Handmade Pens Made from Historical and Reclaimed Woods

Small Business Spotlight: Allegory Pens

Who: Chad Schumacher, @AllegoryPens

What: Handmade pens Chad Allegory Pens

When: 2012

Where: Chicago, Illinois

How: Founder Chad Schumacher and his wife had been working at a tech company that closed down, when Schumacher’s father crafted him a handmade pen out of wood. Schumacher says he thought there might be a market for these handmade pens made out of wood “with good stories,” such as wood taken from historical events, and launched a Kickstarter to fund the idea.

Schumacher says that the crowd doubled the goal amount that he had requested, which led him to consider the project as a viable business. Now, Schumacher is concentrating on Allegory Pens full time; he says the company expects to do $750,000 in business this year. To sell the pens, Schumacher partners with non-profits – he made pens for the honorees at the Susan G. Komen Pink Tie Gala last year – and markets his pens online.

Quote from the owner: “We take our historical woods very seriously. There’s a community of collectors that deal in historical woods, and we only get our wood from people with the highest reputations. From there, we conduct our own verification process, researching the transactions dealing with the wood by using library resources and documents from government officials.”

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