Editing The Pen Addict 564/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 564
| title           = The Distribution Game
| date            = May 17th, 2023
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = [[Bryce Gillett]]
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/564 Episode 564]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thepenaddict/penaddict564.mp3 Audio Episode 564]
| length          = 52
}}

'''Brad Dowdy:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode number 564. My name is Brad Dowdy, and today I'm joined by a special guest, who you may ask, none other than Bryce Gillette of Luxury Brands of America. What's up, Bryce?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Hey, man, how are you doing? Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good, good. About time you decided to join me.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, you know, it's been a long time coming, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, just so we're clear, that has very much been the other way around. It's more like, I like to be honest, and Bryce has asked me, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, we'll do it, we'll do it, and then we never do it. And then Bryce is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it, let's do it. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we'll do it. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we'll do it. I'm like, we never do it. So now we're doing it, finally.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' It was like Baltimore this year, right? Like, I saw you in Baltimore, and I was like, hey, we should do it. You're like, yeah, okay, actually.



== Distributor conversation and Bryce's role as national sales and marketing manager ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Like, actually, finally, yes, let's do it. So it's good, because I really want to have the distributor conversation with someone and let our listeners know how this whole distributorship in our stationery world works and things like that. So we're going to talk a lot about that today. So why don't you give me the little intro? Tell me about you. Tell me about what you do, the company you work for, just so everyone listening can kind of get an idea of where we're going to go today.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, yeah. So my name is Bryce Gillette. Like Brad said, I'm our national sales and marketing manager. So I handle all the relationships between us and our retailers, as well as I run our Instagram, our TikTok. I follow up on all the messages on both of those and also do help a lot with all the advertisements that we do, whether it's like Pinball Magazine, or just any other print advertising that we do. So I kind of do all that. And yeah, so I worked with Luxury Brands of America. We're a third generation family owned pin distributor. And that was actually started by my grandfather some years ago, which I'm sure we'll talk about later. But yeah, definitely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Definitely. So yeah, real quick, what brands do you currently have that our listeners would be familiar with?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, so we distribute brands like Platinum Pin, Colorverse Inc, Banu Pin, Waldman, Nebula Note, Endless Stationery. They do some great job with notebooks. Noodler's Inc, D. Charles, Girologio Leather. So a few things. Kind of like all over the board.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, which is good. And we're going to talk about how all that comes to be. But I wanted to let our listeners know that, hey, you've probably, especially if you're in the US, you've probably somehow, you know, been involved with Luxury Brands' work. So the biggest question, one of the questions I had, and I've known you for several years, and I've known you as Bryce at Luxury Brands. And, you know, but I don't really know anything about you. So I wanted to know, were you a stationery fan before you joined the family business?



== History of Bryce's family business and its origins ==


'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, well, so, you know, like I said, my grandfather, he started the business, but he, before that, he was always in the writing instrument world. So, I mean, he worked for Sailor a long time ago. He worked for Pentel, I think. He worked for Pilot at one point, I believe. So he was kind of all over Zebra Pin at one point. So he's kind of, and actually my uncle also worked for Zebra Pin. So we were kind of always in that industry. And my mom, who works at, who's our COO, she and my uncle and my grandfather all owned a stationery print shop, like when she was younger. So it's kind of always been in the family. But to be honest, at the very beginning, like I was always in the stationery kind of just being in that world. But that was actually not the world I was going into. I actually originally got my undergrad and graduate degree in trombone performance from the New England Conservatory. Nice. So I was originally going to go the orchestral trombone route, like playing orchestras. And I did, you know, I auditioned and eventually, you know, won a job. But I just decided, you know what, that wasn't really the path that I wanted to go down, because also my wife was also going down that road. So we kind of did a 360 or 180 degree turn. She went to law school, I got my MBA. And then we decided I started working for my parents at the same time while I was getting my MBA.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, that's okay. That's super interesting. See, I'm glad I asked that question. I didn't know. So was it was it one of those situations when you're a kid growing up and you're a teenager going into high school and college is like, I am not doing what my parents do. I don't want any part of this. Like, I'm just I'm I am out. And then you get a little bit older. And you're like, Oh, wait, this is actually pretty solid.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, well, it was it was kind of like, playing playing trombone. Everything was amazing. I got to travel all over the world. I went to Germany, and I went to Japan playing and everything like on orchestra tours and stuff. And it was really great. But then at a certain level, you kind of think about all the hours and the work that you put into it and what you get out of it. And then you start looking, as you get older, you, you know, you may have a family and stuff like that. So you're kind of thinking down those roads, too. And sure. With my wife, also being a clarinetist. The chances of you ending up in the same orchestra is basically nil to none. And we just didn't want to live that life, you know, of being separated, because we know a lot of people that are separated like that. And so that was just not something that we were interested in. And yeah, kind of to your point. And then when you're kind of looking at it going, I guess actually working for my parents would be it would have more benefits than negatives.