Editing The Pen Addict 384/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 384
| title           = Fountain Pen Daze
| date            = November 6th, 2019
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = [[Cary Yeager]]
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/384 Episode 384]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/thepenaddict/penaddict384.mp3 Audio Episode 384]
| length          = 77
}}

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hello and welcome to episode 384 of The Pen Addict podcast. The podcast you love for all things stationery. All the analog tools, all the pens, the paper, the ink, we talk about it, you listen, and then you go out and buy stuff because that's what we make you do and then we get in trouble. So, my name's Brad Dowdy. I'm The Pen Addict online. I host this podcast and if you're a long-time listener, you know that by me doing the intro, which I do so poorly compared to my normal co-host, Myke Hurley, Myke's not here this week. So, I have brought on a guest and this week we have the King of Kenro, the Duke of the Day of Fountain Pens, the Prince of pen shows after dark, Mr. Kerry Yeager. How are you doing, Kerry?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' I'm doing great, Brett. How are you today?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good, good. I had to get you a little bit like that. Myke used to do that every week for me for like a year straight. He would have some random nonsensical thing about, you know, the Prince of pen-dom and all these weird things and it was so funny and I was like, you know what, let me stick it to Kerry a little bit. Let me turn the tables. But I think it was appropriate. I think all those phrases are accurate. What do you think?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' I think I was hysterical and I'm not sure I, I'm kind of at a loss for words on that one, I have to tell you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, good, good. That's what I effort for. So, I'm glad I could make you uncomfortable right out the gate. We have a lot to talk about. Like, we talk a lot as it is just in our general day-to-day lives. Me doing the work that I do with the pen addict, you doing work with Kenro and Fountain Pen Day and we're going to talk about all these things as we go through. But as I was getting ready for this show, I realized the last time we had you on was all the way back in episode 222. That was over three years ago. Can you believe it has been that long?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' I really can't because time flies in the pen world. Like, it really is. It's amazing that it's been that long and I was thinking about it as well.



== Welcome Kerry Yeager ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that predates the Kenro time too, is maybe like right before? I don't know. I'd have to go back and look. I didn't listen to it, but that sounds right to me.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah, it was right before. I was, you know, sewing my oats, if you will, looking around and going through the interview process here and there and trying to find my way. And just, you know, it's kind of like you where you decided that this is your life. This is where you want to be. These are the people you want to be with and interact with on a daily basis. And I was at that point. And yeah, it wasn't very long after we did that podcast that I settled in with Kenro.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's fortunate you had some extra spare time for me back then because you're such a busy man now. I am grateful for you taking the time out for doing this because we talk so frequently. And it's usually just like in passing, like we're each running opposite directions and we'll yell things at each other as we're going by. It's like, you good? You good? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. You good? You good? Yeah, yeah, we're good. We're good. All right. I'll talk to you later. And then like, we'll see each other tomorrow and do the same thing. So right now, what is your job title with Kenro? And for those who don't know, Kenro is the US distributor for many, many brands, a lot of great fountain pen brands. We're going to talk about it in a minute. But what do you do for Kenro just to kind of lay the groundwork of what we're going to talk about here a little bit?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' For Kenro, for right now, it's a lot of sales, web work. I do a lot of stuff on the website and on the back end like that. And then product development, which obviously we're going to get deep into. That was something that came about soon after I got to Kenro. And, you know, that's like the day to day grind is pretty much those three things. You're talking about new product, you're grinding out the sales and trying to bring those products out and putting them on the web so that all those people can see it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And Kenro is strictly US or is it US and Canada that you that you are the distributor for? Or how does how is that just geographical layout work?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' We are we are US and Canada, which is one reason we ventured off into script as the last few years.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, we're gonna talk about that.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah, that was that's always a good time. So yeah, yeah.



== Kenro Introduction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I think I first kind of learned about Kenro and what Kenro does when I started to fall for some Aurora pins. So I think that's a good, good place to start. So Aurora is an Italian brand. Kenro has been the distributor for as long as I've been in this business, which, you know, I don't know how long, you know, they've officially been the distributor, but it's been certainly long enough amount of time. And how does a distributor relationship work from Kenro as a business in say, the case of Aurora, when you're working with a company and getting their products to pass on then to your customers, which are our, you know, the collective pen addict listeners, our retailers that we shop with. So give us a little bit of insight on how you work on a day to day basis with say, an Aurora brand, and then we'll talk about some of the pins.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Well, it is, it is a process and it's, sometimes it's longer than people realize, you know, I mean, a new pen comes out and you see it and you don't, you know, the consumer, which used to be like myself and you, when we would just be like, oh, it's out. And never realizing in the background that there was sometimes a year or more of work that went into getting that product out into the public. And as a distributor, and especially with, you know, with Kenro, and it's something that attracted me is that they're very dynamic. And, you know, we don't just take a product, take the ad that's given to us and put it out there and say, here it is and walk away. You know, for us, a lot of times we're working our ideas with Aurora, telling them things that we see in the marketplace, things that are changing, things that people request, things that people want. And then they produce a product based upon that. We then see the product, maybe make suggestions here and there. But once we know what's coming, then we're out. And that's when like the whole marketing starts and going out there and going to pen shows, trunk shows, looking to have the products a lot of times photographed, you know, a way that would appeal to our market. Because how they photograph it for, say, in Italy may not appeal to the market in America. You know, what we're looking for or what they're looking for at the time. So we have to take care of that and then putting it on the web and then giving, you know, all this information out to the retailers. You know, it's way beyond pricing and just the basic product. There's so much more that goes into it before it gets to that retailer. Because then the retailer has to have all that to tell the story.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And I was surprised when you and I have talked about this exact topic years ago at how much one-to-one input you have with the brands you work with. I mean, they may take your advice or they may tell you to jump. But you can at least have that conversation, which I always found to be surprising. That was a surprising aspect to me that, oh, the manufacturer is listening to these distributors because actually the distributor is in a good position to understand what the market is looking for as opposed to just the flat creation. Even though Aurora does their own, you know, market research and things like that, you can tell them things that they don't have feet on the ground in this market to try to understand. Right. Is that how that relationship kind of works?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We work with them constantly. And it's not just us, it's other distributors. I mean, there are pens that they do, the limited editions that you see in other countries. And people are like, especially in our community. Our community is knee deep in the trenches every day looking at what's out there. You know, who's doing what and how they're doing it and why can't I get it? You know, that FOMO comes into play if you're missing out, right? And the perfect example for your question is like the Sun Moon Lake that came out for China. And that was over a year ago. And people were just striving to get it just because they couldn't. You know what I mean? Sure. Well, and because it's a beautiful pen. All right. Right. No doubt about it. But we've done the same thing too. And Aurora is very good at listening to us and then being willing to invest and make a pen that we need specifically for our, you know, area. And they've done that many, many times. I mean, if you remember the Nebulosa came out, which was part of that Planet series in 88. People ask, they're like, oh man, if they ever made it in an Optima. And we went to Aurora and it was a material that they really are stringent on because they keep, you know, archives of all these rods so that if there's ever repair, you know, just whoever's going down into the basement of the factory, literally in the basement. And pulling rods out so they can repair a pen, whether it's 20 or 30 years old. Right. So, but our marketplace wanted it. So we were able to make, I think we made 88 of each in two finishes for that Optima in purple and the Nebulosa purple. And it was only for us. And it just sold out in a minute. It was really, really beautiful. Nice. But we got calls from other countries and they're like, wait, that was just yours, you know, and can we get it? And, you know, it's just, it's just gone. And, um, it happens, you know, where you make something specific to your place. And, uh, and like I said, Aurora is really good with that. They listen to us. They work with us. You know, Joel, uh, who owns Canro. Joel is our, you know, top guy. He, uh, you know, he has a very strong relationship and he speaks to them on a daily basis. So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's super cool. So they'll do stuff for you, like specifically like exclusive to this market in their worldwide market, say things everyone has an access to. Do you have to fight for your allocation?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I mean, the latest one came up in conversation in the office today was, uh, the black Mamba 88, which was, you know.



