Episode 137 - Interview With Nick Mankey of Nick Mankey Designs

Published on Wed, 09 Jun 2021 22:41:15 -0700

Synopsis

Nick Mankey, the owner of Mankey Designs, joins Andrew and Everett to discuss the origins of his watch strap company, his design process, and the evolution of his signature "hook strap" design. Nick shares how he started in leatherworking as a hobby, experimenting with different projects before stumbling upon the idea for an elastic watch strap with a unique attachment system. He talks about the challenges of scaling production as demand grew, collaborating with companies like Fortis, and his plans for future innovations and materials.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 1420 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm so good. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm fine. Yeah, right. I mean, it's the beautiful sunset.
Andrew Yeah, we have a great view from the from the studio.
Everett Beautiful sunset. Enjoying or about to enjoy some Topo Chico seltzer. Yes. Thank you for that, by the way. Had a decent day at work. Made it to the driving range at lunch. What else could you need?
Andrew I just had a Big Mac, so that's the only way that you could maybe pop up your game.
Everett Yeah. No, I didn't have a Big Mac, but I really like a Big Mac right now.
Andrew we could maybe retrieve it for you.
Everett Let's not, let's not say we did. Okay. How are you?
Andrew Good. A little bit of a long day. Kids were just kind of in one of those weird, uh, nothing can go right for either of them moods. A little bit of a long day, but other than that, I got no complaints. I'm coming off having a, you know, a week off from work and going to buddy games for the weekend, which was very fun. Also very exhausting.
Everett Um, So we did have some questions about Buddy Games. What are Buddy Games?
Andrew So Buddy Games is a movie that I've talked about on the show. And that was just kind of where the idea of calling it Buddy Games came from. But what it is, is a annual guy's trip where we all go up and up to a friend's cabin. And when I say cabin, I mean it's a vacation house. Sure. They call it a cabin. They call all their family vacation homes cabins. Sure. I'd call it a chalet.
Everett Right. It's not like.
Andrew It's not rustic. OK. But nor is it like super luxury. It's a it's a family vacation home that is maintained by the family for the six weeks a year that they're actually there.
Everett It's a house on a piece of property. Yes. Out in the middle of nowhere.
Andrew Not in the middle of nowhere because Anderson Island's a kind of a bit of a commuter island. It's an island. Like about half of the population's full time residence and the other half is, you know, seasonal like vacation. They own the property and they either rent it out or, you know, take your pick. Um, so we go up there and have an agenda for the weekend. So we got up there Thursday night and just kind of like settled in and then went into Friday where we played a round of golf, wherein the scoring was both your, how your team played. So we played four man best ball. Um, and then the scoring, another component of the scoring was, uh, how many beers each member of your team drank.
Everett That sounds perfectly dangerous and irresponsible.
Andrew Yeah. Which is what you should be doing with a bunch of dudes in their thirties who are away from their children for the weekend. Yes. Uh, so we concluded golf, uh, had pool in the afternoon, uh, poker, and then just kind of other games, like just, just other, like take your pick of guys night. We packed basically, you know, six guys nights into two days and then we'll see each other again in months because we all have young children.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right. But you made good, you made good of it and it was fun. Made good of it. When I saw you on Sunday evening, you looked very tired.
Andrew Very tired. Probably hungover still, perhaps a little intoxicated. I don't know. I think I drank more on the weekend than I probably have in the previous like two months.
Everett It was just, it wasn't good. You went hard.
Andrew I went, I went big.
Everett You went hard in the paint.
Andrew I, yeah, I had negative strokes from my golf game.
Everett Because of the beers. Yeah. Yeah. That's good.
Andrew Yeah. That's good. So that was buddy games, but we, enough about us. Enough about us. Enough about you. Mostly me. Yeah. Nobody cares about me.
Everett Nobody even asked you about buddy games. No, I did. I did ask you about that.
Andrew More important than all of that. We have, for those of you who are not reading someone on with us today, we have Nick Mankey of Nick Mankey designs. Oh, here he is.
Everett Hello. Oh, Nick. Nick. Hello. Well, hello. Nick, is that awkward to have to listen to us intro while you just sit there?
Nick Mankey No, it's great. It's great. It's like, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's like listening to your podcast regularly, but expecting that I can actually chime in and, and yell at you guys for saying something.
Everett Yeah. You did have a lot of power there. I hadn't even muted you.
Nick Mankey Yeah.
Everett That's which is unusual. We usually mute people. Yeah, that's right.
Nick Mankey No. Well, I appreciate that. The trust there.
Everett We trust you 100%. So if you don't know who Nick Mankey is, Nick is the owner of Mankey Designs, the eponymous watch strap company. Maybe that's not what that word means, but it's an umbrella term for sure. Sure. We're going to use it that way in any event. Mankey pajama straps, as you at home know, are Uh, that's not what they're called, but that's what we call them are Andrew and eyes and my, uh, I think favorite pass through strap. At least these days, they've been the ones most regularly on my wrist. Uh, will, uh, of the editor in chief watch clicker, also a huge fan. Daddy is also a huge fan. Uh, so, uh, uh, uh, a group of products that are really special to us. And I know Nick, you and I have been talking for. well over a year just chatting. I will say our adoration for your products has nothing to do with any sort of, you've never, I don't believe, cut me a deal on a strap or even shipped a strap faster than your regular customers. I don't believe so. No special treatment here. We just genuinely adore and love these straps. I do believe I have a strap that has not seen the light of day that I special requested. So that is special. Uh, that is special treatment. So, but that's not why you're here. You're here because we love your straps and want to hear more about them.
Nick Mankey Yeah, no, that is, that is definitely a, a one of one for now. Uh, sample if you will. And I've seen you post about it, so it's no secret or anything, but yeah, the, uh, the venerable, infamous space bond, if you will.
Everett Yeah, that's right. The NASA bond.
Nick Mankey Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You know, United States Space Force bond, you know, whatever. Work in progress on the name, but yeah.
Everett And so why don't you give us just some background, Nick? Tell us who you are. I mean, we know a little bit, but not much, not much beyond what's on your about me or about us page, because. Right, right. As far as I can tell. You don't, you don't do a lot of interviews and I don't believe you've ever been on a podcast before.
Nick Mankey That is a hundred percent accurate. This is basically my, my debut of the, the auditory world. Um, interview all, all the above. Um, definitely, definitely exciting. Um, and yeah, there isn't a whole lot about me by design, of course. Sorry, what was that?
Everett I say you, you hear it first. Uh, isn't that what they used to say on MTV?
Andrew Oh, right, right.
Everett Okay.
Andrew Carry on. It's okay to just raise your eyebrows at him.
Nick Mankey No, no, that's all right.
Everett So you can ignore me.
Nick Mankey Yeah, by design. No, it's okay. Not, not a whole lot in my bio for sure. But, um, yeah, I mean, uh, so as far as, as far as background goes, um, you know, it depends on how far back you want to go, how much time you have for that. But, um, You know, actually the inception for the, I'll say, quote, the brand, Nick Mankey Designs, was actually like a real intro project that most design students will go through in college. This instance, it was graphic design, you know, branding, going through a conceptual, like, oh, you know, take your name, make a brand out of it, whatever you're going to do. Yeah, interestingly enough, it was just me coming up with a basic assignment and the assignment was basically make a logo, you know, make the sort of schematics for it, lay it out, you know, how you would draft it for a professional use. And anyway, college was actually the birth of the entity itself and really didn't use it or care much for it. I submitted it, you know, whatever grade, you know, just
Everett Kind of out with it. What'd you get? What'd you get?
