This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Good stuff.
Wow.
Anti gravity.
Anti gravity. Why are we selling notebook astronaut backpacks, baby?
Well, why are we selling notebooks with anti gravity?
Hello and welcome to episode 74 of the erasable Podcast. I am Johnny Gamber, editor of Pencil Revolution, and I'm on hosting duties tonight. Tonight A for Andy from Woodclinch is hosting with me, but unfortunately, Tim had a family emergency and is unable to join us tonight. So it's just Andy and I. How are you, Mr. Andy?
I'm good. I feel like we're a little lonely, but we don't have 10B Tim here to like, you know, slide in with some profound comments.
But you know what? His voice is so deep, he probably makes me sound more nasal. So maybe without Tim here, I'll sound like a grown up.
We'll call you 2B Johnny.
How about that? I think it's like H maybe f or HB if I'm tired. Been screaming at the kids all day. Hey, baby. So a little later on, we'll be joined by Adam and Joey from Bear and Fig, who have an amazing announcement that you might have already heard. But in case you didn't, I like to think we're the official venue because it hasn't been released yet and we're talking about it already.
If the pen addict scoops us on this, I'm going to be real pissed.
We're going to go down to Atlanta and why don't we jump right into tools of the trade?
Yeah.
So what are you digging and writing with?
I am just in the middle of a new novel by Cory Doctorow. Do you know who Cory Doctorow is?
I know of Cory Doctorow. I've never read any of his books.
He's really cool. I first found him. I used to read the Boing Boing blog a long time ago. Mark Fohenfelder is a huge pencil user and analog fan. And Corey's interesting. He's. He's kind of like a. Used to be a digital rights activist, but I would say that he has since expanded into a lot more like freedom of information and of the Internet. So he's kind of like a little bit of that and he's a little bit of probably like a digital age philosopher. And he's also a sci fi author. He used to write some really wacky stuff. Like he has this one book that I really love where he like the guy who's the main character, his mother is a washing machine and his father is a mountain. And I spent like. Like when I read the description, I was like this is like some metaphor for something. It's like. No, like, literally, that's the case in the book. But it's. It was fascinating, but he's since kind of gone from that to like, kind of a little bit more like modern, like, near future dystopia kind of fiction. And it's. He has one that's called Walk Away, just released like a week or two ago. And actually, you might like it, Johnny. It's, it's. It has a very like, like near future communism like, philosophy to it. It takes place in a. In a future that's like post scarcity. Like, everything that you have is fabricated by 3D printers. Your clothes, your goods, whatever. And it's about a group of people who just kind of like go and live off the grid in a. In a true communist utopia. So just about that. It's pretty good.
Related to EL Doctorow?
Yeah, I don't think so. I think he talks about it a lot because when you're looking for authors like, EL comes up a lot, but I don't think they're related.
I was a huge Doctorow fan in college.
Yeah. Yeah, he's cool.
His first book, big, His Life, the one that he squashed and you can't find was my graduation present from Frankie. And like, if you read it, you realize why he squashed it. It's really, really weird and horrible and expensive. I think it's like my most expensive book.
Yeah.
Huh. Yeah, that's cool.
So. And also I didn't have it here, but I also watched and really liked. We talked about this earlier, a movie, an HBO made for TV movie called the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's. It's based off of a book of the same name and it's about a woman from the 50s who. Doctors removed cancerous cells from her and it led to amazing breakthroughs in medicine because her cells just would. Would not die. They just like lived on and lived on through whatever they would do to it. So it's kind of about her life a little bit. And it's about Rebecca Skloot, who's the journalist who wrote that book, meeting with Henrietta Lacks, his daughter, who's played by Oprah. And yeah, it's really good. It's on hbo, if anybody has access to that. So it takes place in Baltimore and a town called. A town called. Oh, shoot, what is that town? Is there a little tiny town called Clover outside of. Outside of Baltimore?
I don't know. It's a really weird Southern state. There are these weird little Tiny towns everywhere.
Yeah, yeah, it was. Maybe it's not Clover. It was. Yeah. It was a great movie. Anyhow, so. And then I am writing with a General Cedar Point 3331. So that I. That I. I think this is one. I bought one. A few of them from Flax, but I think this is one of them that I bought from Gary Varner when he was closing down some of his shop.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah. How about you, Johnny? Cool.
So I'm starting second season of Broadchurch, which Netflix has been recommending me for a long time.
So. David Tennant's in, isn't he?
Yeah. He's so creepy.
I know.
Like, blink, dude. Please blink. But, yeah, if you have access to Netflix. I don't know. Who doesn't? They have the first two seasons and the last season, which is the final season, apparently just aired, so you'll have to watch it illegally or wait for Netflix to get it. But, yeah, it's a good show. Yeah. I'm also rereading the first Harry Potter book with my daughter because when we went to New York a few weeks ago, we went to the Strand and she bought the first book for her birthday and she's really digging it.
Is she reading chapter books? Oh, yeah.
She's been reading chapter books for a while.
Okay. I guess she's.
I think she sits down and reads. Roald Dahl just, like, gets through it.
Oh, yeah. The Witches. The Witches is still one of my very favorite books.
She was obsessed with the bfg, but the movie wasn't that good, so less so. But she really likes the fantastic Mr. Fox and, of course, course, the Wes Anderson film.
Yeah.
Which is violent but doesn't bother her because she's cool.
Yeah.
And my kids are getting into wat. Whitman a lot. So, like, if mommy works late and I'm putting them to bed, we'll read a storybook or two and then they ask for poems by W.W. uncle Walt. Read some Whitman.
Your kids are the coolest.
They're really awesome. We were reading Baudelaire, but that hits too close to home for me and Charlotte. So we're like, yeah, we're going to corrupt Henry, so stick to Whitman. Yeah. Plus, it's spring and I'm writing with an IBM electrographic pencil that a reader, Julie Molner, sent today. I got opened a package with five of these beautiful pencils in it. So many thanks, Judy. And, like, they're really cool. I have no idea how old they are. They're obviously really old, but it being a pencil going to sharpen it up. Smells good. Really? Well, they're awesome. Plus, they're a little thick, which I really enjoy. I didn't try the erasers yet, but they're pretty soft.
