(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
I was so excited to hear about a pen show in one of my favorite places to visit, New York City. This is the first year of the Empire State Pen Show (“ESPS” for short) and unlike past New York pen shows which were held in Long Island at Hofstra University, the ESPS was held in Midtown Manhattan. The show was organized by Frank Zhang (who also co-owns/organizes the CA Pen Show), so vendors who have experience with that well-run show, were willing to support this endeavor. New show means new report card, so let’s go!
Note: Most of my pictures were from Saturday morning before opening hours and Sunday was spent behind the table at Schon DSGN. I didn’t get as many pictures when it was busy on Saturday because I was stuck in my room cuz I hurt my back dragging suitcases on the thick carpet.
Empire State Pen Show at the Hilton in Midtown! Even though the note design is a pencil, it’s still a writing instrument!
Size - There were around 65 vendors which makes it on the smaller end of a medium-sized show. Vendors had anywhere from 1 to 6 tables. There was a good mix of vintage, modern, pens, paper, ink, stationery, and accessories.
I don’t have attendance numbers for the show but there were a decent number for a two day show. There were more people on Saturday, and fewer on Sunday (which is expected for most shows). Hard to say if the lighter attendance (especially on Sunday) was due to it being a new show, incoming storm, ComiCon, or the holiday weekend (Monday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day).
There is also a lot of physical room for the show to grow as well (more on that later).
Score - 6/10 (I have scored slightly larger medium shows as 7.)
Some of the team from Goldspot Pens brought their many exclusives (as well as other products) for the show. Tom Oddo, aka InkJournal, is waving at the end of the table.
Gary Lange is busy repping some of the many brands that Chartpak distributes.
The folks at Leuchtturm were busy embossing people’s names on their notebooks.
Ian Schon (right) and Mikey on Saturday morning before the crowds came in.
Can’t help but take a picture of these colorful Monocs.
Justin Zucker from Kenro/Esterbrook peeks out while setting up their banners.
Justin again, this time pointing at something on the table, while folks looked at all of their offerings. Joel Blumberg (founder and President of Kenro) is watching the action from behind the table to the left of Justin.
Mikayla Jackson of White Bear Pens with all her beautiful products set up.
I love these Ursa Minors! Thankfully, someone bought the one I was eyeing (the second from the bottom), which saved my wallet!
Fountain Pendulum had a variety of accessories, including pen rests, inks, totes, and more.
Joe Cortner (center) and his crew from Florida Fountain Pen with lots and lots of pens!
I was at first surprised, but then, not surprised, that there were so many stationery vendors from California. It made sense when I remembered that organizer Frank Zhang also works with these vendors at the CA Pen Show. I thought it was awesome that they decided to travel across the country to support this show! Also, I’m glad to see the continued addition of pen-adjacent/stationery vendors alongside traditional pen/ink/paper vendors.
Susie Cacacho of Shady Pines Paper Co had a lot of cute stuff at her table, don’t ask me how I know, lol.
It was great seeing Yushing Foo of Kuboandlucy Stationery Co again; I may or may not have bought stuff from her table at SF AND at this show!
Bloom Paper Studio, also based in California, had a lot of cute stationery and stickers - they have the cutest bear designs!
Mark Dwight (aka “not Rick”) of Rickshaw Bagworks didn’t have a table, but came to show support for the show and also handed out stickers and other goodies!
Not from California, but Japan-based Ahnitol has the coolest pen rests! I have several of these at home!
I forgot the name of this young lady from adopt-a-pals, but she was quite the saleswoman! I had the hardest time picking (since I already bought a dragon from them at BWI), but I did eventually get something!
Tori Woods of Stationery Universe always has a great assortment of stickers and washi, as well as her own line of Pennonia inks! She was also selling some of her pens, which I was REALLY tempted by.
Link Tong’s latest creation for his pop-up card company Roses Without Thorns!