Nick Mankey Oh, I probably an A, you know, it was also an online course, like full disclosure, this is not like, you know, some Ivy league institution we're talking about. It was literally just like, you know, I worked full time, got, got my degree in the evening and everything like that. So, um, you know, years go by, I'm in the professional world, uh, photography design, graphic design, more specifically. And at some point, school went away and my evening was left with this void. And instead of doing something like studying or homework, it was, I need to fill that with something. And being constructive is definitely a lot of how I prefer to spend my time. So it was San Jose. It's to set the picture. San Jose, tiny apartment, roommate, wanting to be constructive, can't do carpentry, way too loud, way too messy. You know, not going to start welding on anything. So it's like, you know, what is there? Like, I'm not going to sit at a sewing machine. Like, yeah, right. Ironic. So leather craft kind of kind of appears. It's manly. It's practical. It's manly.
Andrew It smells good.
Nick Mankey It smells good. useful, like the uses never end. So beyond that, it was, it was something that could be done entirely by hand. Like no, the, the, your price to entry is probably among the lowest for any hobby. You know, you buy a needle, you buy thread, scrap of leather.
Everett 60 bucks at Tandy and you're, and you are kitted out.
Nick Mankey Absolutely. Um, so, and yeah, and, and I think The big part of that was the amount of information that is available to someone new to something today, especially on YouTube and people that are willing to show and share their skills and that sort of thing.
Everett We've talked about this before on the show. YouTube, and I'm not sure Andrew's agreed with me wholeheartedly, but I think I've said YouTube is the single greatest asset our modern society to the society we're in right now. Everything I know is from YouTube. Yeah.
Nick Mankey Yeah. As far as like propagation of knowledge and skill, it's visual, it's audible. I mean, the ability to model after seeing somebody do something is huge. So that was just really helpful for me. I don't know. You know, if I would have picked up leather and done much with it, if I had to pick up a book to be like, Oh, okay, let's make a wallet today. Or, you know, let's make a coin bag. It's like, I don't know if that would have gone anywhere, but anyway, it was, it's just interesting that you could kind of pick up something and get an accelerated introduction to it. So, you know, I just kind of took that up. And for years, I just kind of worked on little ideas I had, mostly stemming from looking at really overpriced stuff that you'd find, you know, walking through retail stores and things. And you're like, they're charging how much for this little flappy slip of, I don't know, they call it, they call it a card holder or a wallet. It's like, no, this is crazy. This is like several hundred dollars. What do you, what are you really getting? And you come to find out, you know, bonded leather is pretty much bottom of the barrel. Just, you know, fun fact. It is, it is essentially just, It's the equivalent of a McChicken nugget. Like particle board, I will say, would be the alternative. McChicken nuggets, hot dogs. Yeah, same thing. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's just a mishmash of garbage nonsense and it falls apart.
Everett Yeah, that's right.
Nick Mankey Yeah. I digress. But so.
Everett So what was your very first project?
Nick Mankey Oh, geez. I will tell you, it was a camera glide strap. So, so it was kind of this, this strange place of inspiration. It was, it was actually my sister's wedding and there was a photographer there and really cool camera gear. He had this brown leather, you know, almost looks like a, like a shoulder holster for a gun kind of thing. Yeah. And if you've never seen a glide strap, it's basically just like wearing two belts over your shoulder. And then your cameras are strapped to these leashes, matching leather leashes. And at any point you can just kind of pick one up and drop the other one. And it just kind of like a really free form kind of cowboy style, you know.
Everett They ride on your hip and they're always secure your body.
Nick Mankey Yeah, they're just kind of flapping around, smacking into each other. Yeah. But super useful. I was like, how hard can that be? And you go online, you're like, oh, I want to, I'm just going to buy one because who's going to make this? And it's like several hundred dollars, but.
Andrew Yeah.
Nick Mankey The idea was there and I was like, that's super cool. But to me, it looks like it just looks like two ordinary, like waist belts. Like maybe you could just buy something really cheap, put them together and make it happen. And so at first I did that, you know, I bought like the really cheap, you know, genuine leather stuff and just trimmed it up. Just, just proof of concept. Like, is this going to work? And it did. So. I ended up kind of going all out on, on the hand done sort of version of that idea. And it was at the time, you know, easier for me to buy the strips of leather kind of pre-cut. There's, there's a bit of a process if you're taking like a belly of leather and you're trimming off a big perfectly straight piece. So it's hard.
Everett Yeah, that's a, that's a hard thing to do. We, we both have some, some experience doing leatherworks.
Nick Mankey Oh, well that's super helpful. I just, yeah, that's great. I did not know that. So then I'll try not to say everyone at home does. Okay. Yeah. So, um, then yeah, it'll be, you can totally imagine, um, kind of the introductory steps that I'm taking for, for something like this. Then, you know, I'm buying, I'm buying these strips. Um, burnishing them down and then I'm stitching them together and making the leashes with custom hardware from, you know, it would have been like strap works or something where you can, you can just buy exactly what you want, buckle guy, um, stitching them in place and made it happen. And from there it was like, cool. I made this thing. It works perfectly. Like that was amazing. It took me all weekend. I spilled dye all over my desk, ruined it pretty much. You know, just like those classic steps, and it was a total mess. Made so many mistakes. I look at the project now, and it's just awful, but it was great. It worked, and it's beautiful. Still works like a charm. That would have been my first kind of jumping off project for sure.
Andrew Wouldn't it have been cheaper in the way of man hours to just buy it? Yes. But you didn't, and that's the magic.
Everett As you, as you sit here today in a position where your time is extremely valuable, you start to, you start to analyze those things.
Nick Mankey Right. So let's, let's do a jump cut to today. And it is, it is amazing how much time I used to waste on, on like ideas like that, but they, they built up over time and the skills improved and then you get this and you get there and kind of, you know, the rest is history sort of thing. $10,000. Yeah.
Everett But let's talk a little bit about it. How did this work? You make a camera strap and you love it. And it's like, fuck, man, I did a thing. How does that turn into? Well, I have this entity. I have this dope A plus logo. How does that you know, what's your next step? Where's your head at? What's your thought process?
Nick Mankey Oh, yeah. So from that point, It was straight to Imgur, straight to Reddit with this cool thing. I'm going to share it, put it on, you know, our leather craft, whatever. And it's like, Oh, cool. You know, just moderate comments, this and that. But I was in, I was like, this was so much fun. This was so rewarding and it's useful. Like among other things, it's useful. It's beautiful. Love it. So from there, it was kind of like this little, little, you know, motivation boost. to have posted something and get positive feedback on a, on a first project, you know? So from there, um, I'd actually kind of have to look back and, and see what, what the next sort of followup in sequence was. But, um, the, the, the, I will say the main goal with every step I was taking was to And this is a point of pride for sure, was to push as hard as I could for something that was original, like something that I had not seen done in my mind properly and to execute that to the best that I can. And the main point of pride there was never in any of my sort of rise to making things followed a template. at all, you know, it was straight up and I have, you know, my grail diary of, of sketches that are just amazing to look back on, but it was, you know, pen to paper solving problems by way of creating items for myself. You know, it was, it was, I don't like what's out there. I'm making it, I'm doing it my way. And that has really never led me wrong. I will say.
Everett Now, your background is in graphic design architecture. You don't necessarily, as far as I know, have an industrial design background. Is that correct? That is correct. Well, let's say you don't have an education in industrial design, particularly.
Nick Mankey Within my scholastic adventures, I have not undergone any formal industrial design. That is correct. But I do come from a terrific father who was an industrial designer and a excellent mother that was a teacher. So those, those things put together meant I could, I was able to pick it up with relative ease, I will say.
Andrew And there's an analog there, right? A lot of those skills, there's a lot of overlap there. So how do we go from leather goods? And if, and if anybody looks at your website, the, the watch strap, right? The, the pajama strap is really the, the, um, the star. But if you go into the shop and you look a little bit further, we've got, it looks like you are a leather worker who found this passion to some degree, at least in watches. And I'm wondering when that happened and how, and how you're what you're, you became a leather worker turned watch strap maker.
Nick Mankey Oh, very good. That's a, that's a great question.
Everett And yeah, you know, we, we really, we really work hard on these. Andrew was up last night. He was messaging me about that question. I was like, I think that's going to be a good one.
Andrew I was just FaceTiming him while he slept. Like he wasn't answering as dark. I'm just talking into the darkness. Kim hates it, but you know, that's my process.
