The Pen Addict 245/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	245
Title:	The Entire Thing is Orange
Release Date:	February 22nd, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 245
Audio File:	Audio Episode 245
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 245
Length:	6464 min <br />1.067 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 245. Today's show is brought to you by Mack Weldon and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined, as always, by the one and only Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Mr. Myke Hurley. How are you?

Myke Hurley: Dandy, my friend. Dandy.

Brad Dowdy: Dandy. Good, good. I am Dandy as well. I'm back from LA. I didn't bring home the crud with me, because I think I pre-gamed the crud this year, so I was sick like the five days leading up to it, so I was kind of protected from the return trip, so I'm actually feeling pretty good. I got some sleep last night. Didn't get any sleep the first night back, which is normal. That's my bad jet lag direction. But yeah, a highly successful trip. We will talk about this a bunch during this episode, but it's good to be back.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So yeah, got some pen show talk, but obviously pen show talk leads into us making one last reminder about the Kickstarter campaign. If you are listening to this, when the show comes out, you've got like a couple of days, right? So the campaign ends on the 24th of February?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like in the morning, I think. So it's probably like three days from like as we record-ish.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So you've basically got a day or two, if you're listening to this, you know, soon. So obviously we'll have another link in our show notes. Just like a final push, not for any real reason, but it's more like just because we're fine. Like we've got all the money that we need, so thank you so much. We have more then, you know, so we're going to work out what to do with that, as we said. This is more just for you, because if you miss this, you've missed it. This is the only way to get the videos. This is, it will be videos this year, three videos in total we're going to be working on. And also it's the only way that you're going to get this pen case, because if I'm right, we've exceeded like the minimum order that we needed anyway from the supplier.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So I have to order extras just because that's what you have to do. Yep. So if by chance there's extras, we'll sell them at a pen show, but we're talking like single digits type of stuff, not hundreds. Like rums. Yeah, yeah. I'm not ordering more of these to sell at shows. Exactly. If there's any extras, you might catch just like the overstock once everything has shipped and we've confirmed that everyone's has arrived and everyone's is in good shape. So, you know, there's always extras, but, you know, it might be, you might see 20 of them pop up a year from now kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But like if you definitely want one, which you should, because it's awesome. The only way you're going to guarantee yourself one is by backing the Kickstarter campaign. So get in and do it. Thank you so much. Everybody that's back will, I'm sure next week, just be crying again on the show.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, and we'll have more notes and, you know, people are asking what we're going to do with the extra money and stuff. And we have ideas and, you know, things like that. So yes, me and Brad need to lock our heads together.

Myke Hurley: And the great thing this time is we don't need to make all of those decisions before Atlanta. Like we have the rest of the year to decide what we want to do with the extra. So that's really great. That's a different thing this time. So I'm excited about that.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: Last week we were speaking about bags, right? Yeah. Hashtag bag addict. And it pushed me into finally buying the bag that I've had my eye on, which is the Manal daily bag. They do some travel bags, like some actual, I speak about these last week, like carry on bags. But I think they might be a bit bigger than what I need, right? Because I'm not looking for a bag to put all of my luggage in when I travel, which is more what the carry on bags are. This is more just like a bag to become my new like travel carry on bag. So I've got my suitcase with me and I have like my knickknacks in a bag, right? Like my headphones, my iPad, like all the stuff that's in my Topo. And I'm excited to try this out because there are a lot of things about the daily bag are similar to the Topo. Like it is multifunction. It has a handle on the side so it can be briefcase. And it kind of has a nicer way of storing the handles in. You can actually tuck them inside of the bag in what I consider to be a bit easier way of doing it. Plus the clips are different types of clips because I'm fine with the Topo clips, but they do pop out every now and then. Sure. So, and the handles are padded, which is like my number one thing that frustrates me about the Topo mounting briefcase is that the handles aren't padded. They're just like just a piece of like webbing or whatever it's called. So, yeah, I'm excited about this. I also got one of their accessory kits, like they call it the mobile tool case. And it's just basically a place to put chargers and dongles and stuff. And it fits inside of the bag. So, I'm excited. It arrives on Friday and I'm going to enjoy doing that thing where you take out all of the stuff and put it in a new bag. You know, like you find all your places.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That's a great thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, this is a vlog waiting to happen, right?

Myke Hurley: I'm working on another vlog video right now, which means I probably won't do anything else until that's done. But there is, I have like in the back of my head and also in a note a bunch of things I want to do, including like showing off my field notes, showing off my pants and doing some bag stuff as well. But that's all like down the line when I need an idea. That's cool.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool. Well, I'm anxious to see this. So, definitely bring it to Atlanta. I'm sure you will.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. It will be the bag I'll have in Atlanta.

Brad Dowdy: Jeff and I would like to lay our eyes on it. This is generally not a style we go for, but I see some things that look very interesting here. So, yeah, I want to look at it.

Myke Hurley: A long time ago, you were profiled in. What were you profiled in?

Brad Dowdy: It was like an offshoot of Boston.com. It was like a digital magazine by Boston.com. I forget the official name of it.

Myke Hurley: This guy loves pens more than you love anything in the world. Right. That was the title of the article. Pen Addict listeners will be familiar with this because it was the horrific illustration of Brad with gums and the tiny eyes and stuff, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, yeah, if you haven't seen it, you definitely need to click the link in the show notes. We actually have this printed out and up on the wall at NOC because it's amazing.

Myke Hurley: However, something more amazing has happened.

Myke Hurley: Listener Alexander has created a web page where he has taken the image of you, used some incredible artistry skills to create a version of me in this style. But it's also an online coloring book. So you're able to click and choose colors and then apply them to the image so you can create varying, horrifying illustrations of me and you in just the most garish colors. And it is freaking unbelievable. It is so cool and terrible.

Brad Dowdy: It's beyond cool. Like our listeners are the best. I don't care what you say. This is beyond cool. The funniest thing is he has this as version 0.1. Yeah, he has ideas. I just think it's funny that, you know, we could hit production at 1.0. I wonder what's in between.