== Aurora Black Mamba Pen ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I have that specifically marked to discuss. So tell me, tell me about that. Yeah. Tell me about that pen because I got to see one. I don't know where I saw that San Francisco. Was it out then? Or did I see that? Yeah. Um, it's an impressive pen because it's different to me than the other 88s, not just in style, but in feel. So tell me about that pen.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' So it's an 88 standard 88, but they engraved the entire pen so that it looks like the scales of a snake, a black Mamba, if you will. And they blacked out all the trim. And then they put, of course, cause it's a limited edition. They put the 18 caracal nib on it, black that out as well. Mm-hmm. They engraved the pen so well and so clean. I put a loop as soon as we got them in up to the finish and I'm looking at them like, it's just so clean.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' You know, cause when you engrave something like that, a lot of times you'll get like little white peaks from pushing, you know, acrylic around and it's just clean all through. And it just really, it's just sharp pen glitters when you put light on it. And yeah, I'm, I'm absolutely hoping that there will be some left so that I could acquire one myself.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's funny to me who Aurora, when you generally look at the lineup, it's, it's bold and bright. And it's one of the reasons why I love them. It's funny to say that an all black pen is an outlier in their lineup, but it kind of is to me, um, as, as more of an outsider, you see it more and there's maybe more black pens that I'm missing, but just in general, in the lineup, when you're lining it up against other 88s or other, um, optimas, it's like the all black one doesn't normally fit there. And it's just pulled off really, really well.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' And they have such a, you know, I mean, it's Italian company, so they know style and they know what, you know, things should, how things should flow. And at the end of the day, it's also, you know, you have to remember it's an Aurora 88. Yeah. It's got an awesome nib. I mean, they're made in house and, you know, I mean, I rave about it now because I got to, as you did too, when we were in LA, um, and you got to spend time with Filippo. I mean, I got to spend over a week with this guy and, you know, I knit my super 25 years and I've got a translator that's there. That's kind of just answering my bizarro question. Sure. You know, and, and it's not, you know, it's not all business. It's about, you know, what did you do and how did you get this to work and why did you do it this way? And, you know, so it makes me like a classic pen. That's a little bit different, even more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. Exactly. It's great to have that. So what else is Aurora doing right now? That's kind of piqued your interest, um, as either a fan or as a distributor, you know, it's kind of hard to displace those two. And, you know, you, you work for the company, you know, if you will, but, um, what is, is, what does Aurora, uh, doing right now? That's really shining bright.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' I think what shiny bright is that they are, when they come out with limited editions, like the Arctic series, like the, the ocean series that they have right now, that they're keeping the numbers lower. You know, they're not making a thousand of each of five of these pens. You know, there's only, I think there's only 440 of each one or something like that. And, um, those are the ones that they did like five years ago, that same body style. They did the Mar Adriatica, which was the beautiful blue with the sterling silver and everything. Right. Um, so they're not doing too much of that. And they're also, uh, branching out in the nib section where they did that, the new gochia nib, uh, which is like a, uh, a togi nib. So that the higher the angle, your cross stroke is thinner and the lower, the angle, the wider. And, uh,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And they're doing that themselves. Are they, they're doing that in-house?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah. Everything is in-house and those nibs, um, you know, again, Filippo is doing, he's doing all that work and they're letting him, you know, have that time to, to kind of branch out. And just do different things and, and reach that market because the market right now, you know, everybody's looking at the nib. Everyone's looking for a different kind of nib and something that's done, not just different, but done right. And, uh, and he really did, he did it really, really well. Yeah. I own both. I know you do and it's, it works how it should.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It can be a real differentiator in a pen. I mean, like the design is one thing, like they, you know, Aurora's materials are stellar. I will say on, on this lineup, the, what the, uh, the Oceani and the, the, the ocean, um, they are very proud of the cap band on those pens. I just want to say that, uh, to you, they really liked the cap band design for that one. It's very large, but just the overall it's an Aurora pen, right? You, you look at it without seeing the brand, you go, that's Aurora. And I do like that from a brand to have some kind of consistency through their lineup to where, you know, when you see it, what it is. And I've always appreciated that, uh, about Aurora's pens. And, uh, yeah, I just think they're fantastic. Yeah, they are. All right. I want to talk about Montegrappa because they confuse me a little bit. And I want to preface this by saying, I used to think the pens were okay, but they're fine. It's Montegrappa. This is the pen Montegrappa makes and it's fine. And then all of a sudden within the past one to two years, I'm going, that's Montegrappa, really? And it looks that cool. And it writes this well. Why do I like Montegrappa so much now, Kerry? I can't figure it out myself. So I figure the guy who handles these pens all day long can tell me why in the past year or two that I've fallen in love with this product as a brand.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Honestly, I think they are really, I've gained, let me tell you, before I say that, I've gained so much respect for that brand. And after coming on board and learning the background and the history and everything that they've done, what they're doing now and where they're going and the way they're going part, we're going to leave out because there's almost like, we're almost at a non-disclosure kind of point in the conversation. It's just amazing. You know, they have been family owned. You know, Aurora is what? A hundred years. Montegrappa is 112 years, something like that, or 107 years, I think now, family owned. And they just strive to achieve the next level, not like the next best thing, but the next level of whatever they're doing. You know, this is a company that you look at and they change from making, you know, they change from making like just nothing but extravagant, extraordinary pens to starting to make more and more daily users. And as they did that, they learned what works and what doesn't work. And I can tell you that now, like they've learned that the Joa nib is an excellent out of the box experience. So what do they do? In the last two years, they have changed over so that every new pen that they're bringing out is using a Joa number six nib or five, but a number six steel nib. And even the number six gold nibs, they're using Joa as well. The number eight gold nib is still a box with that huge ebonite flat feed. So, I mean, that's pretty epic nib, but they have switched over and made sure that that's the direction that they're going. That the pens that they put out right out of the box really well. And they're trying to keep things at a certain price level. But at the same time, there's a balance. And an example would be they're coming out with the next in their Warrior series. For those who know or those who don't know, they had the Samurai last year. And, you know, just unbelievable pen. The way they did the casting and the silver work on them. And it's a $15,000 pen that's just...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which I've got to play with, which just sounds weird.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' It does. But, you know, you just... It just is a next level. Yes. It's a next level kind of pen. The way that it's cast, the way that the artisans that they have working there do the silver work. And just... It's just phenomenal that they can actually put it together. That they can actually have everything work the way that it works. And look as pretty as it looks. And be on that extravagant level. And then the next year they come out. And now they have the Viking. Which is $18,500. Which is just... It's just... But it's unbelievable. Like, you look at the pen and you see what they've done with this piece of art that happens to be a writing instrument. And you're like, wow. But the balance is... This is what I love telling when I'm at a pen show. The balance is when people look at stuff like that. Or Lord of the Rings, the limited editions. You know, Montegrappa is very grounded. In that, you know, they do a lot of other things that people, you know, don't always get to see. There's a pen out right now that actually, you know about, for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' And, you know, Giuseppe spent a lot of time and effort to make sure that, you know, the pen came out and that the Elmo that's out is in the right colors. The clip is actually designed by an artist who suffers from Parkinson's. And, you know, they're looking to work or they work, they look to work with and are working with the Fox Foundation to give back. And, you know, you hear that and you're like, wow, that's really a diverse company as a whole. And I love that about them, you know, that they really understand where they need to be, that they're in the community and they're hitting all points. And they just fire on all cylinders all the time now, really.