05 November 2020

Van der Spek Touch Me A5 Manager - Short review

I've wanted to try out a Van der Spek Touch Me A5 for a while, there has recently been a restock and some new releases of the Touch Me range, so I ordered one quickly before they sold out!

The organiser arrived via FebEx quite quickly given the current state of lockdown! 

The Touch Me range is Van der Spek's 'ready to ship' range, you can choose silver or gold rings or size of Krause rings they fit. You can have your initials embossed on the cover. You can also add a flyleaf if you require one, but that is the limit of the options/customisation. 

Otherwise you select the organiser size and colour from a limited range of leather colours and you order it and it will be shipped to you within a few days. 

The organisers are made from leather sourced from a French tannery. They are assembled in a workshop in India that Petra and her father set up a few years ago. They went over there to train the staff in the use of the machinery they had shipped to India. 

The result is that the organisers are made to a high standard from good quality leather and they are then fitted with Krause rings. 

The design is very good, I have 'Touch Me' organisers in other sizes and I've found them to be very good. 



I opted for silver 35mm rings for my A5 Touch Me.

The inside cover and rear cover feature secretarial flaps, and the inside cover continues the full width behind these, unlike on some more expensive organisers where it becomes synthetic leather. 


The inside front cover features one of two elasticated pen loops, a full height zip pocket, a full height vertical slip pocket, two horizontal slip pockets, and a secretarial flap tops this off. 


The rear inside cover has the other elasticated pen loop, along with another secretarial flap which also features six horizontal card slots, with a larger horizontal slip pocket at the foot, and a full height vertical slip pocket. 





The Van der Spek A5 Manager Touch Me doesn't have any stiffener in the cover between the layers of leather, so it quite floppy and soft. 

It also includes a full width back pocket which can hold full size A4/Letter size paperwork. 

I've moved all my pages in, this includes this years and next years diary inserts! 


See the Van der Spek website for full details. 

Thank you to Petra Van der Spek for supplying the organiser for this post. 

2 comments:

  1. Oh wow, what a lovely A5 and a great review. I am currently in an A6 Touch Me Noir as it suits my appointments level at the moment. I loved A5 in my VDS Cuico leather, not a Touch Me colour and will go back to that if life gets busier again, at the moment it would look a bit blank and sad for itself if I used that size. You can't go wrong with anything VDS. Enjoy your new planner Steve. Just tackling the North face of the printing this morning to get ready for 2021. xxxx

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  2. Great review - it’s a beautiful organiser.

    I have a personal Touch Me in Tabac and I hope to own an A5 version eventually. I’m currently using a A5 Moterm because the layout looked very similar and The Touch Me range was out of stock for quite a while. It works for me on a practical level but it isn’t as beautiful as a VDS.

    I just wish VDS still had the Menthe colour - it was so beautiful. I missed the boat there!

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