Editing The Pen Addict 605/transcript (section)

== TikTok's influence on stationery trends ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' This just to me, like TikTok should be illegal. That's what I think. This is only here because somebody saw it on TikTok.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. And I want to give a shout out to Aiden, who was the kind of the lead commentator from the stationery world. And he's awesome. I've got to hang out with him at the San Francisco Pen Show. He's interviewed me before. Super, super cool person.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is the TikTok that was sent to me that I mentioned on the last episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was sent to me via a mutual friend.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So I never got the TikToks, but I got the New York Times article plenty. So anyway, go check that out. It's a fun read. It's very short. Just saying, hey, what a mess. You know, what a mess this was. And, you know, fountain pen people are obsessive. And like, not really, but it was kind of funny. But given that news, the real news, of course, doesn't come from the New York Times. It comes from our friend behind the fountain pen memes. The real journalism happens on fountain pen memes. And I'm completely serious. Like, I could not be more serious in this statement. So fountain pen memes was able to coordinate a phone call with the sales, European sales director, Mr. Gordon theme. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, but at who works directly for Lamy. So we'll put a link in the show notes. You can go check the interview. But there is a hugely, hugely telling part of this interview, which if you have listened to this podcast for any length of time, we'll make you shake your head and go, wow, it was really true. So Mr. Theme did confirm, you know, the reason why the colors are different. But then we get to the journalism part of this. And fountain pen memes asked, what prompted the re-release? I'm aware that Lamy has never had re-released the limited edition ink. Did you do it because it's a sought after ink? So that was the question. Here's the response. We knew it is a sought after color.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then fountain pen memes added. So were you aware that it's a fan favorite?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mr. Theme says, no, we are aware that it's a sought after ink color, which was missing from the T52 product lineup. That's the stock lineup. We had a blue, a red and a green, but a dark lilac color was missing. So we decided to reintroduce that color. Myke, they had no clue. No.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is exactly what I've been saying for like three weeks. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is the whole reason why I had hashtag hire me Lamy. Because they literally have no idea.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I mean, this comes back to, I mean, yeah, sure, they should hire you as long as you keep doing the show. But like, from my perspective, it's like, I just don't think it, they didn't know because it didn't matter to them. I also agree with that. It matters to us.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I agree with that. I do agree with that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And like, so they just feel like, oh, we know people like this purple color, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So we're just going to do that again. That's exactly right. Because you know what's going to happen now though, Brad? We don't have a purple. Let's do that one again.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's going to be now a selection of people who love the new one. Oh, sure. Because it just doesn't, you know. Yeah. Wild.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. And that's why I was like over talking about it because it really doesn't matter. It's not that big a deal. But we do like all our little niche hobby and all these things that make us have fun little stories about this. But yeah, it should come to no surprise that Lamy had no idea what the community thought of the original Dark Lilac ink and that it was like a secondary market.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think Lisa makes a good point in the live chat saying they don't seem to emphasize inks much in general, no names in the bottles or boxes. And that is to me like reflected in the fact that this ink lineup is called T52. Like what is that? What does that even mean? But like that's the ink lineup name. Like they're not like we're not going to be drafting Lamy inks, right? Like we did the Orochizukus. So this just is, this is for them, the ink lineup is like we should do that because we sell pens, right? Which is like, so like looking at me, obviously very different, but we work with Studio Neat on having the Mark 1 with the Cortex logo on it because we sell notebooks. So we should at least have a pen. And I'm sure you have similar things in Spoke. You're like, well, we want to do this, so we should at least also do this because it kind of, these things kind of go together. And so people could come and buy everything they needed just from our one-stop shop kind of thing. And so I think that's what Lamy's doing with their ink lineup by and large.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. They literally is like, hey, we don't have a purple. Let's do that one we did several years ago. And just like this whole outside world concept. It was just like, yeah, okay, knock yourself out. So go check out, there's a bunch of other Q&A from Fountain Pen Memes, and it's really telling, really interesting stuff. So go check out this post.