The Lanyard Story

I believe it was in January 2001 when I went to Dallas to visit the PPAI Show. Those were the old days before the show moved to Las Vegas. The things on display were the usual mix of pens, wearables, trophies, drinkware, basically the classic promotional product selection we were all used to.

Among all of the above we found some sort of laces. They were all over the place and there were quite a few companies displaying the laces and nothing else. We wondering what the hell is this for and how can a company make living by selling only this weird stuff .

So few days and few drinks later we decided that if such a funny thing like lanyard (by now we knew the proper name) can sell big in the USA, we should be able to sell it in Europe too.

It took a while but we found some manufacturers. The problem was not that they did not exist. The problem was that outside USA those days no one seemed to know what is lanyard, so it was not easy to explain what we are looking for .

After finding the supplier, we prepared some basic collection of different widths, different attachments and worked out costing for different quantities and branding technologies. Lanyards received nice full page in the new catalog, and …

… nothing happened. In the whole first year we made one order, 500 pcs . Such an instant hit these things became . But a year later, the hell broke loose. All of a sudden the lanyards became a must have for everybody. Not as a promotional product, bus as trendy fashion accessory. Massive 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide lanyards were the hottest ones to have … We were glad we were prepared, prepared way too in advance .

These days the lanyards are back where they belong. No longer a hot fashion accessory, but a useful product with prominent logo placement. In the old days all the trade show badges or employee cards and IDs were hanging on simple strings. Now the string is gone and lanyards are in (still). Here are few examples of use:

• Corporate Identity - It is much cheaper to hang company branded lanyard on the neck of each employee than buy uniforms for everybody.

• Events - Entrance tickets, conference passes, trade show badges - All these are often required to be visible on person all the time and that means on the neck these days. The branded lanyards replaced the older strings and even better, the safety pins from the days when it was common to pin the badge on one’s shirt.

• Sponsorship messages - Especially during the events, the lanyards often bear logos not only of the event itself but also of the sponsors. The lanyard is long enough to repeat one logo several times, or to alternate several logos over the length of the lanyard.

• Merchandising - The licensed merchandise is not cheap. Many people would love to have some souvenir after visiting a theme park or a sports match or a museum. Most of the shops these days carry lanyards and people do buy them. Maybe not because they are that great, but because the price makes them relatively affordable when compared to a piece of garment for example.

• Products Accessories - Branded with main product brand and used as camera holders, mobile phone straps (shorter versions also, as wrist straps), binoculars, flashligths …

The lanyards come in different materials (nylon, polyester, satin, cotton…), with different brand applications (print, jacquard, sublimation), with different accessories (clips, phone holders, safety breakaways). The most common widths are 1.5 - 2 cm (5/8 - 3/4″).

Did you know that some of the largest lanyard factories producing millions per year used to make shoe laces just few years back ?

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