Myke Hurley: Alexander's in the chat room right now.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, nice, nice. He's been teasing this for a couple weeks. He kept saying, I've got something I want to give you. I've got something I want to give you. But he wouldn't give us any hints. This was a pretty amazing gift to the community because it is one of the most scary things I've ever seen. And I had no idea this was happening, right? I just did the interview. I think we did the phone interview from the original article. And they finally posted the article and sent me the link. And then that picture came up. I'm like, oh, my God. And it's just become a thing for the show. And we haven't talked about it in probably a year or more. And it's amazing. And then what Alexander did with it. It's next level.

Myke Hurley: Next level, man. I'm having so much fun with this today. Just like creating varying, horrifying versions of me and you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's so good. Like, it's perfect. It was like it was made together. Like, he did a really great job.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. The reproduction of the art style is kind of amazing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I just changed my shirt to orange.

Myke Hurley: I'm literally, as we speak, changing just everything to orange. Because I feel like that's the most fitting example of me and you. It's like an entire orange picture. I implore everybody to go and just play around with this thing. Because it's hilarious and incredible.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so I'm making all the pen clips and grips orange. Oh, that looks so good.

Brad Dowdy: Alexander, somehow we have improved on the original. Like, I didn't think it was possible. In a way, me being with you makes the whole thing less scary. Yeah. Totally. I mean, this is like Mona Lisa level stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Okay. Now, the entire thing is orange.

Brad Dowdy: And now the whole chat room is distracted.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Including me. And your eyes. Done. Now, the entire thing is orange.

Brad Dowdy: So, we're going to have to get people to screenshot these or something. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I want to see people's interpretation. Of this. Like, the colors that they choose. So, yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing how that comes out. So, tweet them at us. iMike and Dowdyism. And we want to see what people come up with. And Alexander, you are now a legend of pen addict. Yep. Like, this will be, I'm sure, referenced and spoken about for a long time to come.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, you know, at some point we're going to have to pay for your hosting just to keep this up. Because we're going to be around a while.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Lamy Safari

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's so good. So good. Um, this is, what, three episodes into this conversation of our Lamy Safari versus Lamy AL star, right? Mm-hmm. You know, I think we've about beaten it to death. But, uh, I got, uh, I was waiting in the airport last Thursday heading out to LA. And I was like, oh, I should just put up a poll on Twitter to choose for all of our, all my followers, Lamy Safari or Lamy AL star. Mm-hmm. And being the dummy that I am, like, I knew I had to go to Twitter itself to create the poll. And then I didn't put in the text that this is a poll for everyone in a third-party client because polls aren't allowed in third-party clients. So not everyone. It's so annoying. Yeah. So once I started getting a bunch of responses, the way I phrased it, people were telling me, like, basically, what's the one pen they would use for the rest of their life, you know? So I got a lot of good answers like that, except they weren't answering the poll because they didn't, through no fault of their own. I see.

Myke Hurley: Because you said you have one, you can have one fountain pen and choose correctly. So people are going to say, like, sailor, like, it's just going to carry on forever. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I had, like, a million responses. And I was like, oh, I should, I screwed that up. But still, we ended up with 305 responses to the survey, which I think is a pretty good, pretty good number, or 303. And the winner, Lamy Safari at 55% versus 45% for Lamy AL Star.

Myke Hurley: I think over 300 votes is, like, that's scientifically. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's a valid number. Mm-hmm. Yeah. To get a good representation. And actually, that's about where I thought it would fall. Like, it's awfully close. And they're obviously both good pens. We're just having more fun with this than we, any normal people would have. But I thought, let's click some buttons from all my followers and see what we say. So I thought it was a good representation of everything. And, you know, the AL Stars, or All Stars, I still don't know what's the official phrasing of it. They were campaigning hard. You know, they put on a good campaign to try to get those numbers up. But in the end, the one drew Lamy one, and that's the Safari. So there you have it. The people have spoken, Myke. Club Safari forever.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Just, you know, it's set now. We're good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We are currently on Field Notes Watch, as this episode is being recorded. This is happening again. You listening out there in Pan Addict podcast land already know what the new Field Notes look like, as they are currently recording at 3.23 p.m. GMT on the 22nd of February 2017. We do not know what the new Field Notes look like. We know that they are being released today. And everybody is... I've got, like, a whole system command set up over here. So hopefully, if it happens during the show, we can talk about it. But what will definitely happen is we will stop recording, and then they will release them.

Myke Hurley: And then... Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's usually within the next hour-ish time frame.

Myke Hurley: So I'm going to, like, I'm going to talk very slowly. We just stretched this episode out. We both got our shipment notifications, which is a heartbreaking email.

Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was just mean. That was just mean.

Myke Hurley: I just want it all in one, you know? It's all in one. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So we have the chat room on email duty that I'm sure our chat windows will blow up as soon as it happens. If it happens during the show, we will be sure to discuss it. If not, we'll figure something else out.

Myke Hurley: And again, you can just look at the show notes right now, and you'll know if it happens. Mm-hmm. Which is kind of funny. But should we take our first break, and then we'll talk about the LA Pen Show?

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

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Brad Dowdy: Yes, so my boxers and socks made it to LA with me. Yeah, boy. Yeah, boy. So LA.

Myke Hurley: I like kitting you out, you know. Yeah. I do my best to just to kit you out. You know, I put things for your face, give you stuff for your body. I'm all about that. But I put food in your belly, you know.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. That's right. So yeah, I've got the full hookup going.

Myke Hurley: That's all about that. All right. So LA, I will say again, just real quick, like one of my favorite things when Brad goes to pen shows is he creates a little diary for the members of the pen addict. So if you are not a member of the pen addict, you're missing out on this sort of stuff. So I'm going to put a link in there. Go sign up to be a member, penaddict.com slash members. Give Brad some money because he's the best and he deserves it. And you get great content out of it. My favorite newsletter that I receive every week. It's the only one that I always read. And I love it when it goes to pen shows because you get to experience some of the FOMO in full glory.

Weather

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the FOMO hit me hard this week or this past weekend. And we're going to talk about that in a minute. But just from the overall experience standpoint, it was just about perfect. Like, you know, the travel was easy. You know, my flights were good. And, you know, L.A. had a storm of epic proportions on Friday that we were out there. Like, they don't get a lot of rain out in L.A.

Brad Dowdy: And this storm was so big. It had, like, the weather channel had, like, given it a name. And it had, like, a category.

