The Pen Addict 606/transcript - Revision history

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	'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I agree, obviously. Because I think that non-standard paper sizes allow for creativity in product design.		'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I agree, obviously. Because I think that non-standard paper sizes allow for creativity in product design.

	'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I do. I do, too. And so one of my old standard stances was actually a very American issue. When we were manufacturing notebooks for ~~NOC~~, you used to, it cost more to make a standard size because, again, these are international standards and not really seen in the U.S. Because, well, I was adamant that we were going to make an A5 notebook and we'd go to our printer and they were like, well, this is going to cost more because we can only get the paper in this other size. I don't even know what other size it would be. But it wouldn't be like an A1 palette of paper, right, where they could just, you know, efficiently cut it down to size. They were like, there's going to be a lot more waste and we're going to have to cut it. And I'm like, yes, that's what we're going to do because it has to be A5. And in retrospect, I'm completely happy with that decision at the time and I wouldn't change a thing. But the more I look at the things I'm using today, that was, you know, six, seven, eight years ago that we made that notebook. As I sit here at my desk and use things, I'm not using, I'm using one A5 notebook and everything else that's sitting around is kind of, you know, just a different size, like a non-standard size. And I really enjoy these products. So, you know, what's the harm in making your own size?		'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I do. I do, too. And so one of my old standard stances was actually a very American issue. When we were manufacturing notebooks for Nock, you used to, it cost more to make a standard size because, again, these are international standards and not really seen in the U.S. Because, well, I was adamant that we were going to make an A5 notebook and we'd go to our printer and they were like, well, this is going to cost more because we can only get the paper in this other size. I don't even know what other size it would be. But it wouldn't be like an A1 palette of paper, right, where they could just, you know, efficiently cut it down to size. They were like, there's going to be a lot more waste and we're going to have to cut it. And I'm like, yes, that's what we're going to do because it has to be A5. And in retrospect, I'm completely happy with that decision at the time and I wouldn't change a thing. But the more I look at the things I'm using today, that was, you know, six, seven, eight years ago that we made that notebook. As I sit here at my desk and use things, I'm not using, I'm using one A5 notebook and everything else that's sitting around is kind of, you know, just a different size, like a non-standard size. And I really enjoy these products. So, you know, what's the harm in making your own size?

	'''Myke Hurley:''' I think standards are a good guide, right? I think you can kind of work towards the standard, but you should be able to be flexible on it if it's in service of making the product better.		'''Myke Hurley:''' I think standards are a good guide, right? I think you can kind of work towards the standard, but you should be able to be flexible on it if it's in service of making the product better.

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			{{Infobox podcast transcript
			\| name = The Pen Addict
			\| number = 606
			\| title = It's Orange Obviously
			\| date = March 13th, 2024
			\| hosts = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
			[[Myke Hurley]]
			\| guests = [[Wes Kwok]]
			\| link = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/606 Episode 606]
			\| audiolink = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thepenaddict/The_Pen_Addict_606.mp3 Audio Episode 606]
			\| length = 58
			}}

	'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 606. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.		'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 606. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

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

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	'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at them now. Wow. Yeah, that's very cool. Really great prices in those. So that is P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. With Pen Chalet you'll get free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US and they sell internationally as well with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices and high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. A thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM.		'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at them now. Wow. Yeah, that's very cool. Really great prices in those. So that is P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. With Pen Chalet you'll get free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US and they sell internationally as well with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices and high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. A thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM.

	'''Brad Dowdy:''' Alright Myke, we have our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. I need a pen store. Myke, what a good name. Have you heard about Pen Chalet? Have you heard about our friends at Pen Chalet? But no, this is, so Frank at Fontaplumo put up basically like a travel guide for if you're in, you know, you're traveling and you want to find out if there's a pen store around you, you can check out I Need a Pen Store. So, that's a really cool kind of one-stop place we'll certainly reference. We always get a traveling question, hey, is there a map of ~~stationary~~ stores? And this is a place, this is a website where you can, you know, search by shop name, you can search by location you're in, you can search by manufacturer to see what shops might carry a manufacturer. So, yeah, it's a really neat setup and tool for all of us who are looking for pen shops if we're traveling on the road. Maybe see something we haven't been familiar with before and I just wanted to give Frank a shout out for putting this out there. It's really neat.		'''Brad Dowdy:''' Alright Myke, we have our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. I need a pen store. Myke, what a good name. Have you heard about Pen Chalet? Have you heard about our friends at Pen Chalet? But no, this is, so Frank at Fontaplumo put up basically like a travel guide for if you're in, you know, you're traveling and you want to find out if there's a pen store around you, you can check out I Need a Pen Store. So, that's a really cool kind of one-stop place we'll certainly reference. We always get a traveling question, hey, is there a map of stationery stores? And this is a place, this is a website where you can, you know, search by shop name, you can search by location you're in, you can search by manufacturer to see what shops might carry a manufacturer. So, yeah, it's a really neat setup and tool for all of us who are looking for pen shops if we're traveling on the road. Maybe see something we haven't been familiar with before and I just wanted to give Frank a shout out for putting this out there. It's really neat.

