The Folding Pen is Mightier than . . . The Other Kind

So I figured, why not let my premiere BohsEye post be about Barry Farber's Foldz Flat Pens?



A year ago this month I sent an (hastily and truly embarrassingly worded) email to Kevin Kelly of Cool Tools, gushing about my new favorite possession. No, no, it wasn't an onyx and linoleum-coated iPod or a GPS-enabled, calorie-countin, Intel Duo-Core implant on my medulla oblongata (though I imagine that could be pretty sweet); it was just the second-simplest invention next to the wheel, a mighty pen that folds up and stows at the size of a credit card.

I'd been searching for a "wallet pen" for about the last decade but all I ever found were these too-sleek, too-slippery little chrome doohickeys with $50 price tags that I would no doubt lose as soon as I wrote my first checking deposit slip.  I was looking for something pretty particular, a stylus that would:

• write decently
• hold well in my hand
• keep me prepared for any situation
• fold up small enough into my wallet that it wouldn't make my posture any worse than it already is
• make use of a simple design incorporating as few breakable parts as possible
• be either so cheap it wouldn't matter if I lost it or . . .
  
  • be so well-designed that I could simply never lose it

After a couple hours of Googling one night I stumbled onto this neon and glitter-infused school supply website where they were selling display case quantities of a FoldzFlat Pen series that is now apparently deceased (Oh yeah, collector's item!).  There was one with a fire pattern, one with a lightning bolt, one with a ninja dragon, and a purple one with this sort-of henna tattoo thing going on, each one shaped a bit like an airplane for some reason.  Not sure what demographic the designs were intended to appeal to - they definitely looked goofy on screen . . . but $20 and a week later I had 48 of the best little note-makers I've ever come across.  Over time, the kitschy designs have grown on me and friends actually enjoy getting these with a moleskine as a low-profile birthday present.  For a while I was considering begging Congruent Media to get a couple gross custom made with our logo on it as a business card-giving aid.  (Haven't given up on that yet.)

The one complaint I'd had however was that the great fold-and-snap design could have been formed in something more durable and grown-up like stainless steel just as easily as painted plastic.  Well, lo and behold, Berry Farber must have seen my complaint on CoolTools because he just released an update soon after my post at Cool Tools.

The new Stingray FoldzFlat Pen is a pretty nice improvement, just as thin-folding as the kiddy version and inks just as well.  But, woefully, it only snaps when you fold it shut - not when you whip it out to pen that epic grocery list.  Maybe that nugget of functionality was impossible to replicate in metal, I don't know but I'm crying every day - it's that close to perfection. 

Then again, with all the tasty back-links in this post, who knows, maybe Farber will put the design hat back on hit a home run.  Or . . . maybe I'll just have to work out my own patent. ;)

PS: You can still find a certain style of the plastic version on this "North American Gerry Anderson" Fan Site, FabGearUSA: Thunderbirds Foldz Flat® Pens