Editing The Pen Addict 310/transcript (section)

== Pinch LA Argo Retro 51 ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, did you find the new Pinch LA Argo Retro 51?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I saw this. I saw them teasing it on Instagram and checked it out yesterday. This is a really interesting looking Retro 51. It's pretty high concept. It's based on some Greek mythology, but set in the future. I assume that this design came from Pinch LA. And if so, Ron's getting out there, man. He's got some ideas going on.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This was a huge surprise. I'm like, wait, what is happening here? You know, excuse me. I just saw the packaging image, right? With the space theme and Argo. And I didn't put anything together. I'm like, what is this? I had to go read and see what it's about. But it's a mythology, story-based, futuristic, around Jason and the Argonauts. And, you know, that's an old, you know, an old mythology and a current, well, recent-ish movie, you know, TV. So, yeah, this was some thought went into this one. And, you know, I'm not buying this one. Like, I've bought too many Retro 51s, but it's kind of cool, the design. I think they'll probably do pretty well. So, it's like we're the unofficial Retro 51 podcast now. It's like we got to mention these cool new things. But, yeah, that's one to check out. It caught me off guard, for sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, there's two colors. There's like two variant colors, and they're limited to 250 each. 250 pieces each. So, if this is your bag, go get one. I'm in the same boat as you. I've bought maybe too many recently. I like the look of this one, but I'm not dying for it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Right? I love the pins came out great. Like, I love that look. To me, like, I don't know enough about the Jason and the Argonauts story. When I see the pins, I just think, like, Battlestar Galactica. And that's kind of rad.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that there's obviously some high concept going on here, right? Like, I don't think anybody would look at that and be like, oh, that's Jason and the Argonauts. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which is good. Like, I think they kind of nailed what they were trying to do. Yeah. So, I can't wait to share the one I'm working on. It might fall in the high concept category and everyone might hate it. I haven't seen this, have I? Uh-uh. Everyone might hate it. But I'm okay with it because I'm pretty happy with it. So, I might just have 500 of these for myself. It'll keep me in stock for the rest of my lifetime. But, yeah, I'll share it. As soon as I get the prototype in, it's in process. So, in about a month, I'll have the prototype and we'll share it out. Share it out then. But, yeah, you want to see high concept? I've got your high concept coming, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll keep my eye out. You know where I can fit 500 Retro 51s, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Where?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' In Away luggage.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's where. Most definitely. This episode is brought to you by Away. They are a team of thinkers, seekers, and designers who make smart premium suitcases. So, your luggage won't have to cost you more than your plane ticket. If you ever travel, I know this happens to me every time I travel. I know it's going to happen to me in a couple of days. I'm going to be like, oh, man, I've drained my phone battery. Like, how do I do this? Every time I travel, my battery of all my devices is used way faster than normal. And when I'm traveling, what I always need is more battery. And if you have an Away suitcase, if you have an Away carry-on, you're going to be fine. Because both of their Away carry-ons feature USB ports of a battery included. It's large enough to charge your phone five times from a single charge. It's a fantastic battery. You can easily pop it out as well. Like, so, if you want to check your luggage, you can do that. And then you can still have the battery with you when you board the plane. So, you can still use the battery to charge your devices whilst you're on flight. It's awesome. It's really, really great. You can go to awaytravel.com slash panaddict right now. And you can browse Away suitcases. They feature premium German polycarbonate, which is unrivaled in strength and impact resistance, whilst remaining lightweight. As well as their two sizes of carry-on. There's also a medium, large, and a kid's carry-on. They have lots of options of sizes and tons of colors. Over 10 colors. And they're always adding new styles. I got one of the aluminium ones. And I am in love with it. Like, I am just in love with it. I've always seen people... Yeah, you brought that one to Atlanta, right? Yeah. Yeah, I've always seen people with these, like... You're in, like, an airport and you see someone with aluminium luggage. It's all dented and stuff, right? Because that's what happens to it. Like, it will get dented. But that's part of the appeal of a case like that. And, oh man, I love it. All of Away's suitcases have a patent-pending compression system, which is great if you're an overpacker, along with four 360-degree spinner wheels. All of their carry-ons are compliant with major US airlines, while still maximizing the amount that you can pack. And they have TSA combination locks built in, so if you get a TSA check, they won't bust your suitcase open. They can just use the TSA lock, which is awesome. They also feature a removable washable laundry bag, so you can separate your clean clothes from your worn ones. This has totally changed the way that I deal with packing and unpacking, because I now do this where, like, all the clothes that I wear, that I want to wash when I get home, I put inside of the laundry bag, zip up the laundry bag, put it in my case, then when I get home, I unzip the laundry bag and dump it into the hamper. And then everything else that's left in the case can either be put back in the wardrobe or is not closed. I love it. I really, really love that. It's such a simple thing, but it's awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, how