I rather enjoy the concept of EDC (Every Day Carry). I often have a pen and a pencil in my pockets, along with a pocket knife and a small flashlight. Keys go in the other pocket, and a handmade hank sits in my left hip pocket, wallet in the right.

But I have always had trouble fitting a Field Notes pocket notebook into my EDC. Sometimes it went in my shirt pocket. But other times, I didn’t have a shirt pocket. So it would have to go in a back pocket of my jeans. But sitting on it all the time tears the covers up faster than anything else.

I got to the point where I would toss it in my bag, but it was harder to find. And there was a bit of the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality there, too. If I didn’t see it, or have it on me, I would use it less.

Eventually, I decided to try a cover. I tried leather and fabric, and even a canvas one. That stopped them from deteriorating so quickly, but there still wasn’t a lot of extra room in my pockets. It still got tossed into my bag more often than not.

But then I found out that you can combine a wallet with a Field Notes cover. What?!

That is brilliant! So I started looking around for one, and finally found Popov Leather. Based just north of the Washington-Idaho state line in British Colombia, Canada, Ryan Popoff began working with leather just a few years ago, in 2013.