Nick Mankey Is he falling asleep on the other side of the phone at night and everything? That's right. Yeah.
Everett He just, he coos me to sleep and then he's there when I wake up. It's really wonderful. That's beautiful.
Andrew Sing you a song. Sometimes I'm actually there since we're neighbors now. I'm just like, Oh, nice.
Nick Mankey Yeah. By the way, congratulations on evolving from the Batman voice.
Andrew Oh, thank you. Yeah, this is the best I've sounded in two months.
Nick Mankey Sounds good. Although I do kind of miss it because it was a nice edge, you know. It was distinctive, yeah. But congratulations on dodging that.
Andrew Yeah, getting there.
Nick Mankey I appreciate it, thank you. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, watches have always been there for me. Like super important to point that out, you know, as far as backgrounds go, you know, I have my hobbies and interests, which is like a never ending list, but watches has always been a baseline for ever, as long as I can remember. Um, and those things came together very quickly, leather and watches. So in the way of watch straps, of course, not a leather watch, that would be interesting, but, um, yeah. So. You know, yeah, you mentioned going through my site and there are probably, you know, at least half a dozen, you know, different designs that I've kind of concocted for, for watch straps and things like that. And the, the real first hit I ever had in terms of like, I made a thing, here it is. And people are like, let me buy that. Like I want to buy this thing. It was actually, um, It's called the Redux Ruler Strap.
Everett Oh, yeah. We're going to both look this up, but I was just looking at this.
Nick Mankey Yeah, it is listed under the showcase area of my website. And I should still have them in stock. And by stock, I mean available for me to build whenever I get to it.
Everett That's how stock works.
Nick Mankey Sitting on inventory is expensive. You don't want to do that. No, and yeah, that's definitely part of the model these days. But that, when I made that, it was really just like, oh, you know, I find myself at Home Depot, I really like to measure this thing, so I just put a ruler on what I'm always wearing, a watch, basically. And, you know, the main criticism would be, oh, it stretches, it's useless. Not totally true, but valid point. Yeah, that's a valid point. It's, you know, it's kind of a novelty thing anyway, but it looks super cool and it got people's attention and, you know, from there it was, I think, got in contact with Massdrop, which is, you know, formerly known Massdrop, now Drop. Sure. I think I was able to work with them and put together a campaign and that did really well. Word got out a little bit more about what I was trying to do. Still very much like a part-time effort. Not at all in demand of the full-time attention at all. Still in the apartment, San Jose, doing all this.
Everett You're still a single man at this point?
Nick Mankey Oh yeah, single man, roommate.
Andrew Is the workshop in your bedroom or is it in the living room? Like was your roommate willing to cede part of the living room or was it all like imagining what was once a desk to study at is now a leather working table?
Nick Mankey It would be so great to hear his response to that. Cause it was literally just like, Hey, I'm putting, I'm putting this stuff here. Like I have workbench in the living room, like next to the couch, you know? And when I'm working on a big order, like the 12 foot like banquet table comes out. And I'm just like, straps, leather, everywhere. Laser cutter, the size of like a, a corporate fax machine in my bedroom. Exhaust going out like a self-made, you know, exhaust system. Like, like industrial, we're talking like, like, like 60 watt CO2 laser cutting out all of these things. If you've never laser cut leather, you should know it smells like like burning hair, flesh, all these wonderful things cooking in the apartment. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And, and I was like, I don't, you know, I feel bad for the guy that lives above us, but hey, exhaust gotta go somewhere. And, uh, anyway, so, I mean, I, I, I absolutely kind of took over that apartment just by way of like, Hey, I'm doing this thing. He wasn't really out there that much. So I just kind of like, Hey, you know, we split the thing. I'm just gonna make it useful. So yeah, that was it. It was like this, you know, craftsman four by two, you know, workbench that I would just set up at and, and go to town on all these little things.
Everett So you make the Redux, you make the Redux ruler strap. Uh, you put it on Imgur, you put it on Reddit, who knows? Uh, people get pumped about it. Are you, actively selling things through e-commerce at this point? Or is it just purely like, email me at nickmankey at gmail.com or whatever?
Nick Mankey Yeah, no, I was already of the thought that it's like, this would be something I'd really like to kind of put together in a way that became like a nice, succinct sort of side job to what I was doing full time. So I went straight to Etsy, essentially. opened up there and just kind of threw it up real quick, because you can, you probably understand, you know, how interest can go, especially for something like that. That's rather fleeting, you know, so hastily put together an Etsy shop and, you know, uploaded this thing with a few items and a price and just kind of let people buy it however fast that I could. And, um, yeah, that went that, that was basically how that started my website basically didn't
Everett Sorry, sorry, we'll come we want to come back to the website But I want to I want to flesh out the story a little bit So you've sold at this point you've been making things and and I assume you've sold things here or there But you make this item it's instantly Obvious to you that people are gonna be interested in this you set up an Etsy shop And then you get in touch with master up how much how many pieces does master up want from you?
Nick Mankey It's entirely demand based. Right. So when it came to those campaigns, it was, hey, we're going to put this thing up, people buy it, and then I get the purchase order to make an exact inventory.
Everett So that's what I want. That's what I want to know. What's your, what's your purchase order quantity?
Nick Mankey Oh, back then with Massdrop?
Everett Yes.
Nick Mankey Oh, it was, it was several hundred.
Everett And at that point, how many pieces total had you sold?
Nick Mankey And we don't expect you to know exactly, but... You're saying leading up to Massdrop? Yes. Maybe, you know, maybe 100 or so.
Everett Okay.
Nick Mankey Yeah.
Everett So what did you do?
Nick Mankey When those things were selling or when the Massdrop... So you get this purchase order.
Everett I now need to deliver 200 pieces. What do you do? Oh, yeah. I mean, you panic a little bit.
Nick Mankey First, I was like, this is great because it's like this amount of money I'm about to make is like more than I make in a month or something. I was like, oh, this is great. I'm just going to make it happen. And then you kind of let it settle in. You're like, OK, so I've got to manufacture like these 300 things out of my apartment, you know, and I was like, OK, let's do some math. And from there, it's kind of a, a, a hit the ground running sort of lesson in efficiency and manufacturing process. So it's okay. I'm going to get my leather arranged in such a way that I can spit it through the laser cutter as fast as I can. And you know, figured, figured that step out and then there's like treatment steps and then there's packaging steps and then there's you know, etc. So, that was a very quick education in if I'm going to get faster, it needs to be done in a much more efficient way. You're going to have to move. Going to have to move? Yeah, sure. Moving is definitely one avenue, one strategy there. However, we're talking, you know, San Jose prices and Even even if I did a mass drop twice a month, you know Yeah, I'm not going anywhere.
Everett So yeah, no, you're gonna have to physically get moving. Oh, yeah Okay, three cases of Red Bull sure see what we can bang out. Sure. Sure. Sure.
Nick Mankey Sorry And that's when you that's when you had your brief stint with cocaine Would have would have certainly You know done something for the operation, I'm sure But but luckily I had some good friends and on the weekends, you know, I was able to pull them around and be like, hey, here are some very basic things. It's just really tedious. I need your help. And they were great. You know, we'd put on, you know, whatever, you know, some movie in the background. And we just kind of go to town. Like I said, like this big sort of banquet table, just kind of putting straps together. And we just made it happen. And I think I think I did. two or three campaigns with Massdrop. And, you know, I don't, I don't know if that's, you know, anything to really write home about, so to speak, but at the time, you know, it was, it was, it was really big for me because, you know, this was still a hobby, you know, and it's just like, hey, people want it and I'm going to try my best to kind of give it to them without, without getting too complicated. And, you know, it was, it was work full time, come home and I'd have like three or four orders to do in the evening. That would be my hobby, you know? And so when there's orders, it's, I'm manufacturing stuff and I'm shipping it out at work the next day. And when there's no orders to make, I am, I'm designing and coming up with something new. And that, that was rinse and repeat for like literally, I want to say the timeline there. Um, Cause I started leather work in like 2014 and I didn't, I didn't even bother with, with getting, you know, putting more time into it. Um, you know, it took me like five years or so of, of that rinse, repeat work, design something, make it, you know, every night without fail for about five years before, before it really started to get anywhere in terms of needing more attention than I was giving it.
