TYR Tactical

WTF Moleskine?

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

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81 Responses to “WTF Moleskine?”

  1. MM says:

    thanks for posting this – adding it to my list of companies i’ll never buy a product from.

  2. Jesse says:

    Goes both ways.

  3. El Mariachi says:

    Rite In The Rain FTW

  4. Mitch says:

    What’s the big deal? Seems like you’re making a mountain out of a moleskin.

  5. jmhpwdr says:

    Wow, I was using one of their notebooks every day. Was…

  6. Matt says:

    What a coincidence! Currently, my guidelines prevent me from buying products from companies that won’t work with weapons companies.

  7. Nic says:

    MoleskineUS markets their products to hippies and hipsters. They are like the early TNF or Patagonia, when they were afraid of the “retail Ops” side finding out about their military/gov side.

  8. jason says:

    They are exercising their freedom of whom they wish to do business with. And i’ll exercise my freedom of choice not to support their company. At least we still have these freedoms.

  9. Clay says:

    Wow. I know that it’s within their rights to choose who or what they “represent”, but to turn down business based on what the buyer represents is bad business. Guess I’ll have to pick form one of the many other companies out there.

    • cali_girl says:

      They just turned down the branding of their product with another company’s information. They’ll sell you a notebook, they’re just being careful with what they get printed on them.

  10. Tactidork says:

    Thats too bad. I did want to try some of those Rite in Rain notebooks

    • Woody says:

      You’re in luck. Rite in the Rain isn’t Moleskine.

    • Matthew Kime says:

      Rite-In-The-Rain has nothing to do with Moleskine. Unless somebody knows differently for certain. There is no relation between RIR and Moleskine.

      In fact, I’m sure that Rite-In-The Rain would work with whoever had this problem, they’re solid.

      • AdamG says:

        Pretty sure he meant he wanted to try RIR and now he has an excuse, not linking the two together.

  11. Lawrence says:

    WTF indeed! Since when did we all become the social equivalent of child molesters?

  12. Jason says:

    Oh that’s just great… Time to go find another type of notebook

  13. jellydonut says:

    I hadn’t considered buying them before, but you can be certain I am not buying any now.

  14. Weaver says:

    Just sent an e-mail asking for a comprehensive list of all companies restricted under their Brand Guidelines. Will post if I receive a response.

  15. Marcelo says:

    With the shooting in Vegas this mourning, things are gonna be even more complicated for law abiding citicens with concealed weapons… Good luck to the responsible americans…

  16. Bill Guttery says:

    Since when is Rite in The Rain a Moleskine company?! RiTR _specifically_ has a tactical line!

    http://www.riteintherain.com/category.asp?id={4028525D-BD21-48A8-B944-902D79D6FC41}

  17. Doc B says:

    Welp. Vote with your wallets, etc.

  18. Firewalker says:

    Looks like I’ll have to drop them as my favourite sketchbooks. I buy a bunch in a year…

  19. Gene says:

    Buy Rite in the Rain, it’s a better product and comes in more styles

  20. Richard says:

    Field Notes and Rite in the Rain. Never buying another Moleskine product again.

  21. straps says:

    RITR makes an inexpensive notebook sorta like Mopeskine, but without the hipster pretentiousness.

    I won’t miss Moleskine at all. First they went for profits over quality when they outsourced their manufacturing to China (never the same), now this.

  22. straps says:

    Memo to Moleskine:

    Go f*ck yourselves. We have other options.

    http://www.riteintherain.com/static.asp?htmltemplate=custom.html

  23. Bill says:

    I switched to Field Notes after Moleskine went Chinese.

  24. Giovani says:

    Never seeing a dime from me.

  25. Remove this link from my page ASAP I did not put it there

  26. Luke says:

    they were a bit rich for my blood anyway…

    my only comment is at least hey said “weapon” rather then “gun,” a little more of a broad policy I could actually believe was in place before all the reactionary knee-jerk gun avoidance. OOOR it could be completely reactionary, who knows…

  27. Brandon says:

    Moleskine’s not seeing a nickel from me. RITR or a simple “Green Book” is entirely adequate for my notetaking needs.

  28. Carlos says:

    BOYCOTT

  29. Pete says:

    http://fieldnotesbrand.com/

    Great notebooks, good paper AND they like guns. At least they like ITS Tactical

  30. tomaso says:

    i just sent them my thoughts…. i have 3 sketch books of theirs, 2 full one only about 12 pages used…the rest i will fill with nothing but weapon designs! = )

    one comment i said ” i hope if ever you are in need of protection from the evils of the world that you can find safety and protection behind your paper”

    • pardon me says:

      …But likely the “evil of the world” that threatens is carrying a gun. If you were both carrying pens and paper, perhaps so many people wouldn’t die aimlessly.

