(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
There's a pencil case or organizer available for every situation you can think of. It's this vast variety that makes choosing a case so difficult, and it's also why I have so many cases in my closet that don't get used as often as they should. So many cases!
One trend I've noticed over the years is that cases usually try to solve specific carry requirements. Pen cases versus wood pencil cases, notebook cases versus stationery supply cases. The list goes on, but I've been really interested in generic stationery cases that can hold a wide assortment of things.
The Kokuyo NeoCritz Worxus case is one that falls in the latter category — generic stationery storage. While it's marketed as a pencil case, it really excels at storing chunkier items. Pencil sharpeners, erasers, headphones, lip balm, multi-tools, small notepads, and even some pens and pencils!
The exterior of this case is similar to many cases, in that you can tell it's some sort of long pen pouch. The zipper runs the entire top of the case, rounds the corner, and continues to the base. There are leather pull tabs on the top of the zipper and the zipper pull as well. It looks really sleek on the outside and fits in with any environment, especially with the black fabric on my copy.
Once you unzip the case, the zipped side is allowed to expand a bit, which makes it easy to open it wide and see what's inside. There's a lot of organization happening in this small space, but let's start at the top of the panel on the left side of the case. There's a small sleeve that provides a great spot to clip pens and pencils onto so that they're within easy reach and kept out of the bottom pouch where they could get scratched or difficult to find. It's a pretty lightweight pen/pencil storage system, but it's nice to have. This is one of the main reasons that I view this case as a generic stationery case versus a pen or pencil case.
Moving down the left side of the case, there's a zipper pouch that runs the length of the interior. This is a shallow pouch that has no real dimension, but the interior side is a mesh material that makes it easy to see what you've stored in here. This is great for cables and small adapters, earplugs, spare erasers for mechanical pencils, mechanical pencil lead, and anything else that is quite small. While the zipper pouch does run the full length of the case, it isn't attached to the long wall, meaning it also serves as a sleeve or divider for items that you don't want to mix in with the larger open compartment.
The main compartment is open and quite large given the overall size of the case. Your imagination is the only limitation as to what can fit in this section. Along the back and right walls, there are different lengths of nylon sleeving that add a little more organization. But, since they're so thin and minimal, they're also easy to flatten against the wall to make room for larger items. I've found that AirPods cases fit well, larger erasers, pencil sharpeners, and other small items that have clips really do well in these sleeves. They're nice because they keep things semi-organized in the case while you're moving from place to place.
Since the case has an expansion flap that opens up when the case is unzipped, that means it also has a nice compression effect when you zip the case closed. This means you can't stuff the case to the brim and expect it to shut nicely, but it provides a nice level of compression to keep the contents organized even when it gets jostled or shaken around in your bag.
The quality of the materials is fantastic for the price. The stitching is solid and the case is still lightweight and pliable. I can see this holding up for many, many years of use (assuming we can ever leave our homes again).
At $26, the Kokuyo NeoCritz Worxus case is a great price for such a versatile case. While it's not the best option for carrying nicer pens, it's a fantastic catch-all pouch that provides just enough organizing when you need it, but also disappears when you don't.
If you're not a fan of the black version shown here, you can also choose from Navy and Brown.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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