This notebook was a random Amazon find. I’d never heard of the brand Superior Maker and figured it was some Chinese manufacturer marketing cheap knock-off notebooks directly. Their products, which also include lint rollers and rubber doorstops, are indeed made in China, but the company is actually based in New Zealand. Other than that, there isn’t much information about them. There is definitely no romantic backstory about Hemingway or Picasso or anyone using this brand, but let’s take a look their notebook, which is actually rather nice!

The first impression I had was that the Superior Maker notebook is pleasingly chunky– it’s a bit thicker than most pocket notebooks, with somewhat thicker covers under a softer textured faux leather. It is 3.5 x 5.5″ and is just a hair smaller in length and width than a pocket Moleskine (shown below for comparison). The cover overhang is bigger than I’d like, but I found myself a little less bothered by it because it seems proportional to the thickness of the boards, and it is squarely bound and even all around.

The packaging is very standard– paper wrapper under the shrinkwrap, brand stamped on the back, elastic closure, ribbon marker. On the inside, it is totally plain. There is a pocket in the back. When you open the notebook, there is a sheet of stickers tucked inside the front cover, which is a nice extra. One label is meant to be used on the front cover, and the others are page tabs. The pages are lined in a nice faint grey.

The lines are a bit wider spaced than most notebooks, at 7mm vs. 6mm in a Moleskine. The paper doesn’t feel quite as smooth as Moleskine paper, but has a similar creamy tone. It is said to be 100 GSM and does feel heavier than standard Moleskine paper. Show-through is about average but bleed-through was a bit better than average. There were a few wetter pens that showed slight feathering but otherwise it is actually pretty fountain pen friendly unless you are using a wider, wetter nib or pressing down to get a lot of flex in your line width. I even tested some watercolors and found that the paper held up fine, though I would not recommend heavy wet usage.

Overall, this is a cute little notebook that turned out to be a very pleasant surprise in terms of quality and value. If it came with blank or grid pages, and had a little less overhang, I’d consider it pretty much perfect! It is only $8.95 on Amazon! The 5 x 8.25″ version is only $9.95. They also have some 3 packs of Field Notes-ish journals, and a heavier weight sketchbook, and everything qualifies for free shipping if you meet Amazon’s $25 minimum or have a Prime membership. The Superior Maker notebook is definitely worth checking out.