Did you see that? They made a. Somebody made an electrographic hackwing.
Yes, I did.
Yeah, that looked really good.
To break one up. Yeah. So you want to jump into Fresh points? Yeah.
So not a lot going on. I feel like we covered most everything when. During the last episode when our fresh points went on forever and we had two more people doing them. But last weekend was pretty. Pretty pencil y on my. In my area of the world. I took Friday off just because I had a long week previously, and Katie and I just went out and did some things. So I found a cool little shop in San Francisco called the Aesthetic Union. And the main part of this shop is it's a little print shop. They have letterpresses, and they have. They have some screen printing, and they. And they have old, like, Heidelbergs from the 30s through the 50s. Um, they have a crazy big, like, paper cutter, like, guillotine that will just, like, chop off your hand if you're not careful. But it's. It's cool. Cause out front, though, they sell a lot of little art supplies. And I was just walking around, and, you know, they have your, like, usual sign pens and your le pens and your. Your fancy paper, like your nino sign. But then I get over to the pencil section, and the. They have black wings, which is cool. But then they were also two shiny cups full of palominos, and I was so surprised. They had eraser orange palominos, and they had capped blue. Blue palominos. And of course, I took a picture of it and sent it to Johnny Tim right away, because that's how I do and pick some up and send it to them. But, like, it was amazing. I was just like that. This. This is incredible. Like, how did you guys get these? I think the guy just brought a crapload of them from pencils.com and then just resold them. I'm guessing.
Did you shoplift the rest?
Oh, I definitely snuck it out under my jacket.
Awesome. It's not like they have alarm tags, right?
Yeah, they also.
They could. It does conduct electricity. You could figure out how to do that.
Just electrocute people if they try to yank your pencil. The. They also had some forest choice carpenter pencils, which was cool.
Oh, man, those things are so pretty.
Yeah. And the guy was really interesting. I met the guy who owns the shop. He had actually heard to our podcast before so, James, if you're listening.
Hi.
Gave him a lapel pin. He was. He was really interesting. We talked a little bit about Blackwing, some of the volumes, and he showed me his secret stash in the back.
He.
He has hidden away to squirrel away for his own use some of the older. Some of the older editions. He has some. I think he has some 725s and he has some 1138s. He does not have any 211s, or else if he did, he would not admit it to me. I'm thinking that maybe that they just didn't make it to, like, to retail is what I'm guessing. But yeah, so he's really cool. He actually had a really interesting story. There's another store that sells, like, art supplies and fancy pencils out in the outer Sunset, which is like the way west west neighborhood of San Francisco, just right by a couple blocks from the ocean. It's called the Case for Making. They have really cool stuff. And actually, so James, this guy who runs the Aesthetic Union met the woman who runs the Case for Making and Sarah. Since then, they have started dating. So they. It's a. Basically like an art supply store. Romance.
Oh, my God. That's awesome.
Isn't that. I think we should do a Valentine's Day episode where we interview them.
Let's put a pin in there.
Yes.
Yeah. Yes, definitely.
So then later that day, Katie and I drove up to the North Bay. There's a little town called Mill Valley, just a few thousand people. It's a really beautiful little downtown. Little stream runs through it. And we were right downtown, and there was a little like. Like, boutique shop where they sell, like, desk supplies and some notebooks and some, like, little novelties and things. But they had a really strong selection of Blackwing products. So I was looking through their stock, and holy crap. They had Blackwing 24s. They had 1138s. They had 54s, which I didn't realize they're not sold out on pencils.com yet. They had. Yeah, some really, like, old rare ones. So there was kind of a moment there where Johnny and Tim and I were just, like, texting furiously, trying to see if anybody needed them. But I think the lady knew that she had some rare black wings because the Blackwing 24s were $40 a dozen, which. It's just a little rough, so. Yeah, like a little salty if I was.
They do that as a retail.
Oh, yeah, they can totally do that. It's. It's a suggested retail price.
Ah, yeah.
But I think most of them usually stick to suggested retail price because, like, like the msrp, because, you know, what's to stop somebody from going down the street to buy them for the manufacturer price? But she, she had them marked up a little bit, I think, because she knew that they were a little older, harder to come by. But if I was thinking I would have picked up a bunch and then just like resold them on ebay or something because they're going. The 24s are going for like 70 or $80 on eBay.
Really? Oh, my God, I should have more of those.
But whatever, that's fine.
I didn't like it that much when it came out.
Yeah, I'm not going. I'm not going to tell everybody the name of the store because I want you to go back someday maybe. So, yeah, that was, that was last weekend. And I guess the last thing to mention, just some business lapel pin orders that have existed up until now have been sent out. Johnny's mom got hers. Johnny, you got yours.
Yep.
Yeah.
Rocked one all day.
Yeah, I'm gonna send. Yeah, so I'll send them out within a couple days of ordering them. We had a little hiccup with the UK orders, so I sort of realized that I vastly undercharged for shipping for that, and so I was trying to save a little. So I sent them all to our friend Eric, who is a member of the, like an admin on the group and a friend of ours, he lives in Scotland. So I sent them off to him to be distributed to all the UK members who ordered. But actually just today I got it returned to me and I don't know why it said just there are heightened security concerns with like, products leaving the country and I didn't fill out the right form. I don't know what to do about that. I'm gonna take it back to the post office tomorrow and basically just say, like, hey, tell me what I need to do to send this out.
You know what? They were probably Brad Dowdy fans. They're like, no, no pencil pins. Hell no.
I don't know what the problem might be, except maybe they X rayed that and saw that there's a bunch of like little sharp points. But I don't think that would be a problem.
Yeah, people sell pins all the time.
Yeah, I don't know. I'm. I'm gonna. Yeah, I'll figure it out. So, yeah, if you are in the uk, I really apologize. I'm going to get it to you at some point. Like, I mean, you'll get it at some point. I just don't know when. So sorry about that. Yeah. So that really are all of my fresh points. How about you, Johnny?