Brad Dowdy: And it was legitimately bad on Friday. So people who traveled on Friday had really, really rough time. Luckily, I came in before that. But I know people who travel on Friday were telling us stories of, you know, they basically putting them on, putting the plane on lockdown, you know, an hour before getting into L.A. on the Friday afternoon just because they didn't want anyone up and about. And, you know, with the rough flight landing that they were going to have. So I felt bad for a lot of them. But we got inches and inches of rain. And where we were at, we were up against a window in the hotel where the Van Espen's table was. And, like, the palm tree limbs were flying against the window, like, smashing against the window. It was nuts. Like, I took a bunch of pictures. They're kind of hard to see because they were at a distance. But, you know, the ponds on the little golf course that were behind the hotel, like, completely flooded the course. It was a mess. And there was a lot of damage around town and in the area, sinkholes and mudslides. And so it was rough Friday. Luckily, we were indoors. So that was good. And then it was just kind of, like, overcast and misty kind of the rest of the weekend. We didn't see the sun the entire time in L.A. except for a few hours Sunday afternoon. So it was kind of a weird weather trip. Definitely abnormal from that aspect. But we're pretty much in the hotel the whole time anyway. So it was good to just hang out and talk about planes. So talk about pens, not planes. We also talked about planes.

Myke Hurley: Went to a plane show.

Brad Dowdy: Welcome to the plane addict.

Brad Dowdy: So the setup was the exact same as last year, except with less drama. Last year, half of the ballroom was booked for half of the day on Friday or Saturday. I think it was Friday. So that was nightmarish for a lot of vendors, everyone running around like crazy. Because this is one of the few shows that only has assigned tables and open to the public stuff on Sunday, which is dumb. So it causes problems. It causes people to have to move their stuff around. And since we have so much ink and all the shelving for Van Ness pens, we get in there early, find our tables. Luckily, they were the same as last year. And set up everything. And no one can move our towers of ink, right? They're just not going to do that.

Myke Hurley: Who moves it? I don't understand. I mean, no one would. When you say it's like not signed tables, people can just steal tables.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So it's called Trader Days, Friday and Saturday. So people just come in. You know, if the table's open, they'll just put out their wares on a table. But it's, you know, people that are carrying stuff in smaller capacities. Since Van Ness knows where our tables were going to be assigned on Sunday, we set them up there Thursday night. So we had a late night Thursday night getting everything set up. So like I landed that afternoon, got over to the hotel about four, went immediately and ate dinner, then came back and spent, you know, two or three hours setting up our tables because we don't want to do that Friday morning. It was good to just go ahead and push through on Thursday night. And so I prefer doing that no matter how tired I am. I'd rather go ahead and get it done. So we don't have to sweat it much on Friday. Crowds on Friday were awesome. It was very busy on Friday. Crowds on Saturday were very light, which is kind of what happens when you do this kind of setup. Right. So everyone who has the trader pass, they're there starting on Friday. Can anyone buy those? Yes. Except they're $65. Wow. Regular admission on Sunday is $7.

Myke Hurley: 65?

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. So if you're going to be there all weekend, obviously it's worth it. But, you know, otherwise it causes basically a bum rush on Sunday. Yeah. So Sunday was absolutely insane. Like three and four deep, five deep at the table sometimes. Like I would work out in the hallway, not behind the table, like in front of the table. And, like, I would have to, like, crane my neck and reach in there to see if I could help anybody. And I'm, like, talking over three people to talk to the people in the front who might have a question while the other people wait behind them to get up in there and look at the inks and look at the pens and things like that. But, so Sunday was crazy. We didn't eat lunch on Sunday, so if that tells you anything. And, you know, we're usually very strict about our rules, but we would have physically never had a chance to stop on Sunday.

Brad Dowdy: So by Sunday night, you know, we started taking stuff down about 5.30. Got out about 7.30, 8 o'clock to go eat dinner. So that was, like, the first thing we ate since breakfast. But it was worth it. I mean, the people were so cool. We had a good time talking and helping to everybody. I got a lot of, I noticed I was getting tagged on a lot of Instagram pictures later saying, hey, thanks for your help today at the show. That makes me feel good to, you know, be able to help people pick out an ink or try out a pen or do anything that they need at a pen show. You know, answer questions. Just hang out and have fun. So all in all, like, the show proper itself was really good. It was better than last year. Just from a vibe and a feel perspective, crowds felt bigger.

Brad Dowdy: Sales were more. And it was just an all-around good show. I really like, we were wondering if we were going to come back after last year just because it was just weird. But that came from the promoter's perspective, certainly not the people that were coming. Just made it more difficult. But this year, it was much smoother sailing. We did have to move one table of ink on Sunday because they added in a different table, which that was a point of discussion among us.

Myke Hurley: It was like a pretty hostile environment.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the promoter is not very friendly. That's why, I mean, I tell people this, and I don't want this to sound, like, too negative, but it's more of just the facts. Like, we can't bring the pen addict there because we can't work with the promoter to do anything. You know, we have to have promoter buy-in to do stuff. And, like, we have that in Atlanta, you know. So, it's, like, hard to do, like, proper events at this show. So, like, at night, the only, like, real scheduled, like, after-hours event was Aurora Pens. They did an event, but it's just in the bar as we're sitting there, right? There's no special thing, which that's okay. I don't mind that. They have a good bar set up. But there was no room or space or coordination. It's just like, hey, everyone show up in the bar at 9 o'clock and we'll do this Aurora thing.

Myke Hurley: We'll be in this corner. Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Which worked out well, but it was just, you know, it was just, it's not, the promoter's not an easy guy to work with.

Myke Hurley: It's not changing with the times either when these things are becoming events as opposed to people just popping in and buying some stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And it would be much better from a vendor's perspective. If we could at least have Saturday as public days, too, from a business, we would make more money. It's like, you're preventing us from making money by this setup. But also, at the same time, we're also agreeing to go and do it. So, right. So, we could choose not to, but we do. Because it's a good show and then the people are awesome. Which is always...

Myke Hurley: There are benefits still.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. Absolutely. Plus, you know, I mean, you know, the West Coast friends and fans of the show are the best. I mean, they're awesome. So, I just had... The people out there are awesome.

