The Van Der Spek Touch Me series is a ready-to-ship product range made in the Van Der Spek factory in India. You cannot customise a Touch Me, though you can order a custom binder in the Touch Me leather – if VDS has that leather available in their Dutch workshop. You can also order the Touch Me layout in a custom leather. I absolutely love the TM range because it is so well designed. Van Der Spek is mostly known for their custom designs, but the Touch Me range is a great starter model if you are not sure what custom you want, and it is also more budget-friendly.
The first Touch Me binders were available only in black and brown leather, and were slightly narrower. The second generation of TM binders were in the same black and brown leather, but slightly wider to allow for both smaller and larger rings. Here you can see first (narrower) and second (wider) generation Touch Me binders in standard (personal) size. Touch Mes do not patina, but the buffalo leather is lovely. You can order gold rings, but the popper will always be silver due to this being a ready-made model. You can also change to smaller rings by yourself if you wish, because VDS rings are replaceable. It is pretty easy to do.
The first coloured Touch Me was purple, but the leather was different from previous and future versions. It showed veining but the surface was smooth. This leather was used for only one season.
There are limited edition seasonal colours in the TM range as well as the basic colour range.
I haveTouch Mes in
and as of yesterday, I now have a beautiful A5 Manager in Beige Croco. This leather is gorgeously smooth and would easily wipe clean. I always used to use A5 binders for work, but changed to personal size about 8 years ago when the A5 size became too big and inconvenient to carry. I still use A5 binders at home though, to hold bills, to do lists, recipes, guarantees, itineraries etc. This one is going to hold 2022’s travel (hopefully) details, renovation documents for our bathroom, and our bucket list. The nicest thing is that even though this binder is light coloured, it can be wiped clean.
As always, your package comes beautifully wrapped. Your planner comes in a plastic bag, wrapped in tissue paper and in a beautiful black Van Der Spek box inside a sturdy cardboard shipping box. This means that no matter how damp or arduous the journey, your item will arrive intact.
Your new planner is beautiful! I ordered the Van Der Spek A5 Manager Touch Me in Stardust Croco. It hasn’t shipped yet because I also ordered custom widened zippered compartments. This is my first time having them widened, so it is a bit of an experiment. I like to have the leather fly leaf and leather zipper compartment curl around the rings and act as a ring protector. It is not perfect, but it does help. I’m so excited for my new planner to arrive!
I just received the A5 beige croco too. Interested in seeing which inserts you use for renovation, travel, etc
I’ve got the purple Touch Me and matching pencil case! I’m now trying to remember how many I have – three, I think. The purple one is my favourite as it’s A6 and nicely portable.