Editing The Pen Addict 664/transcript (section)

== Inspiration behind the product name ==

* The name because then the name Pocket got in my head. I was like, oh, my God, we could just make a small version of the sidekick. Like I'd never considered that. And also the Game Boy Pocket is this like little tiny little brick thing. So like that kind of the idea of like a thick notebook, which they feel very thick. They're like 60 pages. I mean, you get them in the packaging, which is lovely. The two of them together really feels like that Game Boy in its kind of dimension. But with the sizes, I mean, so it's 14 by 9 centimeters. It's about the size of a pocket notebook that you expect, like five and a half by three and a half. And we got to 14 by 9 just based on how it felt. Like, you know how I am. Like, I don't believe in standardized sizing. I go by feel. And we started with like that kind of the field note size. And then we adapted it a little bit because the way that our product is bound, you lose a little bit of height at the top. And so we were kind of tweaking it until we got to where we were. And I work in centimeters, 14 by 9 centimeters. Yeah, that's good. I know the size and shape. It's about a centimeter thick. It's like 9 millimeters thick when all the pages are in there. All right. I found one more question. All right. As Brad overanalyzes your product. Your product. Is the printing on one side or both sides of the page? One side. Because it doesn't say. Okay. One side. My assumption was one side the way these are laid out. Yeah. Which is fine. Yeah. I mean, we would only do it on one side because of the way that the products work. It's the same with the sidekick notepads. Like, you tear the pages out. So what are you going to do with it? Yep. You know, as well, I'll tell you, I'm so surprised at the lack of bleed on this paper, too. Like, someone was asking me yesterday while I was streaming. So there's like a part of the stream where I even busted out, Brad, my stacked platinum nib on this thing. Sure. I just want you to know, right? So we had no problems with that incredible monstrosity. But, like, I was running down ink and flipping it over. And, like, there is barely any bleed through. Like, there's, with any kind of big nib, you're going to see something, especially if the ink's dark. But, like, it was, it's very good. I'm very happy with the paper. I'm very keen to get your expert opinion on it. Yep. Yep. I'm on it. I'm on it. All right. These look great. Congratulations. Thank you. On an awesome lot. This is a good fit for the product lineup as a whole. Absolutely, yeah. Like, it fits in with what y'all are doing. So it's lovely. I'm hoping that eventually it'll be something where, like, somebody comes to the store, they buy something, and they're like, I want one of those, too. Like, that's kind of the, that's what we're trying to do, right? We're trying to make our store more of a place that when people come to it, they're met with a lineup of products, and they might want more than one. That's the hope in the long term.
* Good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Anything else on the sidekick? Like, this will be a, this isn't not, this is not a short-term product. This is going to continue on. This is part of the core lineup. Yeah, it's going to remain in the lineup, but if these sell out, I don't know when they'll be back. Yes. Business ebbs and flows. Yeah. But this is part of it. Small businesses like ours. Yes. For sure. This is definitely, this is part of our product lineup, but we may, if we go out of stock, it might be out of stock for a little bit before it comes back. But yes, this is, because we ordered like a minimum amount and we'd need to, you know, we have other things going on and, you know, you're pulling together an amount for a bit. I'm learning about pallet sizes now.