Andrew Did you get married in that time period?
Nick Mankey I did in 2018, March 2018. And I, I think I just funny detail. I think, I think your anniversary is like two days after ours, right?
Andrew Andrews is.
Nick Mankey Yeah.
Andrew Okay. Yeah. I got married on the 20th.
Nick Mankey Yeah.
Andrew 18th year. Okay.
Nick Mankey Yeah. I just, I just happen to remember that, but, um, that's some stalker shit. I never remember talking about that, but it's cool. I'm flattered. Dude, trust me. I don't know. Why? But obviously if it's like, oh, hey, our anniversary is like close to this person, regardless of who it is. Like, hey, that's something memorable. Hey, no, for sure.
Andrew I have some friends who they got married the same weekend as us. So I know that their anniversary is plus or minus a day. I just don't remember which, which one, which one.
Nick Mankey Yeah. So, you know, if, if you want to keep talking about timeline, as far as, you know, where marriage kicks into that whole thing, um, Let's see, as of March 2018, when I was married, I believe it was May, like the two months after that, that I was laid off from that full-time job. But at this time, I'd gotten four years or so of this crafting sort of innovation, sort of, you know, what? Endeavor, I mean. Endeavor, perfect, yes. So it was this jump off point. I'm like the classic like fork in the road, like, okay, I am now like free to give this a shot. See if it can work. And so it was like May, 2018 or whatever. I was like, okay, let's do it. So I then, I then dive into this mindset of it's like, okay, if I'm going to make this work at the time, you know, it was, it was, you know, maybe like a steady 10 orders a day or something, which was cool. Um, but it's like, if I'm gonna make this work, that needs to get better. You know, what I have now is not really working. It's not really that much of an in demand thing. And that whole time, um, leading up to it was all leather. It was, it was this, this endeavor of, of leather, if you will. And, um, I was like, I, I need to branch out a little bit here. I need, I need something that, that pushes a little further. And I would say the next, the next big moment, um, in the product line would be the Sumo wallet, which was the combination of leather, the marriage of leather with elastic. And it was a design that I, that I put together, put together and iterated a few times until I was happy. And I took it to Kickstarter just to kind of do that thing, you know, get that badge of like, I did it. Let's get that experience. Yeah. Don't think I would do it again, but Hey, I did it and whatever. So, so put it out there, people dig it. And you know, I, I don't even think it was like that much of a success. Like I met the funding goal and that was about it. And it's, it's, if you've, if you've never done it, I will say just Side tangent, man, it is far more work and effort to get a good listing going, to get your whole campaign in just spick and span shape, and to reach out to the right people to get the message out. Like it's really difficult. So anyway.
Everett But the Sumo Wallet winds up doing pretty well on Kickstarter, right?
Nick Mankey It ends up doing just fine. And it was kind of after that that it became, well, quick backpedal. The point of the Kickstarter was actually to gain enough funds for me to purchase, again with the sort of lesson in efficiency, a industrial leather sewing machine. So it was basically like, okay, here's this goal. I need to purchase this machine. It works out. I purchased the machine. I make the wallets with the machine. So Kind of a, you know, just how that ended up working out. But made the wallets, offered all sorts of cool colors, as I normally would. And once word kind of got out about those, I was able to publish that listing as like a full-fledged product on the actual NickMeggieDesigns website. where they can be built and purchased as most are used to today, but it was that introduction. The point here is that the introduction of that medium of elastic. Same polyester twill weave that you'd find today on the, quote, pajama straps there.
Everett And to be fair, these are called the hook straps. We call them pajama straps because they feel like pajamas.
Andrew They're more comfortable than my sweatpants. That's right.
Everett Yeah. Your signature product at this point is the hook strap.
Nick Mankey Right. And and it was it was that that ringing in of a new material to something that I knew I knew a lot about. I knew the properties of leather and everything. Elastic was this this game changing material. And it worked really well with waltz. You could max it out. You could stretch it or wear it as thin as possible. You know, retention. So from there, it was It was just kind of this, this material I kind of had laying around a little bit and, uh, kind of forgetting the exact process that led up to the next thing. But it was kind of like before getting too sidetracked there, there was this sort of, yeah, there's, there's a lot and I'm trying to compress it into words. Um, Maybe you guys have seen it, but I once offered what's called the cap strap, which is a bottle opening hook strap, essentially. That was the first iteration of the hook strap, if you could believe it. And it was like, that was my first idea. It was not to make a hook-based elastic watch strap, but something that opens bottles. Like, don't ask me why, but... And bottles need opened.
Everett And also carries a watch head.
Nick Mankey Right. Bottles need to be opened and you need to wear your watch. Like, why can't they be combined?
Andrew And it's way less yucky than the bottom of someone's reef sandal.
Nick Mankey Tell me about it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so you know, it just, so that, that goal watch strap that opens bottles, it just kind of laid out sort of a, a, a template that I, that I'm trying to, Well, a challenge that I'm trying to solve. And that is, that just kind of led to the shape that would later become the hook strap. But it was, you know, how do you attach a, a bottle opener? What, what's a bottle opening piece of hardware look like, you know? So naturally just kind of has this, this sort of appendage on it and a big tooth in the middle. And you go from there. Um, you know, G hook is nothing, uh, groundbreaking. Those have been around on backpacks for Right. As far as I know. Yeah. So it was, it was really more of like a, Hey, there's this shape out there. I'm going to adapt it and throw a little tooth in the middle. See where that goes. So, you know, I reach out to a manufacturer and minimum order quantities, like 200. So I have it made, I bring it back and I've got this sort of sample elastic to go with it in, in a much thinner variety than my Sumo wallets, you know? So. You know, I'm messing around with these two items that I'm just like, let's see if we can just make it happen. And I think the way that this worked out, and it's a little bit fuzzy, but it was kind of like I was in bed, kind of just about to go to sleep. And my wife had a watch. She wears watches too, which is very helpful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To the, well, not the mutual wallet so much, but the ability to use it in that way.
Andrew Yeah. To somebody who's making watch straps, no, that's helpful.
Nick Mankey Yeah. Right. And she loves them too. I mean, full disclosure. But, you know, she was wearing a watch and just something about the way she was taking it off and something about the way that the strap draped over the spring bars and out. I was like, what's stopping a watch from having a piece of material that's not just, you know, looped around it, you know, and fixed and, you know, why, why can't a piece of material go inside the spring bars and back out? Just, just, just this sort of vague, like moment that I was just like, there's something interesting about, about this arrangement on a watch. I haven't seen. So the next day I just kind of go out to the garage and I mess with that idea. So I've got that cap strap. I've got that elastic and I've got like some blue electrician's tape to just kind of put in a sort of ad hoc sort of hold this in place, stitch sort of thing. Cause I didn't know anything about stitching, um, fabric. I knew leather, but that's a whole other mess that I went through in the beginning. But it was just this, this hodgepodge sort of mess of elastic metal and tape. Um, But it eventually led to, um, the, the birth of the cap strap, which used entirely different hardware and was awful to try and figure out it was, it was, it was someone's puzzle really once they received it. Cause it used, I forget the, the industry term for it, but it's, it's basically like a double loop
Everett Or a loop with a bar in the middle.
Nick Mankey Yeah, like just an adjustment strap.
Everett Yeah.