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, the older you get, the a lot, a lot better looks.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which like definitely working for family can be challenging at times. But, you know, I definitely think the positives outweigh the negatives for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So from a company's perspective, your grandfather started the company.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So was it always kind of set up as the distributor? Was it you were talking about the print shop? Was that like considered like part of the business at the time back when he started it? Or was there always like this distributorship set up and organization?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, no, the print shop was a while ago, like when my mom was young. And the distribution luxury brand started, I believe he started it in 2008.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' No, 2004, 2004. So we're actually coming up to our like 20 year anniversary, which is kind of cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' And he always set it up as a distributor business. And yeah, that's just that he always set it up. And actually, my grandmother, my grandfather passed away some years ago, but my grandmother actually lives with my parents. And she for the longest time, I mean, she was working in the warehouse when she was, you know, 20 years ago when she was working in the warehouse, filling orders and stuff like that. So she's still very much. It's funny. I'll like go over to my parents' house and be talking to her about the business. And she's like all there because she knows exactly, you know, what was going on and stuff like that. So it's definitely different than it used to be, but she still knows what's going on. So, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's super cool. So when did you get involved and when did your parents get involved, I guess, as the business?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, so I got involved six years ago this June, which is crazy. Can't believe it's been that long. And my parents have been there for, I think, 10 going on 11 years or 9 going on 10, something like that. So, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Okay. And at one point, you were based in Texas. Now you're in North Carolina. Is that correct? Do I have that right? Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, well, it kind of moves around a lot. Okay. So it was actually started when my grandfather started it and grandmother started it. It was in Georgia. And then when they decided to kind of pass the torch to my parents after, you know, we've been in it for a little while. And we moved it from Georgia to Texas. Okay. And then we moved it from Texas to North Carolina. Okay. And I kind of, I feel like I have something to do with it moving from Texas to North Carolina because, you know, when my wife was going to law school in South Carolina, they were like, so you're going to move back to Texas when you're done, right? I don't know, man. Like, I really liked that. I was born and raised in Texas all 18 years of my life lived in Texas. So I was a Texas guy, like, through and through. But I was like, it's really hot. It's really ugly. Like, you got to come to North Carolina, see the mountains and all the beautiful trees. And I'm like, you know, Charlotte, you're like two hours from the mountains. You're three hours from the beach. Like, it's perfect. You know, it's awesome. And so they came, they fell in love with it. And perks of owning your own business, they were like, all right, up and move. Cool. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I love that. All right. Well, I'm ready to dig into this business real quick. I actually have a lot of questions. I think it's going to be an interesting conversation, you know, trying to figure out, you know, how a distributor works in our industry. So real quick, let me throw it over to my buddy Myke for a quick ad read in this episode. And we'll be right back and dig into these questions.

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== Explanation of what a distributor is in the stationery industry ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Bryce. Can you give us the lay of a land of what a distributor is as it relates to our stationery industry?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' For sure. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, I don't think it's any secret that, you know, pens are all over the world. Well, you know, and the Japanese market's really big and the German market's really big. So a lot of times with these markets being so expansive, a lot of the retailers in the United States can't either, you know, either the MOQs or the minimum order quantities are really high for some of these brands like all over the world or the shipping. I mean, shipping is so expensive and it's gotten even more expensive now. I think shipping costs since 2020 until now have gone up by like 400%. Yeah. So shipping costs are really expensive. And also there's lots of taxes and tariffs that go along with bringing product over. So there's a lot. I wouldn't say, yeah, I would say the majority of stores, either the minimum order quantity is an issue or the shipping cost is an issue or the tariffs are an issue financially. Exactly. So where distributors come in, whether it's us or any other distributor, we basically take on all that, all the bulk and having to store all that. Like, you know, some of our manufacturers minimum order quantity is $10,000. So a lot of, I mean, a lot of retailers either don't want to have to put up that much money, which I can totally understand. Well, it's a lot of money or just to put, just to stock that much inventory would be insane. You know, for most reasons.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's a single brand. Like, that's at once. Single brand. Yeah. Single brand.