The Pen Addict 728/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	728
Title:	Walking Around With the President of PEN
Release Date:	August 6th, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 728
Audio File:	Audio Episode 728
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 728
Length:	8181 min <br />1.35 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 728. Today's show is brought to you by Collidercraft, Factor, and Enigma Stationery. And I'm very sad to be here in London while my good buddy Brad Dowdy is over there in Atlanta. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: What's up Myke Hurley, how are you? How was the return trip?

Myke Hurley: I was saying to you before we started, the trip was actually great. It turns out we're blessed to have a baby that will behave. You know, like you get on the plane and everyone's like, oh God, there's a baby. That's how everyone treats us. I understand it. Here's what I say. I understand that people don't like it. I wish they keep the comments to themselves, but that's like a different thing for another time.

Myke Hurley: She flies great. Very, very well behaved. However, jet lag, she ain't having it, man. She ain't having that. She's not having it. She's like 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock at night. She's like, all right, I'm up. Let's go. Yeah, party time. The first night that when we came home, literally at 11 p.m., she's running around the kitchen again. It's like she's just up. She's just ready to rock. So we're working on that. We're working on that. It's getting better. It's getting better. How are you doing?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. I've been, you know, kind of just lingering tiredness. Like, not overall, not like, oh, I need to get in the bed kind of tired. But it's like by the time I get to the afternoons, I feel like I've still like we went really, really hard at it for like seven days straight. Like, you know, from like morning to night nonstop. And so like by the time we got home, like Sunday, as soon as we got home from the airport, we were in both like taking a nap within like 30 minutes. But then that's kind of lingered into like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Feeling better this morning than I have all week. But like I haven't felt bad, but just like, yeah, I get pretty tired at the end of the day. But yeah, it's it was worth it. Worth every minute of it.

Stationery Fast

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's like a bit of behind the scenes on this. So, you know, like we're obviously both in New York for a few days before stationary fast, which we're going to be talking about today. And there was multiple attempts at like, all right, if we're free this afternoon, maybe we can meet for coffee. It just never kept happening because you were just you guys are just having the time of your lives over there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, so Mary Beth had never been my wife. Mary Beth had never been to New York. So we like did all the things. Luckily, the weather cooperated. Right. It looked like we were in for it. And it mostly cooperated. So that just meant we were going the whole time. It's like, well, we haven't seen this yet. All right. Let's get on the train. Let's get on the subway. And like we just did it. I thought there was going to be like maybe like like a little bit of downtime where we could like go sit and like grab a coffee and, you know, sit with y'all. Like before we got to stationary fast, it was like we were never at home, never at the hotel, which is fantastic. Like we I feel like we did it right. And she was she was thrilled with the entire trip. So like that's that's all I need. That's all I need to hear. So.

Brad Dowdy: Um, so should we get into the stationary fast portion of this stuff? Yes. Okay. So we'll have links into like the general stationary fast stuff. Um, Instagram. If they were like they're super active, uh, Yoseka and like their whole staff is super active on social media. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: It's unbelievable. The amount of content that they put out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So either on the Yoseka's channel or on the stationary fast channel, you'll see tons of stuff. Um, one of my first videos has been posted like two days ago already. I think it was like Monday or maybe Tuesday. So I did a basically a walk and talk with Daisy of Yoseka stationary where we did some shopping. So this was recorded on the Saturday morning of the show, like right when it opened. So that video is up. We had a link of the show notes. Uh, I went back and watched it. I was like, yeah, that was pretty good. Like it was, it was a fun video. Yes, it was. And, uh, we got to talk about, talk about like things we were buying and things like that. But you and I have three, three panels that we did on top of that, which those will be up. I'm assuming in the coming weeks. Um, they were all filmed. So all filmed. So the plan is those go up on the Yoseka channel. You know, I'm assuming all the, the, the tech went well.

Myke Hurley: Who knows me and you sharing a microphone. That's the thing I'm most concerned about, like from their perspective of how they're going to handle that. Um, because I'm basically talking over your shoulder. Cause there was like five of us in MNF microphones. So we'll see how that one, uh, plays out in the end.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So five guests, four mics. And, uh, so Myke and I were sharing, um, sharing what's a, yeah, we'll see. Um, I did another video of my Techo Kaiji. That was amazing. Which is a series they do on Yoseka's channel with like their staff and catching up. So like, I literally did, that was like five recordings for me. Um, I was very busy, uh, the entire time. Um, as, as Myke will know, as we, as we get through this, um, Myke got to watch me in like full, full send mode. Like there was, there was not a lot of wandering. Like every step was Brad needs to do this. Brad needs to do that. That for like two days straight, all I was doing was doing the things I needed to be doing. And Myke's like, okay.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I want to give people an illustration of this. Right. So I really recommend that. Like, I actually think a very important companion piece to today's episode is that YouTube video that you just mentioned. It's in the show notes. It's on the Yoseka stationary page. It's, it's only 11 minutes, right? So you can watch it and kind of get what you need out of it, but it shows the space pretty well. So it was essentially a very large warehouse, mostly split into two parts. There are some asterisks there, which we can maybe get to later on, but the main area splits these two parts. And it was absolutely huge, huge, huge, huge, you know, like thousands of people are inside this, this warehouse in, in the days. Right. Um, and in the mornings of the three days, uh, between nine. And 11, they had a VIP access. I don't, I, I, I know people could buy that, but I don't know how. Was it like you bought like one ticket and you had it for all three days or something a more expensive ticket? That's correct.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: And we had access to that for our guest kind of status.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that ticket was sold out like back in when they launched it. I want to say February or April. I can't remember when, but a long time ago. So the three day VIP access. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Cause real ones know that that's the one you want. If you want to guarantee you'll get what you want. Right. Like this is what we know from other pen shows.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. If you're going more than a day, you just pony up because the extra hours are worth it.

Myke Hurley: And that was the case between nine and 11. You could just walk around and just go to every vendor, which after 11, it was not like that. Right. Like it got very, very busy and some tables were very, very busy. But on the first day between nine and 11, it was, I was just me, me and Mary Beth with you. And that's how I would describe that because it was essentially just, we're just going to walk behind Brad as he shakes hands at every table. You know, it's just like, I've got to go over here and see this person. And this person stopping me. It was like walking around with the president or something. It was incredible. Now I knew basically everyone, right. That we were talking to either personally or we've interacted or whatever. And there was a few people you introduced me to, but it was very much. And also there was a lot of like, ah, I got to go over here to get this from this person. And oh, I've got to speak to this person about a collab and like this and that and this and that. It was very funny.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That was, that was pretty much most of my days were, uh, me either having a plan to meet all the people that I had been emailing ahead of time that I said, I'll stop by, I'll pick something up. We'll talk about this, you know, whatever, you know, I needed to like, actually like business I needed to handle. And whether it was just like meeting someone for the first time who I've been talking over email to as, as, you know, direct as picking up a sample that someone made for me and brought, uh, for a future product. Right. So I had all these things and then you got to see the squirrel brain in action. And, and I'd say, oh, well here's, you know, such and such. Let's, let's go talk to them. Cause I haven't seen them in a couple of years and, you know, and introduce you, you know, and, you know, and, and see some people. So yeah, it was very like point to point. And then sometimes I would squirrel like right in the middle of going from point A to point B and we'd have point, uh, a point five. I think that's a new point. And between A and B, we're going to call that a point five. What happened and then like just all bets were off. Right. Yeah. Um, and you know, I was not being efficient. I would know, okay, I need to go see, you know, Inc Institute. And then I'd be like, oh, well I'm going to go see Taizo Yamamoto. And we'd have to like make our way from, from point A to point B and not get stopped in point five land so much. It was great. I was in my element. It really was.

Myke Hurley: It was brilliant to watch, but I like that kind of stuff as well because, you know, you can introduce me to people and they get a better context for me because a lot more people know you right than me for obvious reasons. And even like people that are aware of the fact that the podcast exists still don't really know who I am, which I understand if you don't listen to the show. Now on the flip side, lots of people do listen to the show. And like a very standard thing is from these scenarios, you'd be like, and this is Myke, my podcast partner. And people would be like, oh, you know, then people know because they don't know my face or whatever. Um, and so that, that was like a very funny thing. But yes, it was very much like I'm just walking around with president of Penn and we're going to go say hi to everybody.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That was, that was pretty much like the first two days. It was like that. There was not much, uh, not much downtime, uh, for me on the, these first couple of days, which we'll kind of get into as we go.

