Editing The Pen Addict 542/transcript (section)

== Restock of Spoke pens and manufacturing updates ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Restock alert. Restock alert. We have, we have, pew, pew, pew. We have new spoke pins in stock, which has been a long time coming, Myke. So the spoke pin was my initial collaboration with Brian at Spoke Design to get a barrel for my beloved Unisigno DX refill. And we did a whole Kickstarter campaign. You know, we've had them, you know, in, in the intervening years since the Kickstarter are in stock and we had been out of stock mostly for a while because we had been tweaking the design a little bit. Like it's a very small minor tweaks, but we have a bunch of new, new models in of the spoke pin too. So it's essentially the same general idea still holds the Unisigno DX refill. But as a few design tweaks, we added in like a really bright, fiery orange color, anization color called Lava, which is a knockout. So these are in stock as of yesterday. So a couple of little feature changes. The grip is a little bit more defined, like the ridges in the grip are a little bit more defined. There's also a slight taper at the end of the grip. It helps us with assembly. So you see like a little barrel highlight in the middle of the pin now where the cap slides onto the, the edge of the grip section and just a little different finial shape and design on the top and the bottom of the pin and a slightly shorter clip on there. So if you put them side by side, the differences are clear, you know, but from far away, it was like, it's pretty, you know, it's just the updated version of the spoke pin to, as we keep manufacturing products, we keep wanting manufacturing and design them better. Right. So we kind of tweak things a little bit to help with either assembly or functionality or durability and things like that. So, yeah, we have, have these up now. They've been a long time coming, right? So they've been a long time coming. So I wanted to let everyone know that these are out now and available. And this is, this is the group of colors we have now. We'll probably have some more colors next year. And we have a lot of other things in the pipeline, Myke. So finally ramping things up and spoke, you know, how manufacturing goes, Myke. Manufacturing is hard, but we're, we're dialed in right now with the two of our most popular products. The model for pencil and the spoke pin are, are fully formed and in stock. And then, you know, we'll have some, some roadie information coming soon. And then hopefully some new shapes and designs coming in 2023. So yeah, things are going good over on the spoke front. So I wanted to mention that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They look great. I love the colorways.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they're really good. Really good. So I have to figure out which one I'm going to steal. I haven't stolen one yet. So I'm always good for, you know, it's really hard having all this inventory laying around and, you know, not wanting one of each. So I, I limit myself to one. So I'm pretty sure it's going to have to be the orange because we've never had that color before.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's called Spidey, but it's also could be cap, you know, you could cap it. Yep. All kinds. I know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we've done some of the icon fountain pens. You can make it into an Iron Man version with the brass parts that we have to it. And I've done some of those before. So, but yeah, I have to limit myself. So I got to pick one. So I'm probably going to go with orange this time because I've, I've used different, different ones before. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I'll decide today because I have to go ship a bunch of them since we launched them yesterday.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How are things going in general at Spoke? Good?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Now that we have inventory. Yeah. Right. Like I love the product so much. So here's, here's the little, the little inside thing of how I operate. And if y'all have seen me on Twitch or, or no, I mean, I've done a podcast about pens 542 times chat. So like, this is, you know, I'm talking not like Twitch now. Um, I love pens and pencils. So the little things, even though like I'm part of this company and I get all the early looks and you know, I'll go through all the design process and you know, all the picking of things. When the final product lands on my desk and I open the box and I just chuckle, like that's how much I love these products. Good. And you know, like it sounds fake and phony, but like, this is like what I do for a reason because I love this stuff. Right. And I'm just like, so happy with the style and quality and design. Like I, I just, I love this stuff. Like I, you know, it's, it's, it's weird to say because I'm part of the company, but it just makes me smile. This stuff's going, stuff looks great. All the pens and pencils look fantastic. And we're both excited, Brian and I to do more next year. It was a pretty slow year overall for us just on the manufacturing side is slow. Yeah. Um, so if we can, um, work on that a little bit next year, just to be more consistent. Right. So hopefully we'll be more consistent next year throughout the year, instead of having these like peaks and valleys. So that's on the business side of things that that was the only issue with 2022. The product is excellent. The management of making things is always up and down. And, uh, if you can ever like be really consistent on that, you'll, you'll, you'll do super well. So that's our goal for next year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' To be more consistent. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Well, I hope it works out. I mean, I, I can tell you 2021, 2022, even very difficult for me for manufacturing too. Absolutely. It's just like a long running trickle effect of stuff, right? Like exactly. And just as we said before, like trying to find resources is difficult. Trying to find them at a decent price seems even more difficult. Um, right. So had the spoke pen been out of stock for a while then? Like the. Oh yeah, definitely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Definitely.