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's been interesting to watch from someone who follows this stuff like I do. And I do think the nib transition a couple of years ago was the start of, you know, me getting more interested in the brand. But then the designs just kept getting better and better. And we're talking about the normal people product lineup, not the enough to drive your pen to work price range lineup, which I appreciate that they do that. Like, I've got a newfound appreciation after talking to some people who own these products. You know, like in our event at Fountain Pen Hospital last year, you know, I got to talk to the owner of a chaos pen who was wearing it around his neck and just the belief he had in that product. And I was like, like getting to talk to the owners of products like this, it just kind of changes a little bit of your mindset. But like you say, I shop in the, hey, let me use this pen every day. And I was super happy for the Tulip for Team Fox edition when Ron at Pensallie asked me to work with him on that. I like, I was thrilled. Like, I couldn't say yes fast enough. It was just really, really neat. And, you know, I like the Montegrappa, Montegrappa, as much as I enjoy the naming convention of that pen. I enjoy the pen because it's a great writing pen, right? And it's got a cool, like ratcheted filling piston filling system. And like, and it's just cool. And it fits my hand well and it's designed well. I don't know. They're just, they're just kind of knocking it out of the park recently on their mainline pens. And then they have all the extra stuff, right? Like all the, you know, winter is coming. And, you know, like you said, Lord of the Rings and all that stuff. You sent me a text today knowing that you were going to be on the podcast tonight. And it contained a singular picture. And we can talk about this picture that you sent me? Okay. So tell me what you sent me because I don't know what this is totally. You kind of explained it, but we didn't go into it. So what did you send me?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' We had, I guess we had the conversation we usually have at a pen show. It's just like kind of a drive-by, if you will. So, you know, the, because the picture, everyone, for everyone that wants to know, the picture I sent Brad was a new pen from Antigrapa called the Maya 450.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And real quick, we have all these links in the show notes, all these pens we're talking about. This will all be in the show notes. You can, you can play along at home when you're listening and see what these pens look like that we're talking about. Sorry, go ahead.



== Antigrapa Pens ==


'''Kerry Yeager:''' No, that's okay. That's good. So part of working, like we work with Aurora, we work with Antigrapa very closely as well. And we were there. I wasn't there, but I think it was Brian and Joel were there in the factory and looking around. And, you know, they're always discussing new projects and things that go on. And, you know, Antigrapa is one of the last saviors of the celluloid. So we always look to them for anything interesting like that. And the Maya is a pen that they made years ago. They did one with like carbon fiber in the middle and then the ends were celluloid. So we asked about making them. You know, there were parts left over from the Maya, parts meaning the trim rings, the clip and stuff like that. And, um, we commissioned basically, uh, Montigrapa to make these. So we've got to pick out of five colors. It was, uh, it's, uh, black and white, orange, which is the one I sent you a picture of. It's orange.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's orange.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' It's, it's orange. You and I are the orange Kings. I think so. Um, yellow, red, and then there's a blue. And what happened is the blue there, we were only able to make 50 of those. So the others, there's only a hundred of each. So there's 450 pens altogether. So Maya 450, it flows. Nice. So we commissioned to have those made, bought the entire lot. So it's a U S exclusive and they are just starting to come in and are in time for Christmas.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, I mean, that's, this is, you know, you just made your boss so happy. Like I can't even stand it right now. I'm going to get yelled at so bad.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' It is such a shameless plug because, and the reason I like this pen so much is this is what I mean about collaboration. When Montigrapa came out and they moved over to Joah nibs and they started doing the Joah flex nib on some of the higher end pens. Well, our group being how we are and as close as we are and being in business with, with Montigrapa so long, Giuseppe honored our request so that these pens come with extra fine, fine, medium, broad stub and an extra fine flex and a fine flex as an option. And there's no upcharge.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, that's super interesting. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' So that is really cool in a day and age where so many are charging even for an extra fine. You know, I mean, it's happening because it is, it's a lot more, it is a lot more work to make these nibs and time is money and labor is not cheap and it's difficult. So when we're able to do something like that, you know, it, that makes a big difference to me, you know, that you can, we can offer them. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And let's not bury the lead completely. These are thousand dollar pens. Like this is not, you know, the $300 price point. This is the higher, higher end price point. It's probably like the mid range price point for Montigrapa. But yeah, they're just, they're, I see Montigrapa's materials and kind of like Aurora, like you can tell, right? Like you can tell, oh, this is a Montigrapa material. Like it's, it's pretty unique in the way the materials come out and it's just fantastic looking. So yeah, I'm anxious to see one of those in person. I'll check one out when I get the chance just to see what it looks like and what the feel looks like and you know, what those nibs feel like and, and things like that. So this, looking at this pen, it, it, I have a, an off, uh, off the notes question here. At your office, does everyone walk around writing with like the chaos pen or like the, the Maya 450 or I don't know, Brian, Brian seems like a big guy. Like he probably just walks around with like a big, he's got a stack of bakes on his desk. So what is, what are y'all's desks look like at the office?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Usually covered in pens, um, to be quite honest. Uh, let's see. We all, of course we all have those brands. I mean, they're always, because we are always writing with them and checking things out and trying, but full disclosure, Holster, uh, Brian Holster, our vice president, he has the most beautiful hand engraved mule I've ever seen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. Those, yeah, those were really good for engraving, right? Those were pretty cool.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah. Cause it's raw copper. So he does pocket shots a lot and you'll see it. He always has that around him. Always, always, always. It's just never plussy fears. I might walk off of it. So, um, that being said, uh, there are other pens around. I mean, there's a few retro 50 ones around the office. Yeah. Yeah. It happens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It happens.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' It happens for sure. Um, and my desk obviously is just, is just covered from end to end.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, I bet. And it's probably with the brand we're going to talk about next. But before we do that, I want to take a little break to tell you about our good friends at Express VPN. This episode of the pen addict is brought to you by Express VPN. You might think that nobody wants your online data or to snoop on you, but when you browse the web without anything to protect your privacy, you risk hackers, ad companies, and more collecting your data. And it does happen to people like us, which is why I recommend Express VPN. Express VPN runs in the background of your computer or phone. It encrypts your data, hides your public IP address. Uh, you can just download the app, click connect, and you're protected. It's rated the number one VPN service by TechRadar. It uses cutting edge technology called trusted server to make sure there are no logs of what you do online. It costs less than $7 a month and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Carrie, I was just at one of your favorite pen stores, Drum Ghouls in Houston, Texas. And when I wasn't at the store, I was back in the hotel room, you know, on my laptop doing work, checking out what's going on. My laptop cover comes up. I log into my computer. I click Express VPN, and I know I'm protected on whatever hotel Wi-Fi is doing with my network at the time. So you can protect your online activity today and find out how you can get three months free at expressvpn.com slash penaddict. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash penaddict for three months free with a one year package. Take back your online privacy. Our thanks to Express VPN for support of the penaddict and all of RelayFM. All right.