Myke Hurley: Before we jump into some overall thoughts, you did mention these panels that we did. So that was like the, the, the, the kind of obligation I would say in, in the nicest way. I don't, I don't mean that in a bad way, but like the, the, the business thing that we were doing is that we were participating in some panels that Yoseko put together. So they, they selected some topics and some participants, and then you and I put together some questions and like had these, these panel discussions. Um, it was a small audience of people, but they were filming them. I think that's probably their biggest benefit, uh, out of it really is that then they will go on YouTube. And I just thought maybe before we move on, uh, we could just give a quick overview of what these panels are. So people know what to look out for when, even when they get released.

Panels

Brad Dowdy: Sure. And, uh, I don't know if they'll release them in the order that we recorded them, but our first panel on Thursday, um, it was called the stationary hobby over the last 10 years. And we had a great talk with, uh, Jenny from Jenny Bick, uh, Tiki from Aura Stell and Ryan from Estherbrook. So Jenny Bick is been doing this. I think she said since 1991, making, making her own notebooks and now has a brick and mortar shop in DC. Um, Tiki makes planners, uh, designs planners and make some actually really stunning products for Aura Stell. And then Ryan, uh, works for Kenro Industries who he was there, I guess, essentially we, we took this from the Estherbrook context, um, which is one of their brands as opposed to like the general distributorship. But we still had some general questions for, you know, how they've changed their business in the last 10 years. Cause Estherbrook has played a big role in that.

Myke Hurley: So this one was very much the like, um, business owner from a business owner's perspective of somebody creating products in this space. What has changed, uh, in the last 10 years.

Brad Dowdy: And both of them, everyone obviously had just been doing this for a long time if they're on a panel for like discussing the last 10 years. So it was great to get that kind of feedback. One of the most interesting things that happened on these panels and it happened starting here and it ended up being a continuation is we had three panelists and then Myke and I sitting there to, um, talking, you know, as it's kind of driving the conversation, but the panelists would pick up on something. One of the other ones said, and then start asking them questions. Like Tiki might ask Jenny a question and it was fascinating to see that interaction. And that ended up happening with every panel we had. It was like kind of cool because honestly, a lot of these people didn't know each other. Like, I don't know that our first three from this panel, any of them knew each other, right? No. Like, you know, I would say like, I know Ryan, I've known Ryan for well over 10 years, but I'd never met Tiki or Jenny. Um, so it was interesting to see the interactions and just like you and I always talk about when we interview someone and they might be nervous, give it about two minutes, get through that first question and then it's on and you won't even know what happened. Um, and you know, I think there was a little bit of nerves and in all the panels. Um, but once you start and get to talk about the things that, you know, um, it's easy.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, all this stuff, you just got to understand you're in a safe environment and, and, you know, that, that happens quite quickly if you are in an environment where people are treating you safely.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I think, but another, I'll, I'll continue down the panelist here, but another overarching theme from all the panels. By the time we got done, I think at least someone from there who didn't know us previous to the panel, um, all said, Oh, y'all actually do know what you're doing. That was a, that was another common theme. I was like, yeah, we got you. Like, like we're here for you and we're going to make this easy for you and, and just manage it that way. So, um, so that was the panel number one, panel number two, Friday was designing a great stationary product. This was with, uh, Takayuki from Plotter, uh, Tono from Tono and Limbs and Matthew from Leuchtturm. And the, this was an interesting one because there's such disparate products between Plotter, Leuchtturm and Tono and Limbs. It was fun getting these stories out of each of them and like hearing, um, uh, you know, Tono talking about. Tono is a character. He's a character. I love him. He was, he was very much, he would be content with just giving us like a one liner answer, but out of, not out of like spider, I don't want to be here, but out of like, I'm going to, I'm going to, uh, crush this joke.

Myke Hurley: Every one liner was the right line.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because like, we didn't know much about him. I'd never met him before. And him just talking about how he's a collector still to this day before he even, you know, got involved with the ink business, uh, was, was pretty fun. And getting to talk about like Takayuki's passion for like materials, like I made sure to like drill that home with him. And, uh, Matthew, the, uh, the polished e-commerce guy from, uh, Leuchtturm was fascinating to listen to because like, we had a lot of questions on like how they're obviously the biggest brand, like as far as size and scope and international business, how they actually come up with new products because the bigger the business, the more difficult it is to like, to like try something, right? Plotter and, and Tono and Limbs, they can just try something, right? They're small enough to be able to try and either succeed or fail. Leuchtturm, I think it's a tougher question, wouldn't you say?

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So it was, it was fun to get all these perspectives.

Myke Hurley: Um, yeah, they were an interesting addition to that part. I really liked having lunchtime, but it was interesting for the three of them because lunchtime kind of stands out a little bit, right? Compared to Plotter and Tono and Limbs, I feel like they're more akin to each other. I mean, obviously the, the background, like, like general geographical background, but also the markets that they serve, they feel more like there's a, there's a Venn diagram overlap. Yes. And then lunchtime is a little bit more general where Plotter and Tono and Limbs are obviously much more specific in their customer base.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And like, uh, Takashi just makes inks, like that's pretty much their thing. Inks and storytelling. Yeah. But then Takayuki and Matthew do have like this paper overlap, but like completely unrelated. Yes. Like types of. Absolutely unrelated from each other. Types of. Types of products.

Myke Hurley: Even though they make the same product, there's more relation between Tono and Limbs and Plotter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So like listening, watching Matthew listen to Takayuki talk about Plotter was interesting. Yeah. Um, because like that is not any like type of business that Lloyd's term does. So I found that interesting. I think y'all will like that one when it comes out. Y'all will like all these cause we had a blast. Yeah. Saturday was the last one. Uh, this one was called hobbyist, a full-time stationary brand. Yep. So we had Margaret, uh, from once more with love been from Mayfair pens who Asterix does not do this full-time, which we asked him about. I knew this beforehand. So we, he was, he was great on the panel. And then Christine from everyday explorers, Christine and Margaret have been doing this for a very long time as well. Since like the mid 20 teens, if not earlier. Um, and then Ben has been doing this, I think he said about five years or so. Uh, he would love to maybe one day take it, uh, the full time. And this is right on the edge. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's having to ask those questions now. Yeah. So this was a good panel for anyone who is in the same situation that some of these makers are in. And, uh, again, this was another panel where like the questions were popping from, there was good interaction from all the panelists, like inquiring about the answers that, you know, some are answering to the, asking to the question. So this was a cool one because both Christine and Margaret do like monthly releases. And, um, I was like, are y'all insane? Like this, that sounds like such a tough, tough thing, but they, they love it. They just, they just send it and it's great. So, um, hopefully those will be up, you know, maybe one a week in the next couple of weeks, but I have no clue what the schedule is. Last time, everything they do seems to come out pretty quickly.

Myke Hurley: We'll follow up, like we're going to keep an eye out for them. And if, and when they do come up, we'll mention them on the subsequent episodes of the show and we'll share the links and stuff. So, you know, we can take care of this for you, letting you know, um, but also just go subscribe to the Yoseka, uh, YouTube channel and you'll get, they'll come up when they come up.

Brad Dowdy: I'll have to rewatch them because it's definitely, you know, who knows what.

Myke Hurley: I'll watch at least some of it. I don't know. Yeah. Some of it. I don't like watching myself really.

Brad Dowdy: Um, I don't feel like we had any oopsies on any of the panels.

Myke Hurley: I don't think so.

Brad Dowdy: There was no like, Oh man, we, Hey, but Brad, we sent that into the wall yet. Like when you watch it, then you'll realize, Oh no, I did this, you know? Yeah. If I get canceled, um, I'll let you know which, I'll let you know which video.