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. At once, like your order has to be at least $10,000. So that's where we come in. So we basically order a ton, house it here in the United States, and it makes it a lot easier. And then we break the bulk for our retail. So we, I would say, you know, there's a few products that we sell that have minimums. Like, for example, preppies, you have to order a certain amount of them just because they're small and cheap and, you know, that kind of thing. But I would say 99% of the products that we sell, they can either order 100 of them or they can order one of them. So, and we try to make the retailers' lives as easy as possible. So we bring in as much product as we can. Kind of similar how we do with pin shows. We bring as much product to pin shows that we can. And that kind of eases up the burden on the retailers to bring all that product. Because, you know, there's so many. And also that's the other thing. Retailers, there's so many different brands out there. They can't stock everything, you know. So, yeah, that's kind of where we come in. We really try to help them and help the market. And also bring really, really cool products to a market that wouldn't normally be there or be as widely accessible. Because there might be some brands that only one or two retailers could bring in. So where if we distribute them, we could have it in a lot more stores and make it widely accessible for the consumer.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, looking at it from the consumer's perspective, it's really helpful for someone like me who's into this stuff and wants to look at different pins and have different things. You're facilitating that huge, you know, initial order from the manufacturer. You're allowing now your customers. So you're a customer of a retailer. But then you have your retail customers that are then passing on those products to us. And you might have a retailer that, you know, carries five of a certain pin. And then they have a customer that buys one of that pin. And you're helping that whole transaction process happen.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And a lot of times, too, you know, again, going to the whole trying to help retailers as much as we can. We also, over the past couple of years, have been doing, you know, kind of implementing drop shipping for our retailers a lot more. Because, again, they have so much product and there's just so many brands now. I mean, I can't even from when I started six years ago to now, the amount of pin brands and ink brands and everything have just exploded. So we kind of allow some people if they like to. Some people don't like to do it. But they can put product on their website and then we'll drop ship it for them. So sometimes you'll actually get it direct from us to where they don't have to stock everything. But they can put everything on their website. So that kind of also helps our retailers out not have to buy so much inventory. But still show all of the inventory, if that makes sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So essentially, you have like a big product warehouse and you can also run fulfillment from there if necessary. Run through. Yeah. You have basically an inventory system, you know, that'll allow you to manage, you know, the incoming products as well as, hey, let's do this drop ship offering for. Right. Interesting. I was not aware of that. That's pretty cool.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm giggling because I'm thinking of all the brands you carry in the warehouse and the management of all of that. So like literally, like what is your day to day look like? You told me like what your job responsibilities are. But like when you show up, like what are you going? Oh, my gosh. Like we need to knock this out today. What are those days like? Like, you know, are we getting a big order from Colorverse? And like, where am I going to put all this stuff on the shelf? And how am I going to inventory this? So give me a little bit of a day to day taste of what it's like at LBA.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Well, luckily, everybody here does a really great job. And we all help each other out as much as we can. So like, even though I don't fulfill a lot of orders, I still go out and help with pre-orders. Or if we get like just swamped with orders, we'll all help. I even got a forklift certified to be able to operate our forklift. Yeah. You know, so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That Colorverse is coming on a pallet, I'm sure, right?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, for sure. I would say probably, I would say more of our brands come on pallets than don't, if that makes sense. So that's kind of why we shifted to a forklift. But anyway, yeah. So, you know, like kind of coming in to the, you know, obviously content creation is always at the front of my mind. Whether it's Instagram or TikTok, I would say the thing that kind of makes me go, oh, no, I really need to do this is the TikTok videos. Because it's always, you're always trying to come up with something or do something. And it takes a little while to edit them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' So that definitely takes up a good chunk of your day, for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' For sure. For sure.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' So I would say that was, I mean, I love doing them. And everybody here is like, oh, man, Bryce is doing a TikTok video. He's not going to be around for like three hours.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' But yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Or if they see you coming with a camera, they're running the other way.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' I can't tell you how many times. Actually, I think our most recent video, I just like ambushed everybody that was there that day. And I just asked them what they were like writing with. So a lot of times they're like, oh, damn it. Bryce is coming, you know. But yeah. So just talking to retailers online or through email or on the phone, just making sure everybody's getting what they're what they need. Or if someone needs something, taking care of that.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Answering. Responding people's voicemails. So, you know, when people call in, whether it's retailers or consumers. We kind of all get consumer emails as well. So if someone's having a problem with a pen or something like that, we respond to those.



