The Story of With

Hi my name is Kirk and I started With to help you create more, in more places. It all started when my mom came home from the store with a little gift for me. It was a plastic mechanical pencil and a little tray with maybe twelve colored leads that went in the pencil. I was kinda cheap but it was a major upgrade for my drawing game, which I had been doing quite a bit. 

Not only did it open up the use of color for me, but it was so compact I could keep it in my pocket and take it with me wherever I went. I started drawing all the time, and my skills improved. 

Well eventually I wore down some of the leads so far I couldn't use them anymore. But when my mom and I went to replace the set we never found another one! Every art or craft store I went to I looked for another one of those sets but to no avail! I was so sad. This was the late 80s. 

Fast forward to the invention of the internet and at some point I figured surely now I can find one of these sets now. But alas, no such luck. All through college and art school my drawing skills improved but I longed my little portable set of colored pencils.

Some time around 2000 I found a company out of the Czech Republic selling some colored leads and got excited. I ordered some and was disappointed.  They were large (5mm) leads in just 24 colors that were very soft, almost like crayons, and crumbled when you tried to sharpen them to do fine detail. 

Then in the midst of the Covid pandemic, when we were all stuck at home bored. I became impassioned to create a set similar to what I had as a kid. I talked a high quality colored pencil manufacturer into selling leads without the wood pencil covering in a good range of colors and the first set was born. 

I worked on the format of storing the leads and also displaying them so you can see each color. I went through a bunch of failed ideas until coming up with the folding clear cases we use today as well as the wood pencils, and compact sharpeners. 

Now we come up with our own designs in house, we prototype them on 3d printers and lasers and machine tools. We make our waxed canvas cases from white US grown cotton which we dye, wax, cut, and sew ourselves. We have small shop and there are just a few of us, but we are ALL passionate about helping people create more. Incuding Alaska our shop dog. I know because she told me!