Myke Hurley: I tell you what, if you get canceled, there's no hope for any of us. I'll tell you that. All right. Let's take a break on that note. Yeah. On that note. And thank our friends over at ColliderCraft for their support of this week's episode. Yeah, boy. ColliderCraft is a small maker creating playful and functional accessories for stationary enthusiasts. They design loads of their products in-house and collaborate with other 3D artists to curate and adapt designs specifically with pen and stationary lovers in mind, including pieces that feature their own original illustration printed directly onto finished prints. They're excited to introduce their newest creation, the build your own washi wallet. The washi wallet is a customizable pocket size storage system for washi tape samples. And Brad, I've gotten a little closer to wanting to have washi tape samples in my life, right? Yeah, I imagine so after stationary best. I'm understanding it. But with the washi wallet, you can mix and match inserts to fit your collection, swap them whenever you want. Every washi wallet includes a cutter, so you can cut the washi with a straight or serrated edge. Keep your favorite tapes organized, whether you're at your desk, journaling at a coffee shop, or heading to your next pen show. So check out the washi wallet. And while you're at the ColliderCraft website, you'll also find fountain pen nib holders, ink vowel holders, pen rests, desk accessories, charms, and other stationary-inspired accessories. I really recommend a lot of their kind of like clickers and fidget toys. I have a few from ColliderCraft and I love them. To celebrate the launch of the Build Your Own Washi wallet, we have a special offer for listeners of this show. Go to ColliderCraftPrints.com slash penaddict. The link is in the show notes as well. And you will see an exclusive Pen Addict washi insert. Build Your Own Washi wallet and explore everything else that ColliderCraft is making. And when you use the code penaddict, you'll get the Pen Addict washi insert for free and 15% of your order. That's ColliderCraftPrints.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict and you'll get your free exclusive washi wallet insert and 15% offer. Thanks to ColliderCraft for their support of this episode.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And if you listen to the show this week, they're going to be at the DC Pen Show this weekend. So you can go see some of this stuff in person. Like, I think you probably saw it on my bag. I had my clicker on the outside of my bag. Yes. By where my stickers were. And I would just, people commented on it. I would just click it like when I'm walking through because I'm a squirrel and I need something to fidget with. And then I took. Terrible audio, but that's mine. Oh no, that actually sounded really good. Yeah. So, and then my washi wallet insert that I carried with me. I keep the washi wallet on my desk here, but I took like the Pen Addict insert with me and kept it in my bag. And then now that I got home, I just unscrewed like the top cover of the wallet and put it back in and I'm sitting here. It's good. Everything's good to go. So just completely love this product.

Big Picture Stuff

Brad Dowdy: All right. All right. Let's dig in more to big picture type of stuff. That was kind of like the very specific things we're into. And we're going to talk about like more specifics later, like things we bought, things we saw, but can you kick us off with just a general statement of the trip? What is your thesis of the, of the trip? Myke? No, but give us a feel for the overall event and based on like what you expected and then what actually took place.

Myke Hurley: What took place was what I expected, but the scale of it was off. Right. So like the, the variation of brands, you know, companies I'd never heard of creators. I'd never heard of weird and wonderful things. This is what I was expecting to see at stationary fast. And I knew it was going to be a large event just based on the amount of tickets and seeing pictures and stuff. But I still was not prepared for just how many vendors were there. Um, and kind of like how many people there were as well. Like the, the over, the overall scale of this event kind of surpassed anything I've experienced, but also the vibes too was so good. Like I said it at the time and I'm perfect on it. This is, I think the best, I got in trouble for saying this by someone at your second, but I'm just going to say anyway, the best pen show I've ever been to. I was corrected to say stationary show, but they're all joking. I'm just saying that, you know, you know, I was, I was, I was corrected, but still, I, I think this is the best one of these that I've been to from a, I mean, and again, I'm working from a position where I, in this event got great access, but I always do because I go with you. Right. So I'm kind of setting it at that bar. Um, but it was excellently organized. It looked fantastic in there, right? Like there was, it's like, you could tell that they put a lot of effort into it. There was, there are lots of volunteers. I don't think I've ever seen that before at a show, right? Where you, people you could go and ask questions to and they could help you.

Brad Dowdy: All you had to do was turn around and you had a volunteer.

Myke Hurley: I feel like I've been to pen shows before where I desperately needed answers to questions and it almost felt like people were hiding from me. I'm looking through that one very specific, uh, show that happens in the overall district of Columbia area. Um, we've had issues there. That year was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. All they wanted to do was sell their products and no one would help them.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, we should probably find that episode to share because that was a long time ago. It was great. I'll find it. I have some epic pictures, epic pictures from that event. It was awful.

Myke Hurley: Uh, but this one was, I mean, I, I just think that overall it was just, it was, I think arranged very well. And again, there are some criticisms that I think we'll get to, but from my perspective, I couldn't have asked for it to go better. Like I think it was, I think it was a brilliant, brilliant event.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I pretty much echo everything you said now, like to just to piggyback on what you said about our access. We essentially had full access, including what I call like backstage green room access, right? There was a, there was a volunteers and exhibitors room that we had access to. Um, although our guest passes were quite, were quite funny because, uh, we were like one of the few that actually had a badge that said guest on it as opposed. So some of the volunteers were not sure what to do with that. Um, but it was, it was, it ended up being kind of more funny than an issue. Um, so yeah, it was huge in scope. Definitely the biggest show I've been to. And I'll say, you know, I'll try to say stationary show, but I'm just going to say pen show sometimes too, because that's what we're used to. And that's what we're like comparing it to. Like the only other thing I have to compare this to is the previous stationary fest in 2024 that I went to. And that event, you know, had, had a lot of issues that they did take to heart and try to correct for this issue. Uh, I mean, for this, um, event this year, correct those issues. And there were still like, there's still some work to do clearly, which like you said, we're going to get to, but big picture, it was high energy positivity, like the whole time, like no matter if you were in the, like the heat of the peak hours of the show or just walking around like the courtyard, like first thing in the morning when it's quiet. Um, the energy was always like super positive. I felt it was really nice. Nice space. Great to put on, uh, in that event space was cool. Um, so let's go through, I guess, directly some of the highlights and then some of the low lights, um, for this. And, and I'll kick this off. And this is also like piggybacking off of something you said, the, uh, the quality and quantity and variety of vendors was pretty spectacular. Um, less pen vendors, obviously then like, if you've only ever been to a pen show, this is not that there was essentially

Myke Hurley: none. Like there was like maybe like three, but there was, I was going to say like, it's actually,

Brad Dowdy: it was close. I was trying to figure this out. I think it was more like eight to 10. Um, if you like really nailed it down, but yeah, not a lot. And then like three nib grinders, um, who all looked like reasonably busy. Um, every time I went by, like trying to talk to Gina from custom nib studio, they were always working on something. So, um, everyone looked busy and I know Joshua Lacks also did some teaching there. So he wasn't always nib grinding, but, um, it obviously heavily leaned into like the stationary side of things like your journaling, planning stickers, washy type that, that had to be probably 50%. Would you, is that fair? Maybe not that much. Like I'm probably overselling that because there was a lot of variety in the space, but yeah, there was a lot of, you know, stationary type vendors that you don't see at a pen show, but a lot of them that you do see at pen shows. And then you had, um, some random like big companies like Muji had tables there, which was kind of wild to see. Um, yes, they had a huge booth. They had a huge booth and you had the bigger companies, like we already mentioned, the which term, they had like basically an installation space there, right? They would do it like a trade show booth where they had, you know, more just like, as opposed to just like a traditional table, they had like a booth that you could like walk around the internal and they had the photo ops with the big Dregger fell pin, which we took advantage of with a special guest we'll get to later. Um, yeah, I just thought overall the vendors were great. I don't think I like missed anything. I wasn't really lacking for anything, uh, during the show. Um, the vendor space was good. The two rooms were essentially connected by like, I don't know what, uh, 20 yard walkway or so very, very short. Like you could see one from the other, um, very connect internal connection, right? Internal through the courtyard, uh, no, not through the courtyard, but, um, in like an internal hallway. Um, the uptown room was gigantic and then the downtown room was at least half of the giganticness of the uptown room. It was huge on its own. It was the small room. If you can call it, that was as big as some pen show rooms, right? Yeah, for sure. Um, the location itself and jump in, if you want to, to comment on any of this stuff, the location was called industry city. It didn't quite land until we got there. How good of a space that was. I thought we would be a little bit more locked down in options, um, outside of the show, but it turns out it was just basically like a revitalized like warehouse space. And there were eight buildings and like each of these buildings had retail and food and like all kinds of stuff. Um, restrooms were right there. That's always an important thing. Restrooms and like water access. That's always like important. Um, at shows, those were always convenient. Never seemed like too, too much of a line. Um, you know, they were easily accessible. Um, you have a couple of highlights here that I was just like overall talking about the space, but Myke had some different highlights. Yeah. It seems. Yeah. So, uh, well, I think this

