Yesterday’s Fab.com email, contained a “stylish steel pen” called the Torr Classic. Surprising to see a very familiar rectangular steel sleeve with a ruler on it and cylindrical pen insert. Something definitely didn’t feel right…

Realizing it was extremely close to the CW&T Pen Type-A, which was one of the most funded early Kickstarter projects, that we have… i couldn’t help but wonder if they were connected.

Torr’s site was a surprise as well - Steven Tyler from Aerosmith “smoking” a Torr Classic? A half built template feeling website with broken links and images with painful fonts? As for the pen… the differences Torr has are a secret capsule, “versatile ink”, and personalized engraving. The Facebook page is slim, they have not tweeted, and the Google+ link is broken.

There is even a “James Bond Parody” short film where a man in tux throws his Torr Classic at a bad guy’s jugular…

A Kickstarter update from CW&T comes out last night… not only confirming that they are not involved with the Torr, but that the man we see all over the Torr website and Fab.com page is the man who “saved” them during their earlier manufacturing fiasco in china, and has been working closely with them for the last year to produce their pens!

Re-reading the updates from the kickstarter, the images of the same man and references to “Allen and Diana” are unmissable.

He and his girlfriend even worked a few late nights with them assembling the pens for shipping.

Curiosity led to Allen Areseneau’s linkedin - and JOIGA, the manufacturing company that CW&T hired to fabricate the Pen Type-A - interesting that the company even lists “providing legal protection in the US and in China”…

What a heinous situation to end up in! And the Pen Type-A kickstarter story has certainly become a valuable lesson to all in manufacturing, doing business, and how the world works…

On happier news, after a very frustrating time in China, they are now made in the USA!

… In a multi-generational family run machine shop in Vermont! It’s not hard to see how much love, precision, and passion go into the CW&T Pen Type-A!

… and how clear the quality and philosophical differences between Torr and CW&T are…

So the bottom line is, be careful who you work with, make sure you have ample legal protection of your work, and SUPPORT AWESOME DESIGN!

UPDATES

… Thrilled to hear Fab.com has pulled the sale!

… Awesome to see that a lot of people who have kickstarted the Pen Type-A are so supportive and understanding (and outraged!) in their comments

… Torr Pens has added an inspiration and design page - also some interesting comments.

… Torr Pens seems to have wiped the Inspiration and Design page above of all content sharing their inspiration and previous designs which inspired it (including the Pen Type-A) and the comment discussion that followed.