In this guest post, Field Notes partners with a heritage clothing brand, this time iconic workwear brand Carhartt of Dearborn, Michigan.
Earlier this year, Field Notes did a collaboration with L.L. Bean. These books with Carhartt are a step up from those books. The Bean books were essentially kraft books with a couple different cover designs. These Carhartt books are heavier and heartier, with a full complement of retro-y goodness on the back covers.
Starting with the front covers, each one is a different color and utilizes the Carhartt “C” logo in an interesting way. It reminds me of the start of the Yellow Brick Road in the Wizard of Oz.
Each back cover has a different outdoor theme on it. Red has hunting, blue has fishing, and green has camping. This seems odd to me that something similar wasn’t done to the L. L. Bean books, because providing clothing for these 3 things are what they have built their company on. This is not to say people don’t wear Carhartt to hunt, fish, or camp in…but they bill themselves as tough clothing for workers.
Making a Tough Carhartt Notebook For the Field
The covers are 100# cover stock. This heavier weight along with the 60# paper they’re now using in the kraft books make for a heavier book built to stand up to some outdoor beating. It remains to be seen if they hold up like the Shenandoah-level heavy books, but they are beefier than a kraft book in every way. Also, cheers to FN for changing the standard kraft books from 50# to 60# paper. Now if they would change the covers to 100# from 80#, we might have a durable pocket notebook. If you are enjoying this guest post, check out some of our other Literary reads, here.
No one is happier than I am to see an all-lined edition. I love line ruled paper in my pocket notebooks, so seeing that all three are lined was a great surprise. Seems to me that graph is king in the pocket notebook world, but I always gravitate towards lined books when I’m trying out a new brand. For the way I write and the way I like to use these, ruled rules.
I didn’t do a pen or pencil test for this edition. It is the same 60# paper that is currently in the kraft books, so you should have an idea how your favorite writing tool performs.
A quick note about the shipping: I don’t think Carhartt knew what it was getting into when they launched these books. Over at the Field Nuts FB group, a lot of people have been complaining about the way these are being shipped to them. Some coming in a plastic bag that clothes normally ship in, others coming in boxes way too big for the books with nothing to hold them in place. Essentially, people are worried about the corners being bent/beat up and using them for collecting and later trading.
Placing Your Order
Carhartt’s shipping methods aren’t really conducive to that. There have been quite a few people in the group either get their money back or get new books as a result. Mine were shipped in the plastic bag. While I was not pleased with this method of shipping, the 3 packs I ordered were just fine. I had to really study each pack to see which one was the “worst” for opening and using. But I understand why people were upset: the shipping was very expensive for these books. It seemed different across the board for most people, but on an average about double what they’d expected.
This wonderful Alice in Wonderland Interactive edition includes a whopping 101 quotations from the Alice In Wonderland saga! Each of these 101 Alice Quotes are linked to the stories. This means that you can easily and quickly find the quote in its original context.
Only $9.99 for a limited time!
When I ordered mine, the shipping was going to be $7, regardless of quantity, unless I spent over $100, then shipping was free. I did not get sucked in there. Regardless, these shipped very fast and I was surprised I see them in the mail the same day I got the shipping notice. I basically received them less than 48 hours after I ordered them. I live 90 miles away from FNHQ and that’s never happened with them! These books are only available in Carhartt retail shops or on their website.
If you enjoyed this guest post, check out some of our other Literary reads, here.
This article was originally written by Michael Hagan at Lead Fast.
Mind on Fire Books 