Myke Hurley: Hopefully one day, maybe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Oh, we could definitely get out there. But, like, LA wouldn't be an event we could swing to do something in San Francisco, on the other hand. That could work.

Myke Hurley: San Francisco would be good. I mean, I don't go there. I'm not going to be going there anymore, so...

Brad Dowdy: That's true. That's true. So, yeah, you would like it. You would like it. So, it was crazy. It was busy. We did real well. Had a lot of fun. You asked me in the show notes, did anyone buy all the inks like we've talked about before?

Brad Dowdy: I'm trying to think.

Inks

Brad Dowdy: I don't think anyone did. No one went the whole collection. No one went the whole collection. The Kyoto inks were 10 in total. I definitely sold, like, 5 or 6, but never all 10.

Myke Hurley: Did they sell as well as you were expecting them to?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, real well. We went out of the most popular color by the second day we were out of. We sold out of the Robert Oster Fire and Ice the second day. We couldn't bring enough of that. We sold out of whatever Nock products Lisa brought by Saturday, which made me feel real good. That's a good feeling. Like, everyone gave us... I told Jeff when we got back, the feedback on the Nock stuff was really good. Too bad we didn't have any more. Some people were disappointed we didn't have any, which is understandable. But we're about to be able to turn that up, which, you know, that's a frequent thing for me to say. But it's getting there, so we'll have news on that soon. But yeah, you know, there was just sold a ton. We can't sell enough Akramon inks. Either the Standard lineup or the new Dutch Master Series sold a ton of that. Sold lots of pens, lots of Kawekos and Lamys. The AL Star Pacific Blue was fantastic. Everyone loved that pen, which is a great-looking pen. So yeah, it was great.

Myke Hurley: Do you think that this might be a show that Nock would do one day, maybe?

Brad Dowdy: Maybe. It's possible. We certainly have the following out there. I got more questions about Nock than I imagined. So when you get that kind of feedback, I told Jeff, I was like, there was so much feedback and questions about Nock, I would think this would be a good show for us.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, if you sold out the product that you had, that's a real good sign.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And it wasn't that much. I mean, we're talking like 20 pieces. But just the questions and the feedback that we get from the people at the show was super good. So I definitely appreciated all that. It's helpful. It's helpful to get that kind of direct feedback. Oh, yeah. For sure. Good or bad. Good or bad. I want someone to say, hey, this doesn't work for me. You know, that's important stuff.

Myke Hurley: Especially people who can show you, right? They can show you what they like and what they don't like as opposed to just trying to write it to you. So yeah, it's wonderful. But everybody wants to know, though, what did you buy? What did you buy? You obviously bought something. What did you buy?

Brad Dowdy: So I didn't realize it until after like my first few purchases. So I did a couple of things different this year. One, I bought a lot. And two, I bought almost all of it on Friday. So generally, I'll do my show shopping on Sunday because that's when it slows down because of the format of the show. Traditional shows outside of LA tend to slow down Sunday. And I've had a chance to look around and kind of decide in my head what I want to buy. Anyway, this time, I kind of knew ahead of time I'd end up with another stylo art pen because I knew they'd be there.

Brad Dowdy: And it was kind of quiet on Friday late in the day. So I went and sat with them, Mr. and Mrs. Kizuno, who are just some of the best people in the world. They're so nice and so helpful. And they had some Arushi pens that I'd seen last year at LA, but I went with a wooden pen. And one of the neat things about their pens is, depending on the model, some are built with Sailor grip sections and nibs. Some are built for pilot grip sections and nibs. So last year, I bought a wooden pen, and it was set up for Sailor. This year, I bought an Arushi pen. And it's called the Kenpaku, I believe. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but it's which stands for gold leaf. So it's an Arushi pen. The lacquering is over this beautiful gold leaf. It makes the gold leaf look like amber in the pictures. There's a little bit of red in there. There's some gold sparkles. There's some good pictures from stylo art. They teased them before they came out, but they had had some last year, too. But they had brought like four or five to the show. And I know when we left, there was only two left. So they sold at least three of these during the show. They're really spectacular feeling and looking. The attention to detail is awesome. The ability to put in a pilot nib. So I got a pilot stub nib in mine. You can choose. Like they have things like the PO nib and Waverleys and the Falcon and anything you want in pilot. But, you know, he can put a nib in for you. And it's just really beautiful. It fits my hand and feel and the style is really good. So I'll be using this pen a lot, carrying it around a lot. And I will be definitely taking some more pictures of it. I just have to get in some good lighting. I just had my hotel room lighting and I haven't had time to take any pictures since I got home. So that was my big purchase.

Myke Hurley: But this isn't the one I'm excited about though.

Brad Dowdy: Is it the next one?

Myke Hurley: It's the next one.

Brad Dowdy: So this was... So I didn't... I won't say I had a plan to get the stylo art pen. I had a plan to get a stylo art pen. It happened to be this one. This next pen, I obviously had zero intention of buying. I have enough Franklin Kristoff's to last a lifetime. I love their pens though. And they're, you know, they're just fun to use. The styles fit me well, fit my aesthetic well. I love the choices of nibs. And then at pen shows, they do all these crazy prototype colors. Like that are not in their stock lineup. So that's kind of one thing that they're known for at pen shows.

Brad Dowdy: I was over there on Friday. I think this was the first pen I bought actually. Um, and I happened to see this, um, Eleanor, who was a friend of the show and a friend, a friend of the, uh, the entire community. She's awesome. And she was helping at Franklin Kristoff, Kristoff table. And she said, look at this. And I basically, my jaw dropped and there's no name for the color, but it's a Franklin Kristoff model O two. And I think I'm going with nuclear fallout.

Myke Hurley: That's a perfect way to describe it.

