Running Shoes, Coffee, Pens, and Journals

Running Shoes, Coffee, Pens, and Journals

Today, we’re diving into Quality. Trust me, it all ties together. So fasten your seatbelts, grab your favorite coffee, tea, or whatever you’re sipping on, and let’s go.

Quality: A Primer

I have this habit of using words I don’t fully understand because they feel right. The other day, I tried using the word espouse. I used it completely wrong, but hey, it felt good.

I think the same can be said for quality. Most of us don’t walk around with a clear definition of it (unless you’ve read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). Instead, we rely on a kind of “look and feel” test: if it looks like quality and feels like quality, then it probably is quality. But we’ve all been duped before—fooled by something that seemed high-quality in the moment but turned out to be anything but.

Before we get into story time, I want to share three examples of true quality and how they help me differentiate between the types of quality.

1. Super Jock ‘n Jill: The Quality of Experience

Super Jock ‘n Jill is a specialty running store in Seattle, WA, that’s been around since 1975. (Fun fact: I worked there in college.) What they’ve mastered is the quality of experience.

When you walk into Super Jock ‘n Jill, you’re greeted by someone who’s there to help you find what you need—not to upsell you on what they want you to buy. The staff is trained not just on running mechanics, shoes, and gear but also on how to have meaningful conversations with customers.

Here’s how the process works: You sit down, talk about your goals, any injuries you’ve had, and what shoes you’ve loved or hated in the past. Then they watch you walk or jog (if applicable) and bring out suggestions tailored to your gait and goals.

The quality isn’t in the shoes. The truth is, Super Jock ‘n Jill sells the same shoes you can find online, in another store, or even across the street. It’s not about the products themselves—it’s about the process of finding them. And that’s what sets them apart.

2. La Marzocco: The Quality of Standard Setting

In February, Nick and I went to Florence, Italy, to visit the La Marzocco warehouse—a pilgrimage of sorts. I thought it would be a “cool story to tell” kind of experience, but it ended up blowing me away.

La Marzocco embodies the quality of setting a standard. During the tour, we were shown a mint-condition espresso machine from the 1970s and given espresso made in the style of that era. It was a blast from the past—and not in a good way. The guide smirked and asked, “Not that good, right?”

The purpose wasn’t to impress us with their older machines but to highlight how far they’ve come—and how they’ve been at the forefront of that progress.

Here’s my favorite story: In the early 2000s, Starbucks asked La Marzocco to manufacture super-automatic espresso machines for their stores. For context, a semi-automatic espresso machine (what Starbucks was using at the time) automates pressure and temperature but still requires a barista to grind the beans and prepare the coffee puck. A super-automatic machine does everything—grinding, dosing, tamping, and brewing.

This request went against La Marzocco’s philosophy of coffee preparation, so the CEO declined—turning down an astronomical contract because it didn’t align with their standards. That’s the quality of setting a standard—and sticking to it.

3. Tactile Turn: The Quality of Craftsmanship

Let’s talk about pens. Tactile Turn, based in Austin, TX, makes machined pens that are simply awesome. I don’t have a long story here, but their pens are so well-made that they make me want to journal just to use them.

Their quality of craftsmanship is undeniable. When you hold a Tactile Turn pen, you wouldn’t even question why someone would spend that much on a pen. It just makes sense. They’ve taken a universal object and made the best version of it (in my opinion). It’s not about setting a standard for all pens—it’s about creating something exceptional in its own right.

The Hero’s Journal

We left off last week with Ryan, our designer. Within the first week of working together, we had our first draft of the daily journal page. Nick and I were blown away. It was unlike anything we’d seen before—works of art, really.

But when we printed test pages and tried using them, we noticed two problems: the pages felt too busy, and there wasn’t much room to actually journal.

Designing something with no 1:1 comparison meant we had no frame of reference. So we took a step back and asked: What are our non-negotiables?

1. The user has to feel like the main character.

2. The story must be engaging and fun.

3. The journal should cover 90 days (though we briefly considered 1-month versions).

4. It must be beautiful.

Over three months, we worked with Ryan to refine the design, ensuring it embodied these values. Once the design was finalized, we moved on to the journal’s physical form—how it would feel in hand and what materials we’d use.

This is where Nick shined. He has an uncanny ability to spot high or low quality. I’d think a sample looked fine, but Nick would point out issues like the shade of red or the texture of the paper. And he was always right.

I’ll skip ahead past the Kickstarter (don’t worry—I’ll come back to it in another newsletter). But when we received the final product, it was even better than the samples we thought were perfect.

To this day, we still get reviews that say, “It’s almost too beautiful to write in.” What can I say? The kid’s got an eye.

Unbeknownst to us, we’d been on our own quality journey:

• From Super Jock ‘n Jill, we learned the quality of experience.

• From La Marzocco, we learned the quality of setting a standard.

• From Tactile Turn, we learned the quality of craftsmanship.

Atypical Life

Trey and I are at a stage similar to where The Hero’s Journal started. We’re trying to create products that serve his community. Right now, it’s shirts—and soon, shorts—but we have bigger aspirations.

The challenge is balancing high-level content creation with Trey’s packed schedule as a professional basketball player, husband, and dog dad. We could take shortcuts, but we believe the relationship between production and the brand matters. When someone receives an Atypical product, we want them to feel the thought and care behind it.

Right now, it’s about telling quality stories and serving the community around the Atypical mindset.

Reading

I’m currently reading Trillion Dollar Coach—the story of Bill Campbell, who coached Steve Jobs and the founders of Google. One key takeaway: hierarchy doesn’t equate to respect. Leadership doesn’t automatically earn you respect; you have to earn it by understanding people’s needs, building relationships, and standing by your principles.

As a high school and college coach, I tried my best to practice this approach—earning respect rather than demanding it. Did it work? Who knows. But I’d rather not know than have been a dictator. Food for thought.

Coffee

During the La Marzocco tour, we did a pour-over tasting using beans from the same coffee cherry, processed four different ways: Natural, Washed, Honey Washed, and Anaerobic. It was incredible to taste how processing alone changes coffee. A true canon moment for my coffee journey.

Summary

This one was a bit long, so if you made it to the end—thank you.

I’ve been thinking about something I read in Antifragile: this idea of “domain dependence,” where we only understand concepts in the context we learned them. Writing this newsletter was my attempt to take a single concept—quality—and apply it across different areas of life.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Let me know what you think!

Toodles,
Kyle