Truphae Brick & Mortar Grand Opening

By Chris Henline

Those who know me know that I'm quite the dreamer - but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a Truphae storefront in downtown Greenville, SC, fully stocked with the finest of fountain pens and ink. Complimented by the huge support of brand distributors and our faithful customers, our leap to brick and mortar turned into one of the most epic weekends I’ve ever had! 

How did we end up here!?

As a long-time proponent for online retail, I was a die-hard believer that the Internet was the only place for Truphae.

As a bit of an introvert, this just made sense to me! We began Truphae in 2016, working solely out of our apartment, fulfilling orders from our kitchen table. I always wanted to focus on being easy to deal with, and on trying to provide as good of customer services as I could.

Thankfully, I believe this helped to grow our business tremendously over the course of 3 years – to the point that we were no longer able to house our inventory.

Something had to give - you can only live for so long with pen boxes in your bathroom, kitchen and dining room! 

With the closing of several fountain pen retailers in our areas of Greenville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and more, it felt like there was a need for a place where people could come test out any pen they please. It would be a great way for us to finally meet the people that we electronically corresponded with for so long.

I could know people by their face instead of their Instagram username now! So what began as a storage issue and a lack of workspace blossomed into so much more.

September 21^st, 2019

Launching the thINK Initiative

If you’re like me, you’re a bit peeved that kids are no longer taught to write in cursive.

In a world overloaded with technology, it feels like they’re barely taught to write at all! However, there is a huge shift happening in the fountain pen demographic.

In an industry that the general populous would view as a washed-up has-been, we’re seeing Millennials grow more and more fond of fine writing instruments. I think it's a reprieve from the technology that's shoved in our faces at every waking moment.

We want to do our part in fostering this creativity, so we are launching the thINK Initiative!

For every purchase made in-store (big or small!), or on our website, we will donate a beginner fountain pen to a creative writing program, art institute or school.

We have begun taking applications to receive these fountain pens, so if you know anyone that works closely with young people in this capacity, please feel free to reach out and we will work on getting some free fountain pens to you! 

What’s next?

If you thought this was the end of the festivities planned for our brick and mortar location, think again! We plan to do brand events every few weekends, with some already in the works.

We plan to host events with David Oscarson, LAMY, Pilot, and Visconti within the next 4 months. We also plan to work with a local calligrapher to offer periodical lettering classes through her Sip & Script affiliation. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to find out when these events will be held.

In conclusion, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our amazing supporters and customers – you are all like friends to us, and I hope that we can repay this amazing fountain pen community through our continued involvement in bringing unique experiences to both our online and in-store supporters.

Thank you all! See below for more photos!