I depend on my Cahiers for work...but since I carry them in my back pocket and am constantly taking them out, putting them back, sitting on them et al, the covers were tending to tear along the binding (which itself never failed).

My solution was to completely wrap the covers in duct tape at the outset. The result looks like something out of Mad Max and is pretty much indestructible for my purposes.

Pilot G2 0.38mm goes in the other hip pocket parallel to the wallet, like all my pens for the last two decades. Never broken one yet.