Yeah, I don't have a lot either. Last time we talked about the right notepads Telegraph edition, but we didn't talk about the members only pack, so. Yeah, that's true. They sort of do like field notes. When you. Your first shipment of your subscription, you would get two packs of their standard three, three packs of notebooks. But they were last year. They would let you pick what was in them. Like I think I got one that was mixed and one that was all unlined books. This time they didn't tell anybody, but they discontinued that policy. So the week after your telegraphs came, you got an unmarked package in the mail where instead of three of the regular notebooks, you got two, three packs of members only notebooks, which was pretty sweet and awesome.
Yeah.
And some stickers which were very cool and well done.
The stickers. I love that clear sticker. It looks really good on my laptop.
Yeah. I should go raid the bindery and see if I can find some more of those in the bathroom or something.
If you find more, hoard them and send them to me because.
Oh, definitely. But these were like super minimally branded. They just said. Right. And that's it.
Yeah.
And there were three pack, one blank, one dot grid and one lined. And there were this beautiful like line, wine colored. Oh, what was the weight? It wasn't 100 pound. Maybe it was like 80. It was like.
Yeah.
Not as, not as stiff as their stiffest notebooks, but yeah, they were so pretty. I just finished one. They wear beautifully. And of course they sent the analog correction tool, which is their eraser, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. And Target of course has got their new summer pencils out.
I noticed the striped ubis. Have you seen those?
Oh, those have been out for a while.
Oh, have they?
You need to go to Target more, man. We in the Bay, in the Bay
Area, we have a really like weird, uneven set of targets. Like some of them are really amazing and some of them are really crappy.
And so we have like a crappy one where if everyone else is out of it and you really want it, the crappy one will still have it.
See, our crappy ones are out of everything. I think it's because they're the ones that most like, everybody goes to. You have to kind of go out of the way for the really nice ones.
Yeah, we have one I go to on weekdays and one I go to a weekend. It's a bigger parking lot. Yeah, but they have those puzzle erasers. They've been sort of, you know, seasonally putting them out. Like they had some Easter ones, but. But they had like a whole pile of different packs for summer. They were like ice cream cones. Fast food. They had some fast food pencils someone in our group had or Instagram. So I immediately ran out and bought a pack of those and the fast food erasers for my children.
Are they.
Swear they were for my children.
Are they foil wrap pencils?
No, but they're that like thick paper. Yeah, but when my kids saw the erasers, they said, oh, veggie burgers and smart dogs. My veggie kids.
Your Walt Whitman reading veggie kids.
Yeah.
Charlotte has like really good handwriting and can read cursive.
Yeah.
But yeah, they also had whales. I bought the ice cream cones, a whole bunch of other ones. Target's always got some cool pencil gear.
They sure do.
Which I appreciate. That brand made for retail. Even when they're, you know, paper wrapped, they're still like pretty nice pencils. Yeah, the cores are nice. They're painted ones have really nice coats of lacquer. They're a dollar. Awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah. But that's all I got this week.
I do have a follow up that I probably should mention. We. We had so many fresh points last time that I cut this just because. So we could just move on with our two hour long episode. I did want to mention there's a group member, John Eric Pattison, who is. He's really cool. He's been a member of the group for a while. He posted in the group his nine year old daughter's unboxing video.
She.
It's really amazing. So apparently I'll just read you what he posted. So this, he posted this back in April 13th. So it's been a while. But he goes. On Monday, my nine year old and I watched Andy Welfle's unboxing video, the Blackwing 205, which I did in a. I think an Instagram live video. My daughter had never heard of an unboxing video before that day. Afterwards she asked to borrow my iPhone. And then yesterday I found this video on my phone shot, edited and starring her comparing the cores of the 602 and the 205. My daughter makes references in the video to a pencil club she started at school. The club is called Pencil Wonders and it currently has seven very active members, including one of her teachers. She recently asked me to print out an updated Pencil Wonders membership form which includes five club rules. I'll post a screenshot of the rules in the comments which I'll read here. It's so fun to have a love for pencils in common with my kids. So if you go to this group, you can watch a 9 year old do an unboxing video and it's really good. She has a camera presence. Did you watch this, Johnny?
No, I didn't see it yet.
It's really good. I'll post a link in show notes, but you have to be a member of the group in order to watch it. So I'm sorry for those of you who are not Facebook members. So here are the rules of the Pencil Wonders club. Number one, always be open. Always be open to sharing your pencils. Number two, do not tease people about their lack of pencils if they don't have many. Number three, refresh your pencil case once a week. Number four, use all of your pencils equally. Number five, if you do not want slash like a pen pencil, feel free to give it to another member who is worthy of a new pencil or pen. I really like that. Isn't that a good rule?
That's perfect.
Yeah. So it's. Yeah, if you don't. If you don't like a pen or pencil or if you don't want it or like it, give it to somebody else who's worthy of a pencil or pen. Yeah, I like that. So anyhow, that's. That's awesome. I'm. I'm thrilled that there are kids who are into pencils who are not just like, you know, the kids of hosts who have to like pencils because you would disown them if they didn't.
Well, Henry actually made a fresh point. Henry actually didn't like pencils until recently. We watched that How Pencils are Made video.
Yeah.
And when they made the Norris, he's like, his mouth's open, he's watching this cool machinery and he looks at me and I hand it over. Norris connection. And now he likes to draw all the time.
Wow. Yeah, it is. I'm sure it's pretty amazing just to see that pencil being made. And then like, then your dad just gives you one of those exact pencils.
Plus, he spoiled my. Here are 10 more.
Yeah, cool.
So should we get our friends at Baron Fig on the line?
Yeah, let's do that.
So how about we dial in Adam and Joey from Baron Fig for our main topic, which is Baron Fig's new Kickstarter.
Yeah.
So these two guys are no strangers to our podcast. And of course, their products sure aren't. Tonight, Adam Kornfield and Joey Cathone are on here from Baron Fig, and they're gonna tell us about their just launched Kickstarter. Hello, fellas.
Hey, guys, what's going on? How you doing?
NYC represent east coast forever.
No, we like west coast too. It's okay.
I'm making an east coast symbol, but you can't see it.
This is our second episode in a row where we've had somebody from New York calling in. We had Caitlin and Caroline last episode.
Yeah.
We should not just move to New York.
Yeah, let's do it.