== Estabrook Brand History ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Estabrook has been through several cycles of its life. And right now it's in about as good a place as it can be because Kenro has full ownership of the brand full control over the name and is actually getting to design, make, manufacture, and distribute these pens. So we haven't talked about this on the podcast since, like I mentioned before, you weren't quite with Kenro at the time. So can you give us a little bit of background of not really like the acquisition part, but how you decided to make your own pen part?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Making your own pen. You know, I think it's stemmed way, way back that Kenro dabbled in. Um, they had a company called LaBelle and they were making pens and it was just, you know, kind of getting your feet wet situation and they made it for a while. And I think it was around that time that they had Omos also. So you got Omos, you had Montegrappa, you had Aurora and, you know, there's only so much you can do at one time. And I think after the demise of, of Omos, unfortunately, um, you know, they've been open and looking for the right brand and, you know, part of it, you look at people like, uh, Sid Saperstein who, who has Wall Ebershark and, you know, that's a, a brand that's just iconic and it fell into his lap and he got it. And it just, those things don't happen. So when Estherbrook came around and became available, you know, it was a very, very intriguing offer and a brand that is just known since forever. I mean, it's just, it's like, I believe if I'm correct, it's the fifth U.S. Um, not patent, the fifth U.S. Trademark.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Pretty much literally forever. Pretty crazy.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Pretty much literally forever. Yeah. So it was, you know, a meeting among the minds and what can we do with this brand and how can we develop it and, and Kenro being who they are? I mean, they've been doing it for 27 years and worked with a lot of brands. And like I said, the way we worked with Aurora, Montegrappa, you know, we're constantly developing ideas and what we can do to the market space. And that's pretty much what we did with Estherbrook. You know, what, what can we do to make this brand iconic and literally be reborn? I mean, that's like, that's what we say every day. It's, it's reborn. So what can we do to make that, that live true to, uh, to what we're saying? And when we sat down, it was, and you have to remember that, you know, in our office and I'm not patting anyone's back or saying any bad on anybody, but in our office, we like pens, you know, all of us are, but you know, there are used car sales and it's out there. You know, there really are. There are people that will just make a pen and sell it. And we don't do that. And, and I can say that because I'm there and I live it every day and we go in there with a passion. And I mean, all of us, we sit down at the beginning of the day for an hour and we talk every, every single day about our ideas, our thoughts and different things that we want to do. And that's what we did with the brand was what can we do? What can we do to make this pen? How it should be from the clip to the material, to the shape, to the nib, to the filling systems, you name it. It came up in conversation. And at the time that I came in, I mean, it really wasn't there very long. And I mean, I was there for a reason, you know, I'm a pen nut. And I was brought in very graciously into a very deep situation. And when we took it on and we wanted to see what was going on, the first trade show that was about pens and had manufacturers there was actually in Hong Kong. You have to remember Brian, who was there for 25 years. It's like, you know what? Who's going to go? And it ended up being myself, which I was stunned, Ryan Serrano and Joel. And the three of us went and it was just eye opening to learn so much and be able to, you know, kind of soak it all in. And at the same time, it was hard because you learn the process and that you can have the greatest idea, but you just want to make a pen. It takes time. It takes steps that you can't skip. And when we came home from that trip, I mean, we were really, I mean, every day we were talking, you mean I say we talk for an hour every day, we were talking two and three hours every day. And by the time that SD came out, which believe it or not, it's really only been a year. We released our first pens in Dallas last year. And it feels like it's been five years that we've had the brand and had it out there, but we just celebrated a year of release at Dallas. And it's just, every time we talk about it, we just are shocked at how the brand has done and the strength that it's had and how people have taken to it and the conversations that we get into at pen shows. With customers and end users. Honestly, that pen, that SD, when that came out, we easily spent a thousand hours, I kid you not, conversing. Just sitting down and talking. I don't mean making phone calls. I don't mean through an email. I mean, just us as a group, just talking about what should be done and how it can be done. And you don't realize it, you know, when you see a pen come out, that there might have been a very long process to do so. It's just been an amazing, amazing experience to be able to have my thoughts, my ideas taken as seriously as they were and seeing those ideas actually come to life in a pen that's out there in so many people's hands.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' How important was it to have the nib adapter for old Estabrook nibs at the initial launch of the brand?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' It was everything. You know, the story can go, we'll go like this. When we got Estabrook and we talked about where they are, we looked at brands today that have been around for hundreds, you know, a couple hundred years. So we looked at Waterman specifically as like, where are they now? What does a Waterman look like today? It does not look like the Red Ripple with the pink nib of yesteryear, correct? Sure. Because you can't. And things progress and you move into a modern time and now you've got longer pens, bigger pens, a little bit girthier, yada, yada, yada. So we needed a modern pen for Estabrook. You can carry it every day. It writes all the time. The clip works correctly. You know, we did a cushion cap in it so that it would seal down on top of the nib and make sure that it stayed wet. But where is that connection? Because it had been gone for so long, you know, where is the connection to the past? How do we get to the community and make them understand that we really care about the brand? And that came from us deciding there's got to be a way to get the old J nibs or dollar nibs to fit and work in a modern pen. There has to be a way. Even though it used a lever filler and it never was intended to be used with a cartridge converter. I mean, a cartridge or a converter. And we gave it to four or five designed people and we proposed the idea. And one person figured it out. And, you know, at that time, you know, you're looking at costs and everything. And you have to remember, it's like the money pit, if you will. You're just spending here and spending there because you're developing and you're trying to get ideas out there. And you're just, it's just, it's unbelievable how quickly you can escalate costs on something. And especially when you have a harebrained idea and you say, I want to use this nib and this kind of pen, even though it was never designed to be done. And when we got the first prototype in and we saw how it worked, we were, I was stunned. I really was. And I mean, because you could, we took the old nib and you just put it into this new section and you had the new section fit the new pen. And you capped it. And because we had that cushion closure, it kept that little tiny nib. And most of them are super fine. You know, they, they write really thin lines because they were for dictations a lot in school work.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They're amazing.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' And it kept them wet. And we would literally keep them capped for two weeks at a time, uncap it, and just like touch the tip of the nib to the paper. And it was like dot, dot, dot. And it would work. And that's just how they work. And it, and it comes down to, you know, back then, you know, that those caps have a breather hole in them. So they would dry out if you didn't use them constantly. And that's just how it is. It's not because it's a bad product. It's just how it was. Now with the cushion closure on that cap that we have on the modern SD, it keeps the vintage nib wet writing all the time. And I have more people come up to me at pen shows, you know, with, I mean, I'm not even going to get into one of the stories, but stories upon stories upon stories about the old nibs that they have from, you know, grandmother, great grandfather. They're ones that they just happened to find at a junk sale and they're using them again. And I love hearing that, you know, it's, you're recycling, if you will. You know, it's kind of a nostalgia thing that flows into that as well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' From my perspective, I still can't believe it's only been a year. That kind of blew my mind when you said that. But what's happened in this year of since release is that the brand has been able to take over like a spot of its own in the modern pen, you know, sphere that we're in, even though, you know, it's a vintage name brand. And it's built around, yeah, you can use these old nibs, but I think it's become like a standalone product now, at least from my viewpoint to where people are looking for Estabrook. Oh, what is Estabrook doing now? Not to put in, necessarily put in the old nib, even though that's an important story to tell, but that it's looking at, oh, what does the new Estabrook look like? And not considering the nib adapter. Would you say that's fair in the progress you've seen over the past year?