Editing The Pen Addict 444/transcript (section)

== Stationery Trends for 2021 ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I have a question for you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, sir.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just started a new year, right? Right. And I just wondered if there were any trends, like, stationary trends or, like, predominant ideas that you were expecting to see picked up on in the community or by larger retailers this year. Like, have you spent any time thinking about that? Is there stuff that you think is going, we're going to see in 2021, like, along those kinds of lines?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That was on my task list this week, honestly, to write about in depth. So, I haven't put all my thoughts in. It might be better to, we can explore this further or recap this next week when I, like, put together everything. But I have some high points that I wanted to discuss. And it ties in, one of them, the main one, or the obvious one, ties in with what we talked about in the beginning with Lamy and the reissuance of the Safari. And then I've gotten a bunch of tweets and emails because the Parker 51 that is being remade and reissued that we learned about last fall, then it got pushed into February. That's starting to come back around again. So, people are wanting to know our opinions on that. So, I gave my opinions on the Parker 51 in episode 423. I'm not going to, you know, re-litigate that whole thing. But I got some grief for it. I thought I was very fair in what I felt about the pen. And my stance is that it's perfectly fine. I wanted to see more, right? Like, I thought there was a letdown.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just got distracted by Chris in the Discord. I have to read this. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Strategist's top five cars. Number one, Tesla. Number two, a bicycle. Number three, Ford F350. Number four, Toyota Yaris. Number five, Ferrari LaFerrari.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's exactly right. That is how the, it's a non-context-based list where, like, none of this relates to each other. So, that's perfectly said. I apologize. I love that. That's really good. So, you know, with the Parker 51, it's about to come back out. And, like, I'm for it. Like, I just, it doesn't excite me, right? I wanted, this was an opportunity for Parker to push the 51 forward was my stance, not re-litigate the old version. But here I said at the top of the show, I'm pretty happy that, you know, Lamy's reissuing their pen. So, it's a little bit of a hypocritical stance for me. But I just think that there's an opportunity.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right, but this is a hundred dollar pen. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think it's going to end up being just a little bit under a hundred, probably like 80 to 90.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And also, like, we expect a new color from Lamy every year. And so, like, really all they've done, like, it's not like they've reissued a specific pen. It's just they've brought the color back for this year. So, I do think that there are quite a few differences between the two's approach.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and I just think Parker left a lot on the table. I don't think Parker tried hard enough for this, is my stance, right? Like, I think it's going to do fine. I think people are excited about it. It will probably sell well. But it's traditional colors with less features than the original. That's it. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I know we said this before. And I'll just say it again, I guess for the people in the back. Like, I don't know why you would buy this new one when there are a million old ones to buy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I mean, a new market, you know, to get into, you know, people don't necessarily want to go for a vintage pen, you know, and rightfully so in a lot of occasions. Yeah, but I don't know. They don't know how they work.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know who's, like, new to pens and is like, ooh, give me that vintage looking pen. Like, I don't, I'm not sure that that market exists.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know. I think you might be short selling. I think it's going to bring back a lot of good memories for a lot of people and sell very well. Oh, okay. Okay. The problem is. Memories. I hadn't thought of that one. Is what is it going to feel like? Is it going to feel like a $90 pen? And that's where my concern lies. When you don't have any of that hardware in the barrel of the pen, like the old vacuumatic filler mechanism. The feel of the pen, it has to be recalibrated. And we'll just have to see if they did that for this. Or is it just going to be, you know, a very air light pen. And what I wanted to see. So, I want to give them a little bit of slack. That it's, this release is less important than the next release of the Parker 51, in my opinion. Because I want to see, okay, this is the introduction. The reintroduction of the 51. What's next? Is nothing next? Well, then I think it was a letdown. And I think Parker is missing an opportunity. If there's something next that takes this, what they're re-releasing, and then moves it into 2020. With, give me an all black Parker 51.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Why not? You know? What can you do with the barrel materials? Give me a striped barrel with the chrome cap. Give me something that says the Parker 51 is just as cool in 2020 as it was in 1950. And then I'll get excited about it. Right now, like, I'll try it. I'll test it out. But I'm not, like, you know, jumping through the screen to grab one. It's, I just think, I don't know. I personally wanted more from this. That said, I think it's going to do extremely well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, back to your question. 2021 trends. Well, there's two pins right there, Myke, that are pulling from the archives. The Lamy Safari, the Parker 51. We're seeing Estabrook with the JR. So, when they recreated and rethought the brand, they took the brand and made a modern pin in the Estee. Now, they're looking back saying, okay, what can we do? Like, we did good with the Estee. It's a completely new reimagining of the Estabrook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What can we do with the JR? And they made some night. They made four of the JRs designed to fit the old vintage nibs. And they made them in a modern style.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just always assumed it was Junior.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe. Well, I call it JR because the original was the J.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I'm continuing that. Yeah, that makes sense. But I could be incorrect. So, I think it's J reimagined is actually maybe what it's supposed to mean. So, again, this is like what I said with the Parker 51. I want to see what round two for this pin is going to be. Because it's fine as it is, but I think there's room to grow there. And there's options to have there. So, I would like to see that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The next thing, I haven't thought out completely. And it's a little bit controversial. And it goes a little bit against the things I believe in. And I think, God, I don't know how to say this without getting in trouble. I think I'm going to get yelled at for this. Awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I love my wild pens as far as colors and materials go. But I think we're getting close to saturation.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, definitely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' For everything is wild. Yeah. And I'm a proponent of everything is wild. Like, that's what I like. Give me all your wild materials. Give me all your primary manipulations. Give me all your glitter pens. Give me all your neon pink pens. But now it's everywhere.