Brad Dowdy: Um, for the color, it's fluorescent lime green yellow with green swirly sections and finials. It is stupidly good looking. It is so good looking in person. Again, this is an awful, awful picture. And if you think it looks good in that picture, just wait till I get some good pictures of it. Um, and I, I have the cartridge in it. I mean the converter in it because that's what it ships with at the show. And I just wanted to ink it up then to use it then because it's so cool, but I've already gotten it home and I dropped it with the Ackerman number 28, the really bright, bright green that we love so much. And this pin's, I mean, there was no way I was not buying this pin when I saw it. Right. I mean, this is my kind of pin. So like I have the most traditional, classic, Japanese, artistic, Arushi, gold leaf, beautiful pin sitting next to the most gaudy, tacky, fluorescent, crazy, insane, Franklin Kristoff pin. And I absolutely love them both equally. Right. It's like, it's, it's weird. Like I don't have like one aesthetic that I go for. I just go for what I think is cool for me. And that Franklin Kristoff is so cool. Um, that definitely got the most feedback over the weekend. Um, I didn't have time to post too many Instagram pictures. I tried to, but you'll be seeing more pictures of both of these pins. So those were my two, like, Oh wow. Purchases because they were just, they were definitely out there, but on different ends of the spectrum. Right. So, um, also on, so this is all on Friday. So I've already bought those two pins and, uh, Karis customs is there and I'd been wanting to try the mini fountain K, which is their small one. Um, so I bought one of those.

Myke Hurley: This missed me completely. I didn't even notice it existed.

Pen Size

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it came out last year. Um, it's one I wanted to try for the size and I've always wanted the gray anodization one. So I got a gray one with a black section and then I've always wanted one of their turquoise, uh, models that they do in different. It's a hand painted model, um, that they do in different styles. So I got a retract and a two tone silver and turquoise and retracts my favorite, like standard ink cartridge pen that they do. Um, so I kind of went all out on Friday and I was pretty happy with that. Um, I spent, I think it's because it'd been like six months since I've been to a pen show. I kind of went stupid on what I was buying and, um, you know, I spent probably more than I anticipated, but that's okay. But it was, I justified it. Right. Like we all do. I was like, gosh, it's been, I hadn't been to a show since August.

Myke Hurley: You got it built up, right? What are you going to do? Yeah. Yeah. I needed all this stuff. I needed all this stuff.

Brad Dowdy: So, and then, so I was happy with everything I bought. I didn't need to buy any more pens and I knew I would buy some ink by the end of the weekend. But when it gets slow at pen shows, you tend to walk around more. And of course, uh, my good friend Sarge who lives over there in the UK with you. Um, he always has, he's probably one of the best just dealers, pen dealers on the planet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Some amazing stuff at the London show.

Brad Dowdy: The quality and quantity of goods that he carries. And I'm always, there's always like 10 things I want to buy from him, but you know, they're all like $2,000 each and you know, I can't quite afford that even though I spent, uh, an astronomical amount already. Um, but, uh, as I, I spend a lot of time at his table cause there's always something new. And I happened to notice some Kawekos he had, which he normally doesn't have, which I hadn't seen his, um, stock in a while. And they were smaller, you know, the pocket size Kawekos, not, you know, full length Kawekos. Um, one was a sport Kawekos sport from the 1930s and it's a piston filler in the small size with like the, um, the chased, you know, engraved black pattern. And I haven't taken pictures of these yet cause I wanted to get them home. I haven't inked them. It's practically brand new. Um, it has a fine nib. It's got some really beautiful designs, some cool stamping on there. It's got a great looking nib. Um, and then I bought another sport, which is actually a slimmer model from that one, which is from the sixties. It's also a piston filler. One's got a green ink window. This one has a blue ink window there. I've been wanting this type of pen for years. Um, I've never seen any in person except that other people already owned, um, that they were showing me. I've never seen any available to buy or any that looked as nice as this, I guess. So Sarge's pens are always pristine. Um, uh, admittedly you pay a premium for them and Sarge knows it and he can get it. So, because he, I mean, he has the goods, right? You trust him. Um, and Sarge, we trust. So they're beautiful. I've got them, uh, ready to be inked up. I haven't decided what inks I'm going to put in them yet.

Myke Hurley: Um, so I haven't seen pictures of these things, man.

Brad Dowdy: I know I've been holding, I've been holding out because I want to do them justice. Also, I want to get their specifications down, right? I want to be able to say this is exactly what this pen is. And like Sarge tells me, well, like Sarge tells me and we discuss it, but I don't have that written down to be able to re-communicate that. So the interesting one about the 1960s one, it has an oblique nib. It's an OB. So I don't think that's a very common thing. And, um, they're, when you see pictures of them, you're going to be very pleased with them, I think.

Myke Hurley: So I guess, uh, follow your Instagram, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So those will be coming up soon. So I, that was six pen. I bought six pens on this trip, which is stupid. Um, you know, I usually, I tend to, I mean, I'll buy nothing if I don't see anything that, um, you know, floats my boat. Um, like in Chicago last year, I bought one pen that I was very happy with. Um, I'll buy zero pens if that's the case, but I think it'd been so long since I'd been to a pen show. I kind of went a little crazy, a little overboard because then I still had to buy inks. Right. So the new Akramon Dutch masters, I don't need 120 milliliter bottle of ink, but I'm going to buy one anyway. So I bought a number, the color is number five. It's the sea blue. Um, it's really, really pretty. I have that inked up in my sailor 105th anniversary pen. I bought one of the Kyoto inks. It's this black ink called Nureba Iro. I'm going to do some pictures of that because it's kind of a unique, sheeny black. It's kind of hard to imagine, uh, what it looks like because it's not like a traditional black. It's got a little something extra in it. Um, and then I bought two brown bung box inks. One was tortoiseshell brown and one is, I just call it eel because I can't really pronounce the rest of the name. It's Kabayaki Hamanako eel. Um, they're both shades of brown. I like that you tried anyway though, right? Yeah. One dark and one light. So I've been enjoying my brown inks recently. And then I ended up with a bottle of Aurora blue black because that was from the Aurora giveaway, um, from the, from the party. They, they gave everyone, um, some bottles of ink. So it's super cool. Um, it's, uh, I, I just haven't caught up on taking pictures and sharing all the stuff that I got yet. Just haven't had the time yet. So, um, but there's some great pictures on my Instagram. I've shared some pictures, um, you know, from, uh, from the event, you know, hadn't had quite too many. And then, um, you know, I got to do some other cool things like, um, interview, uh, Linda from Aurora, who's their export manager, who was traveling with the Kenro guys. So I sat down, you know, for like a half an hour with her and we went through a bunch of questions. Um, I do have some links to, uh, my friend Franz, who's in the, in the, uh, chat room right now. Franz has the best pictures of the show as a whole. If you go follow his feed, um, we'll link to it in the show notes. You can see all the cool stuff that happened. So he took a party picture of us, which was really kind of the after party party picture. That was about 11 or 1130 at night where we're just all hanging around the table, just, uh, relaxing after a nice day on Friday. So that's the cool stuff about the, uh, the show. And I did a post yesterday, just, you know, just saying, Hey, I'm back and we'll start get back to normal here in a minute. And, you know, I had another post of one of the tables that was at our little after party there. So it's fun. It's fun. So, uh, I, it was, I mean, essentially a perfect show just because everything went off. Well, it was no drama. Um, it was, which not that there's a lot of drama, but I'm just saying we didn't have to think about things other than why we're there and the people we're hanging out with. So that's, that's what makes a great show to me. And, uh, the people is people are the best, you know, like every night we'd hang out at the bar and just relax and chat and share pens and tell stories.