many times over the past year have I asked you for our away code? Many times. Many times. I'm, like, determined to buy one, and then I'll go, and then I'll go, oh, I just don't need it. It's, you know, I've got my carry system down. I don't need it. And every time I travel, all I want is the rolling check-in luggage. Like, I'm, like, almost desperate for it. So, even last night, Myke, I went to a way site to start, like, building out what I was going to buy, because, you know, I'm also going to London this week, this year, and I'm going to need to pack a lot of stuff, like, a lot more than I normally carry, you know, just for the trip. And I think it's finally time for me to get my away luggage. What I found out last night is when you buy multiple pieces, the discounts just start rolling off. So, that's what's finally putting me over the edge. So, I'm going to pick my colors. I'm going to pick my colors tonight, get it ordered, get it for myself and my wife to travel with. And also, it's going to help me with my travel that I don't check a bag. So, that's kind of the goal here. I've been carrying my Tombin Aeronaut 45, which is one of the best purchases I have ever made. But when I take that as my carry-on, I still also carry a backpack. So, I have my hands full, right? So, I have my backpack on my back, and I carry the Aeronaut. And I would like to have a rolling bag. So, this is it, Myke. I'm doing it for real this time. I'm going to buy my luggage tonight, and I will show you what I purchase once we're done. I just got to pick the color. That's the hard thing. There's like 10 colors. I'm not getting the aluminium ones. I'm getting one of the indestructible ones.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Let's get deep for a moment, at least right under the surface, which is about as far as I go. I'm a superficial guy. Yeah. I'm not a core of the earth guy. I was on the BYOB Pen Club last week. Is the show out this week? I know I get the show out early. So it is not out yet. So it should be out in like a day or two, I think. We'll put the link in the show notes to the main page. You can go listen to it. But we were going through the show, and we were just talking, and Yevgeny, one of the hosts there, we're going through the general show notes. Like we have a show doc, and you have a general idea of what you're going to talk about. You know, just it's nice to prep and, you know, have a little idea of what you're going to speak about. Then he goes, Oh, I've got a question for you, Brad. That's not in the show notes. I'm like, okay, what is this? Like I'm expecting, you know, like, you know, what is your favorite color? You know, something simple I can handle on the fly. And he goes, Where do you see the stationary industry in the next three or five years?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I just Googled at him. I was like, You're really just going to drop that on me out of the blue like that? No prep or anything. And I did okay. Like I like to talk. It was funny. I had busted his chops a little bit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And saying, Wow, like no prep for that one, huh? So I rambled as I do, as I'm doing right now. And, you know, got some of my ideas out on that episode. And it made me think like over the next day or two, I think there's a lot of topics I can elaborate on. So I did that in the Panic members newsletter. And I know not everyone gets that. And I thought it was a good enough topic that I thought we should share where I see the industry right now, the stationary industry as a whole. And where do I see it? And, you know, in the next three, five, 10 years. So what do you think about that? You think we should, we should dig into this, right? And I feel like I should.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I read refill. So I'm interested to talk to you about it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the episode number 28 of BYOB is out. We'll have the link in the show notes. So go check my answers there. I need to go re-listen to it and see what I even said. But I think I kind of said the same things. And I broke it down when I wrote about it into several sections. So the first one, which is kind of the most important one in my book, it's the reason why we're here today, honestly. It's the reason why the blog has been so successful. It's online retail. The retailers that are successful in this space, like Goulet Pins, Jet Pins, Cult Pins, Van Ness Pins, Anderson, Pen Chalet. I mean, I'm going to leave someone out. I'm not meaning to. This is the core of the industry right now from the perspective of my chair, right? From where I'm sitting, this is the core of the industry. These are the people who do the most, have the most, put the most into it, work the hardest, on the edge of what current consumers are looking for in the market. And since a lot of them have been established over the last five to 10 years, they kind of have this space on lockdown, right? I think it's really hard to be the next Jet Pins or Goulet Pins right now because they're so big. Like, they're just large, large companies. And the hard thing about breaking in is they're good companies, right? These are not big, bad companies like we would think of maybe some like traditional old, you know, not in our industry, brick and mortar, you know, traditional companies. Like, well, I hate Comcast so I can go to AT&T. Like, there's no bad players in this industry, which is great. It's good for all of us. And starting your own online store right now, I'd be a nervous wreck. Like, I think you can do it, right? I looked at a lot of this from would I open a business in this space? That's kind of the lens I took this article through. And I could see starting an online retailer, but you are really up against it. What do you think about like the online retail space? I think we're in a really good spot as consumers and as businesses. They're going to continue to grow. The bigger ones are just going to get bigger, but they're getting bigger because they do the right things around education about products and, you know, social communication and sharing. I think just they do so many good things. They're so big. They're only going to keep growing. What do you think?