Words on the Goods

The Simple Plot is Story Supply’s impressive notebook cover, made out of Horween Chromexcel leather. It’s made in the U.S.A. (York, PA). And it’s surprisingly affordable for its quality ($35, currently on sale for $30). You can get it in Brown, Burgundy, and Black, topped off with your choice of elastic color.

Here’s what it looks like:

My favorite thing about this notebook cover is how beefy it is. It’s not inflexible by any means, and wears well. But it’s no flimsy leather, either. The thick elastic band makes it easy to attach items to the cover, if you like.

It looks and feels like the Start Bay Navigator notebook, though the Story Supply leather comes out of the box feeling a little softer.

It’s durable, made of high quality materials, stylish, and surprisingly affordable.

Also noteworthy is Story Supply’s commitment to social responsibility, “partnering with organizations who provide free tutoring, writing, and arts instruction to kids in under-served communities.” Your purchase of notebooks sends a Supply Kit “to a kid with a story to tell.” Read more here.

The 3.5” x 5.5” notebooks themselves are pretty sweet, with a smooth and fountain-pen friendly 70# creamish-colored paper. The paper notebook cover is hearty (100#), so will do well on its own if you want just the notebooks and not the leather cover. While I tend to prefer stitched binding to staples, for a temporary pocket notebook, it really doesn’t matter immensely, and the quality of Story Supply’s notebooks is in all other ways top-notch.

Also handy is that you can expand your leather cover to fit two (or more) notebooks.

There’s a nice how-to guide if you want to fit more notebooks in. Two fit easily—three probably would, too.

In a market that feels saturated, Story Supply Co. offers a great pocket notebook and even better leather cover for it. Visit them here.

Many thanks to Story Supply for the samples so I could write the review.