Myke Hurley: And April can't come soon enough.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You're jealous.

Myke Hurley: I am. I love the pen shows. Um, and I'm very excited to do two this year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that should be cool. That should be cool. So, um, the, uh, the next show I'm at is in little rock, which is a new one for me. And I'm actually doing something really different this year. I'm kind of working for the show itself. So I'm not, I'm just going, yeah, I'm going as the hype man. I'm just going as me and I'm going to be sharing a bunch of doing a bunch of the promo stuff for the show. You know, while we're there sharing a bunch of pictures, I'll probably take over their Instagram feed, stuff like that. And we're getting a lot of good feedback. A lot of people are coming to the little rock show. So if you're in that area or within a good driving distance, and there's not a lot of other shows in that area besides Dallas, um, that's one you should think about going to because, um, there's going to be some cool stuff happening there and I'm really, really looking forward to it. So that's a month from now. And then another month after that is our time, man. Uh, back in, back in the ATL.

Myke Hurley: Home base.

Brad Dowdy: Home base. So LA was awesome. Thank you to everyone who came out and said hi and took pictures and selfies. I was doing, uh, I was on Snapchat saying, Hey, to people who were fans who couldn't make it to the show.

Myke Hurley: So it was, it's a true celebrity, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Lisa gets the biggest kick out of it. She just taunts me the whole time about, uh, people wanting to come up and say hi, but I love it. And because I just like talking to people and, you know, ensuring that they're having a good time. So I just want to make everyone happy. Dowdy in the building. Yep.

Myke Hurley: So it's just so nice to have Anna's husband make all these trips.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I know. Right. I like, I did, I did get that once, um, you know, one of the listeners came up and she saw me and she was like, Oh, I am so glad Anna's husband made it to the show this year. I was like, you are amazing and I love you. And thank you. It was good.

Myke Hurley: Today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace. You want to enter the offer code Inc at checkout and you will get 10% off your first purchase. Make your next move with Squarespace. They let you easily create that great website for your next awesome idea. They'll be able to give you a great domain name that you can take advantage of award-winning templates and so much more. It doesn't matter what you're trying to put online. Squarespace has all of the tools and facilities that you need to make it happen. Maybe you're looking to make an online store to sell your wares. Maybe you're looking to create a portfolio to display your art. Maybe you have a podcast and you want a website for it. Maybe you have a restaurant and you want a website for that. Maybe you want to create a blog so you can share your thoughts of the world. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that lets you do just that. There's nothing to install. No patches to worry about. No upgrades needed. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Squarespace have got you covered. They have award-winning 24-7 customer support if you need any help. They let you quickly and easily grab a unique domain name and all of those award-winning templates are beautifully designed for you to show off all of your amazing ideas. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month, but you can sign up for a free trial today with no credit card required by going to squarespace.com. And then when you do sign up, you want to use the offer code INK at checkout. You'll get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. Thanks to Squarespace. Let them help you make your next move to make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and memo to pen show promoters. Let Squarespace help you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, what a great...

Brad Dowdy: If you... We had this conversation. This is what happens at the bar at night. I could redo about 10 pen show websites with Squarespace in a month's time and get everyone on the same page of normalcy. Make it better looking. Make it have better information. And Squarespace allows you to do that. So memo to pen show promoters. Look into this, please.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because you can have maps. You can have all that information, contact information. And just a generally good looking website that's hosted well and it's going to stay up. Right? Like, yeah, do it. Yeah. All right. Last time we promised a Knock Co. Lanier update. So the Kickstarter campaign that you had for the bag that you're making. Yeah. Kind of what's going on. How are things?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I didn't want to answer during the show because I had just gotten some information and I wanted to process this. I'd either gotten it the night before the show or before the morning of the recording. So in my head, I received this information. I was like, okay, I need to put out a backer update for this, but I just need to, you know, chew on it, get it ready, figure out how I'm going to say these things. And at that time, I was thinking we might be delayed. Okay. Like, not an extreme amount of time, but even if we're going, like our due date is April. Like, even if we're into May, I'm going to tell people, right? So I sat on that information for like a couple days or like a day, not knowing exactly how I wanted to phrase it. Then you asked me during the show, I was like, yeah, I need to put in an update. And then I didn't. I just got sidetracked. Just got, I was packing for LA, leaving the next morning. So I actually got a call Friday with the manufacturer and got an update and they were kind of conflicting what they said before that maybe we're not going to be delayed. So that happened. So then Monday, I had saved all my emails and, and, um, follow up for Monday. Like when I go to the airport, like I get a bunch of work done Monday morning. So I called them Monday morning and now I think we're actually on time for April delivery. So that's why I didn't want to say anything last week. Cause I was, I didn't want to have to go back on it. Um, so I actually talked to them, got up to speed where we're at with production. Cause this is the same company that does our production cases, right? Our retail cases. So they're super busy for us right now. And the, um, the feedback I got was that we're shockingly ahead of schedule, which we're only ahead of schedule because I knew ahead of time to, to build in behind schedule. So we're, we're actually normal schedule. We're not ahead or behind anything.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I can't follow this timeline anymore.