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Absolutely. I absolutely would. Because that is something, you know, that it's specific to that pen. You know, being able to do it to one was a great undertaking. And it's one, like I said, we're so proud of it. You know, I'm proud of it. I can't believe we were able to do that because it gave it a good base. Yeah. Because going forward, there are pens. You know, the next pen that's coming out is the Camden. And it's a metal pen because we wanted something different. You know, we don't want, it's like you said. You don't want people to just associate you as just this group. You know, we want to have that expansion in the brand and be able to do different things and expand, you know, to different demographics of people that want to write. Because if you hit one group of writers, it's great. And you really want to make them happy. But you want to expand. You know, it's like our community. When we go to the same pen shows year after year, you want to see that community grow. And the more different you can have, the more that group will grow because there's more people that are intrigued. Because not everybody's going to like every product you put out. And that's just, say, as somebody who's putting out product and kind of having a lot of input and ideas. And I hear people are like, yeah, that's all right. I mean, I don't know if I would have done that. And I'm just like, really? You know what I battled? You know how many hours I battled at work with everybody to get something, you know? And so that's where, you know, we are definitely expanding. And, you know, the Camden is just one. I mean, there's so many projects that we have working. One that I can't talk about, but I'm sure some people know of a project or are expecting a certain project to come to life eventually. And it is for sure in the works. So, but I can't really say what that is. But all our people out there, they're all going, oh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're as bad a tease as I am. I like it.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' I like it. Believe me. Believe me, I want to tell you. I'm going to tell you so bad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's funny, Carrie, not to, like, tell all of our secrets. But I remember before Estherbrook happened, you would text me just to say, I'm doing a thing and I can't tell you, but I'll tell you at some point. And that would be the extent of the text. And then it'd be like six months before there'd be another text. I'm like, I'm still, that thing is going to happen. And I can't tell you, but when it happens, it's going to be good. But I just want to tell you congratulations and I'm proud of you for what you've put into this. I know it's a labor of love because I know you personally. And I'm just thrilled that this has gone as hopefully as well as you have hoped. And from my perspective, I think it has. But I'm just very, very happy that this has happened for you and for Kenro. And, you know, I hope to continue to see it grow. It's pretty fantastic that y'all have been able to pull this off.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Thanks. Thanks. I really have to say I appreciate hearing that because we do, we put a lot into it. And, you know, I work with some really incredible people. I am fortunate and I can assure you and the whole audience out there, I really do appreciate and understand and, you know, being, that's one thing about getting older. I've noticed you kind of learn to appreciate things that you normally would just be like, ah, that's cool. But I truly do. I really, I work with great people. I get to do a lot. I get to travel a lot. I get to see, I get to hang out with the community all the time. I mean, my job is being out there with the people, you know, going to a pen show. That's my job. Really? You know, and people will come up to the table and they'd be like, what are you doing? Like, what's new? What's going on? And I'm like, well, you're on your day off visiting the pen show. And I said, I'm working right now, you know? And obviously I say that to our group kind of people and they laugh and they get it. Oh my God, it must be great. And I'm like, you want to know something? Really? I hate to say it, but it is. And, you know, cause I get to play with all the prototypes and all the new stuff that comes in and get to just, you know, the new gochernib comes in and it's like, everyone's like, oh, this is cool. And everyone tries it. And then my job, my job is, you know, Joel's saying, Carrie here, take this home for the weekend and fool around and play with it. And tell me what you think. You know, we, we'll talk about it on Monday. And I'm like, that's my, that's my job. Really? I mean, I can remember blogging and I would just be like, can I just review a Ypsilon please? Oh yes. Yes. And now it's, you know, you're just in it all day long. And, but again, like I said, the point to that was just to say, truly, I am thankful. I really understand how good I have it and being able to do what I love every day as much as I do. It just, it's, it's really, really, it's a great feeling.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I'm going to talk to you next about maybe not feeling so great after all the pen show travel. As much as you love it while you're there, I know how much you travel and I want to dig into that. But first I want to talk about my good friends and your good friends, Carrie Yeager at Pen Chalet. This episode of the pen addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor and Kaweco, and of course, are an authorized dealer. They have very fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. And they're always adding new styles of pens every single month. As well as the brands I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens and all the pen accessories you ever need. Like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They have free shipping on orders over $50 in the US, but they also sell international with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to PenChalet.com, click on the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password PENADDICT for this week's special offer. And to get the code, you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. So our bit on the podcast carry is I don't get to look at these offers ahead of time. So I just rolled into the Pen Chalet site. I clicked the radio podcast button, put in the code PENADDICT, and found a crazy deal on the Platinum 3776, which is a fantastic pen. One I brag about all the time. I think it's a fantastic writer. It's a crazy good price. And secondly, and I'm pretty sure Ron didn't know you're coming on this week. The second item in my list is a free Estabrook 25-ounce stainless steel bottle with any purchase of the Estabrook SD, the Estabrook SD Oversize, or the Estabrook SD SE. I swear to you, this was not planned because Ron wouldn't have known you were going to be my guest this week. So that's pretty funny. So y'all should head over to Pen Chalet, check out all the deals, check out their wonderful selection of products this week. And thanks so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and Pen Addict. Tell me about this water bottle. You gave me this water bottle. Whose idea was this? It's pretty cool. It's a fancy Estabrook water bottle.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' It is. And it's a water bottle. It looks like it has stickers. And they're actually printed on there. So you can wash it and they don't come off. But we also left a room so you can put your own stickers on there too. You can put more on there. Feel free. Never enough stickers. Never enough stickers. Bottom of the laptop, top of the laptop, you move on to the phone. So that idea was Brian, Brian Holzer, who's our vice president.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No way.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' And you see, that's the thing. Everybody in our company has like a little specialty. And that's why sometimes the conversations, honestly, they go more than an hour. They'll go two hours because everyone's got a different thought and puts it into the process. Brian is like that creative guy. And he constantly comes up with new ways to engage. And the water bottle, you know, you walk around and he's like, I see water bottles everywhere. Everybody's got a water bottle. Nobody wants to, you know, throw away the plastic. We should make a water bottle with our name on it. And, you know, really? Yeah. And then two days go by and he's got a layout of what one should look like and how it should look. And you know what? We could even put like a logo from one of the stores and we'll figure out how to balance everything out so they can just give it away. That's crazy. You know, sometimes you hear that and, you know, Joel will try and rope us back in and say, guys, you can't give away the world, you know? And, you know, he always, he tries to keep us at bay and he does a great job at doing that. But yeah, so we did a water bottle and we figured it out. We navigated the whole situation. And it's awesome. It's just awesome to be able to have it out there. And it's another way to have our brand in people's face saying, look, here's something cool. Here's something that, you know, the community uses. A lot of people in our community use this. And we know that because we are constantly, you know, with them. You know, we're constantly with our people, listening to what they want, seeing what they do, how they journal, how they write, what they're traveling with. And, you know, it makes an impact. It really does. And I see him now when I see him, like I was at Ohio last weekend, and I saw a couple of people and they had him, you know, tucked into the side of the backpack. And I'm like, I know that. I know that water bottle. And, you know, it's really cool to see stuff like that. So Ron was one of the people that took that on and he's got it as his special.



