Van der Spek Announce New Leather Colours For Their 'Touch-Me' Range

Van der Spek recently announced some new stock colours for their Touch Me Range. In addition to Noir (Black) they put a choice of colours to a vote and the three colours below were the ones chosen.

Van der Spek are very excited to let you know the New Touch Me Collection Colours that you chose:

• TM Alezan | Sandy Fawn Beige-Brown
• TM Thuya | Deep Forest Green
• TM Rhapsody | Dusty Purple

The TM Collection in these New Colours will be available on their webshop at the end of April 2023.

Please note that TM Standard Wide will only be available in TM Alezan.

You can sign up to receive a Launch Notification when we know the exact launch date, and you will be the first to be able to purchase these items before they will become available to the general public.

How to sign up?

· Go to the Touch Me Planner of your choice

https://vdsshop.com/shop/c/touch-me/cid:217/

· Select the new Touch Me Colour that you are interested in and fill in your email-address underneath that colour.

The 3 New TM colours will also be available as stock leathers for our Custom-Made Collection:

TM Thuya is already available right now

TM Alezan will be available from today on

TM Rhapsody will be available from December 1 on

The current TM Parme, TM Perle, and TM Poussiere will still be available in the TM Collection in the coming time. They will also still be available for all Custom-Made items.

In addition Van der Spek decided to offer a different 'brown' to the established 'Tabac' TM leather.

Again another vote took place on Facebook and Instagram for a new shade of 'Brown' to replace Tabac. 

And the winning colour is... TM MOKA!

The TM Collection in TM Moka will be available on their webshop at the end of June.

You can sign up to receive a Launch Notification when we know the exact launch date, and you will be the first to be able to purchase these items before they will become available to the general public.

 How to sign up?

· Go to the Touch Me Planner of your choice

https://vdsshop.com/shop/c/touch-me/cid:217/

· Select the colour TM Moka and fill in your email-address underneath that colour.

From today on TM Moka is also be available as a stock leather for our Custom-Made Collection.

TM Tabac will still be available in the TM Collection in the coming time.

It will also still be available for all Custom-Made items.

Thank you to Van der Spek for sharing this news with us. 

Which colour do you like? I quite like Moka and Thuya. 

Van der Spek - Standard Wide - A new size in the Touch Me range.

A lot of people asked Van der Spek for a Touch Me 'Personal Wide'. After some thought they have brought out a 'Standard Wide' version in their popular Touch Me range of ring bound organisers. 

Petra asked me if I would like to review a sample from the first batch that went on sale about a week ago. Of course I said yes. 

I'm not particularly keen on 'Personal Wide' as it's a size that was invented, it's almost ISO216 B6 size. To me using B6 size makes more sense because it is easier to scale inserts to that size. 

B6 is 125mm x 175mm whilst 'Personal Wide' is 121 x 172mm. The additional height of B6 is less of an issue and it's only 4 mm wider than 'Personal Wide' 

Obviously trying B6 or Personal Wide in a normal Standard even with 25mm rings isn't going to work, the pages stick out beyond the edge of the organiser! With 30mm rings the B6 paper pushes hard against the clasp!

The line at the edge of the B6 paper is where Personal Wide would finish, not that much different, but it just confirms that normal Standard size just isn't wide enough for every day use with the wider paper in 'Personal Wide' or B6. 

Standard fitted with 25mm rings

Now it is time to try out B6 in the new Standard Wide Van der Spek Touch Me. 

I'm pleased to confirm that even with 30mm rings fitted to the 'Standard Wide Touch Me, B6 fits perfectly and Personal Wide is 4 mm narrower, so no issues with that size either.

The Standard Wide Touch Me has been made generously sized to cope with being fitted with 30mm rings or 25mm rings if you wish.  

I used a stack of normal personal size inserts either side of B6 size paper to make sure that the B6 stack was in the middle of the rings, the peak of the arc of the rings and therefore at the widest point. 

Standard Wide fitted with 30mm rings

The rest of the design of the Standard Wide is the same as the normal Standard Touch Me, they both feature:

• Full width back pocket for larger sheets of paper
• Two pen loops, 
• Two full height secretarial pockets
• The inside front cover has a vertical slip pocket and also a full height zip pocket and a card pocket. 
• The inside back cover has 6 horizontal card slots on the front of the secretarial pocket.

Standard Wide in Stardust Velvet Matt Croco Leather

  

It should be noted that the inside leather goes the full width of the organiser, it's not cut out like on some other brands. The inside of the full width back pocket and the reverse side of the secretarial pockets are finished in a synthetic leather like material. 

The Standard Wide is also available in Noir(Black), Parme, Beige Croco and Stardust Velvet Matt Croco leathers. 

The Croco leathers are slightly more expensive because they take the trouble to line up the pattern on the interior and exterior leather covers as well as the clasp. Even at this price point Van der Spek go that extra distance to make sure your organiser looks perfect. 

Other than the choice of leather and the size of the rings it's not possible to customise the Touch Me range, but they are 'ready to ship' within 5 days of ordering subject to them being in stock. 

They come boxed in a black box featuring the company logo and were well packed and shipped by FedEx to my door within a few days of despatch. 

The Touch Me Standard Measures:

HEIGHT	194mm | 7.64"
WIDTH (CLOSED PLANNER)	146mm | 5.75"
WIDTH (FLAT OPEN PLANNER)	310mm | 12.2"
DEPTH	46mm | 1.81"

The Touch Me Standard Wide Measures:

HEIGHT	194mm | 7.64"
WIDTH (CLOSED PLANNER)	172mm | 6.77"
WIDTH (FLAT OPEN PLANNER)	362mm | 14.25"
DEPTH	46mm | 1.81"

See the full Van der Spek Touch Me range here. 