Manufacturing

Brad Dowdy: Well, this is the manufacturing part. That's a brutal, right? It's hard. So we're on time. So basically I put out a backer update, gave kind of the ins and outs in a couple of short paragraphs. And at the end, I basically just boil it down to bottom line looks like we're still on time. So that's all you need to know right now for the linear. So we should be shipping in April. I don't know if I'm going to be able to deliver backer stuff at the pen show. Like we're going to be on that tight of a schedule, but you know, we're really, really, really, really, really close to being on time.

Myke Hurley: So it's just manufacturer problems.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's freaking tough. Like I yell on the phone now is my job.

Myke Hurley: I don't like, I don't like the sound of that, man. That doesn't sound like fun. But it's okay.

Brad Dowdy: Well, no, it's just, it's like, I have a really friendly relationship with them. They know where I'm coming from. I know where they're coming from. And when I have to push, I just have to push. I mean, this is how, this is my job.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's funny how like your job changes, right? Like as time goes on, it starts to morph. Like you had an idea of it being this thing and it still is that thing, but it also comes with all this other stuff that you didn't expect.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you're, you're experiencing that now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like my, our good friend, Harry Marks put in a, I, and just in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, he was talking about like manufacturers and manufacturing and limited editions. And, you know, I don't have the whole thing in front of me, but he was just going on and on about, you know, why do we do this? Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? He wasn't making any statement one way or the other, but he was just having a discussion. And all I've replied was manufacturing is hard. Like it just is like, I knew when we did this Kickstarter, I had to build in a buffer. So we didn't look ridiculous because things are going to happen. And guess what? Exactly. Those things happened.

Brad Dowdy: And somehow I'm going to hit this date, but that date, I mean, I'll tell you up front, but like when we're laying out the Lanier, I was like, do we want it in January? We knew we couldn't do Christmas. And we're like, well, January seems a little bit of a stretch. So maybe February. Okay. So if we think they're going to be ready in February, we probably need to do April because something's going to happen. And here we are.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It seems difficult.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It is difficult. It's difficult and time consuming and expensive, but I enjoy it. It's what we do. I enjoy being able to create these things and make cool stuff. I mean, that's what we try to do. Make cool stuff. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But there's a lot, there's a lot that happens between idea and cool stuff, right? Like, yes. And that's what you're doing right now.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right, right, right. So yeah, it's all good though. I mean, like we're like, I'm as happy as I've ever been with our manufacturing process today, even though I'm behind on retail shipments. What they're doing right now, they finally, it's taken months of phone calls and meetings to get to where we're at today, but they see the potential we have. We know the potential and quality that they have. So we're finally in that spot now where all that's syncing up and that's taken like six months. We thought all this would be six months. I thought the point I'm at today would be six months ago. Mm-hmm. It just doesn't have worked that way. That was naive of me.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm happy that it's moving along. Yep. You sound tired from it, honestly. Like just hearing.

Brad Dowdy: Well, because it's not just that. Because I have so much we want to do, right? I mean, we design products. So we, there's a lot of handholds. I'm not a retailer that says, give me a hundred of these pens that already exist.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in this. That's what takes up all of our time. So I'm, I, yeah, there's been points in the past month or two where Jeff and I have been like, gosh, like, what are we going to do? You know, but we've had these experiences before. Yeah. We've had these, oh my gosh, we're going to die experiences. It's scary running your own business and providing for your family this way. Yep. Like this is what you're relying on. So, but that just makes you bust it that much harder. And, you know, I want, I want, I'm the right person to yell on the phone because I do it in a way. I mean, I need to get what I need to get and I'm going to get it. But that's the way it's going to be. That's the hustle, man. Yeah. I got to, got to keep it hustle, man. It's, it's been a difficult, it's taken longer than we expected. Yeah. So, but in the end, like externally, everything is going well. Like we just don't have enough product, but it's happening. It's all happening now.

Myke Hurley: Again, not bad. It's not a bad, as far as problems go, it's not a bad problem. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So that's, that's why we can't have the pen addict Kickstarter pouch like in April or May, because I have other stuff lined up ahead of it that have been in months in process.

Myke Hurley: So Brad Dowdy, the field notes just dropped.

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's do it. Where are we at? All right.

Myke Hurley: So we are looking at here, the, the 34th edition, the spring for 2017 is called Utility. Okay. I think you're going to like the look of these. This seems, this seems right up your street, honestly. Here we go. Here we go. Kind of color wise and idea wise. Utility features your choice of two often requested, but rarely available body pages, engineer graph or ledger.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, engineer graph.

Myke Hurley: Engineer graph features a one eighth inch grid with borderlines each half inch.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That's a traditional design.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: They're yellow and they have like the bottoms of the books have the, which I think is a very nice touch, the, a design element, which indicates what paper's inside. Mm-hmm. Which I think is very nice. Oh, let me see the covers. Safety yellow.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the grid pattern is on the cover.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But only on the bottom.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right, right, right. Um, black staples.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Black staples are nice.

Brad Dowdy: So sorry for the pausing while we're doing this. We're literally reading this right now. We're reading it as we get it up.

Myke Hurley: There's a key chain bottle opener for subscribers. The after hours utility tool.

Brad Dowdy: So this is drink local style where it's two three packs. Everything comes to itself. Yep. You want utility graph, that's a three pack. If you want utility ledger, that's a three pack.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but as a purchaser, you can choose. You can buy either.

Brad Dowdy: But do we get one? We should get one of each.

Myke Hurley: I assume a subscriber gets one of each. But like if you want to buy extras, you can choose.

Brad Dowdy: Um.

Brad Dowdy: These are killer.

Myke Hurley: They got a ruler built into them as well. Like into the cover. It unfolds from the edge.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm. Oh, and it folds out. Yeah. It comes. Oh, Christ. That's really smart.

Myke Hurley: I think these are nice.

