Flex by Filofax - Review Part 2

Thanks for all the great feed back on the review of the Flex by Filofax, some of you have asked some questions, so I thought it best to add the answers to these to a separate post.

A couple of points to clarify, although I compared the Flex to my A5 Malden, the cover of the Flex is not made from leather. It's made in some form of synthetic material, but it has the look and feel of leather....but not the smell!!! As you will have seen from the photos, the detail in the stitching is very good, very close in fact to the stitching on the Malden. But in your hands you would know it wasn't leather straight away.  However, I think it is still very well made.

The pockets that the inserts fit in to on the A5 (page size 14.8 x 21 cm) Flex are 21.5 cm tall, the pockets on the Pocket size (page size 8 x 12 cm) 12.5 cm tall.

Weight wise with the A5 Flex fitted with the thin note book and the diary I would estimate it to be lighter than my Malden A5. With the A5 Flex fitted with the thick (256 page) note book and diary I would say it was slightly heavier than my A5 Malden. Although you will have to trust my judgement on that one, I don't have access to scales at this moment in time. I can measure them more accurately in a couple of days time.

Anyway some more pictures:

In this first picture is my A5 Malden at the top... if you need a clue... it is the one with (skinny) rings! and below it is the A5 Flex, with the diary (144 pages) and the thin notebook. (80 pages) In this picture both are inserted in to the inner pockets. Both overlap each other when open.

In this next picture again the same inserts in the Flex, except this time they are inserted in to the outer pockets, so when both are open they would both be fully visible (double page).

As you can see it makes no difference to the thickness and the pen holder (not shown) will still fit in an inner or outer pocket, this lets you have the pen in the middle or outside (like the Malden).

It is also possible to have one insert in an inner pocket and the other on an outer pocket. Like in this picture:

In this picture, I've changed the notebook for the thick (256 page) size and still with the diary insert. I had it set up as Diary in the back cover (on the right) and notebook in the front cover (on the left), but you could have it the other way around just as easily. 

This final picture shows the above set up laying flat, as you can see there is still a reasonable gap in the middle for the pen holder to sit in. 

People have asked about availability. Now available on the Filofax UK website.

If you have any more questions add them in to the comments and I will do my best to answer them, although there might be a bit of a delay as I'm travelling back to France tomorrow.

Although when I'm back in France I'm going to investigate doing a video review of the Flex, because I'm sure that will answer some more of your questions or confirm things slightly better.

Filofax USA Q&A

Last week before the meet up on Saturday, our 'roving reporter' Colie got to speak to some of the representatives of Filofax USA and fired some tough questions at them!  Well in a friendly way of course!

Thank you Colie for these detailed responses:

Marty from Filofax: Tell us more...Maldens, Stocklists, & Warnings

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Marty Kirschenheiter, the area manager for Filofax here in NYC. Marty represents Letts of London, Lamy, Lard-O-Led, and our personal favorite Filofax. He was very excited to meet and seemed genuinely happy to hear about the Philofaxy community! After meeting with him, I have to say he is a real gem and Filofax is very lucky to have someone both responsive and enthusiastic!

Marty said that he did not think the A5 Malden would be produced in red, at least not this year, but he did elaborate on the Malden line itself; noting that the Malden's leather is not bonded leather. It is instead, top grained leather which accounts for the variation we are seeing in the color and pattern of each individual Malden, especially in the Ochre color option.

Like the Philofaxy community, Marty did not really know why the international sites do not have the same stocklists/items but he did mention that all of the printing is done at the same location in England and that the individual countries create special orders for their refills from there. He did not foresee that changing any time soon. Marty warned that we should expect a decrease in the assortment of non-dated refills, as they discontinue items that have not sold well. (gulp)

Marty said that the Apex line was the closest to a kids line that Filofax has produced. He seems to see it more as a teenager's Filofax, but mentioned that it is a much harder vinyl than the Metropol.

●        Marty was carrying a black Guilford Extra Slimline with

○        month on 2 pages diary inserts

○        green ruled paper (whatever he picks up that week he uses)

○        the assorted sticky notes insert

○        the black ruler insert

●        At home, Marty keeps a black Hampden A5 as more of a journal with

○        month on 2 pages diary inserts

○        lots of business card holder inserts

○        address pages

Dominic from Filofax: Tell us more...about FLEX & Print-to-File software

"Everyone in the organization is very excited about Flex.  Before I speak about Flex, it’s important to note that our new Flex product is not a Filofax.  The Flex tagline is “Notes & More”, which really sums up its purpose.  Flex is a brand new concept in the notebook category.  Flex is a product that is used for taking notes, organizing thoughts, making lists, recording memories, sketching, planning and creating.  Flex is designed for thinkers, students, romantics, artists, mom’s, dad’s multi-taskers and everyone else who enjoys (or needs) to write things down.  Flex can be made to include a planner, but a planner is not its primary function.