'''Myke Hurley:''' At a certain point, wild becomes lazy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So, I don't know if there is...

'''Myke Hurley:''' There will be a new wild. Like, that's what you've got to look out for. That the people that are truly skilled and talented in these fields of, like, coming up with these really interesting barrels. Yeah. So, like, here's one I'll give as an example. I know I mention them a lot. But it's just... Like, the most recent canalea pens have that depth to them. Which is new. Right? And I wouldn't say that that is, like, oh, that's completely wild. And, like, you know, it's going to change the industry. But my point is that, like, they are, like, materials, blanks, that have a different look to them than some of the other stuff that I've seen before. And I expect that that is just... That's what has to happen. Right? That, like, when Jonathan Brooks came on the scene, right, it just upended everything. Because it was like, what is going on over there? And then that became, like, a trend in our part of the industry for a while. And whether it's Jonathan or someone else, there would need to be a change. I mean, like, for Jonathan Brooks specifically, I think that, like, Arushi is where he is doing his interest in work now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. But that doesn't scale. Doesn't scale.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, wild scales. And it has. And I think... I don't know that we're at peak yet. But I think we're going to start... Someone is going to have to come in and do something different. Yeah, you gotta, like, turn it. It can still be wild. Yeah. But there's gonna have to be... And there's a lot of makers on the market now that I think have the ability to lead us into, like, the next design features or the next materials. So, I think this might be a reckoning year. Like, I have enough wild pens, right? I can only get so many more unique material pens. And probably... But, like, probably three out of the last four or five pens I've bought have been, like, what I would consider, like, the wild pens. You know, just the crazy materials, you know, whether they're from Montegrappa or from Leonardo or from Brooks or anything like that. Like, that's cool. That's what I love. But I think we're gonna hit a cap here on that. But so, 2021 is gonna have... I'm hoping it brings something new as far as... And it could be a small change, right? These things don't move, like, in wild directions, right? We're not gonna, like, have an upheaval. But what is going to be the thing that's going to push those a little bit further? Yeah. Because we all enjoy seeing them. We all enjoy using them. They make the best Instagram photos. Because at some point, I have five of them and I don't need any more.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, yeah. The original reason... One of the original reasons that these things became so popular is because they were so different. And if we have too many of them, it's not different anymore. Right. It's different for people coming in to the hobby, right? Absolutely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And you have to think about that. That's why the Parker 51 is gonna do well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because one of the traps I fall into is just looking at it from my perspective and not a universal perspective.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Because you're, like, oversaturated in general. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. So, those are the two main 2021... I don't even know if you'd call them trends, but, like, the everything old is new again. Like, that's always a common trend, right? And a lot of times, it's really good. Like, I like the everything old is new again, right? I like the vintage stuff and modernizing that type of thing. And then discovering, you know, is 2021 gonna see a corner turned in extreme materials? And I still have to work on how to expand on those thoughts. But, yeah, I think you got the gist of what I was getting at today.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' We have some interesting Ask TPA this week, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.