Nick Mankey And just the way that I had it laid out, it was a disaster. And regardless, I made the thing. And I'd still used, like for instance, I talked about my stitching. I used my giant leather sewing machine on elastic because I didn't know any better. So this giant thread where like, you know, like an eighth inch thick on elastic, just destroyed it. But I made it and it held it. I was like, okay, cool. Let's put it out there. So I go to my, my usual channels, Imgur, Reddit, our watches. Like I made this thing. I made, I made a watch strap that opens bottles. Check it out. You know, just kind of like a fun DIY thing. And they're like, wait, you have an, a minimum order quantity of 200. I'm like, yes, dude. He's like, well, if you're not going to use them, you know, just, You want to make one for me. And that's, that's kind of another one of those little moments that you're like, okay, there's a little interest here. You know, let's put a little listing together and then they can buy it. And so I did and people received them and you know, the, the initial feedback was super cool. It works really tricky and confusing to put on. And I was still issuing like, you know, Photographed multi-step sort of steps or you know the procedure to install it It was just a nightmare though so at that point it was kind of out there kind of interesting kind of fun, you know, just kind of just kind of burning my little inventory of materials and Then someone in the comments Was like why don't you make a miniature version? I'd buy that I'm like, okay I guess I, I guess I will. So that, that's kind of where, that's kind of where it pivoted, uh, transformed into the, what you would refer to as the hook strap today.
Everett And so once you, so I assume you do the same thing with hook strap hardware. You, uh, you, you reach out to your manufacturer, they say, here's your minimum order quantity. You get a bunch of these things in. At some point, the attachment system evolves a little bit. Did you, does that all happen at the same time?
Nick Mankey It definitely did. And it was, it was basically, again, looking at the materials that I had before me and saying, this doesn't work. Like I've got to get rid of this piece. But somewhere along the way, I was looking at that same like double-sided D ring thing. And I just changed the configuration ever so slightly with how the strap was running through it. And I realized I only needed half of this. Like I only needed the single loop. And I was like, okay, well, what do I have? Like, and at this point, you know, I had made a bunch of different leather watch straps. So I had a lot of spare, like Tang and buckles and loops and things like that fit like designed for watches, stainless steel, all that. So I use a single loop in place of it. And I kind of reorient the system. And basically it was just kind of a trial by fire, like, okay, let's try this based on what I was doing with the cap strap and figured it out. And at that point it was like, okay, that was really confusing. And I'm, I'm like sitting there trying to repeat what I just did to assemble the strap myself. I'm like, uh, that's way too much. Like there's gotta be a better way to assemble this thing. And eventually it broke down into the process you've seen now, which is. You just lay the strap flat over the top. You can pull the loop behind the watch and then insert that through the slider because at first I was basically doing that for you and that just made it more confusing once you got it. You're like, what is this loop? What is that loop?
Everett Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I will say it's still not maybe the most intuitive system.
Nick Mankey I'm not unfamiliar with your critique.
Everett Yeah, well, and that is a critique, and I think it's an honest one just based on my own experience. With that said, I've never had, you know, the nice thing is in this age of YouTube and websites, it's a click away for me to see a visual guide on how to do this thing. Which you very kindly provide.
Andrew Right. Included in the packaging.
Everett That's right, yeah. At some point, here's my suspicion, and this is probably the meat of our conversation here. At some point, which is not to say you haven't given us meat, at some point, I suspect this thing blows up, right? Because as it sits today, eight to ten weeks for delivery of a Mankey strap, you are not able to meet demand, I don't think, practically speaking right now. So where do you go from, okay, I have this idea, I have time to post it on Imgur because I'm maybe not doing anything else today. Where do you go from that to, oh my fucking God, what am I going to do?
Nick Mankey Yeah, you'll see a giant gap in my posting history. It pretty much went, went away as soon as the hook strap went live, which by the way was, was handled through the Apollo series. Like the, the, the hook strap itself didn't, didn't release until I had the, if you're familiar with what I'm talking about, the, the first sort of limited edition, whatever that was, That was which I own one of these. Oh, beautiful. That was that was the first hook strap that I actually ever made. And it was it was built just so I could wear it like a total nerd to was the first man. Is that the. Oh, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. It was it was that it was it was that month or whatever that came out that I was working on it. And it came to a point where you know, I just had the materials and I'm like, I'm making a lunar gray with a red and blue for NASA. And I built it and wore it to the theater, got a great picture and all that. But, um, so it was, it was sort of, I have this new thing and I could do some really cool stuff with it. And then I launched that limited edition series for it, which caught, which is kind of the nuke drop, if you will. for gaining a lot of new eyes, a lot of new interest for this quirky new sort of, if you system, if you'll, if you will, um, of a watch strap, you know, there's nothing really typical about it. There's kind of this apprehension, like, eh, you know, it's kinda, it's kinda, kinda weird. I don't know if I trust it. It's not a NATO. It doesn't pass under the watch. I don't, it's going to pop off, you know, this and that. Um, but anyway, the, the limited edition series catches a lot of eyes, including that of Fortis.
Everett And that's a good that's a good eye to catch.
Andrew That is a that is a beautiful eye to catch, being that I imagine that eye is more horrifying than your first PO from Massdrop, though.
Nick Mankey Oh, boy. So, yeah, it and we can kind of get into that whole project, which was amazing. Yeah, let's talk about it. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I mean, right. So from there on, it just blew up and I kept iterating and iterating, making improvements to my hardware or whatever. But as soon as that, um, as soon as that whole campaign went out, which I enjoyed greatly, you know, um, Fortis reaches out and like, let's collaborate. Like I didn't, I had no means to even really DM the guys. Like I, like, what would that even do? So, you know, we're going red, right? So They reach out to me and they're like, let's collaborate. I'm like, beautiful. Let's do it. What do you want? Like, let's, let's go. And it was literally like a whole year that we deliberated over, you know, what options they were looking for. Um, and at the time, you know, I do all my printing in house. So I, I made samples for them and they took them in and they're like, let's do this and that and this and that.
Andrew So printing, you mean dyeing? No. What's printing?
Nick Mankey So, so like with the Apollo series, there's three different editions with different graphics printed upon them. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Everett As far as my. A screen print on them are correct.
Nick Mankey Well, I will not specify what my printing method is. Super top secret classified level three. Um, but I do all. It's related to NASA obviously. Totally. It's NASA grade hardware, a hundred percent. Um, so, uh, send them samples. We talk it through and And you know, uh, it's at a point where it's evolved. My, my whole product line has evolved so much. I'm already into my stainless hardware. Um, I've already got like these, this really cool anodized black sort of colorway going and they loved it. So it was this incredible thing, um, this opportunity and, um, didn't want to disappoint obviously, cause these guys were, were heroes to me. I, I have a, Fortis Cosmonauts from, I think it's like 96 production year that, that I, I treasure pretty much more than any, any piece of the collection here. Um, so huge deal to be involved with them and didn't want to disappoint.
Everett So, um, Well, and how does it feel? You know, you go to, you go to Fortis, the Fortis website and you pull up a watch and you see the hook strap and a quote from you. How does that feel? Designed and handcrafted by Nick Mankey. I mean, that's got to be kind of a surreal experience.
Nick Mankey Surreal is like a total understatement. It's like, what, you know, what, what am I doing on this page? Like, you know, like this is where we are. This is reality. Like this happened, you know, and it's like, I'm already forgetting like the hundreds of hours that I would work on hand making this giant order, you know, to, to a very, uh, you know, fine degree of finish. Um, but, um, there was this very cool moment in the project where he's like, Oh yeah. So we were talking with the astronauts involved with the Amity 20 project, which is Mars simulation mission through the Austrian space forum. You know, they have a whole team of legitimate astronauts that are going to be living on in like Mars conditions, um, this October, I think. And so they're talking to the astronauts and they're, and they got their hands on my straps and they're like, we want these on the mission. And I'm like, okay, well I can basically just, I can just, I can just quit now. Cause this is peak like for a, for basically what is a, you know, a, a homebrew garage run thing now, now literally On the fringe of space and science and cutting edge, you know, it's very surreal. Yeah. I mean, that's one way to put it. Yeah.
Andrew What I'm hearing you say is get your orders in now. Because very soon these are going to Mars and you may just retire.