	'''Myke Hurley:''' Excellent.		'''Myke Hurley:''' Excellent.

	'''Brad Dowdy:''' Excellent. All right, Myke, when you're traveling the world, you might need to keep track of the time and the various time zones you're in. So, what if I told you that there was a watch that could help you with that and it was ~~stationary~~ adjacent in that it was a collaboration with the pen addict and our friends over at Notice created a watch very cool called the Sector Dive GMT pen addict edition. So, this might come as a surprise to a lot of people. It is a little bit out of left field. Out of left field but we have been working on this for months behind the scenes and by we I mean my friend Michael Harris who along with the pen addict slack watches board worked with Notice to make a pen addict you don't want to say branded but like themed themed styled yeah inspired it's orange and stainless and it looks awesome and it's got		'''Brad Dowdy:''' Excellent. All right, Myke, when you're traveling the world, you might need to keep track of the time and the various time zones you're in. So, what if I told you that there was a watch that could help you with that and it was stationery adjacent in that it was a collaboration with the pen addict and our friends over at Notice created a watch very cool called the Sector Dive GMT pen addict edition. So, this might come as a surprise to a lot of people. It is a little bit out of left field. Out of left field but we have been working on this for months behind the scenes and by we I mean my friend Michael Harris who along with the pen addict slack watches board worked with Notice to make a pen addict you don't want to say branded but like themed themed styled yeah inspired it's orange and stainless and it looks awesome and it's got

	'''Myke Hurley:''' the pen addict logo on the back as well		'''Myke Hurley:''' the pen addict logo on the back as well
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	'''Wes Kwok:''' going thanks for having me		'''Wes Kwok:''' going thanks for having me

	'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah absolutely so this is very interesting to me I usually pride myself on being like a top tier interviewer and getting all the good questions in and I realized it's because I'm always interviewing ~~stationary~~ people so this time I get to interview a watch person and I am not super dialed into the watch scene so it's going to be fun talking to you about the project that you have helped myself Michael from the ~~stationary~~ world himself and the slack watches channel which we'll talk about in a second so thank you for doing this and I guess I want to get		'''Brad Dowdy:''' yeah absolutely so this is very interesting to me I usually pride myself on being like a top tier interviewer and getting all the good questions in and I realized it's because I'm always interviewing stationery people so this time I get to interview a watch person and I am not super dialed into the watch scene so it's going to be fun talking to you about the project that you have helped myself Michael from the stationery world himself and the slack watches channel which we'll talk about in a second so thank you for doing this and I guess I want to get