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a bunch more questions in there. Do you think that like this whole Dark Lilac thing weakened Lamy to the point that Mitsubishi was able to come in? You know, like they were just waiting on the, do you think that Fountain Pen Memes is actually operated by Uniball? Like by, it's someone at Mitsubishi is operating Fountain Pen Memes. It's an inside job.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think Lamy's lack of awareness to the popularity of Dark Lilac is why they got sold to Lamy. To Mitsubishi. Yeah, to Mitsubishi, if we're being perfectly honest here. Their lack of awareness to the community as a whole is probably why they got sold.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know I keep hopping on this, but like, do you think Lamy would be benefited by paying as much attention to this part of the community? Or do you think that they could end up going down too many rabbit holes if they did?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think they would benefit. I don't think it's a question. Because they seem to be one of the more structurally sound companies to begin with. Right. So like when you have that kind of base as a company, right, from what Lamy is, and you could do one more thing. Like, you know, hey, show your awareness to the community's love for something and lean into that. I don't think that's a real slippery slope for a company like Lamy. I think they're large enough, stable enough to be able to do that one more thing. You know, the more reaching across the aisle thing instead of just being completely insular. So yeah, no, I don't think it would affect them long term at all.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm making a call now. This is the end of this conversation. This is the end of Dark Lilac. No more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I hope so. I hope so. No more. It's not.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Nothing more can happen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Unless people get poisoned. I haven't bought it yet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I will allow a review because that's, you know, but no more, no more Dark Lilac saga. Yeah. I don't want to keep doing this. I don't want to keep doing it. Surely there can't be more, right? He says. I don't know. Foreshadowing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Just go to the, go to the last, the last slide of the Fountain Pen memes and where Fountain Pen memes ask them, does that mean Lamy Petrol is next?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I enjoyed that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I really liked the response. Of the Lamy representative. He's like, no plans, but maybe we should, right? Which to me, I like that because they're taking it in their stride, right? Like, yeah. This is such a stupid thing. And I'm sure, right? This was not great timing for them. Like to have this New York Times article written in the same time period in which they're trying to get this acquisition done. Like, it's not great. Like the marketing team probably was not enjoying the fact that that was happening to them, you know? I know it's only their own doing, but like, I do feel bad for the people at Lamy that had to like handle this situation while they're also trying to handle an acquisition. Couldn't have been a good time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, all I can do is sit here and shake my head. And like, if I was at Lamy and they're going, huh, this is a thing. Like, it's like, yes, it's just the nature of how this all came about. It shocks me, but it's not shocking.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, which is questionable for a brand to not at all understand what their customers truly want from them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It is rather peculiar. They could have just called this Lamy Purple and none of this would have happened.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You are not kidding. You are not kidding. All right. Well, let's switch it up a little bit. Even though we're kind of in the same category in the broader stationery market, more on the Uniball side of things, Pentel has a new product that I got my hands on and reviewed recently. It's called the Pentel Flow Tune, which we'll get into that naming in a minute. I'm sorry.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One last thing, actually, because Lisa's made a really good point. You know, don't forget a little while ago, Uni brought you in because of a community drama. So, maybe they can help Lamy. Like, genuinely, maybe they can help Lamy in this situation. That's true. Maybe Uni is more connected to the community. Like, they knew they... Although, to be fair, Lamy has, like, at least offered these quotes to people that are asking. Sure. But, yeah, maybe Uni is a little more connected. I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. We can revisit that experience, and we should probably put a link in the show notes to my follow-up from that. But just being in that building and getting to talk to the people who work there, it's clear they have a concept of the modern stationery world. But then, that's the broad scope. That's the $500 million in revenue scope of it. They have the people. But on the, you know, on the 1% super nerdery level where I come in, they're like, oh, really? People are interested in that? And then, that's... If you haven't heard this podcast, you should go listen to that because the amount of questions I got that we already talk about