== Preparation for the Chicago Pen Show and its significance ==


'''Bryce Gillette:''' But I would say, you know, and then also like, for example, right now, we're getting ready for the Chicago Pen Show. So this past week, we've been getting all of our crates ready. We ship out about 28 blue crates full of display stuff and and just boxes and pens and ink and just, you know, everything. So we've been getting ready for that. So, yeah, it's kind of no day is usually the same, you know. But I would say the most hectic day, there's this one time that that made us all go, God, we literally it was it was a delivery day from hell. And I don't know, like, I don't know what happened, but we all we had it like spaced out really well. Like you're going to receive platinum one day and then like a day and a half later, we were going to see the color verse and day and a half later, we were going to see endless. And and somehow it all came on the same day. So we had like we had like four pallets from color or from platinum come and we had like three or four pallets from color verse come. We had two pallets from endless. So it was just this it's like you can walk in the warehouse in our warehouse is not small. And with the with the forklift and everything going, it was it was a lot. So, yeah, that was a day. Yeah, for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That is a day. All right. Talking about those brands. One of the things I'm curious about is how do you decide to partner with a brand? Say you're going to pick up a new product line or in kind of the same context, how would a a manufacturer decide to partner with you? Right. Because it's a two way street. Right. Because, you know, there's there's other options for both of y'all on both sides of the ledger. So let's start with how do you decide to to pick up a brand? Are you like initiating? Are you like watching things? You like having conversations like on the front end? Hey, this looks interesting. We think it'd be good for our market. How does that work?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, it's definitely a lot of watching the market. A lot of a lot of perusing social media and just seeing like what people are buying. You know, if certain retailers are starting to bring things in because there are always certain retailers because you want to kind of see a few retailers bring something in. And before we pounce on it, there's there's a couple there's a couple of brands that we brought in just complete like zero representation in the United States. That is pretty challenging to do, to be honest. So we like to see there there be some fire in the market about it. But then and then, you know, we'll talk to retailers and be like, hey, what do you think of this? And they'll you know, and we'll know it's a good brand or something that we would want to look into. If, you know, retailers like, oh, it's it's great. But man, shipping so expensive or just something like that. And I would love or even like a lot of times retailers are retailers because we have great relationships with like all of our all of our retailers. A lot of times they'll reach out to us and be like, hey, you really need to distribute this brand. I really want to carry it, but I can't for X, Y, Z reasons. So but I would say a lot of it's market watching for sure. Okay. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And and based on the brands you carry, like it doesn't necessarily. The size of the brand doesn't matter because like Platinum is a very, very large brand. Colorverse is, you know, in our world, it's, you know, maybe medium size, but in general, it's probably like pretty small. So you're more looking about like, hey, probably more what what can we look to just sell? It doesn't matter if like it's a big company with a lot of SKUs or a small company with, you know, three SKUs as long as it's hot and is selling. We're interested, right?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, like Platinum, when when my parents took over, it was about the tenth of the size it is now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I kind of wanted to talk about that a little bit. So this is perfect. Yeah. Because y'all have kind of grown along with them from my perspective.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. And that's that's the ultimate goal. So and I would say, you know, Platinum is like that. Newler is like that. Colorverse has definitely grown a lot. The new has been a brand that has been steady growth up until this year and it's just exploded. Or really last year, actually. And so, you know, in it and a lot of it, I mean, the manufacturers do such a great job. A lot of it is just, you know, just really just looking at the brands and just seeing the growth potential. And a lot of that is also them. I don't want to say working with us, but also just kind of us talking about what the market wants to see, because the American market is very unique, you know. And that was something that that Waldman and I have to give my hats off to Waldman. And they did an amazing job with is they went from. Yeah, exactly. He's he's holding up the blues. You know, and Waldman has done such an incredible job of doing that is, you know, they didn't they didn't have any representation in the United States. And we met them in Paperworld. We go to Paperworld or Ambiente or whatever they're calling it now every year in Germany. And we're walking the floor. We saw Waldman. Started to talk with the CEO, Stefan. He's an amazing guy. And, you know, we just started writing with the pens. We're like, these are amazing. Like, how in the world is there? Do you not have a distributor in the United States? So at that point in time, Waldman was a lot of silver, a lot of black and white, which is great for the European market and for the Germans. You know, that's like perfect. It's what sells really well. And so for the first couple of years, we did well with it, but we knew it could have done better if there was a little bit. I would say if they step out of their comfort zone a little bit with either like engraving techniques or color or both. So they created the Tango Imagination, which is now like their bestseller. And it's got a bunch of different colors, got a really cool engraving on there. They added colors to the Zetra Vienna like you showed. So and Waldman sales have, you know, gone up tremendously. So a lot of it's a cooperation with us and hopefully the manufacturer and us can have a really good relationship. And we work together because, you know, that's kind of why we want to work together. We're like, hey, you have an amazing product. And they're like, hey, you know your market really well and you can advertise for us really well in your market. So let's work together to grow that sector of the world.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, that's one of the things I find the most interesting about this, you know, this setup is how a distributor like yourselves is able to go back to a manufacturer, say, hey, this is what our market looks like. This is what they're looking for. Look at this brand over here. They're doing X, right? And like you have this in you, right? Like I feel like y'all can do this.