== Columbus Show Recap ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's great. That's great. So you were just at Columbus. So we've been talking for a few weeks about getting together to record this episode. I had the date wrong at first, which I fessed up to. But you were at Columbus last weekend. The previous weekend, you were in Toronto. How many shows do not just you, but how many pin shows? I know y'all do a lot of other, you know, travel for other business lines and other, you know, things you do outside of pin shows. It's constant. But how many pin shows does Ken Rowe show up at to in like in the U.S., I guess in Canada now?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' In the U.S., I think we did 12 shows this year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Golly.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Out of 14. I think there was only actually yet that there was only I think only two shows maybe that we missed. That's a lot. That was it. Otherwise, we're there. It is, you know, it is a lot. But we have something to say. We have something to show. And we have insight and information we want to find, you know. And like I said, we really like what we do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' So giving up weekends and traveling a lot and being away from the family is not always easy. But we're with our surrogate family. You know what I mean? And that's really how it feels. That's why we do it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a cool way to put it. And I'm going to embarrass you a little bit here. So I stream on Twitch now a couple of days a week in the mornings. And we just generally chat about Pen stuff. And today when I was live streaming, the topic came up that, hey, I'm talking to Kerry tonight. And, you know, do you all have any questions for Kerry? And they had a couple of questions. And I'll work those in later. But the general comments were like, oh, Kerry, I love him. He's always so happy. He's always smiling. He's always so friendly. He's always so nice. And you know what? I told them. I said, it's all true. I was like, everything you're saying is all true. Like, he is not that person that, like, takes any of this for granted. Like, he just loves doing this. So I know going to the show is how exhausting it is. But you're always, you know, you're always so nice and friendly to everyone that I see and everyone that interacts with you. So I wanted you to know that you got a bunch of shout outs on the Twitch stream today. So that was pretty funny.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah. That's cool. That's good. That's good to hear. It's hot. You know why it's good to hear? Because sometimes you feel, you're in the grind too. You know, you feel like sometimes you're like, I'm so beat. And you're like, did I just do the right thing with that person? Did I? Yeah. No, I was good. I was good. Or the worst is you'll, at the end of the show, you'll go up to the room and you'll sit down for five minutes. And then you realize it's like 10 o'clock at night. Totally. And you go downstairs and half the people are gone and you're like, you know, you, not that you need, not that you need to be there. Not that we need to be there. Everyone listening. Not that we need to be there. Right. Everybody does. But, but it's just, you know, you, you just feel like you want to be, always be there to support. And, you know, I mean, for me, it's always making sure I engage with people that are, that are new. And, uh, I think that's why I like pen shows after dark, the way that whole thing came about, you know, Lisa and everything. And, and I just, I think it's such a good way to bring so many people in because I hear that story. Sometimes somebody will come to me, you know, and it's always embarrassing. It's, but they're like, you know, you were so nice and, and I didn't know anybody. And you, you like sit at our table and just sit down and it doesn't matter what you have and just hang out with us. And he's like, and now I have so many friends and blah, blah, blah. And then, and, you know, it may sound trivial and silly sometimes, but it, it, it keeps people involved in something that, you know, maybe they were meant to be involved in and they didn't get scared away and, and, and not be part of the community as a whole.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, that feedback means everything to me, like that, you know, people getting, you know, going outside their normal, you know, feeling to go into like a crowded room with a bunch of people that you may not know everything about all the things that you're about to see. And to be able to have some sense of comfort and normalcy that we can hopefully help provide just by spending some time, you know, talking and like showing you around and explaining things. Like there's nothing I would rather be doing than that. I promise you that like, that is it for me. Like if I can help people out at these pin shows, because I was there too. And like, you just want to go in and be able to be relaxed and have fun and, you know, enjoy the atmosphere and the people and the things you see. And, uh, it's not easy for everyone. And I just try to try my best to like make it a great situation for everyone. So that's, that's super cool. Um, I'm going to put you on the spot and make you pick your favorite pin show of the year. Go.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' San Francisco.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I, if that was probably like the odds on favorite, like I'm pretty sure, um, we got to see each other for probably less than five minutes at that show. I would think that's safe to say.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah, that's probably about right. Yeah. That's how it goes sometimes, but yeah, that show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a great show. Um, it's great layout, great, um, show promoters and great crowd. It's just a super, super fun show. I was jealous. You went to Toronto a couple of weeks ago because I had so much fun last year. That was one of the favorite, my favorite trips I've ever taken. Um, I know that shows difficult for a lot of people cause it's one day and it's very busy and very crowded, but it's just a cool vibe. And you can do things in the days leading up to the show. Like we went around to, you know, the pin stores in Toronto and things like that and got to hang out up there. So, I mean, who doesn't want to go to Toronto, right? Um, that's very cool. Um, you're doing something, uh, off books here pretty soon. Uh, is that, is that the safe way to say it? Maybe some little overseas travel to do a little something. What do you, what do you have up your sleeve?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' So, I'm actually going to the Madrid pin show in 10 days.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, let's, let's just to get this straight, you've done like 10 or 12 pin shows for work. Um, and then for like, I'm going to air quote vacation, you're going to go to a pin show. Do I have that correct? Pretty much.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' That is, uh, that's correct. There you go.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, how did this come about and what are you, what are you most looking forward to?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Um, uh, let's see. I have had, cause I talked to everybody. Um, many people say, you know, that the overseas shows, cause I always spoke about it after going, I think it came after script is the first time. And I was like, this is really cool just to see what it's like. So what show do you go to after that? And all the shows over there are one day. Madrid is the one that's actually three days. So it made, it just made more sense to shoot for that one. And last year I was actually trying to navigate how to do it. And it didn't work out. And this year navigating, navigating, and it just happened to fall into play. Uh, and it's funny at the, uh, Ed Capizzi who owns the Colorado show, who I'm friends with, and I've been always helping him with the show. He is going as well. Nice. Um, and Sarge, the one man pen show. I've spoken to him about it a couple of times and, uh, he, you know, anything he says sounds great. First of all, the accent is just crushes it every time. Um, but he's like, oh, I might, I'm not even going to try it. But he said, oh mate, I'll see you for a drink. And I was like, you know what? I got, I got to figure it out. But that being said, when I told Brian Hulser, our vice president, uh, that I was going, he, um, you know, part of, part of Estherbrook is going worldwide. It is, you know, going global. Right. And he started looking into it and we have a distributor there that we've been working with for a while. And he didn't, you know, I think at the time, he just didn't realize that it was a three-day show because we were used to everything being one day. Long story short, it's a three-day show. There's people to see. It made it worthwhile. So Estherbrook, you know, right? Kenroll, but we're going as Estherbrook, um, is going to be a sponsor and have a table. At the Madrid Pen show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, wow. That's cool. That's very cool.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' So Brian actually is going to go. So now I have somebody else that's that, that is going.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nice.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Um, and while I'm not working, of course, you know, I'm going to, I'll end up behind the table, yakking it up. I'm sure for a little while, but yeah, so we're, who knows, maybe now, maybe next year I'll be going, not on vacation. Now I'll be working and having to go. Hey, the hardships of life, the hardships of life having to, you know, so, but no, I'm really am looking forward to it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You said something there that, that made me, uh, made me want to ask you this. Are you more comfortable in front of the table or behind the table?