* Just logistics, man. Good stuff. The logistics are just horrible. I wish that I didn't have to do any of the logistics. Like, that's what I wished, that it just didn't exist and everything worked easily and well. Or, and, but it doesn't, doesn't, doesn't work like that at all. It's like similar logistics, you know, I've said the main thing that I've heard in the last few days is the thing that I always hear, which is you make these in the UK, ship them to the US and ship them back to the UK again, you know, for people that want to buy them here. It's like, yeah, that, that is, that's exactly how it happens. You're right. Because we have a logistics partner who has one warehouse. I mean, I've spoken to businesses like ours too, who are like, yeah, even if they have the option for multiple locations, they don't do it because it's logistically very complicated. But there is like an answer that I'll, I'll say to you, I try not to say it to people very much because I don't think it's super helpful, but like, you just know where I make my stuff because I tell you. Like, products are made somewhere. They're very seldom made in the place that they're being shipped to. Right. Like, oh yeah, totally. We make them in the UK, but like, would you feel better if you made them in China and sent them to America? Like, would that make you feel better? You know? Right. It's like a, it's like a weird thing. I'm proud of making them here. So we talk about it. And like, and I know that it's like with anything, once you talk about something, you open yourself up to criticism of it. So I understand it, but it is just like a, yeah, we make them here. I tell you, we make them here because I'm proud of it. And unfortunately it means that, you know, now that they're made here and ship there and come back again. And I understand it, but that's kind of global logistics. Yeah. Yeah. As long as you know where they're made, it's largely irrelevant where you're then ordering from. The products are only made in one place or only shipped from one place. And then we all, we ship worldwide. So if, you know, any combination of that, you know, is, is maybe, is probably not what 99.9% of the people have to deal with. Right. So. And usually people don't talk about what the products are made. Right. Cause it's not necessarily interesting. Um, you know, like realistically, unless there is like a pride element to it. And we have that pride element. So we talk about it. Like, I love it. This, at this point, like with the sidekick pocket, I'm banging on now, but the, everything is here. The papers will, but the paper is milled in the United Kingdom and sent to a factory in the United Kingdom that produces them for us. And then we ship them out. I'm so proud of that. Like, I love that. Like that, it means how products are expensive, but that's a differentiating factor for me. Like, I think it's, I think it's important that we're able to support these places here in the UK who are manufacturing products using old school methods. So much of it is done by hand. Like the corner, the corner, um, the rounded corners, the way that they do those, they have this big machine that looks like it was from like 1850 and they load them in by hand as someone steps on a pedal and it cuts the corners. It's like, I love it, man. It's so good. One day I need to make a video showing all of this. Cause I think people would like to see it. It's something I want to do at some point, but I just kind of have to speak to everyone and be like, are you sure you're okay being on video? Like they always went on there, like take photos, come on, take it. And I'm like, yeah, but like, do you really want that? Um, but yeah, they're, they're an incredible group of people. 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So this pocket pen was something that, you know, you wouldn't, you know, I don't think of a Johto and think, oh, like this is, you know, the style of pen that they make, but they did a very highly engineered pocket style pen. I put it up on Kickstarter and I was a backer because I'm a Johto fan and I like pocket pens. And this one was, had enough interest going on to me to back it because it's not cheap, which we'll talk about here in a minute. But, but I got it in hand and wanted to talk about it for those who might be interested. You'll probably start seeing some of the Johto pocket pens pop up now that people are receiving them and that they're available on their website now and things like that. So it's a, it's kind of a pocket knife style pen to where the barrel folds into like a sheath, right? So it's like a half pen. Then you fold it out. It kind of flips out. It's very EDC. Like I think that was what I said at the time, which was like, you're saying it's like, it's not like they're like a Johto's products before now are very elegant. Yes. And delicate. And this is very aggressive. I think. Very EDC. In EDC. Very. Right. You see, you know, the big clips and the exposed screws.
* Yeah. Like this is a very classic EDC pen, which is like, again, it's an outlier for their lineup. But luckily, like their, you know, machining and engineering and design of these types of products is like top tier. Right. So it was a, it was a stretch for them to make this. And I think, you know, a lot of their customers maybe didn't know what to do with it. Like the Kickstarter was fine. Like it didn't, you know, go gangbusters or anything. Um, just because it was such an outlier. And I'm really happy with, so, so far I've, again, I just opened it yesterday and started playing around with it. So, um, I have, uh, like the clip model and, you know, it fits a D1 refill in the front end. The machining is spot on. Again, made in the UK. So designed in the UK, manufactured in the UK. Um, you know, all of their products are. And it's just put together nicely. It's got some really fine details that I like. Like I had to actually go double check this. So when you open the barrel, like when you flip it open, it's got, um, this kind of crescent area with a little, I, forgive me. I'm not using the technical terms, but it's got like a little knob or like a little plug in there where it goes along this channel. And it kind of, there's a bump at the end where it kind of like snaps into place. So when the pen is engaged in writing mode, the barrel isn't flying around like in your hand. It's not moving. You don't want it collapsing either. Right. Collapsing. That's a good word. Yeah.
