They cost A$12.50 (US$7.88) online for a pack of 12 at Officeworks, but they are good enough for the most powerful man in the free world.
Sharpies seem to be the writing utensil of choice for United States President Donald Trump when signing documents, official or otherwise.
He was pictured using a thick black pen to write his signature on a series of executive orders on the first day of his second term in the White House in February.
Sharpies are made by 168-year-old Sanford, the division of the U.S. company subsidiary Newell Brands that is also responsible for Paper Mate pens and Elmers glue.
Invented in 1964 by the Sanford Ink Company as a fast-drying and smudge-resistant permanent marker, the Sharpie was intended for industrial and professional use but became popular in the 1970s with teachers, office workers and artists.
Newell Brands does not split out sales of these distinctive pens but the company’s writing segment generated revenue of US$2.6 billion in 2020.
Trump developed a penchant for using the distinctive black marker on executive orders, speeches and other documents during his first presidency and even asked for a Sharpie to be custom-designed for him.
"I was signing documents with a very expensive pen and it didn't write well," the President was once quoted as saying. "It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive.
"And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, 'Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.”
With such an influential tailwind behind the Sharpie, Azzet tried to find out what, if any effect Trump’s use of these pens has made to sales in Australia, in the United States or even around the world.
We contacted the media representatives of Newell Brands and the retailers that stock them in Australia including Wesfarmers unit Officeworks and Woolworths on 4 February. This gave them 3-4 business days to respond.
While we did not expect they would provide specific details on what is just one product among thousands (30,000 in stores and 40,000 online at Officeworks, 20,000 at Woolworths), we were not expecting what we got: nothing.
Is it a secret, or were their hard-working public relations people too busy to get back to us?
We may never know, but if we write a letter of complaint, Azzet can think of which permanent marker we might just turn to.