Nick Mankey So, so, so that is, that is sort of like the little daydream that I have every now and then. It's like, oh yeah, so the astronauts are going to be trying these out around their dang spacesuits, right? Cut the strap, like it's like this long. It's like a, I forget. Huge. Huge. It was like 20 plus inches long to, to configure with the system. So, um, the daydream is that someone's going to be you know, checking that out. Some somebody that's in the watch community at NASA is going to be like, hey, that's that's a unique strap there. You know, let's dig into that. I get an email and it's like, oh, hey, we like what you're doing. We see you worked with the Austrian Space Forum. We'd we'd like to send your strap to Mars. What do you think? And, you know, end scene, I just kind of die happy right there because that's that does first. The first watch strap on Mars is my new goal like that. That's kind of I'd call that a peak, you know, that sounds pretty good.
Andrew That's awesome. And Fortis is even their tagline for that watch is not a moon watch, it's the moon is so 20th century watch.
Everett Yeah.
Nick Mankey Damn! Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And how cool of them, how cool of them to believe in me enough to, you know, to deliver on something like this.
Andrew I think you're selling yourself a little short there. I think how cool of you to innovate such a, such a unique product that a company that that's, that's, that's where their, their target is set to find and see your product and be down with it. It's obviously cool of them to reach out, but that's, that's you, that's your effort. That's your, that's, that's whatever's going on in your noodle that in half a sleep world innovated something that was like sort of stale for a hundred years.
Nick Mankey Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that's huge. And you brought up an interesting point. So watch strap innovation, like in itself is extremely dormant. You know, you'll have, you'll have the MN style elastic straps out there and you know, large fan base. Totally cool. I tried one, not a fan, like pretty much nothing about it. appealed to me and that was part of sort of the like, hey, I should, I should maybe try, try this medium of elastic in, in the watch world and see what I can do with it. Like, you know, sure. There's different approaches to it. Here's mine, you know, and see what happens kind of thing.
Everett But yeah, you know, uh, you know, I'd like to talk just a little bit about the current, you know, the, the options you have with the hook strap. I know that it's been pretty recent that you've introduced stainless hardware. You've also made a modification so simple to your hardware that I understand that when you first did it, you used like a Dremel or tin snips or something to make the modification. Tin snips. And so let's talk a little bit about that. What is the hook strap? What does the hook strap currently look like? What kind of configurations can I get it in?
Nick Mankey So, uh, the, the, just a few bits of, um, I don't know if you want to call it terminology here, but there is a current, uh, currently a classic hook strap, which utilizes the original hardware, which is a zinc plated alloy. Um, the elastic is no different. That's all the same, the same great stuff. The great, uh, pajama blend. I should, uh, copyright the pajama blend. Yeah. Um, So that never changes, but the hardware and it's discounted, you know, it's, it's a few bucks cheaper for the classic, but it is a lower grade hardware of course, but it was introductory so that I could start to, you know, offer different options at a, at a, at a budget because I didn't, didn't have that much to go on when it first sort of got going, um, classic. And then there's the stainless, which is the sort of second updated, premium version of the classic which utilizes a stainless steel 316 grade hardware. 316? 316. Now this is not the 316L that so many people will, you know, just, just, just latch onto the end of it. Okay. That's disappointing, Nick. That literally just means that it's easier to weld on and it's like, I don't, I don't need that.
Everett In fact, I maybe don't need the L. No, thank you.
Nick Mankey So anyway, um, So stainless version offered in all sorts of different flavors, you know brushed black I've got it now in a brand new sandblasted kind of matte finish And there's more to come in fact happy to announce right here now Yeah, I'm bringing out the stainless mirror polish To go with the more, you know, kind of the high-end look a little little shine on there So brushed is nice. This is going to be as as polished as one can get it It should set itself apart Just just quite well a little more lustrous And so the modification you've made is this been announced is this not been announced at my am I leaking information?
Everett The this new polished writing No, no, the the the tin snip modified.
Nick Mankey Oh, OK, so I was getting to that. OK, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's OK. So so the stainless the stainless colors are available in the hook strap stainless steel. There's a lot of confusion about this. The classic stainless. You know, I don't know why, but I also added a Q&A section on my website or a frequently asked questions just just to cover that point and then a few others. I also offer It's actually been available for a month or two now. My new fixed bar V2 model, which is essentially only in stainless. It is the stainless hardware with a angled notch taken out of the lower support bar to allow for the removal of the stitched elastic loop so that you can pass that elastic loop through a fixed lug watch. CWC yes G10 watch or whatever which is sort of like a perfect home for these watches or for these straps exactly and before that it would be like hey Nick I'm sending you my watch to like marry your strap to it permanently you know I'm like okay and you've done this before I've done this before I've yeah I've got pictures and I've posted about it and it's like I this this can't be the way so I'm like Without going down a whole new rabbit hole of innovation and all this, I'm like, there's gotta be an easy way that you can just access, you know, or adapt the current system to fit the new challenge. And it was literally just like, let's just take a chunk out of here and decide where that chunk should be at what angle, whatever went to my manufacturer. And I was just like, Hey, the hardware that I'm, I'm currently getting machined. Can you just like take a notch out of it? Or do you have to go through like a whole new process and like, Oh yeah, we can do that. I'm like, bingo. So easy solutions. You know, that's, that's, that's typically what I go for if I can. Minimalist kind of.
Everett Well, so, so let's do, let's do a little bit of rapid fire question then because, uh, you know, quick answers, quick questions. We are getting a little long, uh, but that's okay. We do that and we're going to do that today. So yes, please. So you started off doing leather works. You still today sell leather watch straps, your stud straps, your redux ruler strap. We could still get, there's still a number of wallets that we can get the Sumo V2 at this point. You've got some other leather goods on your website. What portion of your business today is watch straps? And you don't have to know the number exactly, but my gut is it's probably, 98%.
Nick Mankey It's about maybe 1% leather these days.
Everett Yeah. Um, and then, uh, you've got an eight to 10 week lead time on your straps. And I think that you've been pretty close to that based on my, on my informal polling of people. Is that a number that you see changing anytime real soon?
Nick Mankey Yes. Um, and I will say that I, I have actually, I have done a lot. I've tried to, I've tried to change a number of things. I have taken many steps to try and smash that demand curve, if you will. And as of late, the biggest help has honestly been, so we have a seven-month-old. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, so basically what's transpired is, you know, my wife used to work I was just going to say the pertinent word there is used to work a, you know, part-time job, take care of, you know, little one and all that. But as sort of, you know, the challenges arose from having a newborn and the like, you know, her time was just unable to fit their needs. So she ended up basically saying like, hey, you need help. Let me stop what I'm doing and get in on the production line. I'm like, this, it's basically another one of those little forks in the road for our timeline.
Andrew The seven month old man, the dexterity is just gotta be off the charts.
Nick Mankey Yeah. Yeah. So we're putting, we're putting her to work. Wife takes the day off. Genius. Yeah. So yeah, basically that's the whole point of our child is to become, you know, that's, that's basically as soon as I can train somebody as far as my time goes. That's smart.
Andrew That's smart.
Nick Mankey So, wife is on the packaging side of the table, and so far in the past few weeks that we've been working this out in terms of, you know, squeezing in her availability between naps and everything. Not my wife's naps, by the way. But I've been able to output literally twice as fast, just from, and we haven't really gotten into that, Everyone needs to understand this right now. I take, when an order comes through, I have your printout. I literally take that printout. I grab my ruler and my scissors and I cut your strap to length, burn the edges, find the hardware, get the stitching, make your strap. And then I hand build the packaging right there and then ship it. That's all me. Like for years, a hundred percent, just these two hands, that's it. So knowing that adding someone to that process has enabled me to basically stick to the production and essentially packaging ends up taking just as long. So if someone's doing that, then I'm just like spitting out straps like crazy and then they're getting packaged at the same time. And, you know, on paper we're like, you know, that should be about twice as much as I've been able to do. And it's worked out to be that way. So moving forward, um, that process continuing to get better and better, you know, should be cutting that time in half. It would be the, the sort of hope hopeful objective.