That's where everything is. So first things first. Guys, can you tell our listeners why you're here and what you just launched on Kickstarter?
Yeah, absolutely. So today is a big evolution in the life of Baron Fig. So we make tools for thinkers. And we started off three and a half years ago with our confidant hardcover notebook on Kickstarter Starter and step by step came out with pens. Am I allowed to say pens on here or do I have to, like, use a secret word?
We'll just bleep it out.
Yeah, okay.
Bleep it out.
Yeah.
Make sure you hear that.
And then pencils. Did you guys know the Archers? And so now it's like, how do you carry your tools with you? And so we spent a lot of time thinking and talked to a lot of customers, and we are moving forward with bags. So backpacks, totes, and messenger bags.
Awesome.
That is awesome.
Boom.
So can we grill you for a while?
Yes.
Awesome. So obviously the first question is, why did you take Baron Fig out of stationary and make bags?
Oh, good question. In my mind, Baron Fig was only in a temporary visit in stationary. So from day one, and this is four years ago, we took the stance that we were making tools for thinkers, starting with the notebook. And you could go back to even, like interviews and blog posts that I've written. Way back then, even the Kickstarter itself, it was all about tools for thinkers. So the plan actually the whole time was to create this ecosystem, I guess, where what we have now today is the notebook. You know what Adam said? Writing instruments. And now you put all these things together and kind of complete that ecosystem a bit inside of a bag and take it with you.
That's awesome. So what you're saying is you're not limited to analog tools, that you also do digital tools. Are you guys making a Photoshop competitor? I just have to ask that.
Yes. Give us a couple decades.
Yeah, I was gonna say don't worry. It only took, what, Adobe 25 years to get to this point or however
long it's been working on it.
Yeah, we're working on it.
So these, these bags are especially interesting to me because I feel like when we hung out in New York City like eight months ago, we were talking and it was.
It was that long ago?
Well, was it eight months? It was what, September of last year? So I guess it wasn't eight months ago. Yeah, it was. I feel like we just briefly talked about this a little bit. So I'm excited to see these come to be. And I definitely sort of like have opinions about bags and I think all of us who are, you know, stationary adjacent at least probably do. Why did you decide to make three different types of bags? You have a backpack, a messenger bag, and a, and a tote. And you didn't just like land on one or the other. How did you get three out of that?
That's a really good question. So you guys have heard that Baron Fig's products are designed by the community, right? Yeah, yeah. So we take that seriously in a sense that the products that we move on to next and things that we focus on are based on community feedback, what we're hearing. And not only in like a general sense of hey, we want a bag, or hey, even we want a backpack, but hey, we want a backpack that does X or Y and Z. And with this next phase, we were getting a lot of the same questions for these three different types of bags that had different purposes, which is very different from when, hey, we made a notebook and people were like, make a pen, make a pen. So we decided why not do all three since the production process and the materials and everything is so similar.
Yeah.
And essentially everyone has a slightly different use case. I mean, I have been the one from day one, it's doing Studio Fig that has always had the messenger bag.
Right.
And Joey's asked me so many times, dude, why do you use a messenger bag? I like it. I like, it's in front of me. I like to have control over. I like, I'm not banging against people in the subway and it just feels good in my side. And so for me, if we only made a backpack, it wouldn't serve what I need.
Yeah.
And conversely, we have a lot of people that want something simpler. They just want a bag, a nice bag to take simplistic and bring their things around with them, but well designed. And like, for example, the tote bag to serve that need.
You know, Andy Tallarico told me to get you guys started on the difference between backpacks and messenger bags because she said that there will be some, some, some heated discussion about it. So I'm definitely going to like dig into that a little bit later. But
so how did you guys take this feedback from the community and synthesize it into, you know, the actual dimensions and measurements and features of the product?
Oh, that's a good question. So, man, our last Kickstarter. When was Our last Kickstarter?
November 2015.
Yes.
Like a year and a half ago.
A year and a half ago. It's insane how time flies. So when we made the Squire pen and I mean, emails never stop, right. The subject just changes. And so it went from you guys need to make a pen to immediately, you guys need to make cases, which we did. And then, then the bags. And so like it's. If you're paying attention. I don't think over time it's not too difficult to kind of aggregate, you know, at least in your head, the most common requests.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And then it's just a matter of then iterating and showing certain customers or having conversations with customers. Like when Andy came, you know, we were definitely paying attention to your bag. Whether you noticed or not or, you know, I'm sure we asked you a thousand questions and we've been doing that now for like 14 months.
Yeah, for a long time. To me it's fun because it's A, it's product design, B, it's like discovery and C, it's a way of seeing people's personality. And we have so many people. People come to our studio for whatever reason. It's like, hey, you got a really nice backpack. You mind if we take a look inside? What are you carrying?
Hey, what's in your bag?
And it is kind of funny we haven't found a few things in people's bags. I'm surprised we left. They let us look in that pocket, but whatever that was.
Oh my God.
Well, we definitely have some permission, so that's on them.
But so what's not embarrassing that you find in people's pockets. That's funny. And you could share.
Oh, man.
Definitely condoms. Like I come across Jesus.
Wow.
Everybody sway.
You never know. You just never know.
New York City, man. What else did we find?
I mean, surprising. I think it was pretty similar actually. In most cases, most people buy a laptop, a 13 inch MacBook Air MacBook Pro. Most people had a notebook paper notebook, Some varying size, some writing instruments, pens, pencils, sharpeners.
Yeah.
And then keys Wallet.
I got one. What's that? Most people had this very similar thing and it was a lot of empty space in their bag.
You know why they had empty space in their bag?
Because their bags were too damn big.
No.
They all had Whole Foods to buy pasta. They needed space for their bags.
That's just me. I make it at homemade fresh egg noodle pasta.
So what you're saying is by having, by having a slimmer bag, you're trying to encourage more people to make their own pasta?
Yes, that's really. The underlying mission is more creative pasta making in the home.
I knew it. We talked about this on Facebook, me and Adam.
Yeah, that was pretty funny. It got quite a bit. Quite a bit of attention for a conversation about pasta in a backpack. Pencil thread.