here was interesting to me. They're very, very curious about just, like, the small things. Do people like this? Do people like that? So, yeah. That's a very, very good point. So, yeah. So, it's interesting stuff. All right. On to the Flowtune. It is a rollerball pin that Pentel... I call these store shelf pins, right? This is, like, if you go to the grocery store or the big box stationery retailer, your Targets, your Walmarts, you know, whatever shop is in your country that has just, like, the broader stationery categories where the Pilot G2 lives on the shelf, this pin appears there. And I didn't really think anything of it other than the name is silly when I first saw it. But then I looked at the tech specs for it. And they... I guess one of the biggest categories that a lot of these companies try to work on, this is Uniball, Pilot, Pentel, Zebra type of companies, is ink formulations, right? So, we have things like the Uniball 1R, where it's more pigmented, more saturated. Then we have the Zebra Blend, where it's, you know, a more comfortable, smoother, skip-free writing experience. So, the Flowtune's idea is to have your water-based rollerball ink infused with oil, which sounds kind of crazy to me. Your oil-based inks are generally ballpoint inks, right? And they have certain features that are good, certain features that are bad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And adding an infusion, oil and water, it seems like it's not going to work. But I found this pin to be really enjoyable for what its intended purpose is. And that's the broader stationery market, right? The store shelf market. That's why I categorize a lot of pins, like in my top five list. I have a category that if you're walking through the grocery store aisle, what's the good pin on the shelf, right? It's the Pilot G2. It's the Pentel Energel. It's the Uniball 207. So, things like that. I don't know that this quite lives up to the big players in that category on the store shelf. I will say it is a pretty awesome pin. The performance of the pin is really, really good, right? It does not skip at all. It is a very saturated, solid ink. It doesn't bleed, didn't feather. I tested this in the Studio Neat Keepbook because that's a non-coated page. It's reasonably absorbent, right? Like fountain pens don't work great on there. And fountain pens are the closest to rollerball ends. Fountain pen inks are water-based as well as rollerballs. So, you get some of the same characteristics when you test those side by side. And it performed wonderfully on the Keepbook page. The lines are super nice. For me, like I couldn't really use it because it's a 0.8 millimeter. And that's the finest line. They actually have a 1.0 millimeter. I'd say the 0.8 millimeter writes like a 1.0 millimeter line. So, this is something if you have big, bold writing strokes, like this is something you want to look into if you use standard papers and not fountain pen friendly papers. This is something you want to look into. I tested something after the fact, which I should probably go and amend the review. I tested it on my Tomoe River paper. So, my Hobonichi five-year journal is the original Tomoe River paper. And so, I picked it for my daily entry on that and it never dried. And by never, I mean like we were into minutes dry time and I even blotted it. So, there is a little bit of a caveat. If you use coated papers, things of that nature, this ink is not going to dry well. But for standard writing, it's pretty good. In the rollerball category, which is popularized by the Uniball Vision, the Uniball Vision Elite, the Pilot Precise V5 and V7, the Schmidt P8127 refills and all the pens that take those, I would take every one of those above this, right? I don't think the Flowtune makes any difference in the category. But as a standalone product, I thought it was pretty good because some of these that come out are just really bad, right? Some of these new store shelf pens that come out are just, wow, this is terrible. But it's not quite new and surprising and a huge hit like the Sharpie S Gel was. Like the Sharpie S Gel kind of got into the broader consciousness, right? You started to see that more in normal everyday usage from non-stationery fans. Like they picked up this pen, they found it and bought some more of them. I don't know if the Flowtune is going to cross over in that way. But overall, pretty good pen. And I like at least seeing the technology aspects of it, you know, trying these new inks. Because that's, like I don't know what else these companies are going to do differently on the store shelf other than continuing to play with ink formulations, right? We're not seeing, like the Pilot G2 hasn't changed in 15, 20 years at this point. And it doesn't seem like they have any intention to.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what are we going to see that's changing the market on this, on the store shelf? And I don't think that we're going to see anything big, but we're going to see little things like this pop up here and there. You know, is it going to be like the next Pilot friction that all of a sudden takes off because it has this really unique ink formulation? No. But I think if you use it and have a certain use case for this, I think you're going to like it. The biggest con on the Flowtune is it's not refillable, which I don't understand unless you're doing like marker pens or fineliner type pens, which the concept is already pre-built in that it's not going to be refillable. I don't know how you don't build a refillable rollerball gel or ballpoint pen on the store shelf right now. That seems to be a huge miss in my aspect, but technically it writes well. And I like it. I could see it using it almost like a marker.