Pen cases come in many shapes and forms. Not only to fit your personal style, but also to cater to your specific use case: Carry a single pen, or 10? Stay-at-home or writer on the go? Convenience and style, or portability? Especially in more recent years, Galen Leather has really put a lot of attention in catering to a wide audience with their pen cases and display boxes, churning out a boatload of new products in different sizes, shapes, and finishes, with almost 25 models currently available (and a few exciting novelties still to come!)!
Particularly the 'classic' style of zippered pen cases with elastic loops are quite well-represented on Galen's website. I already reviewed one of them, the Galen Leather Zippered 10-pen case & A5 notebook holder, though that one served sort of a dual purpose between pen case and notebook folio. In this review, we'll have a closer look at the more traditional pen cases they offer, aimed solely at carrying pens: the Zippered 3-, and 10-slot pen cases. Once again, I'd like to thank the Galen team for sending over these products for review!
There's a wide variety of sizes to choose from with Galen's Zippered pen cases, and the layout depends slightly on the size you go for. Regardless of size, the designs are all kept quite simple and clutter-free, with minimal branding on the backside. The main attraction is of course the wide variety of colored leathers you can choose from to match your style. I personally really like Galen's trademark 'Crazy Horse' leather (love the name!): smooth and soft leather with a pronounced distressed look that picks up a lovely patina with use. It gives the case a more casual look (as opposed to glossy or full-grain leather), and it's already scratched and scuffed out of the box, so you don't have to pamper it.
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| With the 3-pen case, you even get some spare room for business cards or, for example, a Galen Card Book |
The smaller 3- and 5-pen cases (pictured here is the 3-pen version, but they both share a similar design) have all pens on one side, with room for some small loose papers or cards on the opposite side (the slightly larger 5-pen case even fits a Field Notes style pocket notebook!).
The 3-pen case is made from a single, seamless piece of leather, which folds around the spine of the case on the long side. The way the case is assembled doesn't allow it to open up completely flat on its own, unfortunately.
The larger 6- and 10-pen cases divide the pens across both sides. Interestingly, there's a soft microfiber divider on each side of the case, and they are attached from the top. The way they did the dividers looks a bit unusual and perhaps unnecessary to have one on both sides. Though you can fold them over quite easily, allowing you to display your pens without the dividers in the way. The zipper on the larger cases (an even more 'heavy-duty' metal one than on the smaller models) opens up further into the spine, allowing the case to lay flat without effort.
As mentioned in my review of the 10-pen case & notebook folio, Galen recently changed to a different type of elastic band for their pen cases. The new type of elastic is more supple and soft to the touch than the ones in some of the cases I have in my hands (these particular samples are from before the switch). That said, even the least soft 'old' elastic I've tried, still didn't cause scratches or scuffs on any of the pens I tested it with.
The single row of wide elastics does a good job keeping most pens securely in place (unless they're very thin). On the 3-pen and 5-pen cases, the elastics are put closer towards the top of the case, which is both more difficult to put pens in and take them out of the case, and also giving the pens more wiggle room to bump into each other. Preferably, I'd like to see them put the elastic in the middle, like on all their other cases.
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| Top to bottom: Galen Zippered 3-pen and 10-pen cases, Aston Leather 10-pen case, Visconti Dreamtouch 12-pen case |
Both the 3- and 10-pen cases I tested are characterized by a particularly compact form factor. Especially the 10-pen case is tiny compared to alternatives with a similar capacity (such as the 12-pen Visconti Dreamtouch case, or Aston 10-pen case). The 3-pen case measures 15.5 cm/6.1" by 9 cm/ 3.5" (about the size of a modern smartphone) and is about 3 cm/ 1.2" thick when filled with pens. The 10-pen case is a bit taller and wider: 16.5 cm/ 6.5" by 13 cm/ 5.1".
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| Top to bottom: Galen Zippered 3-pen and 10-pen cases, Aston Leather 10-pen case, Visconti Dreamtouch 12-pen case |
The 10-pen case also bulks up considerably due to the double layer of pens, giving it a thickness somewhere between 3.5 and 4 cm/ 1.38-1.58", depending on the pens you put in it.
The microfiber dividers on each side of the 10-pen case add some bulk as well. It sometimes takes some fiddling to tuck them in and close the case in one elegant motion (one divider would've probably been enough). The dividers don't always cover the bottom of your pens if you carry a lot of very bulky pens, though they do still effectively keep the two sides of pens separated and protected.
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| A 'balanced' loadout that fits without issues. Notice that I did put the clips slightly sideways, which helps to reduce the bulk. |
As expected by their compact footprints, interior space in the Galen cases is used efficiently, though that doesn't mean you have to rule out larger pens. I would say these cases are ideal for mid-sized pens, but I was honestly quite surprised by how lenient these cases are towards large, even oversized pens. Montblanc 149? Fits no problem. Leonardo Momento Zero Grande? Tight squeeze, but even that still fits.
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| Only three at a time of course, but all of these pens can fit! |
The 3-pen case is slightly more cramped than the 10-pen variant, but in both cases you'll especially want to watch out with pens that are very wide, because the cases do bulk up rather quickly.
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| A 'balanced' loadout of larger and smaller pens, that fits without issues |
Especially really oversized pens (like the Leonardo MZ Grande) do tend to hug up against the metal zipper, which feels like it could scratch pens, so you'll want to pay attention when putting pens in/ taking them out of the case. This is especially something to look out for with the smaller 3-pen case, because on the 10-pen case the dividers cover up the top side and make it easier to put pens in the case without scraping against the zipper.
Galen Leather is probably best known for their creative, unique 'niche' writing accessories, like the 10-pen case & A5 notebook folio, the Writing Box, or Writer's Medic Bag. But they also have you covered when you just need a functional, no-frills EDC pen case.
The range of Galen Leather zippered pen cases offers clutter-free designs in a variety of leather options. I was surprised to see that their compact form factor still manages to offer decent carrying capacity, even for larger pens. To sweeten the deal, their prices are also very competitive compared to other leather pen cases on the market: The Galen Leather Zippered 3-pen case retails for 33€/ 39$, while the larger Galen Leather Zippered 10-pen case goes for 49€/ 58$.
These products were sent to me by Galen Leather, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post does not contain affiliate links.
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