Cool. We're actually recording this the night before the Kickstarter launches, but people will not be hearing this until after it launches. So I'm willing to bet that most of our listeners have already seen the Kickstarter campaign go live. But for those of you who haven't, or for those listeners who haven't, can you kind of just briefly run us through the lineup like what you're offering?
Ish.
About how much you're asking, if you have any add ons, that kind of thing?
Yeah, sure. So we. It's definitely the most amount of new stuff we've released at once and it's been interesting time. So it. Overall, the overarching theme is bags for thinkers and it's three different bags. So we have a backpack, messenger bag, and a tote bag. They're made of canvas, very minimal designs. You can, if you've seen our other stuff, you certainly know you can kind of start to imagine what it is that we're making here. And so they come in two colors. So one is charcoal, which is probably no big surprise to people who know us. But the other one is a brand new color. Not a new color to the brand because it is part of our brand, but it is fig wine. So snap. So. So a deep purple or Merlot.
Is that what you.
It is. It would be a Merlot. Yeah.
It's couch colored. It's the color of your couch.
Couch it is. It's the Baron fig studio couch.
Oh yeah.
Couch is.
Yeah, slightly warmer, but yes, definitely is the wall color. Has anyone seen the pictures of the wall of our studio? That's very, very cool.
I painted that wall. That was a labor of love.
Yeah, Joey did paint that wall. I was not there that day, so that was all Joey.
Do you guys Know the hex collar off the top of your head?
The what?
The hex collar,
man. I thought you said. Did you know that your head is cut off the top of your head?
Did you know that?
Ah, man, that's deep. That's too deep for me.
So do you know the. Do you know the hex color?
No, I don't know the hex color
or the pantone or any. Anything CMYK mix? No, it's fine.
I'm just kidding, man. You're really making me laugh.
Well, I will say I do bet our web developer, Sam knows it because he programs it all over the website. So I bet he knows all these colors off the top of his head. I'll have to ask him tomorrow if he actually knows them.
Cool. So they're in a new color as well as Baron Fig charcoal.
Yes. So, all right, so. So the backpack is an interesting design. So like Joey said, we found after we talked to lots of people that most of the backpacks were empty. And it's incredible that you really look in these bags and it's just a. It's like it's a cavern of empty space most of the time. So we decided to. All right, well, how can we change the design to make it better and mostly get rid or slim it down a lot. So when you're in the subway or in a crowd space, like many bar users are, you're not bumping against people and you're not carrying around all this empty space and empty weight you don't really need. So I'd say that's. That's the first important.
That was the biggest realization is, like, people are carrying around a ton of empty space. With backpacks that are designed for 5% of your time when you do throw a ton of stuff in, which is rare. And so we said, hey, let's Design bags for 95% of your time where you're. You maybe have a laptop and a couple things.
Things.
A notebook. And that's it. And so we slimmed it up, and the reaction while we were developing this thing was, like, way more incredibly enthusiastic than we expected.
And so the next thing with the backpack is it opens flat. Have you guys ever heard that line before in relation to Baron Fig?
Yeah, it's a recurring theme.
A recurring theme. So what we came up with is if you take your bag like most people do, you're going somewhere. That's why you have a bag. When you get to that place, it's usually you're digging in the bottom, trying to yank out whatever's down there. Your keys, your pencils, notebook. So we came with the idea. Okay, what if this could be kind of a traveling workspace that I go from my home to my office, and I could actually unzip it the entire way and have access to everything. So whether I go to the coffee shop and I just want to get out all my tools, or I go to my actual office, I can hang it up on the wall. Or at my studio, you get easy access to everything. So there's new pictures on the campaign you can look at which demonstrate it pretty well. But definitely different, that's for sure.
Yeah. So this, I mean, opens flat. I almost didn't want to name it opens flat because it was like, we're not making a joke here because, you know, our conference open flat. But it just. I couldn't avoid saying that the. The bag opens completely flat, which, like Adam said, lets you get everything. But, you know, I have a hook when I show up at home that I hang my coat on, and then I put my backpack on it. And now you can unzip the bag and it opens fully. I don't know how to describe that, like, without showing a picture, but, yeah, you can see it. And so your laptop there and all of these really cool mesh pockets that are on the front side of the bag. Most bags don't take advantage of this space at all. Are kind of like anti gravity pockets. Because the way the zippers work, when you unzip, whether it's vertical or quote unquote, upside down, the stuff does not fall out. So you can access your stuff no matter what, what orientation you're using. So it lets you really hang it up and use it and, you know, reach in if it's on your back and all that good stuff.
Wow. Anti gravity.
Anti gravity.
Why are we selling notebooks?
Astronaut backpacks, baby.
Well, why are we selling notebooks if we have anti gravity? It sounds like a no business to me. Come on.
Oh, God. What else is cool about this bag?
So one thing we noticed is, all right, you have the bag on your back where it tends to wear it go. It's called a backpack. And you want to get something out of it. Often unstrap it from one shoulder and reach in. But a lot of the bags we looked at, a lot of the uses we saw people do, it's really hard to get in these pockets. You have to unzip. And some of. Actually, one of my friends I looked at the other day, it actually unzips the wrong way. And all your stuff Will fall out pretty much every time you swing it around one shoulder. So it comes with little pockets on the side that you can put your phone in, put your kind of keys or whatever your common things are. And we've some pretty good gifs on the page, which.
The swing pockets.
Yeah. If whatever I said didn't make sense, to check out the little case.
You swing it around, and then it's almost as if it was oriented perfectly vertically underneath your arm. Yeah, it's like. And not only that, but those two swing pockets, which we have to somehow make more visible. You can access those same pockets from the inside of your bag when it's hanging. Yeah. That's pretty deep.
Yeah.
So what do you guys carry since.
A backpack, no doubt.
No way, man.
Bag fan, myself.
Interesting. So why are you a messenger bag fan?
So I can get. Well, my main bag is a diaper bag, so I need to get in it. But I carry the Timbuktu messenger bag called the Stork. It's like the. It's the messenger bag or. I'm sorry, the diaper bag. That's not a diaper bag.
Interesting.
So look at you using a bag made in the west Coast, Johnny.
I don't think they make their bags in America Timbuktu. No, they did the custom ones in America.