Location - This is the first time in a long time (maybe ever? not sure cuz that’s before my time) that a pen show was held in Manhattan (and not in Long Island), so locals (and not-too-far train travelers) were excited to finally have a show in the city. Manhattan has a lot to offer in terms of food, art, entertainment, activities, shopping, etc., so it’s no surprise that it attracts visitors and vendors from out of town/state.
NYC has 3 major airports in the vicinity - JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark, NJ - which makes flying to NYC pretty easy. The show was held on the weekend of October 11th-12th and a nor’easter storm may have kept some locals home, and disrupted travel on Sunday. It is normally a nice, autumn time of year in the city, and while it was windy and rainy, it wasn’t super cold.
Score - 9/10 (Honestly, I’m not sure why I didn’t make this a 10 cuz I love going to NYC, but it can be a pricey place to visit.)
There were quite a few local vendors at the show, like Helen’s Creations (NJ), Kwohtations (NY), Inkii (NY), Josh Lax (NY), and more.
Helen of Helen’s Creations NJ (with her son, Dom) has beautiful pen cases and notebook covers made from Japanese fabrics, as well as glass dip pens, inks, pen trays and more!
Janine Kwoh of Kwohtations at her table. I love her stuff because she doesn’t shy away from real life topics, like grief, getting through tough times, letting a friend know you’re there for them, positive self-messages, and healing through humor.
I loved this NYC/Empire Station Pen Show journal spread at her table!
The folks behind Inkii started out of tinkering with leftover leather and materials, which resulted in the most delicious-looking pen/nib and glasses wipes ever.
They really leaned into the cannoli theme and I’m here for it! Too bad I couldn’t eat it!
Packing up my “cannoli” with tongs!
Chris Henline and Cary Yeager (former longtime NY resident) of Truphae had two tables full of gorgeous pens.
Hotel - The inaugural ESPS was held at the New York Hilton Midtown, on the corner of West 53rd Street and the Avenue of the Americas (aka 6th Ave). It is a very large hotel, with lines for the front desk that reminded me of a Las Vegas hotel, or a bank, as there were at least 8 stations for folks to check in/out of the hotel.
The hotel is 40 minutes drive northwest of Newark, 30 minutes west from LaGuardia, and 50 minutes northeast of JFK. Cost for an Uber/Lyft costs anywhere from 70-120 each way for each of the airports, depending on time of day. I took two trains from NJ after having breakfast with some friends, and that cost me, but I had to schlep my very heavy suitcases up multiple flights of stairs because there were no elevators at the stations I ended up at.
The hotel also had a coffee/breakfast bar, as well as a take out “market”, and a casual restaurant called Herb N’ Kitchen. I only got coffee and a croissant one morning and didn’t get anything else during my stay since Midtown is full of food options fitting all sorts of budgets and cuisines.
The rate for the Hilton was $319/night (before taxes), which is quite a bit higher than any other hotel on the circuit. It is about right for (1) this time of year, (2) Manhattan and Midtown, and (3) possibly ComiCon which was also happening the same weekend. Someone told me they stayed at a similar hotel in the area a couple days prior and it was closer to $500/night. Parking was available for $95/night. Pets are also allowed at the hotel but I don’t recall seeing any at the hotel.
The rooms themselves were fine, if a bit outdated, but my room had a small couch which doubled as a pullout bed. Based on conversations with a few folks, no one had coffee makers or fridges in their rooms, which is a bummer if you’re trying to save money by making your own coffee or eating leftovers.
View from my room - it was less nice as the weekend progressed.
The biggest annoyance, by far, was the elevator, which was being upgraded to a “smart elevator” system. First, you have to go to the correct bank of elevators corresponding to your floor. Then you tapped a screen with your floor, and the system would tell you which elevator door to go to. And lastly, the elevator would know which floor you’re going to, so you don’t have to press any buttons once you’re inside the elevator. I’ve seen this work smoothly at other hotels, but at this one, it was a nightmare.
Tap the floors that you’re trying to go to, and it’ll tell you which door to stand at.
If you want to go to the 28th floor, you’ll need to take elevator C8, which is arriving in 2 minutes (that estimate was often on the low side).
