Editing The Pen Addict 207/transcript (section)

== Tom Ben Bag ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I do my best. So you posted a big review here of a product that you teased a couple of weeks ago, I think, on the show, the Tom Binfield Journal Notebook. Now, this has kind of got a deceptive name, I think, because I think it's a paper product, but it's not. It's a bag. I guess it's both. Can it be both? I mean, it can be both, but I mean, really, it's the bag.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a bag with built-in stuff for writing, for field journaling.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, the origination of the product was literal, like, field work. Like, they made it for people who were out and about, worked in the field, you know, geologists, engineers, construction, National Park Service, that kind of stuff. You know, they wanted something for these people to be able to take out, be able to protect their writing, you know. And, you know, that's kind of how this product originated. And I think for, it must not have been doing really well for them because they took it down, right? Like, I did, I reviewed one five years ago, the original model.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And, you know, they had it up for a year or two after that. And then they, it went off the site. And I used to get emails about it because people would find my review of it and wanted to know where it went. And I was like, I have no idea. Yeah. And then I was talking to the folks at Tom Ben earlier this year about a different product. And they said, hey, by the way, you did that field journal review a while back. We're relaunching it. Are you, do you want me to send that to you as well? I'm like, yeah, I want you to send it to me as well. It was like, like that was going to be a no, right? So they did. And I just love Tom Ben. They make, the quality of goods that they make is ridiculous. So the product I was talking to them about was the Aeronaut 45, which is their largest carry-on duffel. So I wanted that for my traveling. So I had been talking to them about that. And then that's how this came about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I just got my first Tom Ben bag. Oh yeah? What'd you get? Yeah, I got a Ristretto. Oh, nice. So I've been waiting on getting this for a while and I haven't really put it through its paces yet. But it's just whenever I have meetings in town or I want to go and work somewhere or, you know, I'm on a trip that has work involved. I want something smaller and lighter than my Topo mountain briefcase because I just want to carry my iPad around. Right. So I had been waiting for the Ristretto's to come back in stock for a while and I just purchased it. It came a couple of weeks ago. And yeah, I mean, again, I haven't really put the thing through its paces yet. I'm looking forward to doing that. But the quality of their products are amazing. I just want to mention at this point that Tom Ben have been a previous sponsor of Relay FM shows. But I paid for my bag up front.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I got mine for free because I'm a pimp that way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. I don't get it. I have to think about this. I was reading this when I was reading this and I get to the bottom of the page and it's like, oh, I was given this at no extra charge. I don't get nearly as much free stuff as you do. I want more free stuff. Why don't I get more free stuff? I have no idea. You know, Retro 51, they sent me a free pen that's on the way. They do. Right. And I'm happy to get that. But like, where's my free stuff? That's what I want. I want free stuff. So if you hear me out there, manufacturers of things, send them to me. I want stuff like bracket stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's awesome. So back to this bag, which I, okay, I'll call it a bag. It's essentially a bag.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. See, that's what I mean. Like when I, when I first saw notebook, I think paper notebook, right? Like that's what you think of like a bound thing, but it's not a notebook. It's in that sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I want to, I'm going to reverse course and go back on the quality thing. Yeah. This is, I talk about sometimes with pens, how when I get a pen, like straight out of the post, open the envelope, open the box and put it into my hand. The feeling sometimes you just grin, right? Because you know, like right out the gate, it's that good. Yeah. Like you can feel it in the product. This is one of those products where I just like grab the zipper and look at the stitching and you just grin because you're like, holy crap, this is really good. It's like better than it does not compare to like anything else. It's so much better. And, um, that's the feeling I get with Tom Ben's products. And, you know, I really, really enjoy just the quality of them. So this is obviously the construction and manufacture of this are like a 10 out of 10, you know, it's like so well done, you know, but the functionality of it, that's going to be up to an individual, right? Like this is not a product that I would use regularly. So I'm giving it away. Um, you know, I want to give it to someone who would use it regularly, but that doesn't mean it's not just an elite product. Um, but like the paper, um, it has a three wing, three ring binder, um, attachment in the middle of the notebook of the field journal. Um, which is cool in your case, Myke, you can reverse that three ring. You can rotate it one 80.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I pulled this part out of your review because that's such a fantastic, um, feature that shows, as you mentioned, a extra level of care to think about the fact that I shouldn't have to turn the bag upside down to be able to use this thing in the way that right-handed people can use it. So yeah, I think that's amazing that they've done that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Just that they think about that kind of stuff. So, and the amount of things you can put in this, this is a small profile bag, right? This, this paper is like a five ish size. Um, it's yeah. Five and a half by eight and a half paper is, is what's made for this. And you can get three different types of, of paper with it. Like if this was something I would use, I would punch my own, like I'd get Rodea or something and punch my own and cut it. It would work just fine. But the amount of stuff you can put in this, in this field journal is ridiculous. I bet I could get 20 or 30 pins just in the slots. And then there's two or three other pockets you can hold things in. It's crazy. The amount of stuff. So I could see where this was used for like a biologist to go out in the field and do tests. Right. But that's such a specific use case. You know, you're never going to just sell it to like the biology crew. You're not going to sell that many of them. Right. So it's, uh, it's definitely kind of, uh, they're trying to make it into more of a mainstream, you know, portable journaling notebook type of system. Um, you know, I, I just think it's a fantastic product. I think it's a fantastic company. And, uh, you know, I just wanted to shine a little light on it because, uh, I really like what Tom Ben does. And, uh, I want to, uh, make sure that everyone wants to get on the giveaway of this product, uh, that it's going on right now. And we'll have that link in the show notes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. I put it in there. Yeah. This looks real cool. I loved as well. You mentioned about the fact that you don't even think you've found all the pockets yet. And that, that is a real, uh, that's a real thing. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That happened. That happened with my aeronaut, the, the big carry on, like I was packing it, uh, one of the first times I used it and I was packing and I was like kind of done. And then I turned it and I saw this other pocket and I was like, crap, there's more, more things I can discover. So that, that literally happened with the, uh, the big bag. So I, I'm sure there's something in there that I've missed on the, the field journal as well. So good job. Good job by them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.