The Flex product consists of a cover, or jacket, that is cleverly designed with slots that allow you to insert special notebooks inside of it. The design and placement of the slots enables you to insert up to several notebooks at a time.  The notebook inserts are formatted as ruled, blank, as an address book, a jot pad or even as a planner.  There is also a way to customize Flex with multiple pen loops.  The number and format of the notebooks and accessories that you use is totally up to you.  Whatever you decide to put in your Flex is certain to create a unique writing experience that feels great in your hand. Look for Flex to be on store shelves in the US by mid-July."

Dominic DiBella is President of Filofax, Inc. and started with the company way back in 1997, which happens to be the first year I bought my first Filofax! Dominic is a CPA and his first position at the company was as Financial Controller. Then a few years later he became CFO. Responsible for six stores, he really began to learn about the Filofax business. Sadly, none of the Filofax stores are open any more. Then in 2001, when Letts purchased Filofax, Dominic became President of Filofax, Inc.

Dominic uses a black personal Finchley as well as a black pocket Belgravia...

"In my Personal Finchley I use a lot of notepaper, to do lists, and stickey notes.  As for my Pocket Belgravia, I use this when I’m not travelling.  My pocket sized Filofax has just has a calendar, ruled papers and many to do lists.  I usually keep this in my car and take it home for the weekends."

I asked Dominic which item is he particularly fond of that does not seem to get enough attention.

" I really like our Print-to-File software.  When you combine the software with our laser paper, or even with one of our hole punches, you really get a chance to maximize your Filofax...I am a big fan of our Print-to-File software and so I use it to print off all of my sales and financial reports.  I then put these reports into my Filofax so that I can have them at the ready whenever I’m in a meeting.  This saves a lot of space in my briefcase and really helps me to stay organized by keeping my calendar, notes and reports all in the same place."

Note from Steve: I am reviewing the Flex System at the moment for you... please be patient it will be on here soon. Also I would love to know why the Print to File Software isn't available outside of the USA. 

Dominic from Filofax: Tell us more...Philofaxy Q&A

Dominic DiBella President of Filofax, Inc answers Philofaxy questions...

●        Butaben: Any chance of an A5 Malden being produced in red?

○        "Malden is a great product and there are more colors planned for launch.  Unfortunately a true Red is not presently in the works"

●        Alison Reeves: Why on earth don't they have a full range of inserts on their website? there are many on Euro sites - in English - that are not available on the US site. there is a lot of interest in the refills on the Denmark site.

○        "If you are referencing the US website, we do presently carry most of the English language inserts that the company makes. Of course with the vast selection of products that we have in production there are bound to be a few that we’ve missed. If there is something that is of particular interest then please let us know and we can certainly see about adding it to our website."

●        A: Consider releasing a kids-line? have you ever done a kids line? {For kids: sturdy cover, no leather, many different inserts, many compartments, room for photo ID and library cards, variety of calendars (due to different school systems with different time tables),all kinds of world maps, chemistry/physics/math inserts (not really cheat-sheets but general overviews) and maybe some small dictionaries. An English spell-well insert would be great too.}

○        "To my knowledge we have not produced a line that was aimed at young children.  Over the years we have produced a large number of products aimed at the school market, however most have been targeted towards university aged students.  We are currently working on a "youth" offering for next year. At present this line is targeted for the late teen/early twenty year old age group.  The suggestions for a young student product will certainly be taken into consideration."

●        Lee Ann: Will there be another sale soon?

○        "I believe this question is related to our UK website.  On occasion the US website will offer discounts on items that have been discontinued from the line, but we currently do not plan to discount any of our new or existing lines."

●        Lee Ann: Could they have a competition that is open to US residents?

○        "Yes there will be contests for US residents.  We are working on some fun contests for the third and fourth quarter.  Check back with www.filofaxusa.com in the fall to see what we have."

●        Lee Ann:  Any chance of discounts to email subscribers?

○        "US and Canadian customers who are on our mailing lists do receive exclusive coupons for free shipping and other "gift with purchase" promotions. Anyone who purchases from our website is automatically added to our email list unless they choose to opt out.  You can also add your name to our list without a purchase by going to our homepage at www.filofaxusa.com.  If you scroll to the bottom you can click on the link to add your name to our list."

●        Aunt Gloria: Are any plans to produce the personal in a larger ring size - any where from 1 1/4 to 2 inches?

○        At this time there are no plans for a ring size of 1 1/4 to 2 inches.  We are always reviewing our ring size offerings and will take your suggestion into consideration."

●        Kanalt: Any plans to sell the travel and / or city packs in U.S.?

○        "Yes, we can add these to our US website. Give us a few weeks."

●        David Popley: What can you tell us about the time management professional system that is on the UK site? Any chance of it coming to the US? Is it something Filofax plans on continuing?