Since the show was on the second floor, if you wanted to go back to your room, you would be waiting for a very long time because the elevator was always full. This is because there were always people in the lobby trying to go back to their rooms. In fact, it was actually easier to go down the escalator and take the elevator up instead. Heaven help you if you were trying to get to another room on a floor that was in a different elevator bank than the one you were on. You would actually have to go all the way down to the lobby before going back up to the floor you wanted!
There were 7 folks (including me) trying to go down to the lobby and we had to wait for two elevators, and everyone in the second elevator squished in to let us in. They said they had waited TEN MINUTES before they got an available elevator because every one was full! I can’t imagine being a vendor who needed to “run upstairs real quick to get something” and then end up getting stuck for 20 minutes trying to go up or down. The hotel did say they were still in the process of these elevator upgrades, so hopefully it’ll be a better experience next time.
As for the show itself, it was easy to get to the second floor - you could use the elevators or one of the two sets of escalators from different parts of the lobby). Once upstairs, it was very open and roomy - unlike the crowded lobby and elevator areas.
Folks lining up to get inside - this was probably 10 minutes before the show started on Saturday.
The ballroom itself was also pretty spacious, though the ceilings were a bit low. The aisles were very wide and there was a good amount of space behind tables too. Some of the tables were a bit too close to each other, which sometimes resulted in customers overlapping other vendor’s tables. This was more of an issue for vendors who only had one table as multiple attendees would try to look at the table, but you could only fit 2-3 people max before they started blocking the tables on either side. It was a weird mix of “lots of space” due to the aisles and “too crowded” once you got to the table. Hopefully, as the show grows, they can still keep the wide aisles and have a bit more space next to the tables.
Leuchtturm was the first thing greeting you as you entered the ballroom. To the left is Chartpak, Esterbrook/Kenro and others.
To the right as you entered was Goldspot Pens along the wall (as you can see, everyone was still setting up).
The ballroom has a mostly L-shaped floorplan. The wall where Goldspot Pens was, would be the top of the L, aka the narrow part.
This is at the far end of the ballroom looking back towards the entrance. The show hadn’t opened yet, so you can really see how wide these aisles were, as well as how much room there is for the show to grow.
Near the end of the ballroom is the “bottom of the L”, where there are vendors along both walls, some in the middle, and also several large tables/chairs in the back for folks to take a break.
Score - 6.5/10 I would have rated it a 5 for the elevators, the cost for travelers to get to the hotel from the airport, as well as the very high room rate, even though it is reasonable for the city at this time of year. The location (Midtown is a great area) and the large ballroom space would have garnered an 8.
Tickets - Admission to the show costs $25 for Saturday (same price online as in-person), and $20 for Sunday since it ended one hour earlier. There were no weekend or two-day pass discounts. Kids under 12 were free. For a show in the city, the ticket price is reasonable, but there are shows in other major cities that charge less. I like that the Sunday price was discounted for the shorter day.
Side note: I appreciate that you can buy tickets online, not just for the show, but for the various events and classes too.
Score - 7/10
Classes/Seminars - There were 10 classes and seminars, with a wide range of costs, from free to $85. Some of the classes/seminars included Fountain Pen Basics seminar with Tom Oddo of Goldspot Pens, Making your own Stamp, Intro to Japanese Bookbinding, Copperplate Calligraphy, and my handwriting improvement class. I like that folks can sign up and pay online for the classes. Some of the classes got moved to different rooms due to the need (or lack thereof) for projectors, so that caused a little bit of confusion. I didn’t see anyone near the room helping students or teachers with directions or technical issues, so that could be something they could look into for next time. The classrooms were spacious, making it easy to fit 30 (or more) people with plenty of room. Considering this is a first time show and it was only announced on Instagram back in May, the variety and number of sessions were great.
Score - 8/10
Had a great time teaching this bunch! Couldn’t quite squeeze everyone into the pic!
Nib Workers - There were five nib workers at the show and I think that might have been about right, though it was fairly slow for most of them on Sunday. They were as follows (alphabetical by first name):
Damien chatting with a customer.