Myke Hurley: was on the first day, um, Brad looks down at his shirt and he has a yellow stain on his shirt. Uh, and he's like, we'd, we'd actually just gone to a barbecue restaurant. And so he wasn't completely sure that what had happened, what he had spilled on him. And I realized it was the mustard from the hot dog pen. So the yellow line that Brad has drawn on his hot dog pen, which he was so pleased about over the day, rubbed off and left the yellow stain on his shirt. That was an absolute highlight for me. Um, outside. Cause I didn't know what it was. I was like, how did I get this yellow? And you're like, and I just took one look at the pen that was in the vicinity of the stain and realized what happened to him, which was brilliant. Yeah. So what set it off

Brad Dowdy: was the first panel, like it was warm, but it wasn't too bad that day, but it rained. Yes. So it was very humid in that panel and the hot dog pen was oriented. So that when it's in the front of my badge, you can see the mustard, but if I'm not watching it flips around to the back and then the mustard was in between my badge and the shirt. And then just the heat that I'm generating from, from being hot and humid, um, ended up just like, um, making, giving myself a mustard stain that I was unaware of and actually freaked out about it. I was like, how, there's no way I got anything. And Myke's like, um, buddy, um, you know, that pen that's attached to your shirt? And

Myke Hurley: I'm like, Oh no. So yeah, that was great. Uh, and then also on, I think this is on the second day. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Idina and Sophia came in the morning. It was like, I wanted them to see it. Well, I wanted Idina to see it. Sophia didn't really have much of an opinion. Uh, I wanted Idina to see stationary fest and I wanted to like, just walk around me for a little bit. Cause I knew that she would enjoy it and she would want to, you know, obviously buy things because that's the whole point. Um, and so I was like, well, if you come in the nine to 11 time, it's like, it'd be easy. You can walk around, so that'd be nice. And then also, you know, you, we can, she then would go back, uh, for the baby's nap in the kind of around that time. And so it came in, it was really fun. Sophia first really enjoyed it and got a little overwhelmed by the, by it. Which is interesting. Cause she doesn't always get like that. Um, there was a moment where, uh, I was kind of walking around and, and, uh, see why I said, hi. So I was standing talking to see why and Sophia just like turns to me, raises her arms, which she very rarely does this kind of stuff. And I picked her up and she was just vice gripping my shoulders for like 10 minutes. Uh, I think she had just reached the point where she just needed the safety, but I actually loved that. So I'm not complaining. Yeah. And then we mentioned Muji's booth and Muji were doing a lot of like buyer thing and customize it kind of stands on their tables. And one of the things was stamp your notebook. Um, and so they had all these like big stamps. So stamps everywhere, by the way, it was like one of the really interesting things. That's a thing. Every table has stamps. People were stamping their journals. Right. But like, it was so interesting to see that I'd not experienced that before, but they had this tray of stamps and Sophia was sitting on the, she, she wanted to, she was interested in this. So Dina kind of sat her on one of the tables and Sophia has this, this toy, which is just eggs and you can open the eggs and they have different shapes inside. And she likes to just open the eggs. So she took to just taking the caps of all the stamps and she was doing this for maybe 10 minutes, um, and had to be removed in a meltdown, uh, which was very funny. Um, but the fine people at Muji, they, uh, they, they got the stamps, um, caps removed and put on and removed and put on about a thousand times. I don't know what they

Brad Dowdy: thought was going on over there. It was, it was epic. I kind of watched some of that because, uh, we were both over there, uh, at, uh, who's Ming, which we'll talk about later. And we could see this, uh, transpiring and we're both like, Oh, look how cute this is. And then it was immediately like, this is going to be an issue. And it was, it was a big problem. I would say on this trip,

Myke Hurley: uh, Sophia has developed like very strong preferences for like, if I'm doing a thing, I don't want you to stop me doing that thing. And, uh, yeah, she's at the perfect age for that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We've learned. Yeah. Um, let's tackle a few of the lowlights because you don't want to brush these under the table at all. There's definitely some issues. Brad cannot be silenced. That's how that makes it sound. I will not, I will not be silenced. So the, I guess the good thing is I'm not going to say anything that hasn't been said, like everyone's kind of having the same issues. Right. So like, I'm just, you know, mentioning it and talking about our experience from that. Um, the crowds during peak hours were insane. Like this had the layout of the show was really nice and that the aisles were very wide, but it was still ended up being packed. Like if you have accessibility issues, right? Like if you're in a wheelchair using a walker, I talked to one of my friends in a walker who she was keeping up. She's like, I'm just going to keep a positive attitude. And it's, you know, it's going to, we're just going to go through and deal with this, but like the like wheelchair and walker cane, any type of mobility issue access would have been very, very tough, uh, especially in the middle aisles. Um, they did.

Myke Hurley: Is that different with, with, with other pen shows that you have to, you obviously go to more than me. Right. But like, I feel like this is always a problem. It is. At any convention or anything like that. Right.

Brad Dowdy: It is. So the one thing they did do here to try to mitigate it is they would station volunteers on the most crowded aisles and try to keep the middle moving. So you're either on a, on a table to the left or on a table to the right. And if you're in the middle and you slowed down to like, look over these people, they would move you on. Right. They would try. They were trying. I got moved on a bunch of times. Yeah. We got moved on. We actually got redirected one time because it was too busy to pass through, but I know that's tough. Um, for anyone, even like fully mobile people like us, um, getting through those crowds, like that's where like, you know, it's hard. If you planned on being there for like two hours on like a Friday afternoon, you had a bad time. I promise you. And it's like,

Myke Hurley: I'm not trying to say like, Oh, you know, but it's just, I just think this is an issue with events like this. I don't think this is a specific thing for stationery fest.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And more space doesn't solve this. I think this had the best space of pretty much any show I've been to as far as aisle width. Right. Yes. And I, and I think as well, like it was

Myke Hurley: pretty clear that they could have sold more tickets. Oh, sure. Right. And, and it seems like they tried from the 2024 learnings to limit, uh, attendance in the way that they could. Yeah. One of the ways they limited attendance, which I think actually makes sense, but I understand why people also don't like it is you can, if you will, if you left, you cannot come back on a certain,

No Re-Entry Tickets

Brad Dowdy: on the certain day tickets. Yes. Which that ended up, I think that was my biggest issue. And the most comments I heard on was the no return policy for like, if you had not a VIP ticket, but you had, let's say, uh, Friday one o'clock entry. Okay. You had to go into the show and you were in. And if you left either the show or the courtyard space, you could not return. Mm-hmm. So where the issues arose with that was that actual boundary for no return was not placed, uh, efficiently or correctly. Where was it placed? So, so the retail space and the courtyard were within the boundary. But then what would happen is the spacewalk and the classes were three buildings, four buildings away. So one really good comment, one like very clear issue is one of my friends was there with their family. She was shopping in the retail with the kids. The husband went to take the class. They just had the, the regular day ticket and he could not get back in to see the family again because of where it's easily fixed where the, it's just the barrier was outside the courtyard. So he couldn't come back to the courtyard, hang out. The courtyard had lots of free activities. That's where the food and drink was. Um, I get not being allowed back into the retail space, but the courtyard

Myke Hurley: needs to be outside the boundary. Well, no, I just, I think if you're going to a class for stationary first, you should be able to come back in stationary first. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like I don't even think you're at the courtyard, but I think if you have a ticket and you leave, like you're like, I want to go eat outside. Like I don't disagree with like what you're not coming back in now. Like, and if it's made very clear, it was, it's, it's a way of trying to do something to ease the pressure on the event.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, these tickets knew in advance, there was a no re-entry ticket, but I think the confusion lied was there was actually separation of events that prevented, um, that caused some problems.

Myke Hurley: I, I would expect if you, if you mentioned that to Yoseka, they would agree with that part.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's the most common, common issue besides crowds.