Everett Assuming because of your appearance on 40 and 20, your sales don't go through the roof, because I suspect both of our moms are probably going to buy us one for Christmas. We're going to be a real needle mover here. OK, so we do we do anticipate some some increases in production availability moving forward. And then who knows what the future holds? Any plans on consolidating options? You know, at this point, you've got the Classic, you've got the Stainless. Any plans to eliminate one or even both of those options in favor of one ring to rule them all?
Nick Mankey Yeah, totally. Classic is gone as soon as the inventory runs out.
Everett So right now, as far as... The future is Stainless.
Nick Mankey The future is absolutely Stainless and, you know, some other very exotic materials that I have in the making right now. Unobtainium. Like literal unobtainium. Quite literal, I will say. As literal as unobtainium can get. So lots of cool, exciting sort of variations on stainless. But as soon as the classic inventory goes, I don't plan on restocking it. It just doesn't make any sense. It's obsolete. and I've gotten my prices figured out to to go all stainless completely.
Everett Yeah. So final question from me, uh, any, uh, any upcoming you, you're still, I can tell you're still the guy who thinks about things and solutions and projects, anything, um, in the future that you could tease for us that we might want to look for?
Nick Mankey Oh man, there's a lot. So, so Did you see the notebook? It was huge.
Everett I know. I saw the notebook.
Nick Mankey Yeah. So understand that, uh, you know, trapped inside this, this sort of feeble, like sewing body, you know, there, there is someone designing upstairs constantly, you know, trying to innovate. Cause that's, that's what I did for so long. And that's very much what I enjoy is the, is that process of problem and then solving that. Um, so. In terms of things to come, I don't have any solid, you know, concepts yet, but, you know, coming up with something that is a more fixed design that doesn't need to be tailored so much. In fact, kind of putting the tailoring on the user side, kind of a, just a little, you know, like, like you'd get certain certain accoutrements today, like a, like a belt that you would trim to fit a certain special buckle. Sure. You know, I'm working on kind of a concept like that. Um, kind of off guard. There's, there's a number of things I kind of hinted at new hardware. Um, I don't have a source for this one yet, but I'll, I'll kind of pitch this one. I'm trying to get, um, genuine brass or bronze made, um, For all those bronze lovers out there, trying to match the hardware is tough, you know, for those guys. Yeah, yeah. And always new elastics. I will say, and you've probably seen this from my stories, the more up and coming to expect sort of announcement would be the very first sort of double-sided elastic that I've been working on. Which right which was which was this monstrosity?
Everett Yeah, that's super thick Road stripe right for the listeners at home.
Nick Mankey It is a black and yellow sort of caution hazard stripe This is something I've been working on for a way too long like months to get it to get it to go in a way that I like As seen in sort of my my sort of as I get these new samples in I'll make a story post about it So getting that figured out, um, is going to be amazing and enable all sorts of incredible opportunities should be coming out hopefully over summer.
Everett Andrew, any, any further questions?
Andrew I know you kind of answered my question. My last question was going to be, how are you balancing the hit that the hook strap is against your need for, Problem solving and designing. And you kind of, you hit on that in that answer. I mean, you're still, you're still innovating and working on that project. Cause it, it seems to me like you're, you're just, you're presenting solutions, presenting solutions, presenting solutions, and to finally have a hit, but that passion is still there. Yeah. Right. That's still, that's still who you are. And I was, I was just kind of thinking about you getting bogged down on the, by this one idea. And if, if you'd lost that drive, that motivation, it doesn't seem like you have at all.
Nick Mankey No, I, I really haven't. Um, it's, it's just, At this point, the business is the family income. So doing what is safe makes sense in that context, but also improving on it only makes that even safer.
Everett Yeah. I mean, you're going to have to get the family size yacht at some point.
Andrew These are only 64 feet, man.
Everett Wow. Okay. So you get the extra long. Well, that's great. Why don't we real quick just walk through, if I'm a guy who wants to buy a Mankey strap, where can I find them? I obviously have the website up on my phone, but tell people where to find you in terms of social media and your website.
Nick Mankey NickMankeyDesigns.com, Instagram at NickMankeyDesigns, and all sorts of contact links there if you need anything specific. I have all the listings ready to go. Build it as you see it and I'll get to it as soon as I can, you know?
Andrew And let me say you are super responsive in your customer service contact link. Uh, when I ordered mine, I moved, I bought a house shortly in that Delta of time between order and delivery. And I emailed you and I was like, Hey, this is my new address. This is the address I need you to send it to. Cause by when I sent that email, I didn't know where I was going to be living. I just knew that I was selling my house. Uh, so I had to send to Everett's office and my assumption is that you didn't recognize who it was going to. This was no special treatment or anything, but I just emailed and that same day I got an email back like, yep, it's done. You're good to go.
Nick Mankey Right. And that, thank you for that by the way. But um, that's also me. Like when I'm not out there, you know, in my 92 degree garage stitching all this stuff up, um, I'm, I'm in front of my emails trying to do my best. So, you know, if I don't get to your message right away, Just understand that my plate. You're making straps. My plate's full and I'm trying to get your order out. So, but I'm, I'm totally open. Um, I've got a handy little like contact system on the website that you can kind of select the subject of what you're trying to do. So order updates, um, order modifications, that sort of thing is where you'd stick something like, Hey, change of address. Cause I totally get it. You know, with a two month lead, you know, you kind of have to adapt and I'm totally all about it to just reach out and I'll I'll put a note down and make sure it goes where it needs to.
Andrew I really liked it because I had the excitement of my order day. And then I had the excitement of the email, your order's completely shipped. I was like, yes! Twice! Like winning twice.
Everett And then a short time later, you had the excitement of putting it on.
Andrew And having you help me assemble it.
Everett Wonderful. We didn't talk, I think we probably didn't sell your straps quite enough. We'll do that in another episode. It's all good. That is to say we both love them. So yeah, we've talked about it before. But moving on, Andrew, other things. What do you got?
Andrew I have a show and I may have talked about this show already.
Everett You can't do a show. I got a show.
Andrew Don't care. I'm watching television these days. And I think I've talked about it, but I don't care. And the reason I don't care is because a new season of Alone from the History Channel has just dropped. Yeah, it's the million dollar season.
Everett Meaning... Which is a big figure.
Andrew That's a bucket load of money. Because they were previously winning what, $100,000?
Everett I think it was more than that. But yeah, it wasn't a huge... It was a significant sum of money.
Andrew It was no million dollars. Okay.
Everett So for those of you... I think that like three times as many people watched Alone during quarantine as had watched it in the seven to nine years it had been on the air previously. Oh yeah, this is season seven. So in quarantine, Alone blew up. Just like Tiger King. All of their, except the difference is Tiger King came out during quarantine. Alone had been out for years and years and years.
Andrew Yeah. So for those of you unfamiliar, Alone is a television series by the History Channel, wherein 10 contestants get dumped alone in the wilderness. And it's a surprisingly small tract of land that they're supposed to stick to. So season seven is in the Arctic. They're supposed to stick to a five square mile chunk of property that they get dumped on, which to survive for, the goal is a hundred days. If you make it to a hundred days, you get a million bucks and you still might not be the winner, but you'll still get a million bucks. My assumption is that no one's going to make it to a hundred days. Because they pick some people and so I talked about this over guys weekend because some of my friends are watching it and we watched an episode. We watched episode one and it's like you see these people who have the skills, they've got the mindset generally, and they just ruin it with little mistakes. And that's so fascinating to watch it alone because we live such low stake lives generally. Like you make a mistake and it's like whatever. Lost that, I'll buy a new one tomorrow. Broke that, whatever, I'll get a new one. Missed my turn, whatever, I'll make the next one. The stakes are so high when you have nothing but the backpack on your back and a satellite phone for emergent rescue. It's a terrific show. So there's seven seasons available on Hulu.
Everett And season eight, the premiere of season eight has just dropped.