* So it shouldn't because, you know, of how you hold the pen, but it, that's a nice little, nice little feature. And, um, yeah. So like the, the D1 refill is great. So it's a rectangular barrel, which is going to be a turnoff for a lot of people. Rightfully so. Right. You have to have a pretty traditional grip to hold a rectangular barrel pen, which I do. Um, so I've always used like the, um, CW and T pen type C that flip pen, you know, that is not a pen that anyone can use, but it fits me for some reason. I can really work with these rectangular barrel pens. The only hangup I have on the design. And I don't know that you could change this necessarily. Like this is how this pen is, is built. Um, the refill, you don't have a clear line of sight depending on your writing angle. Does that make sense when I say that? So like if you're looking at a typical conical pen, right, where you have a, a, a symmetrical shape and the refill is coming from the center of that shape, you have good visual clearance. I talk about visual clearance a lot when I'm writing on certain pens and certain pens designs. So this one, it's not centered for the reasons of it being able to fold on itself and the refill be protected. Right. So when you fold it up, there's a little notch where the refill goes in. So you're not getting ink anywhere. So when you use it to write, depending on your writing angle, you could lose a lot of, uh, tip sighting, which is important to me, right? Like that's something because I'm a low gripper as it is. So I kind of have to get in and, and, and look around, um, the tip a little bit to see the pen. So probably the more I use it, the more it'll work. And that's the other thing about this pen. This is not a pen, like pens that are designed like this are not designed to be your all day, every day writing pen. Right. This is designed to be like a carry pen. Like it's probably going to go like in my backpack. It's like a good backpack pen. Like I got the little key chain and carabiner for it because I thought I would clip this somewhere to where, like, it's not going to live on my desk. Right. To use as my daily writer. Or it's going to be used as a tool when I'm, I'm going somewhere or doing something probably in a bag. Like, I don't even think it would be great for like a field notes, like attaching to the notebook because the clip is on the narrow side of the pen. So you're actually getting the full width of the pen poking out. Right. It doesn't lay flat. The flat side doesn't lay against like a notebook or like a jeans pocket or something like that. So it's more of a bag pen for me. So there's a lot of little things that will make this pen not for everyone. But I like what they've done here. And like this is probably going to go like in my backpack and something like that, something to play around with. Super cool. Super fun. Super functional.
* So price wise, it's, it's also expensive. Right. Again, like a Johto stuff, like the way it's made and designed, like I get the pricing. So I think I paid like 110 for the pen and the carabiner clip keychain piece. So it was like a little combo pack on the Kickstarter. And I think now it's like a 149. So like, that's, that's a pretty serious ask for a pen. You may not use all day, every day, but as far as like what it was designed for, they did a really good job. It's just, you would have to decide like, is this a pen that you would, that is worth that amount of money for the amount of use you would get to it. But if it is like everything about it, it's perfect. Right. Like it's really, really well made. So I do like it for that. But yeah, we'll see. I'm going to keep using it. I want to pop in a, it takes D1 refills, which I said, but I'm going to pop in like a, it has a nice like black, you know, probably like a 1.0 D1 refill, really nice and smooth. I want to get some Jetstream refills for that and pop that in my bag. And that'll probably be like a really good travel pen for me. So there you go. That was going to be my question to you. Was like, what, what refill are you using in there? Yeah. So the stock one's nice. They're not, they're not marked. So I have no clue who, who made them and it might be on the product page, but they're, they're just like a clean barrel, a clean barrel refill. So I can't tell, but like, you know, Schmidt makes like really good generic D1s and this one, it writes well, but I will pop in a blue Jetstream D1 in this.
* You know, it's, if I can find them, I might have to order some more. So I've used it in a few different pens, but that'll be the move for me. And yeah, really, really cool. So glad I have it. And we'll, we'll, we'll keep, we'll keep carrying it. So I'm going to keep it on my desk here for a little bit. Then I'm going to give it a home in a bag. Probably my main backpack that I used it for travel. I feel like this pen should have come with a clip as standard.
* I was actually surprised when I went back and looked at my Kickstarter. I didn't realize that the clip was an add on. Yeah. Because yeah, it should, it's, this type of pen should come with a clip. This, this, this pen, the option should be to remove the clip. Not to. Yeah. Right. That's how I feel. Like this is so obviously made for that. Yeah. It's quite surprising that they don't have it as, as a standard. Yeah. Like I got the little carabiner key chain. I was like, Oh, that was probably extra. But I didn't realize that the clip was actually extra too, from the jump, which like, I think it's mandatory for this pen. Like you're saying. Yeah.
* But I don't know. Some people don't, don't necessarily like the clip, you know, just like the, the classic Fisher space pen. Yeah. No, I get it. It's so small and tiny. Having an option to not have it is great. Right. But like, I, I, I think it should start out with clip. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. The way this one is, is built probably so. But yeah. I don't know. I'm a clip guy in general, but you know, I have a, um, you know, my Fisher space pens, like I have that, like the add on clip for that just because I do have a preference to that. Yeah.