Editing The Pen Addict 246/transcript (section)

== Manal Bag ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I've been talking about that bag, the Manal bag that I've had on order, and it came in, and I just wanted to share some thoughts on it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looks great. I really love this bag. You know, I was looking around and just looking at some stuff, and there may have been some bags that were better suited to the purpose that I had. But I wanted something that looked good to me as well. And of everything that I found, the Manal daily bag, which is what I picked up, it definitely looks the best to my eyes, you know, like for my aesthetic. So I'm really happy with that. It fits a ton of stuff. Like I basically emptied out my Topper Mountain briefcase. I was able to get everything in, and I have so much space left over. It has loads of great little pockets, and I think it's the pockets that really help with that, right? Because you're able to kind of, even though it's a relatively similar-ish size, like footprint, it's maybe a little bit bigger. There's more stuff going on, right? There's more pockets on the front. It has like more pockets on the back where the laptop holder and stuff goes. Like there's just more happening. And also I bought like this little organizer thing for some cables and stuff. So that's kind of keeping things nice and out of the way. So I'm very pleased with the way that the bag is able to take care of all of my items, like in the way that I wanted it to. One thing that is frustration for me, but I was able to fix quite easily, was there's no real pen storage solution. Like there's no little like little pockets for pens, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I know a guy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, see, this is the thing. So I didn't really have anything that would like, that I could clip pens inside of. Like the Topo had those little, you know, like the little like finger sized pockets, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so like a lot of backpacks will come with like two to three just slots made for pens or flashlights, just, you know, like a little vertical slot.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This one does not. So I decided that maybe I should just grab some of my knock cases, put my stuff in and put the cases in the bag. So I did. So I'm using, I am using a lookout for three of my pens, a little three pen holster. And I'm also using one that I don't know the name of because I don't think you make it anymore. So it's like the Hightower, but it's just got the two big pockets.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So for notebooks, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So that was called the Mary Apple. That was probably the simplest case we made in our original Kickstarter. You know, that's something we wanted to do in the beginning. And then we ended up, you know, kind of cannibalizing that as we, you know, morph and change products, which is what you do. You know, things come and go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's the least exciting of all the cases, right? Like it's kind of a boring one. It's just like this bifold of two huge pockets, right? Like it's just not, it doesn't have the excitement of some of them. Like it's just, it's pretty, it's very simple.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's like our discovery phase. We're getting our sea legs. What do we want to do? What works? What doesn't? And, you know, you learn and get feedback when you, when you produce things like that. So yeah, we ended up discontinued it, discontinuing it because we had other options, but you know, we still get people, you know, asking for that every now and then.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have realized though, in doing this, that what I actually need is a Sinclair. I don't own a Sinclair and now I'm going to get a Sinclair probably at the next, at the next pen show because really all I need is a place for three pens and a couple of notebooks. So I'm using two cases for that. Well, that's, that is what the Sinclair is exactly for. So I'm going to, I'm going to get one of those.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You should get one in Atlanta.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, wait, hold on a second. Colt pens to the purple and brown one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a good one. I'm just saying you may have to wait until Atlanta.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. I'll wait until Atlanta then. Okay. Well, I can wait. I can wait. So yeah, this is the bag I was looking for. Like this is the bag that I wanted. It has so much space left over that I can fill up a bunch of stuff with when I'm traveling. I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces, which will be in a few weeks when I go off to Ireland. So yeah, I'm very pleased. Big thumbs up for this bag. It's very good looking, very comfortable, tons of space, tons of storage. It's perfect for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. Yeah. I want to see it. And I want to see, I want to see how all this stuff fits in.