Editing The Pen Addict 737/transcript (section)

== Spoke Pen ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' If you aren't following Spoke, Myke, you should go follow it now because we released a new pen. Type.

'''Myke Hurley:''' New pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Spoke Roadie 3. Yep. So the Roadie is our pocket pen, and I just wanted to give it a little run-through of a product launch that happened earlier this week. So the Roadie's been super popular because it is small, right? It's a small pen used to fit Parker-style refills and just in a real compact, portable way. And then, I don't know, a couple years ago, Brian said, well, what if we did that similar style and then made it so it fit gel pens so we made it the Roadie XL? So the same style, the same magnet cap for the Roadie, the previous version. And then Brian, who is my partner at Spoke Design and the design guru, kept tweaking the design, and he ended up coming up with an even better shape, I think. And this is obviously biased personal opinion, but I'm not only a client, I'm also the president or whatever that commercial goes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We moved the magnets to the middle of the barrel. So the previous versions of the Roadie were the top of the cap and the end of the pen were your magnet points, and now they're in the center of the barrel. So the end of the cap or the base of the cap has a magnet and the center of the barrel has a magnet. And this works out really well for the small Roadie. We could make it even smaller, which Brian finds hilarious that I like it so much. He's like, you know I'm making this for you, right? I'm like, yes, and it's glorious. So it's even smaller than before, but it's still a full-size pen when you're writing with it. That's the whole goal of this style of pen, right? When you have a cap on a small pocket pen, you want it to be postable into a proper writing size. So yeah, the Roadie version 3 is out now. You can choose different grip styles. Like we have knurled and grooved, milligrooved, and you can get them in black or sandblasted or shiny. All of the grips are titanium. We have a bunch of different colors, you know, colors and finishes, you know, black trims, silver trims, purple, orange, red, blue, raw titanium, not raw titanium, polished titanium. So they're great. So that's the Roadie. But wait, there's more. We went ahead and did the Roadie XL in this. So you can use your Energel type refills or Uniball type refills. So I have a Roadie XL that I'm using today that I have, the Uniball Signo RT1 0.38 millimeter blue black refill. How's that for a product listing? Say that fast, you know. Yeah. So it fits full-size gel ink refills. This is our most popular Roadie, like without question. The big one? The sale, the big one is the most popular. Always. Because, well, so they weren't equivalent releases in the past. They kind of did one or the other. And I'd say they're pretty even. Okay. In the past. And this, these all launched at the same time. So it was kind of telling. You could see what was happening. Interesting. Like with orders. The XL, people, it's still a small-ish compact pin. Like as small as we can make it for a full-size gel ink refill. And that's what people really enjoy. Because not everyone likes Parker style refills. I like Parker style refills because I can use the Oto Flash Dry, which I'm currently using in my Roadie. I can use the Jetstream SXR 700, I believe, is the name of that refill. I have that in my other Roadie. So I like the Parker style refills, but not everyone does. And with the XL, you can use a full-length gel pen. And it gives you a few more options. Like I said, I have the Uniball refill in mind. And then we did a combo meal, Myke. Like we did the Roadie SL, which I was unsure about. Brian was unsure about. But we're like, ah, let's try it. So what the Roadie SL is, it stands for short-long, which is a play on like classic Japanese long-short fountain pens. To where you have a short barrel and then a longer cap to post, right? So that's kind of the Roadies, the base Roadie idea, right? It's a short pen and then has a cap to where it's the proper length of writing. This one takes like a longer grip section and a longer cap, but still retains the short barrel of the Roadie, the short Roadie. And uses a Parker style refill, but gives you a full length of a longer barrel when you're writing. So it's a little bit confusing, but people seem to like it. And like we already got feedback on like I was getting – we got an email. Like the first email we got like after launch is, thank you for making the SL. And I'm like, really? Like that's so interesting to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What's good about that? People like the longer barrel for the certain type of refills that they like to use. So it is definitely like the least seller, right? And we know this going on. Oh, wait.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, okay. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the barrel is longer. Barrel and the cap is longer. So we have a side – let me get the – I need to put in a link to the side-by-side comparison we have of all these.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, but like the cap isn't longer on its own though, is it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is. The cap is longer and the grip's longer, but the barrel's short. It's confusing. Like I'm not going to lie. What I'm trying to ask – It's a confusing thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. That is a different question. What refills go in this one? Parker style. Oh, then I don't understand.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's for the short – it's for the short refill, but it gives you a longer writing pen. Longer barrel pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's it. That is fascinatingly weird.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. I was like, huh, do we need to do this? Do we – like it's basically something since we have the parts, we can try and see if people like it. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. That's kind of fine. Okay. But it was weird that I got like instant feedback on thank you for making that. I'm like, really? That's so – it's interesting to me too. Like I'm fascinated by our SL customers. It's like, what are you looking for here? So, I put in a link that compares them, right? So, you can see that. So, it's a shorter barrel, longer cap, and longer grip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And Parker style refills. So, it gives you just a longer pen when it's posted. But I think, like I said, most people like the XL or just going to go straight for the roadie. And then the SL is an option if you really don't like the super short pen roadie.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Okay. It's easier to see now. I can see the difference now. But I just – I remain – Yeah. Curious. And I think maybe this is just someone who's not a poster.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' True. So, on the roadie, the roadie, you can write with it without being posted.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it's tough. No, it's not. You kind of need to post the cap.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's tough for you maybe. No. Not for me. It would be. Yeah. I would do it and have on the previous roadie.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah. The roadie SL is just something to try and see if there is a customer base for that. Maybe, maybe not. They are selling, though, which I find interesting. The SL? Mm-hmm. Good. I mean, they're the third – they're clearly in third place. Like, roadie XL and roadie V3 are, you know, 80% of the sales, 90% of the sales. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But, like, if you think something's not going to sell very well, then you don't make as much of it. Right. And then if it doesn't sell very well, it's not a problem because you didn't make as much of it. Right? Right.