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Hmm. No, behind the table or in front of the table. It mean, it only leads to bad things.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Like, that's how I answer it too. Like I'm, I end up, I'm, if I'm not working, which is very rare, I'll still end up behind the table because that's my comfort zone. Right. That's where I feel the most comfortable talking to people. Like shopping around, I still feel awkward. Like, even though like, it's like totally fine. Like I still end up behind someone, either my table or someone else's table wanting to help or work or do something. I don't know why. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' But that's just it. No, you're right. You want to, you're, cause you want to engage. You want to do just every opportunity. It just, it's just natural that you want to do that. I, I totally, totally agree. I know exactly what you mean.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. It's an interesting feeling, but it's, it's cool. I've, I've just caught myself doing it when I shouldn't be doing it. Like when I should be taking a break, like I won't do it. It's just weird. All right. Speaking of breaks, I got one more break. We're going to take, then we're going to talk about all things fountain pen day. I want to hear how this fountain pen day went for you and everybody else. This episode of the pen addict podcast is brought to you by Eero. If you want to binge watch your favorite TV shows from anywhere in the house without interruption, you need Eero. Eero blankets, your whole home with fast, reliable wifi, eliminating poor coverage, dead spots and buffering. So you can have consistently strong signal wherever you need it. I use Eero here at the house. My house is kind of like long and skinny and spread out. So I have the central location where the modem is hooked up from the street. The Eero plugs into that. Then I have the Eero hubs that are throughout my house that allow me to get wifi all the way back in the bedroom, which is like the furthest point from where my wifi connectivity is at. And Eero works fantastically for that. Eero is the wifi your home deserves. There's an all new Eero starting at just $99. And it just, and it sets up in just minutes. Just plug it straight into your modem or router box. You can even manage it from a super simple app, which I use all the time, which lets you do cool stuff like pause the wifi while you're all eating dinner and get alerts. If any new device tries to join your network. Eero has fixed all of my wifi problems. No more dead spots, no more buffering. You can get yours fixed as soon as tomorrow. Go to Eero.com slash pin and enter the code pin at checkout. That's P E N pin to get free overnight shipping with your order. That's E E R O.com slash pin. Enter the code pin at checkout to get your Eero delivered free with overnight shipping. Our thanks to Eero for their support of this show and to relay FM. All right, Carrie. So before this whole Kenro thing, you were working your day job. And on the side, you had this mad hatter idea of creating a little thing called fountain pen day, where we can all celebrate the love of all things, writing and fountain pens. For those who are not familiar, can you give us a little bit of the background of how that started? All right. I'll give you the short and sweet.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Eight years ago. Eight. Can you believe it's been eight years? I can't.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can't. This one, I can believe.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Eight years. I mean, all right. So the quick and dirty, here you go. I'll give it short because they can always go back and listen because I gave a whole long drawn out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know, but we get new listeners every week. So we want to, we want to give an update.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' The update. All right. The update is we'll backtrack really quick and say that eight years ago, if you go to on fountain pen network and search, you'll see the original conversation. I haven't looked in a while. I'm pretty sure it's still there. I hope it's still there. But there was a group of us that decided that it was national pencil day. I think it was something like that. It was one of those days, ballpoint pen or pencil. And there was no fountain pen day. And I just remember at the time I was like, why is it a fountain pen day? And I was in, I was in the rabbit hole. Like I had just, I had just gotten submerged enough that, that I'm like, I'm in. And, um, you know, enthusiasm is peak to the max. So I'm Googling fountain pen day in quotes to see what came up. And literally nothing came up. The only thing that came up was like some weird, um, song from like Japan or something. And it was just a googly, uh, translation from Google. That was like an error. And it's a fountain pen day song, but it really wasn't. That sounds accurate. It was just crazy. So there was nothing. And so I was like, all right, well, I'm going to open the Twitter account. I don't think we had Instagram then. I think that came later and I'll do the Facebook. And I started that and we were all chatting as a group and blah, blah, blah. And, uh, Rachel Gley helped me like even set up the Facebook page. She was an admin on it back then just to help me. Cause I didn't know how to do it. I wanted to do it. And, you know, there was about eight of us and we came up with a date. Um, I didn't come up the original date. I forgot who did, but they said, we finally came up with the first Friday in November because the first Friday in November is after Halloween. So you've cleaned up from that and it's three weeks before Thanksgiving. So it's in like this little dead zone and it's always on a Friday. We thought because Friday you can bring your favorite pen to work and it's your opportunity to engage those around you with your craziness. And, and when they see you with a fountain pen and they wonder why you're not just dictating into your phone, you can express to them why writing is good and what makes it great. And challenge them and kind of bring it in. And then on the weekend, you know, spread it out. You can hang out with your friends and have a pen meetup and maybe get, and at that time, maybe get retail stores to engage with you and open the doors and let pen meets happen and stuff. I'll get to that in a minute. And that was the whole idea. People's lives got busier and busier as we got closer and closer. Cause this was in like July or August. And, uh, by the time November came around, I contacted like John goals and Van S and found pen hospital, Goulet, obviously. And a couple of others. I know I'm leaving some out. I think Pen Chalet and maybe even, um, Goldspot. Um, but anyways, I got them on board and they were like, okay, you know, and by the time it came around, it w it was, it was me. And I mean, it was me. Yeah. And because people's lives get busy. It wasn't anyone's, it wasn't like anyone abandoned, you know, these people are still around and, but that's how it was. So I was in a conundrum of, I really shouldn't tell anyone that it's just me with this, you know, running this crazy idea because these are huge companies. These are, these are been around for 50, 60 years and I just kept going with it. And I kept pushing ahead and pushing ahead and pushing ahead. The first year came and went and I just kept updating and kept, you know, emailing different companies out there and retailers. And, um, the second year came around and it grew even more. And by the third year, I think is when we started, um, the Instagram and I had a guy, um, Scott Fuller, who, um, at the time was just starting out, um, was a designer. And I got him to do the logo for like super cheap. And he's like pretty much untouchable right now. Uh, I think he, he just did the Atlanta heats logo or something crazy like that. Um, so super guy helped me out. And anyways, from there, it just, it just escalated and escalated and escalated until I went on your show. And then I, that was kind of like an open confession of, by the way, when it first started, I didn't realize that it was, she was just kind of like me. And, but I just, I just took a really personal, you know, that I thought it was super important. It was really good. And even though it was something we, we invented in the community, it was ours and it shouldn't be anybody else's. And that's why I've held onto it the way that I have. And I don't, I don't take donations. I mean, I do the buttons for shows and I try and do social media and push and push and push because I don't want anybody to grab it. You know, this isn't a Valentine's day thing. This is, this is ours. And you know, it's just, it's nobody's, nobody's allowed to have it. And everybody knows where it comes from. So if nobody can grab it because, you know, no, nothing's trademarked everybody, but guess what? If somebody were to try and do something, you would have a mass exodus from your brand simply because I would tell them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah. And, uh, you know, that this is just not right. So anyways, that's neither here nor there. The bottom line is it's a lot of fun. It gets engagement. And now you see what's happened that my dream of having retail stores open their doors and invite people in and have events on that day. And really engage with the community on like a one-to-one friends level has just expanded. And, and they do that. And it happens more and more every year across the globe. I mean, there are the Ohio Pen show is on Fountain Pen Day weekend. Terry booked the hotel for like five years straight in his contract to be on that weekend because he wanted to show on Fountain Pen Day weekend. He really, you know, got into it. And, and it's just, you know, the, the, the retailers out there tell me every year it just gets bigger and bigger. And it's become part of it, a black Friday, if you will. You know what I mean? Like everybody's got a sale, but everybody's got a sale along with something to give away. They've got a raffle. They've got ways for people to engage and, and get together and have meetups. And, and, you know, they're just giving back to the community, you know, on a level beyond a discount on a, on a pen. You know what I mean? And, and it's, it's a give and take.