Thank you to Petra Van der Spek for making the samples available to me to try out. 

Now the exciting bit......

Win the Van der Spek Standard Wide featured in this post. 

To win the organiser you need to answer the following questions: 

1. In what year was Van der Spek Leather Goods first established?

2. What is the title of Steve Morton's new book that will be released on 3rd January 2022?

3. What is the name of the plannercast (podcast) that Steve co-hosts with Karine Tovmassian? 

Answers to all questions are in this post or recent posts on Philofaxy.

Please send your answers to philofaxy@gmail.com the competition will close at 23:00 GMT Monday 3rd January 2022. Please title your email 'Van der Spek' or similar so they can easily be filtered. 

Again a big thank you to Petra Van der Spek for her support. 

The boring but essential bit....

Terms and conditions of the Van der Spek give-away:

1. Only one entry per person.
2. Last date for entries 3 January 2022 at 23:00 GMT as specified by the United Kingdom National Physical Laboratory at Teddington. 
3. Entry is open to anyone on planet earth.
4. The number of prizes available is 1, the only colour available is as shown in the post. There are no alternatives.
5. The winning entry will be selected by a pseudo random generator more complex than Ernie the Premium Bond machine. 
6. The Judges decision is final.
7. No cash alternative is available.
8. No correspondence will be entered in to.

Further Information.

Web Site: https://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

Van der Spek announce an addition to their Touch Me range.

After consulting with their fans on Facebook and Instagram, Van der Spek announced today the details of their additional model for their Touch Me Range. 

The New Touch Me model will be:  Standard Wide  (compatible with Personal Wide paper + side tabs) 121 x 172mm with 25 or 30mm Krause rings. 

This new model will be added to the Touch Me ready made collection at the end of this year. 

For this introduction the Standard Wide will only be available in the colours TM Noir and TM Parme leathers.

Planner Size:

Height | 194mm | +/- 7.64 inch

Width (closed) | 172mm | +/- 6.77 inch

Width (flat open) | 362mm | +/- 14.25 inch

Depth | 46mm | +/- 1.81 inch 

The Standard Wide will join the other models in the Touch Me Range which include A5 Manager, Standard (Personal), Senior (A6), Junior (Pocket). When in stock these are all sold ready to ship within 5 days of your order being received. 

They represent great value for money and are well designed and well made. 

Thank you to the team at Van der Spek Leather Goods for sharing this news with Philofaxy. 

Further Information.

Web Site: http://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/ 

 

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. 

Further Information.

Web Site: http://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

Van der Spek Release New Touch Me Organiser Colours Today

It seems like a long time since we chose the new Touch Me colours, but three new colours will be available on the Van der Spek website today from mid-day CET onwards.

The Touch Me Organisers come in:

• Junior (Pocket) with 20mm rings and with full width back pocket;
• Senior (A6) with 20 or 25mm rings, two pen loops and full width back pocket;
• Standard (Personal) with 25 or 30mm rings, two pen loops and full width back pocket;
• Manger A5 (A5) with 35mm rings, two pen loops and full width back pocket;

The three new colours shown below are: Bordeaux, Lilac and Turquoise. Two of the existing colours Noir (Black) and Tabac (light brown) continue as well and will be restocked at the same time.

L-R Noir, Bordeaux, Tabac, Lilac, Turquoise

Please note that there might be some minor colour variation and variation of the surface texture compared to these small scanned leather samples shown above.

The 3 colours that will be discontinued from the Touch Me collection are: Menthe, Gris Blue, and Blue de France, these will remain whilst stocks last, but be fast as they are disappearing quite quickly.

Zipped Pen Pouches are also available in the matching leather colours as well.

There is also the Van der Spek Nomad in the Touch Me range for those of you that also like using Travellers Notebook covers.

I personally think that the Touch Me range of products from Van der Spek represents excellent value for money, and I'm not being paid to say/write that!

The buffalo leather is very durable from a French tannery and the design of the organisers should suit most people. The Touch Me organisers all come fitted with Krause rings in decent sizes.

You can find the full Touch Me range on the Van der Spek website.


Further Information.

Web Site: http://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

The New Van der Spek Touch Me Range Has Arrived!

Petra Van der Spek was proud to announce today that the new Touch Me range of organisers are now available on the VdS Shop website.

To the keen eyes amongst you there are some improvements to the design:

• Better leather has been used across the whole range
• On the Junior size (FF Pocket) they now have 20 mm rings fitted 
• On the Senior (A6), Standard (Personal) and Manager (A5) they now all come with two pen loops as standard. 
• Ring sizes on these sizes haven't changed: Senior (A6) 20mm or 25mm, Standard (Personal) 25mm or 30mm and Manager (A5) 35mm. All using Krause rings of course. 

Here are the leathers the Touch Me range are available in. 

L-R: Noir(Black), Gris-Blue, Blue de France, Tabac, Menthe

The Touch Me organisers are great value for money with a wonderful interior layout which includes a full width back pocket, plenty of pockets and secretarial pocket too and a zipped pocket as well. 

The Touch Me Nomad Travellers Notebook covers and Touch Me Writing Cases will also be available on the website soon. 

Full details of the range is now on the Van der Spek website.