Myke Hurley: It's like if, if we're doing it, if we're paying you more money to go to a class, you shouldn't then take my ability to, to not return to the event. But I just figure if you're leave, if you leave the boundary, you should not coming back, I think is fine. They've just got to find, maybe draw that boundary a little different.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. That's my, my take on that. Like I get the, like the retail space boundary, like you're buying a, uh, um, one-time ticket for, you know, a time slot, essentially an entry time. There was no exit time. You didn't have to leave. Um, but like, yeah, if you wanted to exit that boundary for like show, especially show related reasons, like that was, that was a weird, weird setup. Um, those were the two big, the two biggest issues were peak crowds, which I don't, you, I'm not going to say it's unsolvable, but like adding more space does not solve that. Right. Like it caught that causes as many problems as, as anything else. Um, and then the return access. I think those were the two main issues, which is smaller

Myke Hurley: issues. Reflection though. If you compare that to 24. Oh, I I'll, I'll mention something on

Brad Dowdy: that. So like what they fixed from 24 was the lines. Yeah. Uh, they couldn't get people into the event in 24 this year. It was like a highlighted, like, yes, you were in a line that wrapped around the building to enter the stationary fest, but it was efficiently

Myke Hurley: moving. Huge, huge, huge line, but constantly moving. So never heard a complaint on that doesn't feel so bad and you know, to expect it. Yep. Everyone was like, Oh yeah, we got

Brad Dowdy: in and like 15 minutes where in 2024 is like, it took two to three hours. Right. So it was, it was crazy. Yeah. Um, small little things. I thought our panel visibility could have been better. I didn't like how they oriented the tent situation. It was not great. People couldn't

Myke Hurley: find us. But that's an us thing. You know what I mean? Like, like I agree with that, but that's

Brad Dowdy: the selfish, uh, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just weird. Like that could have been like still, we might not have had as many people, but people could have at least like seen what

Myke Hurley: was going on and maybe. Cause there were people that kind of like found it by act found us by accident and sat down and watched cause they were interested, but they didn't, the people

Brad Dowdy: didn't have the opportunity. Yeah. They didn't have the opportunity. Uh, also on day one, we drank all the refill stations, the water refill stations empty, which was kind of crazy. They had three. The flip side is though that they had them. It's awesome. Like we use the heck out of them. That's all we did was drink water all day every three days. But I just, that was just kind of a small, funny anecdote is like, well, I guess, uh, it's working. It's working as intended. Right. Uh, but I've never seen that happen to where we actually drank the, the refill stations dry. Like these are like the real lines, by the way,

Myke Hurley: there, there were still lines inside for certain tables. And I think that they managed them about as well as you could want. They, they had volunteers staffing those lines and the lines that they knew were going to occur. They weren't crossing over other people's tables. They were kind of moving the people around in such a way that it wasn't like obstructing others.

Brad Dowdy: Just visually speaking, I didn't realize this until like the second or third day, anywhere that they knew they had tables where they had to man extra staff to have a line to go to that table. We're all near an exit point. Yeah. So it was a good place. So they wrapped them exteriorly, you know, it doesn't have not, I'm not saying necessarily outside. One of them was definitely outside, but anytime every table that had a line was set in an area in the building to where the line could move out of the way, it still doesn't prevent crowding, but it prevents the line from wrapping and getting in front of other tables to your point. But I just wanted to make that point. They stage those exactly where they needed to be because they can move some of the crowd, like, you know, 10 feet away, right outside of a door and then manage, then actively manage that

Myke Hurley: with their staff. And then something that I noticed is that some of the people where lines were forming on day one, kind of like unexpectedly, I guess, they moved those people to a different area for the second and third days to try and alleviate some of that, which I thought was very clever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They were very active in managing as much as they could. Also never seen so much security in my life. Yeah. Security everywhere. Yeah. As well as the volunteers. Security and volunteers were literally everywhere. Like you couldn't turn around with seeing one. Which again, just made the whole

Myke Hurley: thing have that feeling of like, we're protected here in a way. Yeah, it was good. It was very,

Brad Dowdy: yeah, it was very good. So that's kind of like the, like the highlights of like the space and the events and like the, the more overall stuff. Obviously, if you have any more feedback, you can send it to me. Hello at penact.com. They're definitely like, we're not saying anything that

Myke Hurley: they don't already know, but I'm sure there's people at Yoseka about it before we even left.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And we are admittedly, our experience was not the same as everyone's because we had like kind of like VIP access. We had the brutality treatment.

Brad Dowdy: So like definitely they are, they need to know and are willing to listen to any issues you had and try to correct them if there's going to be a next time. We were both assuming there's going to be a next time by how they were talking. So yeah, like what they changed from 2024 to 2026 was noticeable and it worked. So there's still tweaking to do and you got to let

Myke Hurley: them know. Yep. Just before we move on from this, I wanted to mention real quick. So Marybeth did a

Stationery

Brad Dowdy: class, right? Yep. Yeah. So, so my wife's not into stationary at all. Like she literally bought nothing the whole time. I don't know how that happens. We tried, we tried to get her into a certain notebook. We'll talk about in a minute. What's it going to take to get you into?

Brad Dowdy: So I found a matcha class that she was excited to take. I was like, you know, Thursday, I knew she would be tied up just walking with us and doing things. I was so lucky to have her there to take pictures because I took almost none. That's how busy I was this entire event. And then Friday, I was like, oh, she's going to be losing her mind by this point. So let me look on class to see if there's anything like she would do like watercoloring. She would do like any of the artistic classes. But then I found one where one of the matcha vendors there who was actually selling there was teaching, you know, a matcha class and they got to make like a traditional matcha tea drink. And then they got to make a matcha latte. It was like an hour and a half class. She had the best time. So she really liked that. So shout out Kettle who ran that class. They were also selling matcha there. It was great. It was great. All right. Should we take a break? Let's take a break.

Myke Hurley: All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Factor. Summer is in full swing. And you know what that means? Travel. We all know about travel here. Travel affects your eating, right? Whether you're, I mean, for me right now, we're coming back. It's I'm too tired to cook with jet lag. And so it can be very easy to slip into bad habits in times like this. But the good news is Factor makes it super easy to get back on track because Factor makes chef crafted dietitian designed ready to eat meals. So you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and not the things that don't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable. Every week you'll find over 100 nutrient dense menu items to choose from and new options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collard greens, more. Plus add-ons you'll crave like pumpkin flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. 97% of users agree that Factor meals help them live a healthier life so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every meal. Brad, would you agree with that statement? Are you in that 97%?

Brad Dowdy: I was going to say 100%. Yeah, that's accurate. Accurate statement. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I love Factor in that I can just kind of like pick something out nice and go and not have to worry about like reading the labels or like what's crazy in here and I know it's going to be good and I know it's going to be healthy. And it's great for these times of years when I'm even more busy, like even if I'm out of town, like I don't have to have the meals, you know, coming when I'm out of town, but I can pick it back up when I get back and, you know, get back into having these excellent meals. So we gotta, we gotta get that next order in for Factor for me, which might be this week.

Myke Hurley: Well, if you want to get an order of your own and you want to eat real, go to factormeals.com slash penaddict50off and use the code penaddict50off to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October the 31st, 2026. That's the code penaddict50off at F-A-C-T-O-R-M-E-A-L-S.com. Penaddict50off at factormeals.com. Our thanks to Factor. Please see the website for details. Thank you for their support of this show and all of Relay.

