstarter. Then. I would like to get. You and Jeff on. And we'll talk about that. As a. Like I will interview the two of you. About. The full Kickstarter process. And. I'm sure. You know. It will be funded within two and a half minutes. And. We can talk about that. And I think it will be really fun. And then sort of going through. And then. The Kickstarter is met. And we'll be able to see how that goes for you. Right. And. You know. Do you fall. Victim to the. 17 month delay. That you see. In some. Right. I think it's going to be really. Really interesting. Because. It. This is kind of encapsulating. A lot of the frequent topics that we have. But now. We're going to have. Your. Real world. Experience with it. As opposed to just our friends and guests. This is going to be. One of the hosts of this show. Is involved. In the industry. Is becoming involved in the industry. That we talk about. I don't think. I can't think of any podcast. Where this has happened. Where it's like. During the show. One of the hosts decides. He's going to start a business. Which. Which relates directly. To the subject matter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And not only that. I have no business experience. Whatsoever. Yeah. I've never worked for myself. Or done anything like this. So it's going to be a massive. Learning experience. And. I don't know if it's fortunately. Or unfortunately. Y'all will all be able to watch. Watch along. As I. I flail. Or succeed. And. But. I'm. I'm pretty positive about it. I'm very. Comfortable with. Where we're at. And what we're going to be able to do. So. Hopefully. Things play out. The way that I'm hoping. And. I. Right now. I don't see any reason. Why they're not going to.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly what I want to hear. God. This is so exciting. I'm so happy. Guys. Just say. Brad told me about this. Like. Two weeks ago. Like. This is how fast. This has moved. Right. Like. It's moved very fast. Like. You told. You told me you were thinking about it. And then you sent me a picture. This was honestly like. Two weeks ago. And now. You're like. Ready to. Open the Kickstarter. You know. Sort of any day. It's very. Very exciting. And I think that shows. That you've hit something. Because you're moving so quickly. With it. You're confident. And that. That fills me of confidence.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. We've been really working hard. Behind the scenes. Once we started. Started this going. It's been non-stop. Pretty much. And Jeffrey is just. Killing it. With the. With the samples. And the manufacturing. The prototypes. And that's. That's the real reason. Reason we've been able to do this. So fast. Is. The way. The pace he's knocking these. Prototypes out with. You know. It's allowed us to. You know. Fine tune the designs. It's allowed us to figure out pricing. And you know. All the things that go on. Behind the scenes. That I've never had to deal with. Before. And. Yeah. In two and a half. Three weeks time. It's. It's gone from. It's gone from. Zero to. Zero to a hundred miles an hour. And. You know. There's no. We're on the autobahn right now. There's nothing stopping us.

Myke Hurley: This is great news. I'm really. I'm really. Really happy. And I think. I think people. Are going to. Are going to be. I'm sure you've probably had a lot of feedback today. Right. I'm going to assume that people. Oh my gosh. Really. Has it been a lot?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's been really. Really good. And people are so nice. And so positive about it. And I mean. I can't. I can't respond to everyone. But thank you so much. For all the kind words. And you know. We're. We're really excited. To be able to do this. And I'm glad to see that everyone. You know. Finds this project interesting. And you know. Hopefully wants to. You know. Be a part of it. And you know. That's one of the things. I've always done. Even just. In writing the pen addict. Is I. I try to. You know. I don't want. I want to be approachable. And have a relationship. With you know. Readers or listeners. And now in the. In the. In the next phase. You know. You know. Customers. And I just think. Having that open conversation. About things. Um. Has really benefited me. In the past. You know. Just as far as blogging goes. And podcasting goes. So I. You know. That's going to be the same way. Um. You know. With. With NotCo. Now. That we're going to. Get this going.

Myke Hurley: This is great. I'm really. Yeah. This is. This is awesome. I'm very. Very happy. I appreciate that. I'm sure that people. Everyone else will be too. We had another topic. But I think we should probably leave it. For next week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's totally. Well. Not next week. Maybe the week. After. Oh yeah.

Myke Hurley: The week after. Yeah. Next week. Big. Big picture.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a. It's a topic. That's. That's. Waited for. Quite a while. So.