Oh, yeah.
I do their factories.
Yeah.
I have an embarrassing number of Timbuktu bags.
So all the cool dads at the park have the Timbuktu waterproof bag.
No.
You know what?
I did see a guy. So My son, who's 4, I had their 2013 edition, and I saw a guy in a neighborhood. We had the same diaper bag, and we kind of, like, give each other the chin nod, like, yeah.
Sup?
Nobody has my new one because they use Cordura now. And I. I think they discontinue the bag, because who wants a $150 diaper bag that's gonna get poop on it?
So what was your question? What bag? What bag do we have? Or what do we have in it?
Or both?
I can't remember.
Yeah. What do you use? Aside from obviously, your new bags that you guys made? Like, what do you use before this, personally?
Oh, that's a great question. So I have this bag that I got for free. It's like, without naming the brand, but it's like one of these luggage type brands, and I got for free. So I'm quite pleased.
Garbage.
I'm quite pleased in that sense, but terrible. I'm very displeased it's big, it's bulky, it's heavy, it's ugly. Yeah. Okay, so that's what I use.
It works.
But I'm definitely dying to get rid of it. So I'm very much looking forward to having one of our bags to use.
And I use backpacks, but I have not found a bag that I liked. I have a ton of them. My go to bag is like a like 10 year old bag from college.
Yeah.
And that's just because it's so beat up. It just feels comfortable.
Andy, what do you have?
So actually since the last time we met, like when I saw you guys in New York, I have switched. So I used to carry. I've always been sort of a messenger bag loyalist. Like the last one I had was a Timbuktu, like a commuter bag. And I've actually had some shoulder problems. Um, some shoulder and like upper, upper back problems. So I switched to a backpack. Um, I have an old one that I had, just an old Patagonia one that I had got free at Facebook that I never really used. So I guess I like it. Like it makes my back and shoulders feel better, but I definitely like feel the pain of it being like really bulky or saggy if I don't have a lot of stuff in it. And so I, it definitely has a lot of empty space and sometimes I do find myself filling it up with just like extra stuff. Um, and then what, what happens is I'm on like the bus or the train or something like that and if I don't take it off and put it between my legs, I'm just like sticking way out the back like, you know, there people can't stand if it's crowded. So I'm, I'm especially excited about the kind of, the slim profile of this backpack just because I like would love to be able to just like sit down or just stand on a crowded bus and not just be in people's way.
So should we add to our feature listing the restorative health benefits of a backpack?
I mean, honestly. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people, like I'm now where I work. I generally carry a 15 inch laptop and an iPad pro with me in addition to my confidant and some pencils and some other stuff. All my various cables because like adapters, because Apple only has one cable that doesn't fit anywhere. Different story.
So. All right, so I do have a story about the filming of our Kickstarter campaign. The video.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't Know where this is?
Yeah. Joey doesn't know the story. Unscripted.
Unscripted.
Two seconds.
So I suggested that people very much like cats and dogs.
Oh, no.
So I was like, joey, dude, this is so easy. I was like, we should go get some cat. There's literally a petting cafe, like, right across the street from me.
A petting cafe sounds great. A petting cafe? Are you serious?
It's the best thing ever. What.
What could be better than, like, a tote bag with a cat inside?
Tote bag with a puppy inside?
Well, I.
Okay, I. I did offer to be in the middle and we could go and get some on someone's dog and stick the dog inside too.
Yeah, that was a suggestion.
I was very upset that didn't make the final cut because I. I thought it was a great idea.
But we do have a dog in the video.
Caroline made a special appearance. We could have gotten Caitlin's cat to just stick in there.
That's right. Caroline Weaver is in our video and she's in our photographs. And we will also have a few features on the. The four thinkers in the video that will be coming out over the next couple of weeks.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah. So there's more stuff coming.
Yeah, there are quite a few pencils there, shopping in the video.
Oh, yeah. I definitely saw some.
Yeah, serious pencil action in there. So that's good.
Some of our own.
No, no doubt, no doubt. Somewhere. Somewhere on the rack.
We actually didn't finish with the. With the. The features of the Kickstarter, so you have tote bags and messenger bag bags too. Without. Without getting, like, too much into detail. What are some of the innovative features of those. Of those bags?
Let's check it out. So the tote bag and the messenger, overall, everything is simple, Right. I think, if you're familiar with Baron Fig by now, that we like to keep things as utterly simple as possible, and there's not a whole lot of flair to it. And I think when we released our notebooks, at first people were like, hey, these look simple. And then they started to use them, and then they said, these are amazing. So I think the same thing will happen with our bags is they're super, super simple. We think they're beautiful. I'm a huge fan of the fig wine color, and they're just made from high quality materials. The canvas, the hardware that you use to clean connect the bags, the straps is like this really beautiful cotton weave that I haven't seen on any other messenger bag. And overall, we just made sure to hit all the. The right notes carries a laptop. The tote bag, too, fits a laptop. We kind of designed the tote so that it would look small but have a big space. And that was actually a fun challenge as a design, as a designer, to say, hey, how can we really surprise you with how much stuff you can carry in this, but not make this, this giant, giant thing to carry around? And that was another feature that people got really excited about when they saw the tote, much like the backpack and how slim it was, was that there was a ton of space that people didn't expect. So overall, I think if I had to sum it up, I'd say they're beautiful, functional tools and get the job done.
Yeah. I think with the. The messenger, the biggest benefit of it is kind of, it straddles that line between formal and informal at once. Like, the bag I have is definitely a big black.
Oh, yeah.
Formal looking juggernaut.
Ugly son of a bitch. Yeah.
And it's just like, yeah, it probably looks right if you're going into a job at a bank or something, but if you want to take it out with tonight with your friends or you're kind of hanging out after work. Doesn't fit the occasion.
No way.
Yeah. And then conversely, there's a lot of bags that are kind of really informal messenger bags. So our goal was to come up with something that worked in both kind of the work setting or the after work setting. And it didn't make you feel out of place and really fit in.
Worked well.
The biggest question is, will I be able to pin an erasable lapel pin to this bag?
Yeah.
Oh, hell yeah. I think we got ears, dude. Yours showed up last week.