Brad Dowdy: Wonderful. Should we do our shout out of the week, Myke? Shout out of the week. Lamy. This is a weird shout out. It's like, I don't, y'all know I don't need to shout out Lamy. I love them. I'm shouting out, shouting them out. Not out of love this week, Myke. There is a new LX on the market, the Lamy LX Blue. If you're not familiar with the LX, this one came out at the heyday, Myke, you'll remember this, of the, what the, when Apple was doing the champagne, silver, and black pens. Oh my God. Yeah. And then the LX came out, like, oh, I think it was millennial pink. I think it was the millennial pink era, right? Where that was like the super popular color. So they did like the three matching pens to like the Apple phone colors that year. So they haven't done many more. They've done one or two more since then. They always look so good. Right. And this one is just called blue and it's gorgeous. But my problem is, and I didn't really have anywhere to put this in this week's episode. So I put a bit in the shout out is that the LX is just a glorified all-star, but they charge 60%, at least 60% more for almost nothing, right? A couple of trim changes. And that's where I like, I have a real issue with the LX. The argument I could have is that the all-star should be priced like the LX to begin with. I don't want to put that idea in their heads. The argument I could have is that the all-star is too

Myke Hurley: cheap. Why'd you say it? Why'd you say it? Like I wouldn't, like if the all-star was this price,

Brad Dowdy: I would go, ah, that sounds about right. But the LX. What is different between the LX and the all-star? So they have like maybe like metal finials as opposed to like the plastic. And they do just a little, they do the, um, you've seen instead of just the black nib, they'll do the black nib with like that gold kind of like line on it. Right. Yeah. But it's still a steel nib. It's a good looking. It's so it's just slightly visual. It's like a trim package on a car, right? It's, it's the next level trim package, but you pay so much more for that. Right. And that's, that's exactly what it is. It's such an outrageous, it's still, it's like a $60 pen or a $55. I don't even know what it is. It's like around there. And like, that's totally fair for that pen, but the all-star is $37. And then that's, that's something I can't like get over in my head. Like it's something I get really, really hung up on when they release new LXs is like your, your like the trim package. It's still the same engine, right? Like nothing's changing. Still the same engine. It's going to write the same. Uh, you could say that a lot about a lot of pens. A lot of it is trim package, but anyway, that's my Lamy LX rant. Um, yeah, not my favorite Lamy only because of price, but man, it's, it's so nice. It's, it's great looking. This blue one looks great. All right. Speaking of pens, Myke, let's hit some shopping. Let's hit some shopping. Um, so I wanted to do this related to like what we talked about in the preview. Like,

Myke Hurley: did you do any of that stuff? So what you got? Yeah. So I like the way that you structured this. Um, so I wanted to find a commonplace book, right? That was my number one thing. And I think something I hadn't really shared is like one of the, the main reasons I want this book is for, the new podcast that I'm doing designed in California, because I, I come across all these interesting thoughts and quotes and stuff like that from the work that we're doing with research and reading and stuff like that. And I wanted a place to keep that. Like, that's kind of like the main reason I want this book. And I was spending a lot of time thinking, and we're talking about on the show, like what would work for me. And, um, you mentioned you, you recorded a, how do you say it? Like, Techo Kaigi. Techo Kaigi. Techo Kaigi. With Yoseka, which is basically, let's review all of the notebooks I'm using. Yeah. Right. I think it officially translate to like

Brad Dowdy: notebook meeting. Yeah. Where you like get all your notebooks and you decide what's working,

Myke Hurley: what's not. It's like, yeah. And, but this really feels like a show and tell kind of thing. Yes. And you spent a lot of time talking about your plotters and the things that you do and the papers that you add is really fascinating. And hearing you talk about that, I was like, ah, I think what I want is a plotter. And the reason this settled for me is I wanted something small that I could put into my bag and have it with me all the time. I didn't want it to be a heavy notebook for that reason. So the idea of having a notebook where I can actually choose how much paper I want to be in it was enticing. I liked the idea that I could essentially use any paper in it eventually. Right. Because there's always a problem with me for plotter is like, I actually technically can't buy the refills. Yeah. I would have to have maybe, you know, you buy them and send them to me or something like that. Right. So the idea that I could really just get any paper and hole punch it, which is what you do for yours, that was enticing. But then also the thought of like, what I would like to do is if, if I really get into this in the way that I want to, the way that we produce this show is in seasons. And I like the idea of like filing away each season when I'm done with it. So like, yeah, actually taking the pages out of the plotter and kind of filing them. And because also we are going to be returning to topics over time. And I like the idea that I could go back to the pages that I had on a certain topic, bring those back into the plotter and then add to it. So that kind of like, it feels like a nice system. Also the plot is just beautiful. Everything is fantastic. Yeah. So I have a plotter. Yay. The personal size, which is what is it?

Brad Dowdy: It's like a little, it's like around, it's like a little less than a five, like five by closer to like a five by seven profile, but I think the page is even slightly smaller. Yeah. And I got it in blue

Myke Hurley: and just the, uh, like, I thought you got, I thought you got green. I got green. Uh, I got green. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You're right. Mine's blue. Mine's blue. You were handling that a lot. So yes. Uh, you have the new,

Myke Hurley: you got one of the new colors. It's so good. Uh, and I got a couple of the dot grid inserts and like, um, pen, I got a pen loop and also they have like a strap thing. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, I got, I, I wouldn't say it's, it is, I did not get a, by design, like a complicated one. Like I know you can really get a lot of stuff going on, like wallets and all those kinds of things. I don't think I want any of that for right now. Uh, but yeah, that is where I have landed is on a plotter. And I look forward to feeding back on this over time and like how it's going to work for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The more you talked about your intended use for this, the more clear it was that this was the right solution for that. Um, and then it doesn't hurt that it's just a freaking gorgeous object. Like I just love holding it. Right. And I think the size I think is my favorite thing aside from like the beauty and the functionality of it. The size is like the Goldilocks size for not too big, not too small, just right. It's very portable. Um, it's very easy to use. Um, you have plenty of space to write and then you can just, you know, move pages around as you need. And yeah, it's just, it, it works for me. And I think in this case, it's going to work for you. So I'll be interested to see what your feedback is the more you use it. Yep. Because again, like I always say,

Myke Hurley: it's not for everybody. Absolutely not. Um, I got a, I wanted stickers and oh boy, did I get a lot of stickers. So I put links to Instagram profiles for, um, the, the creators that I bought products from. So one is who's Ming, which I think we're going to talk about Ming a little bit more in a bit. We actually did on the last one, but we could talk about that in a bit. Yeah. Um, he had some incredible stuff. Uh, his illustration style. So fantastic. Uh, some found someone called Panty Cat, which is a phrase I don't really want to say out loud, but I've done it now. Oh, just wait till what I got. Oh, I know. I've seen it. Uh, they, they had some fun, uh, a lot of their stickers were not what I wanted. Uh, uh, like cats in underwear obviously is the name would suggest, but they also had a bunch of like really fun Pokemon. Uh, there, there was a lot of unofficial Pokemon stuff throughout, uh, stationary fast. Uh, and I got some sticks, some Pokemon stickers and also a really fun, uh, uh, like sausage dog. Um, what you would call wiener dog, I think, uh, uh, fridge magnet, which, which was a lot of fun. So I got that. Um, also there's a, a creator, um, I see a say a Guguma also a bunch of Pokemon Ditto stickers, which I was, uh, in love with. So I got those. Um, I bought a bunch of stuff from once more with love. Um, a lot of New York focused things and also some stationary stickers and my first two rolls of washi tape that I bought in my life. Uh, ever I've, I have washi. I've never bought it. Okay. Nice. This is the first time I bought some and it was, uh, some that had a pigeon on them because Sophia loves birds, Gaga's as she calls them. Uh, and so I thought that was very fitting. And then also a stationary, like a pen washi, which I don't think you got looking at your video. So those stickers that you got of like the Muji pens. Yeah. She also has a washi tape. That's those. Oh, sick. And it's got like sailor pen is in there. A Twisby is in there.

Brad Dowdy: Really good. So it turns out all of those are underneath those top two that were, I thought it was just like a batch of the Muji sticker and the Sakura, uh, pick them a micron sticker, but it's, it's all those pens, but all those pens in a, in a washer. I wish I would have

Myke Hurley: seen the stickers actually. So, uh, yeah, uh, I also got, and then I also got, um, some, some stickers from, uh, I think the person who had the most visually impressive booth at stationary fast is name is Lilium's. Um, and, uh, I'll talk about something else that I got from there in a minute, but yeah, yeah, that was a really standout, standout booth design, like a big yellow newsstand was, uh, yeah, that's great. So it's really, really cool. Uh, I wanted some New York related paraphernalia and it was the stickers that did it like I just saw many New York focus stickers. Um, and I also had a note of Toyoka craft that I was tempted by them, but everything

Brad Dowdy: sold out, which I think was lucky for me. Toru had an amazing show. We got to talk to him a bunch. Um, and every time we'd go back the, the amount of items on the table was shrinking just over and over again. It was great. It was good to see. Yeah. Um, yeah. So that, that was all the main stuff

Myke Hurley: and I got some extras. So one was this cardigan that Lilium's made and I, that was a gift for Adina. It was a, it's a cardigan called pen friend. It's just excellent. Um, so good. That was a very popular product. I actually saw people then wearing them on subsequent days. It's so good. I was also gifted a pen by friend of the show, CY. And I want you to help me pronounce the name of the company. Uh, Kiyosado. Kiyosado. Okay. So, uh, they've been developing a like piston pen and I don't think the model that I have, I couldn't find it on their website, but it's on their Instagram. So I linked to that where it's, um, it's, uh, what is the name of that material? Like the amber like material? Uh, Ultem. Ultem. It's an Ultem body and with a really interesting piston mechanism that, that I got a good lesson on how to use. Uh, and I'm excited to play around with cause it's a fascinating design. So this seems to be their kind of like main pen. They offer it in a bunch of different, um, uh, materials and stuff like that. So that was very cool. I was very thankful for that. And as obviously the nib, perfect. Yeah. Definitely. See why I was like, I want you to try this, but I think I nailed it. And I tried it. You nailed it.

