There is a company out of Turkey that has taken our little community (and our hearts) by storm over the last several years called Galen Leather Co. Started in 2015 by a family of entrepreneurs; Zeynep, Yusuf (her brother), and Yunus (her husband), and they’ve been continuing to deliver high quality goods since.
Sadly, just last year in 2019 Zeynep passed away from health complications she’d been facing which was/is such an astounding loss to her family, the community, and the brand she loved and created. To carry on her wishes and dream, her husband and brother have kept the brand going and each piece they send out is a tribute to what she helped to create.
If you haven’t already, please take some time to read through their story. Our community has more than just pens or stationery products… it has real people behind them.
Since the beginning of my pen loving journey, something I’ve always run into as a challenge is storage. Once you start acquiring more and more pens, knowing how and where to keep them begins to be a challenge. “Well, just don’t buy so many pens!” one might say… try telling that to a pen addict. : )
This problem has lead me down many paths, the first of which was creating my own line of wooden pen stands called Dudek Modern Goods back in 2013 since I couldn’t find what I wanted which still work for my “on the ready” pens. But for even more storage I have converted an IKEA cabinet with drawers into a big pen case, but took a ton of space in my office. I’ve bought smaller “chests” with drawers that hold 60-70 pens, but find opening all the drawers to find the one is somewhat cumbersome.
What is one to do?!
Yunus from Galen was kind enough to reach out to me to see about reviewing some of their products (there will be two reviews total), and one of the items I asked to try out was their leather 40 pen zipper case in crazy horse brown color. He agreed and sent one my way, so special thanks to him for sponsoring the review!
Why I was so intrigued by the zipper case was due to what I perceived as a much smaller footprint while still carrying a good amount of pens at one time. And, my mind kept thinking about having 3 or 4 of these all neatly set on a bookshelf keeping all of my pens tucked away without taking up a good amount of my desk or office.
To start, from a quality standpoint the Galen products I’ve purchased or used in the past have always been excellent. They use thicker, genuine leather and the fit/finish is clean. And, they are just beautiful pieces themselves. It is obvious that a lot of care goes into the creation of each piece.
The 40 pen case, as you can imagine, is a fairly large “book” looking case at about 3” thick by 9” tall (and 7.5” deep). Certainly not compact for toting just a few pens around, but for moving big collections or for longer term storage it is a great size.
Due to the sturdiness of the leather and the build quality, the case can stand on end (like a book) which makes tucking it on a shelf with your library would be an easy and feasible thing to do. And, makes pen storage almost invisible!
For the zipper they opted to use a higher quality metal YKK brand, and have incorporated their own leather zipper pull to match the case which is a nice touch. I actually could see that as an unnecessary addition since it adds labor that many people may not notice, but I appreciate that they do it.
They’ve designed the case to open and lay flat and inside there are four surfaces to store your pens on, each holding 10 pens each. 2 of those surfaces lie on either side of a middle divider that can move back and forth in the center like a page in a book. To ensure the pens don’t hit each other on the surfaces they’ve sewn in some soft, velvet lined flaps that go between.
The pens are held in place by brown elastic strips sewn into individual loops.
With the elastic loops, this is where I’ve run into the only challenge with the case…pen diameter. Within my collection I don’t tend to have a lot of what I’d consider really “stout” pens, but enjoy pens like the Ajoto, rOtring 600… what may be considered slimmer pens. I’ve found that in testing out several that the sweet spot for pen diameter within the case is from 1/2” to about 3/4”. Anything smaller doesn’t hold snugly within the elastic, but when the pen fits its SECURE.
Even still, this will help clean up a lot of the collection I have in drawers, but means I’ll still need to hang onto one or two of my other pen chests. I don’t see this as a fault necessarily in the case itself as making a case to accommodate all pens is tough.
Anything that I’d consider “fancy” like Montblancs, Sailors, Pilots… those will all fit in there nicely.
The crazy horse brown color has a bit of a “rust” or patina look to it, more so than just “brown”. As you use the product it picks up subtle nicks and scratches that add overall use to the product. Personally, I like this about certain materials like leather. As you use something it becomes more obvious how much you’ve “enjoyed” the product! Wabi-sabi.
There is one piece of the case that I don’t totally understand, and it is a half circle flap that sits on the “spine” while closed which the zipper goes into. This flap also has a piece of hook and loop material (Velcro) to keep it pressed up against the case while closed. My thoughts are that by extending the zipper out past the case itself, it allows it to lay flatter when opened since otherwise the end of the zipper would keep it stuck together. Either way, not too distracting, but I wonder how well the velcro piece will hold up over time.
I have to say, that I’m kind of in love with this case. The quality, the function (aside from not really working for slimmer pens), and the story. While I know that not every pen lover has 40+ pens in their collection, a lot do and having a place to keep them safe while not taking up a a lot of space is tricky. While there are other cases on the market perhaps similar, I’ve not had one that felt and functioned quite like this one, or was as nicely made.
The 40 pen cases from Galen Leather Co are $95 +shipping which, actually, is very good in comparison to some others on the market. Montblanc, Aston, Visconti… they all make cases too but generally start in the $90 range and don’t carry close to as many. Sure you can find cheaper cases on Amazon, but the quality isn’t as good and realistically a collector could be storing $5,000 or more in pens in this case…worth it to splurge a little.
And as I always mention, supporting a company like Galen is supporting a family.
Special thanks to Yunus for sending this case my way! If you’re in the need for something similar, definitely visit their site as their cases hold between just 3 pens all the way up to 40 like this one.