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I didn't.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely. It's been out of stock for a long time, like six or eight months, like really long. And like you're saying, like just about manufacturing, like it's never one single devastating thing. It's death by a thousand paper cuts. Yes. In manufacturing. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because it's like, it's constantly like, oh, this thing's going to take a week longer. Oh, this is now going to be next week. This is going to be two weeks. And like, well, over months you just accumulate months more. Like it just seems to go on forever.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So good times. Good times. So 2023, the plan is consistency. All right. So we'll, we'll see how it goes. We'll check in at this point next year. It would be our theme spoke theme next year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You know what? You could track that in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What do you got Myke for me?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Theme system journal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, boy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's the time we just, uh, probably. Oh, it's out of stock as well. Not the journal. We just did a special Mark one. We did a blue. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did you see that? It's a really great color.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We only had like a hundred of them. Um, cause it was a test like to see what, what did, what did we think of it and what people like it? It looks like people liked it. Uh, especially because, so we did a thing with, with, with, uh, with Cotton Bureau where people can put their email address in right for when a product restocks. And so people will put in their email address in for the Mark one, but we didn't send out the email when we put out the blue one because it wasn't what people were asking for. If you know what I mean? Right. Like they were putting their email in for the black one. Um, and then, so I figured we have more black ones on the way. Uh, hopefully somebody end of the year or it'll be early next year. So I figured we'll just wait and send that out then. But I put out the blue one and I put it on Instagram and we sold out them already like in a couple of days. So now I know we will do more of the blue ones too. So hopefully we'll be able to try and get two of them in stock with, I think we'll probably keep doing it in waves. Um, but yeah, I like that. But anyway, you can go get a journal. Uh, we've got tons of these things now, which is good. Uh, that's kind of the plan. I think we pretty much, unless something wild happens, which I'm not expecting, I feel like I've gotten the stock like stuff pretty set for the journal now. Um, but you can go buy one, you can subscribe and, and, and you can go buy one for yourself right now if you want to. Would appreciate it. Uh, it is around that time. The yearly themes episode of Cortex will be out real soon too. If you want to learn more about, uh, what yearly themes are and why you should have one. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And we'll talk about, um, our planning and even though I've talked about some of that back in September when all the new 2023 stuff comes out, we'll talk about, um, after your episode comes out of Cortex. So either at the end of this year or early in January, we'll talk about like our stationary usage and how we're using things in relation to things like themes and planning and journaling for 2023. So we'll definitely recap and revisit that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good reminder before I wrap up today. Just, just a scheduling note. So next week's episode is Brad and a guest. Do you want to tell you who the guest is?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it is Myke Rohde of sketchnoting fame. Also our very first interview ever on the Panatic podcast, episode 17, Myke. So over 500 episodes ago, 10 years, 10 years later, Myke Rohde is still a sketch. Etch noting machine. So we had, I had Myke on, uh, we recorded our conversation yesterday. It is in the can as they say. So that'll be, uh, next week's episode on the 14th, uh, that will launch. And then, uh, what do we got after that?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we're taking the week, uh, the 21st, we're going to be off, um, taking a week off for the holidays, which we used to do every year, but didn't do last year. So we could match up episode 500 of our 10 year anniversary. Uh, and then, so me and Brad will be back with a regular episode on the 28th of December.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yep. So, uh, just one week off in your podcast feeds, you know, I'll have a great conversation with Myke Rohde next week and y'all should definitely, uh, I know y'all will enjoy that. Y'all, uh, I know a lot of y'all are, are sketchnote fans. So, uh, that'll be great to revisit the, the past decade with Myke. And then, uh, this Myke and I will be back in a couple of weeks after that and, uh, get everything set for 2023. I think it's going to be a big year, Myke. I'm looking forward to it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Me too. Thank you to StoryWise, Squarespace, and Ooni Pizza Ovens for their support of the show. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict, where Brad streams three times a week now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yeah. Uh, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 10 a.m. Eastern-ish most days.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 10 a.m. Eastern-ish. Correct.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh, he is penaddict on Instagram and dowdyism on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Please go to cortexmerch.com and check out our wares by Sofa Theme System Journal. We'll be back, uh, later. But the show will be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]