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' I believe in you, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. I believe in you. Like, can we have this? Can we think about doing this for our market, you know? And just to clarify, Luxury Brands is U.S. distributor for these brands, right? That's the territory. We didn't clarify that earlier.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, yeah. So Platinum is U.S. only. All of our other brands were North America. So we do Platinum. I mean, we do United States, Canada, Mexico.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, okay. So like you go to these brands, you're like, look, you know, I feel like we know our market pretty well. We've proven this. Like, can we go back to, you know, like you did in Waldman. Like, I imagine some companies are like pretty open and receptive to that. And some may like, you know, we've got it under control. So what are those conversations like? Are you able to bring that information pretty openly?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, yeah. I would say definitely. Yeah, I would, you know, and there's been brands in the past that we've parted ways with that it just, you know, just didn't work out. And I think a lot of, I wouldn't say a lot of it had to do with that. But I think it was some things definitely had to do with that. But I would say the majority, absolutely. The majority of the brands are really open to that because they, you know, we work together because they're trusting in our ability to bring them good ideas. So, you know, like for example, the Butterfly Nebula ink for Colorverse. If anybody doesn't know what that is, it's a two-bottle set that we debuted for the cover of Pinworld magazine because Colorverse was the first ever ink company on the cover of Pinworld. We actually kind of came to Colorverse with the idea. This was, this is the color that we want. We kind of want a monochromatic or, you know, sheening, glistening ink that's just, you know, all sorts of craziness. And they made it and it did great. So a lot of times we do, we definitely do come to the manufacturer with ideas.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' And I would say the majority of the time we're really, really receptive to it. So like in terms of like, for example, give you kind of an opposite example of that. Platinum we've been working with for a long time. And we, I think if it, if it wasn't Platinum, it was Noodlers, but one of the two we've been working with longer, about like 10 or 15 years. And so we, we have a really great relationship with them. For the longest time, we were trying to get a North American or U.S. exclusive 3776. And for the longest time, they're like, no, absolutely not. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not a conversation.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. But like, we've, you know, um, you know, with our, like, yeah, I guess because of our tenacity is why they hire us. And it's also, you know, we didn't really leave that alone. So, you know, the next year we're like, Hey, can we do it? And we're like, no, Hey, can we do it? No. So it was literally about 10 years of us annoying them and asking them, Hey, can we get a U.S. exclusive? And they finally said, okay. So we did the Carnelian Sunset and that was great. And, um, so we're actually planning on coming out with the new, a new one later this year. And then we have something that we've been working on kind of in the same, um, respect as a North American exclusive, but like a little different. Something that really is cool. That's coming that we've been working with platinum on for a while is also coming later this year as well. So I think, uh, you know, with platinum, I think they were like, yeah, let's let you prove yourself and see how this goes. And like, let's, let's up sales a lot and then we'll do it. Um, but Waldman, you know, and then you have the opposite where Waldman's like, absolutely. Whatever you want.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Tomorrow. Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' If you buy the MOQs, we'll, we'll do it. No problem. As long as it's within their, like what they want to do. Sure. Yeah. As long as it represents. Or what they can do. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And it's got to represent the brand. Right. Exactly.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' They're like, we're not going to do a plastic pit. You know, Waldman's just not a metal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know? Yeah. Yeah. Silvers, metals. Yeah. All that stuff. All that stuff. All right. I want to talk about products a little, a little bit more. Uh, let me, uh, let's, let's hear from my good buddy, Myke again for our next ad spot in this episode. Thank you to our lovely sponsors and we'll be back in just a second.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, you're starting to tease a little bit about what's coming. You know, later. And, you know, I like to get into Bryce's camera role at pen shows when I see him. He's like, Bryce, like, hey, hey, look at this. Come here, come behind the door. Come look at this. So tell us what you're excited about. What's coming down the pipe that we should all be excited about.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. So I know that Vanu is coming out with new pens this year, which when Vanu comes out with new pens, it's always really exciting. You know, their move from Russia to Armenia was really challenging for people who don't know. So they moved last year from Russia to Armenia. When they were moving, they couldn't move their manufacturing equipment. So they had to rebuy everything. So it's and then they had to outsource certain things. So they've done an incredible job, you know, keeping up with demand and everything, especially with how much demand has gone up. But so Vanu is supposed to come out with a new pen this year. So that's really exciting. Like I said, Platinum, we're coming out with a new North American model 3776 later this year, which will be really, really cool. We're also launching an entire. Can I say that? Yeah, an entire. I'm trying to I'm trying to see what I can and cannot say.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, this is how our conversations go in person as well.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, we're launching an entirely new thing. Let me just put it that way. An entirely new thing with Platinum later this year. It's something that they've never done before. So it's really exciting. It's something that we've put a lot of thought and work into. And Platinum was luckily, you know, was gracious enough to kind of let us do it. So I'm really excited about that.