Brad Dowdy: A little. Another little delay. Won't. Won't hurt it. Lamy 2000.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So yeah. We can do that. We can do that. In a couple weeks. Yeah. That's no problem. Because I really. I really want to talk about that. So. But we need to devote some time to it.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I'm sure I've forgotten all kinds of things. About. Knock. And what we're trying to do. So. Definitely get in touch. If y'all have any questions. Everyone's been. Been super super. Hyped up about it. And I'm glad to see the feedback so far. So. I think it's going to be nothing but a good thing. So. It'll be. It'll be interesting to. To see how this progresses over the next few months. Like you were saying. In public.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There's no hiding.

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: You have a. As well. If you go to knock. Co. Dot com. N O C K. C O. Dot com. It's a shame that the dot co is taken.

Brad Dowdy: I know.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So that's a real shame. But anyway. You go to knock. Co. Dot com. You'll see. A little email address. Where you can put your email address. To sign up for your mailing list.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So we. We want to. Just keep everyone. Notified. That's not going to be a list. Where we're going to be. You know. Spamming you a bunch. That's just going to be a list. You can sign up to be notified. When the Kickstarter project is launched. So that's what we're using that for. You know. To give us. Give everyone a heads up. When that. When that project goes live. So. Yeah. Definitely. Go sign up for that mailing list. And. We'll notify you. As soon as it's. As soon as it's live on Kickstarter. Hopefully. In the. Early middle part. Part of September.

Myke Hurley: Exciting times. Okay buddy.

Brad Dowdy: It is.

Myke Hurley: Anything else you want to add today?

Brad Dowdy: I don't think so. I feel like I've. I've. Rambled incoherently. About this. It's. It's like all new. And nerve wracking. So. You know. I'm sure I forgot something. Or misspoke. But. We have. I think that's it.

Myke Hurley: We have the time. To get it right. Over the next couple of months. Yep. We'll get it all out.

Brad Dowdy: Do you know. It's going to be fun.

Cult Patterns Mini

Myke Hurley: Have you received your. Cult patterns mini yet?

Brad Dowdy: I have not. I was going to. I was actually going to mention that. I went to the mailbox. Before the show. And I was actually going to tell you. Offline. Before the show. Um. That I have not received it. So I will shoot those guys. An email. Just to make sure.

Myke Hurley: So we'll probably. I have not received it. So next week. You want to tune in. For our interview with Brian. Which is going to be awesome. Um. And then the week after. We'll probably be talking about. The cult pens mini. And the Lamy 2000.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's the perfect schedule. Yes.

Myke Hurley: And then. We're. I'm. I'm trying to arrange another exciting interview. In September as well. So. We'll see about that.

Brad Dowdy: And that'll be right after that.

Myke Hurley: So. Thanks so much for listening to this. Very special. Monumental. You might even say. Episode of the Pen Addict Podcast. If you want to get in touch with Brad. I think first off. You need to get in touch with him. And tell him how excited you are. For Nock.

Myke Hurley: You should do that. By going to. Penaddict.com. Where you'll find. All the information you need. But Brad is on. Twitter. He is. At Dowdyism. D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. He is also. You can email Brad as well. If you want to send any poetry. You can email Brad. It's thepenaddict. Thepenaddict. At gmail.com. You can get in touch with me. If you would like to. To share. We can join forces. In getting these guys. To hurry up. And get their. Products out the door. I'm. I'm Ike. I-M-Y-K-E. And. Is that it Brad? We done?

Brad Dowdy: I think so. And if y'all have any questions. That we can ask. Brian Bedell. Of Field Notes next week. Definitely let us know. Tweet us. Email us. Something like that. And. We want to hear. What questions y'all want answered to. For next week.

Myke Hurley: Excellent. Thanks so much for listening. Yeah. Please do. If you. If you've got questions. More around the technical side. If you're thinking around. You know. Yes. Basically listen to the episode. That I did with Jim. Of Command Space. It will be in the show notes. That's where we talk a lot about. About the history of Field Notes. We talk a bit about the. Colors and stuff like that. But. We really want to. Get into the nitty gritty. Of like the paper. The stock. How they make the choices. The printing processes. The manufacturing processes. That they go through. And all that really. Sort of nerdy stuff. Is what we want to talk about next week. So. Does that sound good?

Brad Dowdy: Sounds perfect. Yes. Brilliant. Exactly right.

Myke Hurley: So tune in next week. It's going to be a fun one. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back. Thanks. Bye. Bye.