Field Notes Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: I actually use the ruler in the back of the Field Notes notebooks. Have you ever used that before? No, I never used it. They do. They print it on the edge inside back cover. These are really, really great. Definitely better than like Black Ice. Which was fine. Um. I'm super happy with these.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I, I, uh. I don't like the Ledger. I've never liked the Ledger. Sure. Sure. So, I think it's nice that you can choose. I, I wish that as a subscriber, I was going to get the graph. Because graph, graph I'm all about. Like, that's fine for me. Graph is the same as grid in my mind. Like, it's, you know, it's just little boxes. Right. Because you can do what you want with them. Yeah. But Ledger, I'm not so hot on. Um. But that kind of seems like a fact that Adina would like. Honestly, I'll just give those to her. Yeah. But I like the look. I really, I really, really like the, the, the bottoms of them where it shows what paper's inside. I think that's a super nice touch. And it looks really different to anything they've done before. Right. Because everything else is just like a pure, right? Like, it's just all one color. And then it has a little design element on the bottom that I like. Um. You know how I like it. You know, I've been talking about this for weeks about having a story. Um. And the ruler adds to the story of the notebook. Um. So, yeah. That works really well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's definitely on that construction bit like the Workshop Companion was. Um. The, the black and yellow colors here are definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Common in like the construction world. Um. Even though these are in the hipster world. Mm-hmm. There's that, uh, crossover look. It's very cool. Um. I'm happy with it. I, I really, really like it. So, this looks like it's the, uh, the good stock too. The 70 pound Mohawk vellum.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Which is, uh, probably my favorite that they do. So, these should be excellent. I think they'll do well. Um. Um. You know, they'll. Not speak to everybody. But I'm pretty happy with these. So, we'll see how they are when they get in. But I, I love the bright, the, the yellow covers. Yeah. And for me, this is gonna. The black, the black highlights. Yeah, exactly.

Myke Hurley: Uh, for me, this is gonna hire. Uh, this is all gonna hinge on how the cover looks. Mm-hmm. And how it feels. Like, it looks like it's gonna be pretty good. But like, I feel like this might be a color you have to like, see to be like, whoa, look at this. Look at this color. It's yellow. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I like them. You know, it's, it's, it's, this isn't a blow to doors off edition. Sure. Um. But it's, it's a basic edition, which they've done well. Um, they haven't done anything crazy with. Right. Um, and like, so I, I think of something like Shenandoah.

Brad Dowdy: That was the exact one that I thought of.

Myke Hurley: Because Shenandoah was a basic edition, but it didn't, it didn't do it for me. I didn't like that edition. Right. But this is a basic edition that has got some design elements that I quite like.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, yeah, it's funny you say that. Like, I'm trying to think back of what this edition is comparable to. And in, as far as, you know, how it lines up with the rest of the group. And I think it's the Shenandoah. It's not going to like sell out immediately or be almost gone like lunacy, but it's going to be a good quality edition, even though a lot of people thought Shenandoah was too plain. I loved it. Um, because of the green, but, um, this is going to be right there at like that range for me in, in the grand scope of field notes things. So, yeah, I am, uh, I'm excited to get these. These look fantastic.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Um, it feels like it's focusing again on what these notebooks are used for. Exactly. Which I like. Um, and a real good use case, which I think they tried to highlight with the workshop companion as well is like people use these like when they're building stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, to get work done.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And so, yeah, I think this is a, this is a return to that idea, which I, which I do also enjoy because it's nice to focus on what the things are used for because sometimes the most beautiful ones are the ones that are the least usable. Right. Um, so I like to have the balance.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. Just like, you know, people use these to do work. And I got an email, um, last week that wanted to praise the expedition edition because they're a construction worker and they need that. And I said, that's exactly why this edition was built. And, you know, I love that you have that specific use case for this. And that's what makes this stuff so cool.

Myke Hurley: Uh, edition size of 35,000 packs, which is just up from black ice, but the same amount was lunacy. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's a lot.

Myke Hurley: I expect it's because they had to go with, they did two different papers. So they probably had to push the run up a little bit higher.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Which would go in line with lunacy as well. Right. Because lunacy had like two different cover types as well as the paper.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like two different cover papers and then all the different cutouts.

Brad Dowdy: Oh gosh. Yeah. Lunacy was a big, big event. Yeah. So I wonder if the edition size is cut right down, right in half of the two patterns. I'm sure. I would assume it is.

Myke Hurley: Maybe. Maybe. They might know a little bit more about customer preferences, right?

Brad Dowdy: Is it 60, 40 grid? Like that would be something like that.

Myke Hurley: That's what I would expect. I would expect you'd make more grid than, than ledger, but I mean, they'll know how well the ledger ones have done in the past.

Photography

Brad Dowdy: These are going to photograph extremely well and stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. This is good. It's going to look good, right? Like this, this is a tradition. It's going to pop out. It's going to look good. When I looked at the photo first, I thought that they went back to butcher orange, but like that was my first thought. But I was like, no, when you actually look at it, you can see it's more yellow. Yeah. That's why I'm keen to look at these. I'm keen to see the, the color, like to see what the color actually looks like. Um, so yeah, I think this looks like a, like a good edition. Um, I will say.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Agreed.

Myke Hurley: And I'm happy that they did it when we were recording.

Brad Dowdy: I, they usually do it around 11 o'clock, uh, Eastern. So 10 o'clock their time is about when they release it on the Wednesday. So it's, uh, worked out well for us these past few editions.

Myke Hurley: So I think I can about wrap it up for today. We, there's a nice bookend to the show. I think that's the perfect way to end it. Yep. Want to find our show notes this week? Head on over to relay.fm slash pen addict slash 245. There is some great stuff in the show notes this week that you do not want to miss. Uh, thanks again to our sponsors, Squarespace and Mac Weldon. If you want to find Brad online, he is on Twitter. He is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And he's pen addict on Instagram. Um, I just got sent a link, Brad, that apparently now you can, you can post multiple Instagram photos at once and swipe through them. I don't know if that is any use to you at all, but when I was looking for the field notes thing, I saw that fly by my screen. So it could be good for somebody like you, right? Like you've got some product shots of a knock and you could have it from different angles and stuff. That could be kind of cool.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool. That's cool. And pen shots too. So that's, yeah, I'll look at that.

Myke Hurley: Pen addict.com for Brad's work and knock.co for his amazing products. You can find me online. I'm at I Myke, I M Y K E. The pen addict is a part of relay FM. You can find many shows, um, over at relay.fm slash shows. I'm sure that there'll be something else in our list that will tickle your fancy until next time. Say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.