Yeah, they look great. Wow. It's a five color pin, I think, Joe. Yeah, five or six or six. We were counting the number of colors. Wow, there's fancy pins.
They actually, whoever is manufacturing this, it's. It's made. I think it's probably made in China. They did. They do not have a limit to the number of colors that you use.
What?
I was blown away. I was trying to simplify it as much as possible. And they were like, yeah, they're just using as many colors as you want. I think we can go up to 40. I was like, holy crap. So, yeah, so definitely, definitely put a lapel pin on the side of that. Sweet.
Yeah. So the answer to your question, yes, you can. You can certainly put a lapel, A erasable podcast lapel pin.
Put it on the straps.
You put on the straps too.
Oh, good call. Like, like Johnny's mom. Really?
Yes. Yeah, we were at the breakfast and I didn't have mine yet, and she was like, hey, look what I got. Like, what the hell? Like, barely. My mom is awesome. Yeah.
Do you guys have like a podcast policy? Are you only allowed to wear one erasable logo once? Like, can you do the lapel pin and the sweatshirt once or are you limited to one?
Well, I've got a chest tattoo, so I always have. You're laughing like I'm joking.
I'm thinking about doing a prison tier, this tiny logo. Prison tier.
Oh, my God, that's awesome.
Wow.
Next one. Anyhow, so where are these bags made? And a follow up question. What sort of communication and quality control can you do on bags? I imagine that these are a lot more complicated than paper and a cover or even just pencils.
Oh, good questions, good questions. So our bags are. I mean, we try not to get too specific because we've had a lot of issues with copycats and finding out our manufacturers and then making our stuff, believe it or not, has been like a major issue. So we make our goods in seven, seven or eight countries now, including the United States. We make bags and the bags will probably be a combination of Asia and America. Right. Depending on, you know, what route we take, how many we end up selling at the end of the process. So we kind of have everything ready to go and we're waiting to see, you know, what people think of the bags before we sign the contract with any one person. I guess.
Yeah. And certainly it's not finalized yet. And we've done a ton of prep work like Joey said. I mean, and how do we, how do we ensure quality? We go, we travel a lot to different suppliers, there's different places we deal with. I mean, to us it's extremely important to have face to face relationship. I don't know, I think a lot of people try to do things over email and that does work to a certain degree, but it's extremely beneficial for everyone to see who the other person is and just collaborating together, you can't, you can only do so much over the phone or over email. So it's really helpful to actually travel and, you know, put on a pair of shoes and go out there.
Yeah. I think one thing that if I can say for you guys, not only just like adding a bunch of new products, but I think that you guys have really learned and been able to figure out how to wrangle your supply chain, which is amazing. That's a problem that I would think would be the hardest problem of the whole bit. The whole thing would just be figuring out your supply chains and getting it from one place to another in a timely fashion and quality control. And you guys have gotten so good at it since your original launch.
Yeah, I think the whole team is very production conscious. You know, Jay kind of wrangles everything, and then Adam, you know, is in there with the finances, and me and Chandler with the design. And then, of course, Sam and Andy, you know, in the end when it comes in and everybody understands kind of everybody else's challenges. And the team is. Man, the team is friggin awesome.
Yeah. So speaking of which, you guys. You guys have been on fire lately with new products. Like, it's on fire.
On fire. Was this NBA Jam?
This bag is on fire. Did you. Do you have a product launch once every two weeks? Is like. Is that how your cadence is every
one to three weeks?
Yeah, it's amazing.
The average is two. All right, so correct.
Yeah. There is definitely a thing at the studio that I and Jay are much better at. The math. It's good things, like, I can't write very well.
I take letters and they take numbers. And
I think we're always talking about just how, like, there's always something to talk about on the show like, that you guys have launched. But I'm really interested to talk about two of those things as of late. The last two confidants, the limited edition ones. It's funny because the askew is really polarizing. And then the Metamorphosis, when that came out, seemed to be just kind of, like, universally beloved. I haven't heard one poor word about it, even from people who aren't a big fan of, like, that pink, peachy color.
So I gotta say something.
Yeah.
I gotta say this.
What's up?
We launched Metamorphosis, like, right around, like, I don't know, a couple of days when that article came out about Millennial Pink. Yeah.
What is this Millennial business that I keep hearing about? I don't understand.
Forget what it actually is. But we were apparently extremely on point with this color. Right. But what's. What you have to remember is that we physically have to design and produce these, and it takes months. So we, like, made that decision eight, eight, ten months ago to make this limited edition. Right. And I just got to say that I think at a. When we're an independent company. Right. I mean, I like to say we're independent artists. I feel, you know, I was talking to. I won't go into it. But I totally think we're independent artists. And I don't think that would happen at a company that had investors and had like, a lot of people to answer to where a pink, slight salmon pink notebook would come up. And. And I think it would be shot down by the majority of people who say that, you know, this isn't a generally accepted, you know, wide selling color. Do blue, do red? So major props, I think, to the whole team for like, supporting one another in encouraging that kind of stuff to happen.
Yeah, I think you really tapped into like. Like people who. People who are typically, like, have been critical of sort of like, you know, Baron. Baron Figs aesthetic and just sort of like the whole product philosophy. I think, I think that, like, even they have said that it's really amazing. And what's actually really interesting is I'm sure you guys have noticed this. I've. I've noticed two or three people within the Baron Fig fanatics group who said that they were not initially, like, interested at all in the askew, but have since started using it and are really in love with it. So I think, you know, I think that it just kind of grew on people.
That was a polarizing edition.
Yeah. I am, though, interested to know just kind of like between these two editions, like, what. Are there any conclusions that you have taken away from these two releases that you'd be willing to talk about?
We actually got hate mail, not a lot, but we definitely got some vitriolic email coming in about this is not a notebook, or this is, you know, what am I gonna do with this thing? And some of those very people still use them and emailed or tweeted back that, you know, I have to say this has been a really cool experience using this notebook, and I love it. Or I bought a second one because I want to use. You know, I don't want them to run out. So going through these ups and downs, I mean, the team. There was a point, I think, like day one or two even, where I had to like, kind of make sure everybody knew that it was okay if people don't like what we make. Do you remember that? Yeah, we were getting some hate.