○        "This product has been around for many years and is quite popular in the UK. Unfortunately I am not well acquainted with this range and so I cannot pass along many details. I do know that there are no plans to bring this product into the US at this time."

●        justenoughsalt: How are Letts, Lamy, and Filofax related?

○        "Filofax and Letts are part of the same company. Back in 2001 the owners of the Charles Letts & Company purchased Filofax Limited and then formed the Letts Filofax Group, Ltd. (LFG). The LFG is headquartered in Dalkeith, Scotland.  LFG also owns the Yard-O-Led brand of writing instruments that you see on our website. As for Lamy, LFG does not own them. Filofax, Inc. (The American subsidiary of LFG) is the US distributor for Lamy. Filofax, Inc. are also the US distributors for Caran d'Ache fine writing instruments."

●        justenoughsalt: When will the new organizers be out and in stores in N. America?

○        "Many of the new Filofax organizers will begin shipping in early June."

Thank you Colie for asking all of the questions on our behalf. 

Flex by Filofax - Review Part 1

When a company that has been known for one type of product for 90 years comes out with a new concept or design of product, it somewhat grabs your attention.  Flex by Filofax is just that. A totally new product line for them.

I received a large parcel just before I left to travel to UK on Monday, it was a bundle of the new Flex by Filofax consisting of a Pocket size Flex ‘binder’ and an A5 size Flex ‘binder’ in addition I also received some other inserts for both sizes.

This is the first time I had seen the Flex system, so it has taken me a few days to fully assess it before writing this review. Yes it’s made by Filofax, but it is very different to the organiser systems you are currently using.

There are some similarities so let’s deal with those first. The page sizes are the same, so pocket is 81x120 mm, A5 is 148x210 mm. There is a Slim size as well which is 150mm x 85mm slightly smaller than Filofax Personal Size.

Like a Filofax organiser there are a selection of ‘inserts’ that you can put in your Flex binder. However, an insert in the Flex system is effectively a bound book, not loose pages. Inserts such as plain or ruled paper come in a variety of page numbers so you have some control of how ‘thick’ or ‘thin’ your Flex is.

I’m not sure why, but I was expecting a very technical solution as to how the ‘inserts’ are attached to the binder. But there isn’t one. If you think of your Filofax organiser without the ring mechanism (possibly quite a costly item these days) then on the front and back cover there are slots or pockets running from top to bottom of the cover, these are quite wide. You simply insert the cover of the insert from the left or the right into the pocket.

Being such a simple solution it does facilitate quite a few permutations that you can use in setting up your Flex system.

So far I’ve come up with these ideas:

• Normally we think of a book being bound in the middle when you open it. With the Flex system you can have it like that. However, you can also put the binding at the edges with the opening sides in the middle. This raises some interesting possibilities, which I will come on to later.
• The pen holder included with your Flex binder can be inserted on the left or the right or in the middle. Left handed people can celebrate this system I think would cope with their needs perfectly.
• Being able to insert any number of combination inserts in to the binder allows you to mix and match the different inserts available and the method of moving them in or out of your simple is very quick and not complicated at all. For instance with the Flex binder you get a Jot-Pad, there’s no need for this to sit in the binder all the time you could keep it in your kitchen for making shopping lists, then just as you go out shopping you pop it in to your Flex binder and it is then integrated in to your system again.
• There are diary inserts; so far I have only seen a Week on Two Page format and Year planners. But if they one day they produce a Page Per Day format as well. You could have say Week on Two Pages on one side of the binder and Day Per Page on the other side of the binder, when open, both would be fully visible at the same time. 

The diary inserts I received are 2011/2012 13 month week to view and they include the following:

• 13 month week per view diary (July 2011 – July 2012) in English only
• Each week has a ‘This Week’ space along with a monthly calendar and then equal spaces for each day.
• Four year calendar blocks
• 2012 + 2013 Month planners (the cover sheet says 2011 + 2012 this is an error)
• International information
• European information.
• Notable dates
• Religious festivals
• Weights and Measures
• The World and time
• Personal Information.

The paper is similar to Filofax cotton cream; it feels quite high quality and smooth to touch. In total it is 144 pages. The level of detail in the information is similar if not the same as in a conventional Filofax diary insert, but obviously you can’t remove pages you will not use, and they have to stay in the same order. 

In the above picture you can see an A5 Flex binder with a notebook inserted on the left but with the binding in the middle, whilst on the right the plain notebook is inserted with the binding on the outside edge, as you can see when open it they do overlap.

In the picture below on the left is the A5 Flex binder in grey sitting next to my grey A5 Malden (I had to get a Malden in here somewhere!!) As you can see the Flex binder is slightly smaller although the paper size is the same.

This picture shows the standard A5 Flex set up of an 80 page ruled notebook, 32 page jotter pad and moveable elasticated pen holder

Opening everything up.