	'''Wes Kwok:''' it was a big time gap in our memory but it's been seven years now since we started doing this still feels like we're the new guys and so our specialty and focus over the past seven years has really been sport watches for a very specific reason which I'll get into in a little bit but personally we've been me and my co-founder Cullen who's not on this podcast but you're eventually going to meet him he and I had met when we were 13 12 or 13 years old so we're childhood friends I like to say that we actually started becoming business partners way back then because I was the only other guitar player in our grade and he was the only other guitar player in the grade so we were like well I guess we're going to start a band and like literally the day that we met I rolled up to his house and he showed up wearing a purple Megadeth sweater and I was like alright we're going to be friends and since then we started working together playing music writing music we actually ended up the first thing that we actually put together ourselves was a guitar we built a guitar in I think it was 10th grade 9th or 10th grade and that's when I realized I at the same time but not coordinated we both got into watches and it wasn't until we met up a couple years later and we noticed that the other guy was wearing a watch when we were like hey I guess we've got more than music in common ended up talking about nothing but watches just became obsessed with watches and then fast forward to 2017 actually 2016 is when the conversation started but fast forward a few years and we were like hey we don't have a mortgage yet we don't have a wife no kids that we know of so this is the time if we're going to do something risky something that we have full ownership of this is the time to do it so we just designed a watch that we would want to wear I guess the initial idea we had was let's design a watch and make one for each of us and after that we'll go off and get a real job but we learned very quickly as I'm sure that you know from the pen world it becomes extremely expensive if you make one or two but if you make hundreds in our case it was 500 it brings the cost down becomes a little bit more reasonable so logically the		'''Wes Kwok:''' it was a big time gap in our memory but it's been seven years now since we started doing this still feels like we're the new guys and so our specialty and focus over the past seven years has really been sport watches for a very specific reason which I'll get into in a little bit but personally we've been me and my co-founder Cullen who's not on this podcast but you're eventually going to meet him he and I had met when we were 13 12 or 13 years old so we're childhood friends I like to say that we actually started becoming business partners way back then because I was the only other guitar player in our grade and he was the only other guitar player in the grade so we were like well I guess we're going to start a band and like literally the day that we met I rolled up to his house and he showed up wearing a purple Megadeth sweater and I was like alright we're going to be friends and since then we started working together playing music writing music we actually ended up the first thing that we actually put together ourselves was a guitar we built a guitar in I think it was 10th grade 9th or 10th grade and that's when I realized I at the same time but not coordinated we both got into watches and it wasn't until we met up a couple years later and we noticed that the other guy was wearing a watch when we were like hey I guess we've got more than music in common ended up talking about nothing but watches just became obsessed with watches and then fast forward to 2017 actually 2016 is when the conversation started but fast forward a few years and we were like hey we don't have a mortgage yet we don't have a wife no kids that we know of so this is the time if we're going to do something risky something that we have full ownership of this is the time to do it so we just designed a watch that we would want to wear I guess the initial idea we had was let's design a watch and make one for each of us and after that we'll go off and get a real job but we learned very quickly as I'm sure that you know from the pen world it becomes extremely expensive if you make one or two but if you make hundreds in our case it was 500 it brings the cost down becomes a little bit more reasonable so logically the
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	'''Wes Kwok:''' my role again there's a very little bit of overlap in that right but my role is more so talking to people getting their ideas translated into a language that Cullen can understand right there there's that I mean everyone knows parts of a watch but to get it across the finish line we have to be able to translate it into watch terms then translate it into the actual language that our factories speak and so I'm kind of the liaison on the client side whereas Cullen's the liaison on the supply side and it works well I think I said in that interview that you were alluding to that this whole notice was basically us getting the band back together right we kind of already developed that creative synergy when we were kids and figured out what he's good at what I'm good at and we're just continuing to develop that relationship as we get older		'''Wes Kwok:''' my role again there's a very little bit of overlap in that right but my role is more so talking to people getting their ideas translated into a language that Cullen can understand right there there's that I mean everyone knows parts of a watch but to get it across the finish line we have to be able to translate it into watch terms then translate it into the actual language that our factories speak and so I'm kind of the liaison on the client side whereas Cullen's the liaison on the supply side and it works well I think I said in that interview that you were alluding to that this whole notice was basically us getting the band back together right we kind of already developed that creative synergy when we were kids and figured out what he's good at what I'm good at and we're just continuing to develop that relationship as we get older

	'''Brad Dowdy:''' very cool yeah I love hearing that about the partnerships and how the different tasks and responsibilities go so let's get into this watch what did you think when you got an email I'm guessing you got an email from Michael Harris who is a good friend and a long time ~~stationary~~ lover that the pen addict slack would like to make a watch and they would like notice to make it what did you think when you got this email		'''Brad Dowdy:''' very cool yeah I love hearing that about the partnerships and how the different tasks and responsibilities go so let's get into this watch what did you think when you got an email I'm guessing you got an email from Michael Harris who is a good friend and a long time stationery lover that the pen addict slack would like to make a watch and they would like notice to make it what did you think when you got this email

	'''Wes Kwok:''' yeah so I actually remember exactly when that happened too we had just released another collaboration and what it is so there are three main pillars of our business one is nodex which is our research and design platform we test new things we have an R&D budget that we try out a bunch of different experiments the second one is intersect ! which is a show it's not really a show it's more like a cocktail party if you actually go there and attend it you know what I mean the last one is design lab and that's our collaborative platform and		'''Wes Kwok:''' yeah so I actually remember exactly when that happened too we had just released another collaboration and what it is so there are three main pillars of our business one is nodex which is our research and design platform we test new things we have an R&D budget that we try out a bunch of different experiments the second one is intersect ! which is a show it's not really a show it's more like a cocktail party if you actually go there and attend it you know what I mean the last one is design lab and that's our collaborative platform and