Situated next to the Kenro/Esterbrook tables, Josh Lax is working on a customer’s nib.
Taku was working on nibs by the OMAS table and also had some pens available for sale.
Could the show have benefitted from more nib workers? At this point, I don’t think so, but we’ll have to see how many folks come next year.
Score - 8/10 Higher score because it’s the right number for now, not because there are more or fewer than other shows.
Food - Lunch wasn’t provided for the vendors (most shows don’t do this), but there were a few hotel food options in the lobby. This is Midtown Manhattan, which means there were a TON of food options a block’s radius and even more if you went more than a block away.
Score - 9/10
If you didn’t want to leave the hotel, you could get a variety of packaged foods/drinks as well as coffee, pastries, etc. at the hotel “market”.
Not food, but this Papier Plume ink kit named “Manhattan Man-Eating Pizza” made me hungry, lol.
After Hours/Socializing - Even though the hotel lobby is huge, with a few cushioned chairs that were occupied most of the time (usually by folks waiting to check in, waiting for their Ubers, etc.), there really wasn’t anywhere to hang out in the actual lobby. There was a small lobby bar/lounge/restaurant as well - which was also full most of the time.
The Bridges bar was a great place to hang out for a beverage but wasn’t really conducive to the “let’s play with pens” kind of hangouts that happens at many other shows. Of course, to no one’s surprise, that’s where I spent my Friday and Saturday evenings (I had other evening plans on Sunday). The Bridges bar is decently large with several bartenders and good service, but it was quite loud and it wasn’t really conducive to playing with pens. Aside from vendors, I also hung out with a few attendees who had traveled for the show and were staying at the hotel. I think most of the folks who came to the show were locals (or close-enough to be locals), and left the hotel after they were done with the show.
Hanging out at the Bridges bar with Damien Alomar, and friends James and his wife Valerie.
There was a big storm that was coming in on Saturday and people were in a rush to get home. I think this was also the first show for a lot of folks and didn’t know that they should stick around after hours. Then again, I don’t know where we could’ve hung out that wasn’t at the (very loud) Bridges bar. Also, being in the middle of Manhattan makes it easy for folks to do other things after the show, like shop, go to the theatre, eat, etc. and going back to the hotel if you weren’t already staying there is probably the last thing most folks want to do. That said, it would be great if there were some post-show events that would encourage folks to hang out and meet each other. I think a short gathering from 5-7pm or something right after the show would be a lot of fun.
Score - 5/10 I always love seeing and spending time with my vendor friends, but I wished there was more of an After Hours scene to meet new pen friends.
Overall Sense/Vibe - Being a first show, there was definitely a sense of excitement for the attendees who finally got a show in the city. There were a fair number of first time show attendees and those newer to pens as well as seasoned veterans too. Along with that excitement came a bit of nervousness from the vendors who wondered what the show would be like and whether they’d do well enough to recoup the high cost of this show and hopefully make a profit as well.
Empire State Pen Show booklet.
The first of several pages inside the booklet, which also contained the floor map, vendor list, sponsored ads, etc.
Saturday, as expected, was a decently busy day. Nothing like the madness of shows like DC or SF, but it was good to see a good number of folks at the various tables. The aisles were very wide - a nice change compared to most shows.
It seemed like most of the attendees were from the NYC area, or within a train-able area. I’m glad to see “locals” (I consider anything within a 4-6-hour driving radius or short flight as “local”) supporting this show with their attendance. As I’ve said with other shows with a large local presence, I’d love to see more of them staying at the hotel (though at $300+/night, I totally get why they didn’t), or at least staying late enough at night to hang out because I don’t think I hung out with any locals after hours.
Score - 7/10
Other stuff -
- Sunday early packing up - This is not the only show where vendors start packing up early, but it felt more noticeable because it’s not a large show. I do think that the show could’ve ended at 4pm instead of 5pm on Sunday, but there should be some sort of contract or penalty for packing up before closing. There are some exceptions, like folks who had to leave early due to flight changes from the storm, but for the most part, vendors should stay until the end of the show and not start packing until then. It’s an awkward experience for customers who want to shop but either see an empty table, or a distracted vendor who is trying to pack up. Again, not unique to this show, but it was more visible here.
