Welcome back to another episode of All Pipes Considered. We have something super special to talk about today, and that is Peterson's 2025 Pipe of the Year. In this video, we had the pleasure of chatting with Glen Whelan and Giacomo Penzo of Peterson in Ireland earlier this year on-location at the factory. Learn more about this exciting release as we continue celebrating 160 years of the Irish marque.

[Andy Wike]: Peterson's POY for 2025 is a special shape; it's another revival from the historic marque. Of course, this year is the 160th anniversary of Kapp & Peterson, so they brought back this really awesome Oom Paul shape. The historical shape designation for it is 02BB.

Our videographer, Chris Herath and I had the pleasure of visiting Peterson earlier this year, back in February, where we were able to see the first pipe that ever went through production from this line really still in the R&D phases. It was really a pleasure to be able to see how that shape came about.

We spoke with Glen Whelan and Giacomo Penzo about the origins of the shape.

Behind the Scenes Look at Peterson's PoY 2025

[Glen Whelan]: Hey, Andy. Good to see you again.

[AW]: I know that you guys are still kind of in the early days on the R&D here, but you have decided on the shape, right?

[GW]: We have. And you guys get to see the best of it. You get to see all the R&D that we talk so much about when we are talking about finished products. A lot of our consumers would recognize this year's Pipe of the Year as an 02 shape. We've gone for the more slender line one this year with classic style and I think it's just a quintessential piece.

[AW]: It's a gorgeous profile. I really love it. What I think is super cool about it is that this is a super iconic Peterson shape, but I think that you guys did a really nice job of modernizing it without changing the distinctive characteristics of the pipe. The first time it appeared in the catalog was in 1896, but it was listed as one of the oversized, right?

[GW]: Yeah, in the System line.

[AW]: Right. So oversized 02.

[GW]: Yeah, 3, 5, 6 designation as well in the Standard lines.

[AW]: I think this one was actually modeled off of a smaller version that came later.

[GW]: Yeah, it was a more slim-line version than in the old Rogers catalog from 1939. That's the earliest version that we know of in this classic style and that's what we were going for with this year's Pipe of the Year.

Classic 02BB Shape

[AW]: So on the topic of the Pipe of the Year, one of the things that I super appreciate about Peterson in general is that I feel like every year you guys are pushing the boundaries of what I thought was possible. Each pipe keeps getting better and better, and I'm left wondering how you did that.

Even the one that you're holding now, I know it's still in the early days of production in the R&D phase, but I feel like the execution just keeps getting better and better and better. It's not to say that any of the previous ones were poorly executed. It feels like you guys have really found your stride with Giacomo Penzo.

[GW]: The difficulty level is going up as well for the pipes we're producing.

[AW]: Between Giacomo and all the guys in the factory, papering is something worth noting for this pipe in particular.

[GW]: Oh, absolutely. It's usually a collaborative effort, from the top right down. When we start up with an idea in the office, we involve many people from the very beginning.

Giacomo Penzo's Craftsmanship

[AW]: You've designed a lot of the Pipe of the Years in the past several years. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with this year's design, which is a revival of the 02 shape?

[Giacomo Penzo]: Yeah, so the 02 was one of the shapes that we were looking at for the new Pipe of the Year. There were a few versions of the shape in Peterson's history, but we decided to make it the most iconic and beautiful version, in our opinion, which is the slender, taller version of the 02 shape. It's an Oom Paul shape, so it's a full bent pipe.

[AW]: It's a full bent and it has that tapered stem, so it creates this really cool curvature, almost like an "S." I really like that shape in particular because it has that Jay Leno chin going on; it's a very pronounced chin at the heel of the pipe. It's a straight, bold Billiard, but it does juts out a little bit because it's a strong bend.

[GP]: Yeah, exactly. It's been a bit of a challenge to make the samples because the engineering of the pipe and the shape are very hard to make in practice.

[AW]: Oh, I imagine.

[GP]: I made a few samples and then we decided on the best design. The shank is almost parallel to the chamber, so it's very extreme. But the balance of this pipe, I think, is the best you can have in all the shape charts that exist in the pipe world.

[GW]: The pipe looks like it has very straight lines, and it does. But when you're trying to maintain straight lines on a round bowl, like that tubular design, it is very difficult to maintain the shape in papering. It requires a huge level of control, skill, and just discipline as well. You have to be very patient with it.

[AW]: Especially on this year's model, because the shank is very nearly parallel with the bowl itself.

[GW]: Yeah, exactly. Even how the silver band lines up almost perfectly at the top of the bowl, there's a huge level of control involved to achieve that. And then I just love that swan neck flow.

[AW]: It's really nice.

[GW]: It's incredible.

Oom Paul 02BB Classic Pipe

[AW]: Just to wrap things up, we have the slim line adaptation of the 02. It's a classic, so not a System, but I think it's just really neat, as far as Pipe of the Year goes. Most of the ones that we've released in the past several years have been System pipes.

[GW]: Yeah. System or Army Mount.

[AW]: Yeah, so it's really cool to see a classic configuration that's still so true to the Peterson House style.

[GW]: Also, we refer to it as a slim line, but it's still in Peterson's aesthetic. It's still relatively muscular. It's just that more free-flowing design.

[AW]: Perfect. Glen, thank you so much for walking us through it.

[GW]: It's a pleasure, Andy.

[AW]: We're super excited to get these in and see what the full final selection looks like.

[GW]: I'm looking forward to this and everybody else seeing it too.

Peterson's Pipe of the Year 2025 | Available Now

[AW]: From those interviews, you can see the origins of this year's PoY and how the actual shape came to be. Now we're at the point where we can actually see the finished product.

We have a range of 2025 Pipe of the Years across some of Peterson's most iconic finishes, including Barley, PSB Rua, as well as staples like Heritage, Terracotta, Sandblasted, and Rusticated, of course. Really exceptional finishes on these, and I think being able to see that first pipe go through production and see it in the R&D phases, and then being able to compare it to what we see now is such a cool experience.

Obviously, as a Pete geek myself, I always look forward to Peterson's Pipe of the Year, and I think this year, particularly being the 160th anniversary of the marque, what they've come up with is something very special.

It's very iconically Peterson, both in shape and line as well as finishes, and I think all of you other Pete geeks out there are really gonna dig this one. Be sure to go check 'em out on-site now. Thanks so much.