Brad Dowdy: He was even like, he was like sussing you out the day before. Cause he pulled me aside. He's

Myke Hurley: like, all right for Myke. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. He got me. He got me perfect. So I can't wait to, to ink this pen up and give it a good time. So that's what I got. Nice. That's like,

Brad Dowdy: you did great. Yeah. I think so. Like, yeah, it's such a unique shopping experience from like our, the traditional pen shows we go to where you can, why not a little bit of both? Right. And get something new that we don't normally see. So I love it. And that, that is, that was my

Myke Hurley: absolute favorite thing is like the variety of stuff just made the show more fun because I just kept coming across things and was like, what are you all about? Like, what is this now? Like it was, it was really fun for that regard in like a way that I, I've had some of that kind of experience at a, a more traditional pen show, but this was just like, I've never even thought about like, like actual like, like merchandise, like socks and stuff like that that I was seeing, you know, like these things were like, oh, I would never see stuff like this, but it's because there are so many creators with such a strong point of view at an event like this, that they were bringing things to it. Say we're confident in, which didn't necessarily fit what you'd think, but, oh, well, you can make a really great cardigan for people that love stationery. Like you can just, you can do that. Right. And, and so you've, you've just got to be confident in what you're doing. So I thought it was really interesting. Yeah. Great stuff. All right. Let's take our last break and then we'll get to what you bought. Okay. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imports. So we always talk about some stuff we love at Enigma Stationery. I did want to mention Chris in the discord while we were talking earlier about like doing things at Stationery Fest or whatever said Chris, Chris says Brad and Myke are the real life business frogs, which I thought was very funny. I enjoyed that a lot, but what's going on over at Enigma Stationery,

Fountain Pen

Brad Dowdy: Brad? Very timely featured item. They've had this for a little bit, but I wanted to bring more eyes on it. This is the special edition fountain pen number 10, Fizzy Peak Lemonade. And the reason I'm bringing it up is it is made by Ben from Mayfair Pens who we had the pleasure of sitting with. And this Fizzy Pink Lemonade is one of Enigma's own blanks. This material is stunning. The pen shape is stunning. The price is fantastic. Yeah. Unbelievable. There was only like 17 of these made. So I don't know how many there are left, but like this for what this pen is and the price that it's offered at, like it's pretty close to a no brainer type of situation. Another kind of, um, not a random thing, but something that like I'm not into, but I could get into. And I saw a lot of this at Stationery Fest is they have this, uh, watercolor kit. So this is the particularly, um, Londa Ruin art. Uh, it's bookstack watercolor kit. So it's just kind of a themed watercolor kit with a few colors, uh, specified off of this book, uh, book set, uh, artwork. And I would see people out in like the courtyard area bringing their small, like watercolor palettes and, you know, painting in their journals and to have like a little small kit. Um, and that has like some pre-printed like artwork for you to use to mix and match your colors and paint on and then use them for other things. I thought this is a really neat idea and something I could get into. And it turns out there's a lot of them. Like there's a, there's a flower one, a California poppy, a monarch butterfly, a popsicle one, which looks right up my alley, given the colors that are supplied with it. So it's kind of, it's not really like a, a, a full set, but it's like a very specific set based on like the image you're going to learn how to paint. So I thought that was a really, really neat setup. So yeah, lots of fantastic things over at Enigma

Myke Hurley: Stationery right now. There always are because they're so great over there and you can go and check it out for yourself and you can get $10 off any order of $50 or more just by going to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and using the code TPA26 at checkout. That's enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and you'll get $10, I should say, off orders of $50 or more when you use the code TPA26. A thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and relay.

Brad Dowdy: So I did some shopping. I didn't go like super crazy, but I did get some things specifically that I wanted. So on my, my pre-show list, I obviously wanted to stop by Hachimanjia. They had some wonderful stuff. They had all the, the life notebooks, which I love the, the different shapes and different papers and colors of those. They had a bunch of sailor products.

Myke Hurley: Truly stunning Pro Gears. Yes, they were beautiful. And it's interesting actually. This is something that me and Adina was talking about when she came, like I was showing her them. She's like, wow, they're beautiful if you bought one. And I was like, not at those prices.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're crazy.

Myke Hurley: The prices are just too much now.

Brad Dowdy: It's too much. It's expensive. Um, so they had a bunch of their inks too. I bought no ink in retrospect. I wanted, there was a few bottles I regret not picking up. Um, Hachimanjia has some good stuff. I was kind of like, like storage limited for like the amount of stuff I could bring home anyway, but so ink didn't make the cut, but I did buy a mechanical pencil, mechanical pencil from them. Um, which I'll have to, um, I'll, I'll definitely be sharing and reviewing it. Hang on, let me grab it. I always forget the name.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. It was really nice. It's like white, right? Like the design of it was really fun.

Brad Dowdy: So it's, uh, from Caillou, uh, not the cartoon, K-A-Y-O-U plus Caillou plus. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's white. It was like 60 bucks, which is very expensive for a mechanical pencil, but this is like a really nice engineering pencil.

Myke Hurley: Is it the AIM Vision Pro?

Brad Dowdy: It is the AIM Vision Pro. Exactly. 0.5 in white.

Myke Hurley: Very interesting looking. Now, is this multiple pencils?

Brad Dowdy: No, it just has a dial for, uh, graphite. Yeah. Graphite dial for it. So, you know, what's in there. Um, but it's just singular in nature. It, it feels, feels really, really good. So, um, I also got to see the Superior Labor collaboration with Yoseka. Yeah. And I bought, I think it's called the Pochette. I'll have to pull up the, the name, but it's like a small over the shoulder bag, like with a very thin strap and it's just a pouch style. A lot of the Yoseka staff were wearing them, uh, during the show. They're just kind of a wonderful design.

Superior Labor

Myke Hurley: I don't think you, uh, sorry, you, you, you undersold this in that. I did. This is a brand that Superior Labor and Yoseka have created together called Union is a sub brand. And these are the first products available in that sub brand with more coming later.

Brad Dowdy: And they're beautiful. Yeah. The colors are really good. The shapes are really good. Uh, some unique designs and I'm already a huge Superior Labor fan. So I got the yellow, um, the yellow, I think it's called the Pochette. I'll have to, I'll have to go back and find the name of it. Oh, Sakoche. Oh, Sakoche. Sakoche. Yeah. It's like a pouch. I don't know what a, yeah. So I don't know what a Pochette is. Let's not look up that in the dictionary probably. Um, Ming, who is Ming? We, uh, both love who is Ming's art style. We both got, uh, caricatures done, got our selfies drawn. It was, it was great. Um, picked up a bunch of stickers and swag. Um, so that was on my list. Um, idea switch was on my list ahead of the show. Wanted to see what they brought. So they were one of the things we didn't talk about much as the spacewalk and we'll have to like revisit that because like we'll have a two hour episode.