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, you know, Waldman came out with their. It was their 105th anniversary this year. So they came out with the Jubilee, which actually I helped kind of design a little bit, which was it was just nice. And it's now completely sold out. So Waldman has. And I have to be careful with what I say with this. But Waldman has two new pins coming out later this year. That's going to be very, very limited. And it's going to be very, very special. It's going to be something that. Has rarely, if ever, been seen in the pin world before. It's been seen in other luxury places. Maybe like watches and things like that. But never in the pin industry. And so when we had our meeting with Waldman in January, they kind of showed us what was coming. And it's going to be it's going to be really, really cool. So if you're a collector or know a collector, definitely keep your eye on Waldman for later this year or maybe in the next year, because it's definitely something that will be pretty spectacular.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, so you kind of made me think of something here when you're talking about like your product calendar out in the future. Some of these brands are working way far out ahead. How hard is it to manage like what you have today? The new stuff coming today. The stuff you got to get ready for six months from now. The stuff you got to get ready. You probably have stuff ready like for like 2024. It's like, oh, this is a 2024 push. So how do you juggle all that?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' It's a lot. Yeah. And, you know, it actually the farther out it is, the easier it becomes. So like platinum, platinum does a great job. And well, a lot of manufacturers do a great job. But, you know, platinum like January to February, they're kind of like, here's here's the entire year. This is what's coming.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Always people always ask me my favorite time of the year. I always say February because that's when all the Japanese stuff tends to come out.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's just a juggle. And luckily, I kind of have everything in a calendar with reminders and stuff like that. And my emails kind of go out to all the I kind of make all the all the announcement emails. Pretty much as soon as I know about it. And then I just have them automatically send out, you know, to the retailer. So it's kind of automated as much as I can make it. Yeah. But, you know, yeah, it's definitely it's definitely a juggle for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' And then like, you know, there'll be times where I'll be like, no, wait. Like, which which product? Which one? Like Colorverse, for example, just released to two new inks. They added to their Glistening series inks. And then they just came out with like the Nebula series inks and they both showed up at the same time. So, yeah. So it's just kind of it's a juggle for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So speaking of juggling and you meant you alluded to this before we are talking before the Chicago Pen Show this year, this this episode will not drop till after the Chicago Pen Show. But like this is a good conversation to have because y'all travel to a decent probably double digit Pen Shows every year. So tell me a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. It used to it used to be double digits. And then we kind of pared back some of them just because we're like, man, that's a lot of time out of the office. So we so we pared back on the amount of Pen Shows, but we're adding more. We're seeing retailers more or doing like in-store events that they have a brick and mortar store. So we're doing that more now. So we go to I think we go to like seven or eight Pen Shows a year. And, you know, that's always kind of evolving. There are always you know, there's a staple shows like DC, San Fran, things like that that are always constant. And then there are some shows that we're like, it hasn't been like it hasn't been great the past couple of years. Maybe we should take a break from this show and do that one and kind of go to a different area, you know. Yeah. But yeah, I would say we do like seven or eight a year. We always do. We always do. We don't like exhibit, but we just attend Pen World or Paper World or Ambiente in Germany just because that's a great place because basically all of our manufacturers are there. So it's a great place to have in-person meetings with all of them at the same time or within the same week. We do that. We're actually starting to we're going to be adding Atlanta's America Mart and I believe New York Now this year. So the big trade shows with the big build out booths, stuff like that. We're looking to add those this year. So that'll add two and then just a bunch of retailer events.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah. Nice, nice. Yeah. So what's your what's your Pen Show expectations when y'all go like what are you trying to do there? Is that a marketing event for you? Is it just get the brand out in front of everyone? Right. And then and then backstocking retailers. Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of like it's kind of threefold for us. So it's a great chance to go see our retailers in person. And a lot of them, we go to the same shows. So we get to see them multiple times a year. And it's really convenient because we can talk to them there. And otherwise, we may have to fly, you know, all the way across the country to see them. You know, so it's really convenient to be able to see those retailers multiple times a year, talk to them, show them what's new, that kind of thing. Not only that, but we also really like talking with the consumers. What we always tried to do with luxury brands is to really break down the wall that existed between distributor and the consumer. And so we really like talking to, you know, consumers and just showing them the product and letting them touch it and feel it and take videos of it, pictures, asking us questions, stuff like that. Really just like what you're saying, just getting the brand in front of people. Our goal is not to because also we don't sell direct at shows. All the sales always go through our retailers, which is important for us. And, yeah, it's all about just getting the brand in front of people, you know, and you'll see like throughout the years, like, for example, the new people like, oh, yeah, the new like I saw those online. And then like more and more people will either just be walking around and stumble upon the new to where now they like come to the table to see the new, you know, right. Or like Walden, you know, because it was totally unrepresented when we took over or when we became their distributor.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' People would come up to our table and be like, I don't know Walden. Can you tell me about it? And now people are like, oh, yeah, I know Walden. I have like one or two or I've been looking at that, you know. So it's all about trying to get it in front of the people and touch it and feel it, stuff like that. So, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So a general business question, which I didn't prepare you for, but I think it's I think it's a fair question. It's probably something you all think about constantly.