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's definitely a common thread between all the businesses that we work with is how willing they are to give back to their customers, to the community as a whole, you know, to put on these events during Fountain Pen Day. Like, which is, it's totally taken a life of its own in these past several years. Right. It's just like, it's, it's like anticipated and expected that, you know, your favorite retailer or your local pen store or your favorite blog or anything like that is just going to do something for Fountain Pen Day. And I think it's, it's pretty cool to see the community come together behind our own day, if you will. I think it's just a, a really fun, fun thing to look forward to every, uh, every first Friday in November. It's pretty cool. And, um, is this the first year you've made a pen along with Fountain Pen Day? I know you've designed other pens and made other pens with people, but were they for Fountain Pen Day? Tell me what you did here.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' There was, there was one, we did one two years ago. Um, uh, I just drew a blank. Crusack? I know the Crusack pen, but I don't know. Crusack, right. We did that. And then this one, um, I sat down with Scott in Baltimore and just told him my thoughts and ideas. And Scott Franklin, Franklin Kristoff. Scott Franklin. Yes. Very. I'm taking, I'm taking for granted. Everyone knows. So yes. Scott Franklin of Franklin Kristoff pens. Um, you know, I sat down with him and this pen was amazing. It means something to me more than just, you know, having a Fountain Pen Day pen because we did it in the, uh, matte ghost. And that color actually back for four years ago, five years ago, I went to the triangle pen show and it was Saturday night, Friday night or Saturday night. And Scott took myself, Eleanor, I own and Eric, hi Eric. Um, to his shop at like seven o'clock at night. And one of the guys that works there and he's going to kill me because I just drew a blank on his name. Tall runs the machines. Yeah. Anyways, we went back there and literally is it Brian? Yeah. Brian. Is it Brian? I don't know. I don't know. It's one of those two. We'll both get yelled at. I own my beer. Yeah. Yeah. So bottom line is we made a pen. Scott showed us how he makes a pen. And this is after a full day at a pen show. We will go back to his shop and I literally made a ghost 45, no markings on it, nothing. And, uh, then Eleanor made a pen and it was blue and it was, and she didn't polish it. She left it matte. And I always thought, I'm like, wow, ghost matte. Maybe I shouldn't have polished mine. And, uh, so when we got together in Baltimore, I said, you know, orange is my jam. It's my color. And, uh, I think at the time he said, yeah, you and Brad, you know, something like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Cause we were working with that. We were doing the first O2 at the, we did the O2 and the 66. So we would be doing the 60, the pocket 66 at the time.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah. Yes. And so he said, all right, so what do you want to do? And I told him, I said, I would like to do the ghost like you and I made, but in Matt, like you did for Eleanor on hers, um, with orange shrimp and have it for found pen day. I thought that would be really cool. Just do, just do 88 of them. They're not numbered, but whatever. And I asked him about engraving. And of course, engraving. That was a, he was like, listen, can't do engraving. If I do it for you, I have to do it for everybody as he's, you know, sipping the scotch or whiskey or whatever it was. And just, you know, cause he's trying to be polite. Cause I think he was like ready to kill me. And when he's telling me no, cause I was kind of like, well, why not? You know? And, uh, so, but it's something that they don't do. It's just, it's just so much work.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh yeah.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' So, uh, when I spoke to Lisa about it, I know that, uh, Van Ness pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're, you're acting like we're just sitting at the bar talking. This is how we normally talk. So we just have to elaborate a little bit for the listeners.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Absolutely. And it is, we don't get to talk like this too often. So, um, but yeah, so Lisa Van Ness was like, we can engrave it. And, um, I said, really? So we did a couple of testers and it came out exactly how I would look so good. I mean, she really, she crushed the engraving and did such a good job. So we typical, you know, everything last minute. Right. So we ended up getting the pens, I think like last Thursday, they did them over the weekend so that they would be ready. And, uh, well, Thursday before last, so they would be ready. And, uh, and then Lisa has been practicing, uh, blending inks and she did one for, she did one or two, two for Joey Feldman actually. And, uh, really cool stuff. And she's like, you know, maybe I could make a, an orange ink. And I'm like, okay. And I, cause I didn't want to push her cause she's just, there's somebody who's on the go 24 seven, always on. And, uh, so she's like, I'll do it. And she did it. She did the label. And so we were able to have something a little extra special this year. And it was really nice. And, and, you know, it's nothing that I did other than suggestions and, you know, asking and, you know, people in the community always come together. And I think it really made a lot of people happy. I saw, you know, a couple of people at the Ohio pen show had actually come up to me and said, Oh, I ordered one. And it's like, cool. And, you know, you see them online and people getting them. And, uh, you know, like I said, at the end, it means something because it reminds me every time I see that pen, it reminds me of a moment I had with a really good friend, just hanging out in his shop and he's showing me how he does what he does, you know? And, uh, that was really nice. Super special this year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You can still get them at Van S pens. We'll have the link in the show notes and the ink still available. And Carrie, um, this was another moment to use your words with a very good friend. And I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your stories with us and, uh, telling us all the ins and outs of what you were up to. These days and we'll make it not so long, uh, between episodes next time. Uh, we'll, we'll work on that a little bit more. So before we go, tell everyone, uh, plug all the things, where do you want people to find you? Where do you want people to look? And we'll have all these links in the show notes.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' I am going to be, uh, everywhere. I'll be in Madrid. Everyone that's in Madrid from Sarge and, and Antran and, uh, everybody else. I will see you there, uh, this weekend. Let's see. I'm going to be at Farnie's on Friday. I will be at Bertram's on Saturday. Uh, then December starts. We'll be at Fountain Pen Hospital. Uh, I think the fifth, sixth, seventh. And then the week after that, I am going to back up to the Virginia, Maryland area and I'm going to be at Farnie's, Bertram's, Levenger and, and boutique for an event on that Saturday. Then the week after that, starting Wednesday, I'll be at Atlas stationers for an event and Levenger for an event. And I believe I'll be seeing the Andersons as well on Friday. And then I think the year ends.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then it starts all over again.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' And wait, and then, and then we go into Philadelphia, which is a week later this year, I think actually.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's like the 17th ish, something like that. Okay. So we're into 2020 January now. No rest for the weary, man. No, you got it.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Listen, I'm around there. And again, I love seeing everybody and I really do appreciate the community and I'm hanging out. So whether it's a DC crew, the New York crew, or everyone in San Francisco or Dallas or, you know, everywhere, Arkansas. I mean, I can't, I can shout out everybody or the awesome people in Toronto. It's just, you know, living the dream and really, really appreciating it and everybody out there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. It's fantastic. So you can find this show and all of Relay FM show at relay.fm. This particular one is at slash pen addict. It will be 384 this week. So go there, find all, all of our wonderful podcast work that we do as a network. You can find me at pen addict.com and all of my links for all of the shenanigans I am up to can be found from there. So thank you, Carrie, for joining us. And until next time, say goodbye, Carrie.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And thank you so much again. You got it, man. We'll see you later. Thank you.

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