Here I've removed all the inserts so you can see the binder in it's basic form. Even with an insert on the left hand side it is still possible to access the car slots on the left hand side. The pockets that the inserts slip in to can be used as a secretarial pocket if there isn't an insert slotted in to it.

Here is a Pocket Magenta Flex binder.

Again this comes with a standard set up of a 64 page ruled notebook, 32 page jot pad and a moveable elasticated pen holder

Again removing the inserts shows the detail of the car slots on the left and you will notice the horizontal slots for the jotter pad top and bottom so you can use the binder with the pad on the left or the right.

Here I've inserted the Week on Two Page diary insert on the right and a 256 page notebook on the left. As mentioned earlier, with it fully open the card slots are still accessible.

The view from above of this quite 'chunky' set up. The pen holder is still usable.

And fully closed with these to inserts in place here you are seeing the binding side, so it more or less protects the pages too.

Prices are as follows:

			2011 RSP (Inc VAT)
CODE	SIZE	PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Covers
852001	Pocket	Filled Pocket Flex Black	£      17.00
852003	Pocket	Filled Pocket Flex Magenta	£      17.00
852004	Pocket	Filled Pocket Flex Slate	£      17.00
854001	Slim	Filled Slim Flex Black	£      19.00
854003	Slim	Filled Slim Flex Magenta	£      19.00
854004	Slim	Filled Slim Flex Slate	£      19.00
855001	A5	Filled A5 Flex Black	£      27.00
855003	A5	Filled A5 Flex Magenta	£      27.00
855004	A5	Filled A5 Flex Slate	£      27.00
Dated
8621111	Pocket	Pocket English Week on 2 Pages Flex Diary July 2011-July 2012	£       5.50
8620112	Pocket	Pocket English Week on 2 Pages Flex Diary Dec 2011-Dec 2012	£       5.50
8621011	Pocket	Pocket Multi-Language Flex Horizontal Year Planner 2011	£       2.50
8621012	Pocket	Pocket Multi-Language Flex Horizontal Year Planner 2012	£       2.50
8641111	Slim	Slim English Week on 2 Pages Flex Diary July 2011-July 2012	£       7.50
8640112	Slim	Slim English Week on 2 Pages Flex Diary Dec 2011-Dec 2012	£       7.50
8641011	Slim	Slim Multi-Language Flex Horizontal Year Planner 2011	£       3.00
8641012	Slim	Slim Multi-Language Flex Horizontal Year Planner 2012	£       3.00
8651111	A5	A5 English Week on 2 Pages Flex Diary July 2011-July 2012	£      10.00
8650112	A5	A5 English Week on 2 Pages Flex Diary Dec 2011-Dec 2012	£      10.00
8651011	A5	A5 Multi-Language Flex Horizontal Year Planner 2011	£       3.25
8651012	A5	A5 Multi-Language Flex Horizontal Year Planner 2012	£       3.25
Refills
872001	Pocket	Pocket Flex Thin Ruled Notebook	£       3.50
872002	Pocket	Pocket Flex Thick Ruled Notebook	£       7.50
872003	Pocket	Pocket Flex Thin Plain Notebook	£       3.50
872004	Pocket	Pocket Flex Thick Plain Notebook	£       7.50
872005	Pocket	Pocket Flex Contacts	£       3.50
892001	Pocket	Pocket Flex Jot Pad	£       6.00
892002	Pocket	Pocket Flex Pen Holder	£       2.00
874001	Slim	Slim Flex Thin Ruled Notebook	£       4.50
874002	Slim	Slim Flex Thin Plain Notebook	£       4.50
874003	Slim	Slim Flex Contacts	£       4.50
894001	Slim	Slim Flex Jot Pad	£       8.50
894002	Slim	Slim Flex Pen Holder	£       2.50
875001	A5	A5 Flex Thin Ruled Notebook	£       5.50
875002	A5	A5 Flex Thick Ruled Notebook	£      10.00
875003	A5	A5 Flex Thin Plain Notebook	£       5.50
875004	A5	A5 Flex Thick Plain Notebook	£      10.00
875005	A5	A5 Flex Contacts	£       5.50
895001	A5	A5 Flex Jot Pad	£      10.00
895002	A5	A5 Flex Pen Holder	£       3.00

Flex is currently available in stores at the moment and available on-line in the next couple of weeks.

There is also a dedicated website for the 'Flex by Filofax' where people have posted their own feedback about the Flex system

I'm not sure I would replace my Filofax with a Flex system. But I have to say I think this new product should be a success, particularly if they expand the range of inserts available and possibly the number of colours/styles of the binders.  I particularly like the way the binder has been designed, the way the pockets if not used for an insert you can use then as a pocket for storing notes, tickets etc.

Thank you to Filofax for sending me the free samples to review.