== Current state of the stationery industry and market trends ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' What's your general state of the industry right now? What are your feelings like for stationery? I know a big, broad question. We save that to drop that in later. And I ask you this because I feel like I always have my finger on the pulse and kind of have an idea of what's going on. But my viewpoint is from people who listen to a podcast about pens, right? They're a very specific customer, right? They know a lot. They're generally experienced. We have a lot of new users. For sure. But I don't necessarily get a broader picture that a distributor might. And so, like, clearly you're going to tell me it's going great. Like, I have no issues with that. But just in a general sense, like, I've seen luxury brands grow as a company over the last five to ten years that I've been doing this. And it seems as an outsider that it's pretty healthy, like the stationery industry that we're all in. Yeah. What is your general feelings about the overall market? Because I will posit this one thing maybe to jump off on. And I do worry about, like, skew overload for, like, a lot of people, not just, like, retailers for consumers, things like that. So, if that's my little sidebar, like, what is your general take of the industry as a whole?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. Skew overload is definitely a thing. For sure. And like I was saying earlier, the pin industry, even what it was six years ago when I started, it's completely different. I mean, the amount of brands that are out there now, whether it's ink, I mean, the amount of ink brands that are out there now is ridiculous. I mean, it's like, I mean, it was like your staple five. And now it's like I can think of 25 off the top of my head. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Right. So, skew overload is definitely a thing, for sure.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' But I think, you know, and I'll kind of segue into this. So, my mother-in-law, she works, she is an accountant and works for an automotive group. And so, she would go into, let's say, like, five years ago, she would go into a meeting. Everybody, all age groups, would have iPads or laptops. And now she's kind of seeing this interesting turn to where now she goes into a meeting and all, like, the 40-ish and older people have iPads. And all the 39 and younger have, like, leather-bound journals and fountain pens. And she was like, whoa, that's kind of a shift, you know. And I think it's probably because, and this is what I've always told everybody, is my thought and why maybe fountain pens and journaling kind of attracts younger people or starting to attract younger people. It's just, like, technology and iPhones and iPods and, you know, iPads and all that stuff. We, like, grew up with that. We grew up during the boom of that. So, we're just kind of like, yeah, it's cool, you know. I mean, it's very normal for us to just have, you know, to be around it. And it's not really special, quote, unquote, to where we didn't grow up with fountain pens at all. And so, I think people are like, oh, my gosh, it's, like, so nostalgic. Or it's, like, it's so retro, you know, how people talk about that. So, I think in that kind of term, I think in those terms, I think it's a really healthy industry and I think it's going really well.

