Custom Trading Pins Are a Treasured Part of Sports
Custom trading pins have been a part of sports at all age levels for more than a hundred years. From Little Leaguers to Olympians, players, coaches, parents and even game officials love to trade sports pins. Each country, team or sport can be represented with its own specific pin design.
Research shows the trading of custom pins at meets and games had its roots at the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896. Badges were used to identify officials and athletes. The first true pins – in Swedish blue and yellow -- appeared in 1906. Athletes were swapping trading pins among each other by the 1920s, as a symbol of international friendship.
At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., many more people discovered the fun of trading custom lapel pins to celebrate world unity through sports. Once Little League Baseball introduced its first official trading pin in 1983, the sport quickly became a frenzy of pin trading that continues today at games and tournaments.
The next big turning point in trading pin evolution was when corporate sponsors of the Olympic Games jumped into the action. Coca-Cola created its own Official Olympic Pin Trading Center at the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games, featuring custom Coke trading pins. The company now maintains a trading pin center at every Olympic Games.
The size, affordable pricing and attractive designs of sports trading pins make them uniquely desirable as souvenirs of Olympic games and other sporting events. Trading pins, as Coke’s website notes, “serve as cultural currency – sparking trades, creating personal connections and breaking down barriers among people of different backgrounds languages and customs.”
Custom trading pins are suitable keepsakes for just about any occasion. They’re a great way to foster loyalty and a sense of belonging among group members.
Trading pins at the Little League World Series held each year in South Williamsport, Pa., has become so popular that the trading sometimes almost seems bigger than the games. One newspaper report noted that trading pins are “almost legal tender” in the city.
Exceptional trading pins, those that include options such as spinners, danglers, glitter and sliders, can trade for more than one of more ordinary pins. A small investment in such extras pays off big at the trading tables.
Direct-Trading Pins is the finest provider of custom trading pins in the business. Call us today, toll free, at 1-888-677-4782, or email us at pins@direct-tradingpins.com to find out for yourself how our professional staff can make your team’s sports trading pin dreams come true.