Myke Hurley: I don't think we have enough time left. Yeah. We don't have enough time, but they were in

Brad Dowdy: the, they were in the spacewalk room and I got to see kind of the small fountain pens that I wanted to see. Um, didn't really click with me. Um, but it was good. It was good to see them and I wanted to see what they had. I also had on my list, which I should have followed back on my list was the, uh, Graffalo paper was listed as a vendor and I don't know that they were a vendor, but I think they were as part of one of the distributor tables and I didn't spend any time over there. That was like a oopsie in retrospect. I should have, um, spent more time like looking for that, but I just kind of forgot. And then lastly, kind of like your sticker adventures. I also found some new fun stuff. Um, my favorite find was Miho Nianco. Um, their sticker designs really like, uh, like nailed it as far as I'm concerned. Um, just like, it's a really silly kind of cat stuff. And like, I don't have a cat. I'm not necessarily a huge cat fan. Um, but the way the cat is drawn and designed is hilarious. And you know, I got like some curry, curry cat, curry, they would do like, like, um, is a Kaya stuff like beer and curry and like, just like funny, silly stuff, like with the Japanese bent, uh, to it. So they were great. I also got some things from once warm with love, which we already talked about. Um, having the different like pen stickers, I did get some washy, but apparently not the coolest one, like you're saying. And then, um, I always end up buying some type of risograph stuff at these shows. So this time it was from, uh, Tomiko Sador. And this was my pornography zine. Um, it was basically shrimp art, which like, it's just like panty cat. Like this is the stuff I'm just going to buy something of at one of these shows. So like, I literally bought a risograph zine of people doing shrimp artwork. And I'm so excited. Like, it makes me happy. So like, that's the kind of stuff I ended up buying here, uh, at, at shows like this. So, um, I'm, I'm very happy with that. And then getting to check out like all these new artists, like we're barely scratching the surface, but I couldn't buy like everything. Um, but I did like look around, see which designs like looked like the most like me. And then definitely, um, you know, spent some money with a lot of these vendors. So it was great.

Myke Hurley: Before we finish today, Brad, I have some followup for you. I'm very concerned. I have two things. One, uh, I, I've, I was thinking to myself about like, I don't know what pen I want to keep in my plotter. And I was thinking about a multi pen and I was doing some searching and I actually, I landed on something to try, which I have now, which is the Jetstream four plus one. Yes. Which is four Jetstream colors, black, blue, green, and red, and a mechanical pencil. Yes. Fascinating product. It's a great product. One of the best. The pen is overall a little big and heavy, but I don't think in a way that would be a problem for me, but it is interesting. I got, I didn't get you, you have a review with Jeff actually wrote a review for the pen addict and Jeff has the metal body one. And mine is a plastic

Brad Dowdy: body with a wooden grip. So yeah. So the metal body one is actually ultra light. It's crazy. It's a, it's thin aluminum. It's kind of wild. Do you think it was lighter than the plastic one though? Then the one that you have with the wood grip, because that's the one I use. I use the exact kind of one that you have. Um, and it's clearly lighter. And then they

Myke Hurley: also, I don't like the way it looks though. It's the thing. It's yes, it's different. So I'm happy with the one that I have because I like the way that it looks. Right. Um, the only

Brad Dowdy: other one I'd recommend it, which is my favorite one, but it's just a three pen, no pencil.

Myke Hurley: Uh, they do a jet stream slim, uh, yeah. I think I do want a pencil though. So I'm going to play around with this cause I also don't even know, but I was intrigued about like, you know, like where are we in? Cause I was talking to you about this that, and I think people can maybe feel this. I am, I don't mean it's in a, it sounds weird when I say it, but I'm, I'm going down market in my pen tastes.

Brad Dowdy: No, I think that's, yes, I understand that. Well, we should probably do a whole episode.

Uniball Products

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I'm noticing this in myself where I'm, I'm, I'm like collecting Uniball products. You know, like I'm really in now, uh, with uni, I'm surrounded by them. And I just think this is a, there's two things going on, which is one, I am just, I'm not willing to, to spend the money that the fountain pen brands want from me in the way that I used to. I mean, I obviously haven't bought a lot of stuff for a long time, but I'm just very happy with my collection, right? Like I just very seldom feel like I need to add anything, but in the time that I haven't been paying attention to it in a, I'm not going to own these products. Like, obviously I know what's happening because we talk about it all the time, but I'm not using a lot of these, like the right more like the regular stationary products. And in those intervening years, the quality has risen so high, right? Like it's gotten so good. And I feel like I have not experienced that for myself. So it's like a whole new market for you. It's yes, exactly. And I'm having a great time. And so I'm going to try that. But the main thing I wanted to follow up on. So before a couple, I want to be clear. Are you sure you want to do this? Yes, I do. So I bought a Uniball 1P Zento. I hate you. Right? But we spoke about this. We spoke about this. This is the Uniball 1P, which is a pen and refill, right? That has the Zento as well.

Brad Dowdy: No, not as well. There's not two refills in this.

Myke Hurley: Is that the case, Brad Dowdy? Because I have some fun follow up for you. Oh no, do you have the multi-pap? No. There is a multi-pap. What? I bought the Uniball 1P Zento. And it's this clear one with confetti. Yes. Right? It's great. Yes. It ships with the Uniball 1 refill. No. And in the package is a Zento refill. You cannot be serious. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So I have... So inside the pen, as it comes, is the Uniball 1 refill. It just got worse. Like you made this worse somehow. No, this is great. This is incredible. And I have in the back of the box is a Zento refill. Are you serious? Yeah, man. The great thing is, so I bought this... I don't know if I bought it from the journal shop. Maybe. It's like I bought it from one of the British companies. I think I did. And I'll put it in the show notes. It is not clear anywhere to me that this is what you get. Okay, sure. It says here, details included. One spare Zento UBR Z38 refill. But does it say it's fitted with a one gel? It says ink, black, Zento water-based pre-installed. But that's not what is pre-installed. Oh, my God. What is pre-installed is the Uniball 1 UMR 38S.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's gel. Yes. Oh, my God. Which is the same refill that is in my Uniball 1P. We need to just go ahead and record next week's podcast. This is going to take the whole time.

Myke Hurley: This is so fantastic. I love this incredibly weird... It's only weirder now. Yes. Right? Why did they do this? Yes. Because the thing is, on the package, if you look at the packaging, now I know this information, I understand what they're trying to get across to me. But because I don't read Japanese... But it's incorrect.

Brad Dowdy: You just said the package is incorrect.

Myke Hurley: No, because the package says Uniball 1P. And then in a box, it says Uniball Zento. And then there's a bunch of Japanese characters. And I don't know what it means. Right? But I think what it's trying to suggest is, hey, also... But if you were to flip the package to the back, the Zento refill is just hanging out there. So you can see it.

Brad Dowdy: I need to get this. Because this is like an article. I need to write this article.

Myke Hurley: Like, there is a window on the back of the package where you can see the Zento. And also, the back of the package, it says... It's all in Japanese. But it says Uniball 1P. And it's got a box, 0.38mm. And then plus Uniball Zento. And then also 0.38mm. So it's like indicating everything you need to know if you understand Japanese and can read Japanese. What it is indicating. Because it also, like I can see the number 2 here. So it's probably suggesting there are two refills inside of this package. But it is only made weirder by the fact that it is the Uniball 1P is the name. And it ships to the Uniball 1, but also a refill for a completely different pen. Incredible. Buy this product. It's the best.

Brad Dowdy: How much was it? Is it like $9?

Myke Hurley: $12.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So like $15, $18. Wow. Okay.

Myke Hurley: This model is also fantastic. Like the clear confetti sparkle one.

Brad Dowdy: It's so good.

Myke Hurley: Because I love this pen. Like the Uniball 1. I love this pen. And now I have this incredible one.

Brad Dowdy: How does this get out the door? Like how does this get out the door legitimately? Like at a huge company like this, how does this product exist?

Myke Hurley: It's more like what is the idea that leads to this?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, oh my God. We just need to stop.

Myke Hurley: Brilliant. I'm so happy that I've been able to bring this information to you. Yeah. In the show. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. If you would like to catch the show notes and information about this episode, they're in your podcast app of choice or over on the web at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 728. A lot of links today about a lot of the fun vendors that we saw. A bunch of Instagram accounts for you to go and follow. Thank you to Kaleidocraft, Factor, and Enigma Stationery for their support of this week's episode. If you want to find Brad online, please go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. And he's on Instagram as penaddict. I am Instagram as imike. I am YKE. We both put up some recap posts if you want to go and see some stuff about our travails together, the photos of me and you on the old Instagram. And you can also catch the show at relay.fm. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.