  31. corsair says:

    Did this come from some cubicle lacky or somebody in management/ownership?

  32. patrick quinn says:

    Mole skin<<<<..you should have that looked at…it could be cancerous..

  33. Mark says:

    *Chuckle* More mob mentality at play. Way to go…if they do what I want I’m going to get bent and call em names. Reality check; they’re allowed to co brand with whomever they like.

    Come on this has nothing whatsoever to do with your Second Amendment rights, get over it. Smells strangely reminiscent of the Wounded Warrior bull crap.

    • Jesse says:

      They are welcome to and it is right to point it out.

    • Giovani says:

      As are we. Nothing mob mentality about it. I would understand if criticism was unjust, but just as they have the right to refuse to do business with “weapons companies”, we can vote with our dollar. As customers, we can be vocal about it. As a company, they are under constant public scrutiny.

      They had plenty of opportunities to make their policy known-they chose not to because of profits.

  34. Rip says:

    Sounds like a gopher to me. You would hope that a manager would have given a longer (if not more comprehensive) reply.

  35. KS says:

    I sent this just now :

    Hello, today I learned that Moleskin sent out an email to a company I do business with that stated

    “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,
    b2b key account manager”

    I just wanted to pass on a friendly note that your email is currently being passed thru as many wed boards and Second Amendment websites as we can muster. I also work for a company with 95 firearms Instructors and a throughput of over 2,000 students annually. The same message will be passed among us, and to everyone we know. Your message that you do not want to do business with our kind is reciprocal, we dont want to do business with your kind. You would be surprised the implications of one simple email. Ironic though, you will do business with the Govt…Arent they the biggest weapon company on the planet ?

    Respectfully,

    KS

  36. Jud says:

    Back to the standard “Green Books” that are free from supply… I had high hopes that the moleskine would be more durable, but it fell apart in about the same amount of time.

  37. Brian says:

    I Think SSD should keep a running thread or page of companies that are anti-2A so we can all be sure to regularly check it and not by anything from any of those companies.

  38. bill says:

    spread the word about what they said about doing business with weapon companys like all these clowns do about anti gun stuff. start list of place that is good for business that support what we do the second amendment

  39. CapnTroy says:

    I’m voting with my wallet right now by purchasing some RiTR notebooks, screw those wimps…

  40. Larry says:

    Soldier Systems should make a list of companies that don’t support firearm manufactures, so I know who not to support.

  41. Chris U5 says:

    Did you hear that ‘clunk’? Well that was the sound of my Moleskin notebook dropping in the trash can at my desk!
    I considered myself a fan of their products and was a regular customer…not anymore!

  42. Doc B says:

    Just a bit of a product recommendation for you guys to take or leave as you like, there is a series of notebooks made by Black n’ Red, which is a Brit company if I remember correctly. In any case I am unaware of any targeted stupid such as Moleskine has laid down, and their products are quality.

  43. TJ says:

    never bought a moleskin, not planning on it now… write in the rain is the way to go!

  44. Fab says:

    Moleskine has been “Made in China” for some time. This alone should put them on a list of companies Americans shouldn’t support. The fact that they don’t want an armed America citizenry should surprise no one. The PLA uses USMC and US Army uniforms/weapons/TTP/etc. as THE model for their OPFOR in most of their Live and Virtual training. How long are we going to fund the rise of this enemy?…until we’re broke and have nothing more than a bunch of Chinese-made junk filling our homes? Rite in the rain for all who train to fight….I’d rather have it in my cargo pocket running DASR ops in Asia anyway…or denying LOC’s in the Pacific NW if they can secure a beachhead…..

  45. John says:

    I dumped Moleskin’s a while back for Field Notes brand notebooks. The Field Notes books will actually fit in my pocket and the paper/construction is much better.

  46. Tim says:

    Looks like I got so new toilet paper out in the field…

  47. Steve says:

    http://fieldnotesbrand.com/
    USA made and small company! I have almost every set they’ve made. Well worth the money! Screw moleskin.

  48. KMC says:

    Thought I’d share my email to Moleskine:

    As someone who loves your products, especially your notebooks, I was shocked to find out about your company “guidelines” that prevent you from working with any weapon companies. Well, as a former long-time customer, my moral guidelines prevent me from working with companies that are against the U.S. Constitution (every part, not only those we like).
    Good luck and go f@!# yourselves you left-wing, bleeding heart liberal communists. Oh, and have a great day douchebags.

  49. Dave the Rave says:

    I just sent the link to this page to the NRA so they can follow up / act on it. They’ll probably first try to verify with Moleskine and get a comment, and if it’s true, share the info in one/all of their info resources. I don’t have the resources to do it, but the firearms community would benefit if we had a shared list of all these anti-freedom/anti-individuality companies. Many of us know of a few companies here and there, but it should be easy for a website to have a “living” list of all them.