Andrew Yes. So new season out right now. The whole season is available. Fascinating cast of characters. And because the show's been on long enough, it's people who are like familiar with the show, training for the show, not just their normal, you know, bushcraft type people, but people who are training specifically for this endeavor. Uh, so a really, really impressive group of people this season and which has not always been the case earlier.
Everett See, it's very interesting to watch these earlier seasons. You have people that wouldn't even do well on Naked and Afraid, right?
Andrew They've got, like, support, you know? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. Fascinating group of people. Fascinating show. I love it. It's one of our favorites. Yeah. So check it out. New season just dropped. Binge it, because weekend's coming up.
Nick Mankey That sounds great.
Everett I've got another thing. Do me. So there is a show. It's not a new show. These are all available on Netflix. But the show, and I understand many people have watched this. I had not even heard of it. Um, but now I have and I've watched it. Uh, it's a show called halt and catch fire, which I think they only refer to. I think they only really tell you what that means. Uh, it's some sort of computer development term, but what, what this show is, uh, is it, it starts leap pace from the Hobbit, uh, the elf King, uh, Mackenzie Davis. Scoop McNary, a number of other people that you will recognize. Cooper Andrews, who's Jerry from The Walking Dead. If you've watched The Walking Dead, he's the greatest character. Later Anna Chlomsky. Anyway, this really kind of, bummer name, great cast. And it starts off in the 80s, I think 82 or 83, as personal computing is becoming a thing. folks get together and they're working on a PC project. Really interesting dynamic personalities. I told someone that it felt a little bit like billions set in the eighties. Uh, it evolves from there. Uh, and, and it does so in the opposite way that billions evolves. I think we're billions tended to get more cheesy and a little bit, um, more, uh, just forceful with its aggressive, uh, plot pulp. Uh, I think caught and catch fire does another thing as this thing picks up steam. Um, the characters become less bombastic and more refined. Um, the character development continues literally until the dying end. Uh, it is, I think four seasons. one of my very favorite shows I've ever watched. The characters are obviously a little ridiculous. Any show like this, you're going to have some ridiculous characters. But I, uh, right before I got here was watching, we're getting close to the end, watching an episode and crying, weeping crocodile tears down my cheek. Uh, it is wonderful. Totally, totally wonderful. Don't know how I've missed it. Um, you, you know, we, you and I have talked many times about best shows of all time.
Andrew AMC shows get missed.
Everett Yes, it is fan tastic. I mean, I'm going to say, you know, you, like I say, you and I have talked about best shows of all times a lot. I really love the Sopranos. I really love breaking bad. Um, I think those two are probably my two favorites. Um, This is in that mix. It was so, it was, I'm not quite done, but it has been so freaking awesome. Totally love it. Halt and Catch Fire, AMC, all four seasons available on Netflix, which I think everybody has Netflix.
Andrew Yeah. If you didn't get pickup Netflix during quarantine, what did you do?
Everett Nick Mankey, other things. What do you got?
Nick Mankey physical or are we on the entertainment spectrum?
Everett No, you, you, you choose dealer's choice.
Andrew Cause I understand you're a man of hobbies, so we're ready for it.
Nick Mankey So watches are great. Love them. You know, and we can talk all day about that too. Um, so, you know, when I'm not sitting behind a sewing machine, I'm working on the 67 Ranchero in the garage. Oh, shit. You know, I'm working on my... 67, so that's what, a B-body, right? It is a unibody. Okay. Stacked headlights, maybe. That's kind of the real call of the single year Ranchero. That's been a work in progress. When I'm not doing that and somewhat almost as I'm doing that, I'm listening to a lot of audiobooks as of late and I will say huge shout out to Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, science fiction master, the Martian, probably if you've heard of that.
Everett Very, very famous author.
Nick Mankey Yeah. Yeah. So his new release came out and nothing, nothing but great things to say. That was like a just probably the best 16 hour journey I've had in a long time. Also, there's a really cool shout out to a really nice watch in the book, which I think you guys would appreciate if you, if you haven't caught it.
Everett Um, it's not a Hamilton.
Nick Mankey It's definitely not a Hamilton, but then, uh, I, so I was back to back project hail Mary and then Artemis, his other novel, super, super cool watch. Shout out. Um, interesting. You mentioned, um, I Some time ago, I can't remember, you were going over complications and things like that. And your disdain for moon phases kind of reminds me from that book because it's set on the moon. This makes sense there. So check it out. Right.
Everett So except that it doesn't make sense there because you don't have moon.
Nick Mankey So here here it is. Here's why it's so dang cool. There's a character and I'm trying not to give too much away. But, well to do, has a custom watch, and instead of a moonscape, he has an earthscape. So he has a custom earthrise sort of track. Right. Complication on his watch. And I was like, that is, that is a detail that puts this book firmly in like one of my favorites. So really cool tidbit. Artemis, also a great book, but.
Everett You know, I read that. I read that. Gosh, I don't know when that came out. Yeah. 2014, I think. But I read that like right as I was getting into watch. Oh, yeah. I think I think I was maybe reading that book when I bought my very first, you know, watch guy watch. OK, sure. The timing was very close in any event. So, yeah, I remember thinking, oh, this is a neat, neat thing.
Nick Mankey This is a neat thing. Yeah. Exactly. And you know, it's kind of cool because they didn't have to go to that detail, but it it meant a lot if you if you were kind of on the up and up with with watch mechanics at all.
Everett So, you know. So what can you tell us about Project Hail Mary without telling us anything about it?
Nick Mankey Oh, man. You guys ever seen the movie Sunshine by chance? You guys big on Sci-Fi? I've seen Sunshine. OK, one of my all time favorites, right? Sun is dying. Got to fix it. In this instance, The sun is not just quite dying, but there is something that is sapping the energy from the sun and it's not making its way to Earth.
Everett So you've got an easy solution.
Nick Mankey Right. Easy solution. Let's go figure it out. So it's this not really space opera, but you know, it is an expedition into the unknown and it's grounded in the most detailed biological science, physical science, and it, and it tells, it tells a story in such a way that you're just along for this, this ride of knowledge and excitement. Great characters, you know, kind of, kind of the, the classic, like guy doesn't really, isn't really sure he's cut out for it, but rises to the challenge through his intellect Andy Weir kind of does that. But just phenomenal.
Everett Just like Tom Cruise and cocktail. Nick, thank you so much for joining us. This has been really a lot of fun. So glad to be to pop your podcast, Cherry. If you at home want to check out Nick Mankey's straps, the hook strap, the Redux strap, all the other great project, please, please, please. You can do that at nickmankeydesigns.com. Also check Nick out on Instagram, nickmankeydesigns on Instagram. Look, you guys, these are, I think, my favorite strap, my favorite strap product.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Yeah. I mean, Barton Silicone Elite, Nick Mankey, that's it. OEM bracelet. OEM bracelet. So that is the world. Really, it was a Ton of fun to have you. Anything you want to add before we go?
Nick Mankey This was awesome. This was an absolute pleasure. Huge fan, in case I didn't say it already. So, uh, avid listener. Uh, this was, this was, this was awesome. And you guys are too kind. I appreciate the praise. I'm glad you guys like it. I still have a hard time believing that this little idea of mine has, has become what it is, but Hey, as long as those orders keep coming in, I'll keep making it as good as it possibly can be, you know?
Everett Awesome. Awesome. Andrew, anything else you want to add? Nah.
Andrew Nothing? No, I'm out of things, man.
Everett All right. Well, Nick, thank you. Andrew, thank you. Oh, that was kind. And hey, thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Why don't you do us a favor, check us out at WatchClicker.com. That's where we post every single episode of this podcast. We post reviews, articles. Other kind of fun stuff from time to time. Yeah, you can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 is our page at watch clicker page for the website. You can also support the show. Did you guys know that? You can support the show at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look you guys, the hosting is not free. Image hosting is definitely not free. Your support through Patreon helps us pay for all of that stuff, including things like microphones and mixing boards and Andrew's haircuts.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Andrew Bye bye.
Nick Mankey Dude, that was fantastic.