- Event Communication - I saw the first Instagram post for this show back in mid-May and followed right away, since I wanted to see if I could teach at the show. They posted 38 times, which is about 2 per week. I hadn’t signed up for any emails, so I don’t know how their emails were. I don’t recall seeing any posts on Facebook, but I’m not active there. I heard that their vendor communication was on par with other shows, which I guess is good? Considering the decent attendance, I think they did a pretty good job getting the word out. Hopefully, they can ramp this up for next year so that even more folks can enjoy this show.
- Decent sales - Most vendors seemed satisfied with their sales numbers for the show, even for folks who made less than at other shows. They felt that it was alright for a first time show, though Sunday sales were quite a bit lower. Again, hard to tell if this was due to the storm, ComiCon, or the usual Sunday slowness.
- Busy time of year - There are 6 pen shows in a 6 week week period. The Dallas Pen Show was 9/26-27, the Detroit Pen Show was the following weekend (10/3-5), then Empire State Pen Show (10/11-12), then Colorado Pen Show (10/17-19), and the Ohio Show two weekends after that (10/31-11/2). Even if they aren’t going to all of the shows, vendors have to pick the shows that will be the best bang for the buck. Considering the timing of the other nearby shows (Philly (Jan), BWI (Mar), DC (Aug), I don’t know if there are better times to have the show (aside from mid summer when it’s often hot and muggy).
Score - 7/10 It was a good show overall but it will need more attendees (and sales) so that vendors feel that it is worth their time, cost, and effort to attend this show.
Report Card: 0-50 Oof, do not attend
51-70 Show is alright
70-80 Show is solid
80-90 Show is pretty darned good!
91-100 REALLY good show and not to be missed
The 2025 Empire State Pen Show scored 72.5/100, which is pretty good given that it’s the first show. Being in Midtown Manhattan made the Location and Food scores higher than a lot of other shows. The Size score might go up if they added more vendors, and the After Hours score definitely has room for improvement. The biggest drawback to this show, if you’re not local, is the cost of travel and lodging.
All that being said, it seemed like everyone, including myself, was glad to be there. It will be interesting to see if they will move forward with the show next year (I hope they do) and if it will be held at the same hotel or elsewhere.
My haul was “relatively modest”, as I’m still recovering from both SF and Dallas shows. There’s just a lot of pictures cuz I couldn’t cram it all into one photo 🙂
Left to right: Stickers, cards, stamps, and washi tape from Kuboandlucy, 2 3D-printed spider pen rests from adopt-a-pals, sticker sheets from Stationery Universe, and 2025 Colorvent Calendar from Lemur Ink.
Clockwise from upper left: Grief Club book, sticker sheet and mystery pack from Kwohtations, Kingfisher ink and other goodies from Esterbrook, stickers from Shady Pines Paper Co, Zodiac Pen Co Virgo pen, Inkii Cannoli.
Clockwise from upper left: Wearingeul Call of Cthulhu, Colorverse Cosmic Lime Explosion, and tote from Goldspot Pens, NYC NIB Pride stickers from Damien Alomar’s fundraiser, Papier Plume Manhattan Man-Eating Pizza ink, notebook cover by Helen’s Creations NJ, purple A5 writing mat by Girologio, stickers/sticker sheets and washi tape from Stationery Universe.
Empire State Pen Show exclusives including an A5 Leuchtturm (I paid extra for the personalization), Robert Oster Central Park Twilight ink, show pin and bag, and pen sleeve from Rickshaw Bagworks.
As always, the real haul are the friends that I get to spend time with at the show – some of whom I haven’t seen in ages, and others only weeks prior.
That’s all the pen shows for me this year! I might have another trip or two for Fountain Pen Day and other store events so maybe I will see you out there. Until then, stay safe and stay inky!
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