I think I was away that week.
Oh, were you?
Yeah, it was like the one week I hadn't taken a vacation for two years. And then it was in January, the week of askew came out. I was away and I was. I needed the vacation. And I definitely saw this. I was watching social media enough and things enough to see what was going on. I was like, wow, okay, well, some people are going to love what we do. And it's interesting. This is Joey's observation, but so true. Like, sometimes people think it's too boring. Not boring, maybe too plain. Sometimes with the gray notebook. And then the askew was a little too much. So, I don't know, it swings back and forth.
So basically, you know, you asked me what I learned from all this, and it's that we do what excites us, regardless of what kind of hate mail may come our way. And the theory is, and this goes back to Adam's advice to me back when I had to give a presentation or something, and he said, if you have fun, the audience will have fun. And so, as designers, Chandler and I, and the whole team gets involved, we all try to make additions that we really, like, get giddy about, and then we hope that that is reflected back at the audience.
Yeah, I personally really love these confidant subscriptions, and I'm excited to, even if I don't, like, use them as quickly as they come out, I'm excited to see them and try them out because I've been a huge fan of both the Askew and the Metamorphosis for completely different reasons. Yeah.
Thank you. Thanks.
Yeah, so we're getting close to our time limit. So do you guys want to, I don't know, how do I say this without sounding like a jerk? Do you want to sell the Kickstarter as a conclusion? Like, why should I have ditched my Timbuktu bag for one of these?
I assume by the time people are listening to this, you'll have reached your goal.
So, yeah, just from our listeners, don't
say, please knock on all the wood.
Sorry.
Well, actually, what do you guys, you know, we sent you the preview link before we talked to you, so what was your initial thoughts on everything?
Well, I'm a big fan of military bags or, like, not the fake ones, but the real ones. Like, one of my favorite bags is a map case that my dad had during the Cold War.
Cool.
It's like, you know, canvas that literally took me 10 years to break in. So my initial thought was that these reminded me of some of the really cool, really simple, like, at the end of the military's use of canvas era bags in a good way. Plus they weren't green, which is a plus, that's for sure.
I, I, so I've had a chance to look at the, like, Kickstarter preview a couple times, and it's really great to me in that you guys have put forth Some fairly complicated concepts. Like you have these bags, three different bags in two different colors, each with all of these add ons and bundles and things. And you're laying it out very clear. And I think as somebody who writes a lot of simple messages for interfaces and for software, I think you guys are really good at finding your value propositions and sticking with them. So, like, for each of the bags, you have just an amazing set of features. I have to say that your. Your book bag. Just reading the product descriptions of the book bag, like the backpack really literally sold me on it. So I'm definitely pledging as soon as that goes live. So, yeah, I'm a. I'm a big fan of how you like, structure this Kickstarter. It's long, but it's clear. And I have to say, like, I'm. I see. I'm not a huge fan of the fig wine color. Except I think it's amazing in that Squire. It looks incredible, that limited edition Squire.
Oh, yeah. So I guess that's one thing we didn't talk about, which is pretty cool, is we do with our pen, the Squire. We came with two. Two special editions for the campaign that has a light bulb on it. Exclude the light bulb. Squire. So one color is charcoal and then the other is the fig wine, which we have not released before. Yeah, the Squire. So it's cool. Yeah. I'm excited to get a fig wine color.
Yeah. So I was.
They're beautiful.
I wasn't going to do an add on because I have so many other Baron fig products already to put in that in that backpack, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to get the Squire.
Yeah.
That's awesome. I feel you, dude. I want. I want this thing too. I can't.
Yeah.
Cool. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. I know that you have to run, Joey, so I appreciate you guys taking the time on the eve of a big event for you.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having us. It's fun as always and look forward to coming back sometime and.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Enjoy, enjoy. However things unfold in the next few days. Knock on wood. Hope it's good.
Yeah.
Before we leave, can you guys talk about where we can find you online, personally and professionally, if you want.
Oh, yeah, sure. Actually, we don't have. You know, Adam made a good point a few weeks ago. He's like, you know, entrepreneurs or whatever we call ourselves, like, we never have any damn followers. And I was like, what do you mean? He was like, well, man, if you had to choose between someone following Baron figure following you, what would you do? And I'm like, oh, yeah, Baron Fig. And he's like this. There you go.
Yeah, there you go. We think about different people that we know that have businesses and you know, what type their social media and all that. We realize it's like, yeah, that's the. That's the commonality. But yeah, go to BaronFig.com b a r O-N-F I g.com and you can find out about all of our stuff there. And we'll have a link to the Kickstarter campaign. It's probably the easiest way of doing it. If you want to follow me, my Twitter handle is Adam Cornfield. A D a M K O R N F I E L D. Right.
And tweet at me. Oecofone J O E Y C O F O N. Wow.
Using a radio voice right there. I like that.
Ladies and gentlemen, Twitter is.
If you follow Joey, you can see some video of him making pasta.
Yeah, I mean, there is some. Some discussion whether or not it came from Olive Garden or it was made here. I don't know.
Olive Garden is a. It's terrible.
Oh, it's filthy.
When you're there, you're family. Guys, come on.
It must not be a very nice family. Here, eat this. No, I'm leaving. Andy. Where can folks find you online?
I am@woodclinch.com or you can find me on Twitter at awealthly. Johnny, how about you?
I am@pencilrevolution.com on Twitter ensolution. And we are the Erasable podcast. You can find us at Erasable Us. This episode is episode 74. Will be at erasable us/74. Of course, you can go on to Erasable Us slash shop and buy one of those awesome pins. Or you know, like five awesome pins.
Heck yeah. And I told. I totally recommend them.
I endorse that.
I endorse those.
Yeah, I wore mine all day today and didn't fall off, which is good because the baby was trying to get it off. You can check out our Facebook page@facebook.com erasablepodcast and there's 247 all the time pencil talking@facebook.com groups erasable and our Facebook group. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram erasablepodcast. Thank you for tuning in for episode 74 and we'll talk to you for the big seven five.
The intro music for the Erasable podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music at www.thismountainband.
Com. I could just count the times this has happened before.