'''Speaker 01:''' Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' And I think it's starting to pick up a lot. I mean, even just sales of certain brands. And then you have, you know, and then you have brands like Bennu that are, like, totally pushing the bounds of what fountain pens are and who fountain pens market to, you know. And that, you know, I got to applaud Bennu because they totally really took a sector of the market that didn't really have a lot of offerings and gave, you know, the younger crowd really flashy, really eye-catching pens to kind of go get that are at a really accessible price point, too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's exactly right. Yeah. And I definitely see them as one of the more interesting brands. And, you know, I love them. So, like, I think it's super cool to see them. So, I think you're right. Like, we've always talked about, like, the transition from, like, digital analog and vice versa. And the way I see it is similar to you in that the digital tools used to be part of our identity because they were new. Right. Well, now they're ubiquitous. Everyone's got the same thing and doing the same thing. So, it's not unique anymore.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' It's like a new iPhone every six months.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And so, like, even though there's a million SKUs out there on pens, like we were talking about, like, I can still find the one. Right. That tells a story about Brad. Right. And something that I enjoy using and something I can express myself with. And that's now my unique piece for myself as opposed to my phone where, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, it's like, oh, man, you got that phone? Let me see that phone. Right. Right. Now it's like, no one cares. Like, never. So, I do think there's always this, like, new customer coming in that's finding these things out. So, I feel like we're in a very healthy, like, business even though, like, you know, it's growing by leaps and bounds, like, over the past decade.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. Kind of going with what you were saying. You know, I remember when my friend in middle school, his name was Mark, got the Motorola Razr. Yeah. I almost lost my mind. I was like, oh, my gosh, you got one of those? It was like the coolest thing. And then when my friend Jake got the first iPhone, it was like Earthship, you know? Yep. And I think, you know, and if you think about other industries, too, let's, let's say, I don't know, like clothing or jewelry or something like that. I mean, that's an, I mean, that's a level of skew numbers that, I mean, I don't think the pen industry, I wouldn't say never, but it'll take a while to get to.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' And, you know, people still find what they want there, you know? So I think, I think it'll be, I think it'll be good. And I think the consumer will probably adapt to kind of what you were saying. I'm going to find the brand, you know, that I like half that, you know?



== Discussion of Bryce's favorite pens and personal preferences ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right, right. All right. That's enough business thing. I want to get you out of here on one question. Like you ran, you ran around the office the other day asking everyone what they were using, what pen, what paper, what ink. I want to know, Bryce Gillette, what are you using? What is your go-to pen right now, your go-to ink and your go-to paper? You sell all three. I assume it's going to be one of your brands. But so I got to know, what are the ones that you're using right now?

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. So the one that's like on my desk right now, then I actually totally forgot you were going to ask me that question. So I just had it there. It's the Waldman Titan.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, nice.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' It's just like really understated. And it's just a really clean looking pen. It's actually Waldman's first solid titanium pen they've ever done before. It's limited to 200 pieces worldwide. And I just thought it was so cool. I mean, like the shape of it's like really nice. And it's just nice. Yeah, I like it a lot. So that's what I'm using in that. I'm kind of on this like brown ink kick lately. And I don't know why.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Isn't that interesting? Yeah, I am with you.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' And you know, like a couple years ago, when people started coming out or when I would just look at brown inks, I'm like, who in their right mind would use a brown ink? And now I'm like all about it. I think this pen has Colorverse Coffee Break in it, which is like one of the best browns out there. It looks great. And then another pen I have in here is the Waldman Tango. This one I've had for actually since we started distributing Waldman. It's got like a ruthenium clip on there. It's pretty cool. And then, you know, I have like the news everywhere and stuff like that. So, but I would say, yeah, the Waldman Titans might go to this. That's what I'm using right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. And then when I see y'all at pen shows, y'all are all writing in some endless notebook, I'm pretty sure.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yep. Yep. You know, we're writing in the endless notebooks.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. And the endless, actually, pen companion is kind of what I have everything in right now. Oh, nice. It's cool. It's got like room for a little cartridge converter in there. The five pin has like an area for the little storyboard. And the little elastic things where you put your pin is adjustable. So I'm sure I'm grabbing this right now for people who can't see it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I'm not a link in the show notes.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. I have a Waldman Commander and a Kaweco Lilyput. Oh, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it fits. Fire Blue.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. It fits like totally fine. Because it's like adjustable.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. Well, you'll have to show me that. Yeah, you'll have to show me all the new pins. I'm expecting to see some more clicky, clicky things when I see you in Chicago here in a couple weeks. Maybe some that we can share in the near future.

'''Speaker 01:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Anything else you want to shout out before we go? I'll have a link in the show notes to the site, all the products, all that fun stuff. But yeah.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah, just thank you to you for having me on. Absolutely. Anybody who doesn't know who we are, we're on Instagram at luxury underscore brands of America. Definitely go check us out. We hope you have a good time listening to this and going to our Instagram. But yeah, I appreciate you having me on. It's been a blast.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You got it. And I will see you very soon. Thanks for joining me. Talk to you later.

'''Bryce Gillette:''' Yeah. See ya. See ya. See ya. See ya. See ya. See ya.

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