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, two things are weird to me. One, that you can't like take the refill out and use it in something else, right? Like it just feels like, why not just do that, as you say? But also the name is just really bad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so this was the, I wrote that up in the article talking about the marketing of this pen. The Flowtune enables your ideas to float down the stream of an imagination.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What does that mean?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like these are, we don't need this pen tell. No. We don't need this. This is a terrible name and it's terrible marketing. But, okay. Yeah. It floats across the page. Flowtune. I mean, technically it does. Flowtune. Technically it does. Flowtune.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' Myke, do you know when you look at our data or podcast downloads, do we have any downloads in Antarctica? We have any Antarctic listeners? Well, I got stationery. I got stationery in Antarctica, Myke. It was a lifelong goal of mine to ship to Antarctica. I know we've had pens down in Antarctica. I've had people, you know, email me over the past years that they've brought their stationery to Antarctica. And we've had questions about using stationery in Antarctica. And as someone who ships products around the world, I've often talked about I've shipped everywhere to all the continents, but not Antarctica. Well, Myke, I've done it. I've shipped a product to Antarctica. And I got the pictures to prove it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How is that even possible?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was a long process. So it was basically a friend reached out, said they're friends with this other group that bases in Antarctica. And they're there for, you know, whatever, how many months of a season that they're there for. So they gave me the address. They coordinated, said, hey, do you want to receive, would you be up to receiving some pencils from, you know, this guy that wants me that wants to send some pencils or pens to Antarctica? I know, knowing that pens would be bad. And they said, yeah. They said, yeah, we'd love to get some pencils. Here's what we'd like. You know, we need something that has a wide lead and a very grippy exterior. So, you know, you can imagine in the outdoors, you know, you get indoors. You can use anything in the in the Antarctic. But outdoors, you need something that you can have a grip on. And so we talked about it and I got with Brian at Spoke Design and we made them some Spoke Model 4 pencils with a very grippy grip we call the super groove grip. And we had some point nine millimeter.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pentel mechanisms we could use to build these like the widest lead mechanism we have. And we made, I don't know, three or five of these pencils and shipped them off back in September. So the fun part is I had to coordinate my shipment to land wherever it needed to go to make the bulk container to get to the Antarctic. Like there was no guarantee I was ever getting these pencils to their end destination, right? I had to get them to make the shipment to Antarctica and then hopefully that they were tagged right to get to the person that they needed to go to. Wow. So, yeah, it was wild. And they did. So I just got the pictures last week. I asked for permission to publish these and I was granted that. And, yeah, so there's a picture with one of the researchers standing out there. This is the Antarctic Search for Meteorites group that I was able to work with. And we put their initials on the pens, the ANZMET, on the pencils and etched them in there and sent them off on the way. And now we got, I've shipped stationery to Antarctica successfully. So thank you to everyone who made this happen. It was exciting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Exciting stuff. I don't see any Antarctica downloads in our download pool, I'm afraid.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Well, we'll have to work on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But if it makes you feel better, I took a look at Cortex, which is my biggest show. And in the last year, we had one download in Antarctica. Nice. Across all of the episodes. So it's not an impossible thing, but very unlikely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah. So I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who made that happen. It was really cool. I'm really excited about that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's such a strange and cool thing to do, but what a process. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was something. So I'll have to go check the tracking because I checked the tracking for months, right? And you just kind of like give up. It's just out there, right? And then I got the pictures like, oh, it arrived. I was like, unbelievable, unbelievable stuff. So, all right, Myke, we have a choice. Okay. We can do bracket season. It's officially bracket season. You know, March Madness here in the US. Brackets come out or we can hit up Ask TPA. Okay. So one of these we're doing next week and one of these we're doing today.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Let's hold the bracket for next week. I've got a couple of Ask TPA questions I would like to talk about this week. Let's do it. So Bill wrote in to say, I loved the Pilot Iroshizuku draft. Can you explain the difference, though, between Iroshizuku and Pilot's Namiki inks? I'm new to the hobby and the community, so I'm curious if there's differences.