A friend of ours in the firearms industry received this email from notebook manufacturer Moleskine after inquiring about getting some branded notebooks for giveaways.
Thank you for your request but currently Moleskine Brand Guidelines prevent us from working with any weapon companies. Good luck and have a great day.
Sincerely,
XXXXX
Moleskine America, Inc.
210 eleventh avenue, suite 1004
new york, ny 10001
www.moleskine.com
Tags: Moleskine
I would like to ask……. Is there a website that lists those companies not willing to work with gun companies??? If so, I would appreciate a link, if not…. I might have to make a page dedicated for just this reason. I’m becoming very annoyed that companies are doing this. Instead of America pulling together to get our economy up and running again and this includes companies doing business with each other…. companies are not just sourcing out to other countries but now refusing to business with each other. These companies deserve to LOSE the business of the gun owners and put a dent in their pocket. SHAME ON THEM !!!!
Hemingway used a Moleskine. I wonder what he’d have to say about their policy.
In any conflict, I’d take Hemingway over any number of trendy hipsters.
Quite coincidental…As I read this post and clicked over to the comments just to see what people were saying, I was thinking to myself how hypocritical Moleskine is for dropping Hemmingway references in their marketing. Then I saw your comment and had to chirp in. God damnit, Hemmingway was an excellent drinker, philanderer, and shooter…not that any of those things are associated with each other. I live in the town where Hemmingway is buried…I can’t get away from all the photos of him in the restaurants and hallways of the lodge with him shooting guns. The sad part is that Moleskine is an integral part of my day..perhaps no more. I am never without one. We used to have to carry notebooks in our pockets with us in BUD/S…and Moleskine was my choice…and probably half of the rest of the class too. Those notebooks are some of my most prized possessions.
Notebooks? Really? How quaint. I have a smart phone and iPad as does almost everyone else. Pass.
They’re an Italian company, they’ll sell you books without your logo, they are just particular about what logos they have on their books. My friend couldn’t put his church logo on them because they don’t allow religious, political, etc. branding on their product. Just buy a blank dang notebook. As a pro-gun, religious person I don’t find fault in them being careful with their branding. Especially since they are an international company.
“Thank you for your request but currently Moleskine Brand Guidelines prevent us from working with any weapon companies. Good luck and have a great day.”
Wow. What a bunch of hypocrites as their products are made in a Communist Aggressor nation that openly brandishes its military power and suppresses it’s peoples by social marginalization or by forced cultural assimilation and reprogramming in work camps. Moleskine can suck it, balls deep.
AMEN!
Don’t let a perfectly good notebook go to waste; plaster that mofo with every gear, gun, 2A etc. sticker you can get your hands on. Then take a pic of said notebook surrounded by every weapon you can get your hands on then use every social media outlet to disseminate your handiwork. Maybe start a Facebook page, “I use Moleskine to hunt, plink, faceshoot terrorists, defend my family etc. What do YOU use your Moleskine for?”
Flip the script.
Personally, I don’t mind being a customer of companies who take a stand in their pacifism. Good on them. What good is a bad ass warrior if someone isn’t going to be a staunch pacifist? Someone has to protect them when violence is the last resort. I don’t ask them to like it or me. It’s a quality product. They don’t want to be associated with anything violence related. I don’t want to be associated with My Little Pony. I don’t hate My Little Pony, I just don’t want to work them or have their brand on my stuff. No big deal. Get your branding on Rite In The Rain products.
Once my current moleskin notebook was full I was thinking of switching over to the ITS Tactical notebooks. Looks like they made that choice a lot easier. http://www.itstactical.com/store/its-field-notes-memo-book-set-of-3/
Well said, Travis.
Besides, rather than worrying about their guidelines on not dealing with firearms branding, I’d be more concerned with not working with a company associated with Toms wearing, skinny jeans sporting, awful music listening, bad hair styled, poorly designed tattoo displaying, androgynous hipsters. Why your friend approached Moleskine anyway is totally beyond my understanding.
Every time a Moleskine gets written in, a hipster’s jeans get tighter. Fact.
Well they just lost a customer for life. Thanks SSD
Really? Why the big fuss? This is no different than a business refusing to serve individuals wearing a tank-top and sandals or a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” sticker. Businesses have the right to refuse service. Like a poster stated above – they are careful with their brand management.
Good on you for getting the word out. The only way to make them feel pain is for revenues to go down. Then they may consider changing the policies because of the customers they have angered.
These rants that attack the business for sticking by their values are silly in my opinion. Wasted energy. +1 to Travis’s post above – good on you all for taking a stand but be sure you have all the facts to make an informed decision. From a couple of posts above it seems that Moleskin takes the high road on religion and military and other organizations – in my eyes that makes a huge difference.
Alternative – put your unit’s sticker on the Moleskin or have a high speed brand cut out from your metal of choice on a water jet (our tank battalions had water jets to cut armor), heat that puppy up and brand your moleskins. Both keep costs down, you avoid the company’s policy issue, and a huge plus is that YOU now control your design and who gets your unit notebooks. Hell – sell them and raise money for the platoon/company/battalion/ whatever.
Best of luck, sorry about Moleskin not wanting to deal (but I understand their sensitivity to certain industries and political or religious groups), and I hope you find a suitable alternative.
Sent this to Moleskin:
I was disappointed to learn that you would not service a company in the firearms industry. It is my personal policy to not purchase products or services from companies who support or promote prejudice. As a result, I will no longer be purchasing your products, despite my use of them on a near daily basis.
I hope that your company can someday shed this bigotry against civil rights and re-enable me to purchase your products.