Lanyards have become a day-to-day item for many businesses around the globe. They provide easy access and security solutions for small valuable items like IDs and USB drives. Unbeknownst to most, lanyards have quite the market around their procurement and sales. They come in various types and utilities. So, today, we will discuss the things you need to remember while selecting a lanyard for your business.
What are Lanyards?
They are thin-soft straps made from materials like cotton, polyester, or plastic. We use lanyards to attach to ID cards, USB Drives, or Security Badges and hang them around our necks. Most commonly, you may have seen them used in school ID cards. Some businesses also use them for marketing purposes by getting customized lanyards with their company's name or logo.
Types of Lanyards
Manufacturers have designed a variety of lanyards with different characteristics.
Breakaway
These types of lanyards have buckle-type mounting clips. This allows the user to easily attach and detach the lanyard with ease.
Designer
For use with fashion items like designer bags, manufacturers use these lanyards to match the design aesthetic of the item.
Beaded
These lanyards are made of metal instead of cloth like cotton or polyester. They are excellent for prolonged use and to use as a fashion accessory.
Double Ended
Unlike most lanyards that have a strip of cloth looped and the ends attached to the mounting clip, double-ended lanyards are open-ended. They have mounting clips on both ends. These use a buckle-type clip to attach to two mounting points and secure themselves around the neck.
Tubular
Most lanyards are thin strips of cloth, however, these lanyards are round-shaped, like a shoelace. They provide a better tensile ratio and are lighter and easy to wear.
Pocket
Unlike most lanyards that go around the neck, these are specifically designed to attach to pockets. Given their shorter length, they can be majorly used to secure keys and badges around the waist.
Woven
These lanyards are customizable, they have woven logos or names on them and serve as the perfect economical tool for marketing and merchandising purposes.
Full Color
As the name suggests, these are your typical lanyards but they offer a range of exciting color combinations that catches the eye.
Benefits of a Custom Lanyards
As we’ve discussed above, the different types of lanyards available in the market. Now, let's check out the benefits of using lanyards in your business or events.
Item Security
Having a lanyard provides you with a handy way to carry small valuable items without the risk of losing them. A lanyard clip works on a one-way hinge, attaching itself safely to the item and preventing accidental detachment.
Marketing & Merchandizing
Companies often get custom lanyards with their color theme, business logo, or name on them. This helps in authenticating the lanyard and also acts as a marketing tool. By giving away custom lanyards to participants of an event, companies can use them as merchandise.
Applications of Lanyards
There are many types of businesses, institutions, and events that use lanyards for day-to-day purposes. Often, due to their simplicity, we don’t attribute enough credit to these little things, but they serve a variety of important functions. Let’s check them out.
Schools & Universities
Children and teenagers are not particularly known for being very responsible, in fact, they tend to lose stuff quite frequently. Schools often use customized lanyards on ID cards and provide them to the students. This helps the staff easily identify every student while entering the premises, issuing books from the library, etc.
Healthcare
Working in a hospital, two things are of absolute necessity, namely – Time and Hygiene, none of which is upheld if you have to keep rummaging around your pockets for your ID/Access Card. Medical staff also use lanyards to hold retractable badges for safely holding their access cards.
Corporate Offices
Businesses use lanyard IDs to allow access to only authorized personnel and visitors to the facility.
Events & Conventions
The number of attendees for an event can vary greatly, from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands, like in a music festival. In such events, organizers usually use lanyards to safely attach attendance passes to people. This helps them grant access to people depending on their clearance levels.
Military Forces
The armed forces are a great admirer of simple and effective solutions, that’s why they love using lanyards. Military personnel often use lanyards to attach their equipment to their harness. For example, using lanyards to safely hold onto compasses.
Private Establishments
Many private establishments like libraries, sports clubs, gyms, etc make use of personalized lanyard ID cards to give access to their members. In libraries, they make it easier to lend books, and in gyms, it prevents outsiders from entering the premises.
Lifeguards
Lastly, I'm sure if you’ve ever watched a lifeguard, you might have noticed they keep a whistle hanging around their necks. This whistle is used to warn the swimmers of things like, danger, someone drowning, wildlife, etc. It is mandatory for lifeguards to use a strong lanyard to hold the whistle around their necks at all times while on the job. As the nature of their jobs requires them to jump into the water at a moment’s notice.
Things to Remember While Choosing Lanyards for Your Business
Although they may seem very simple, and similar to one another, different lanyards are compatible with different activities. That is why, there are a couple of things you need to factor in while choosing a lanyard for your business.
Material & Customization
There are three primary materials you can use to make a lanyard, namely – plastic, cotton, and polyester. All these materials have different properties, making them have different pros and cons. For example, cotton is probably the softest and least irritable to skin, but isn’t the strongest or cheapest to make.
Attachment Clip
Lanyards can use may different types of clips to attach to items, like a general toothed clip, harness clip, etc. Depending on the type of mounting surface on the card/cardholder, you can choose from different types of clips.
Conclusion
Lanyards may seem like simple strips of cloth used to hold onto items, but they are much more important and prevalent in use than one can imagine. By now you must already know the variety and applications of lanyards that are available in the market in the present day. So, before you go on to buying bulk orders of the stuff, keep in mind what you read in the blog above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Why are lanyards popular?
They provide a cheap and simplistic method of carrying ID cards and badges on one’s person. Lanyards make these items more accessible as they hand from the neck or the belt straps, avoiding the need to rummage through one’s pockets. They are also good at securing the said item and preventing loss.
Q2. What material is used for lanyards?
There are many materials a manufacturer can use to produce lanyards, but the most common materials are – Cotton, Polyester, Plastic, or Metal (for beaded lanyards).
Q3. What are the three types of lanyards?
We can classify lanyards based on multiple factors like application, material, properties, etc. However, according to the basic classification, there are three types of lanyards, namely – Shock-Absorbing, Self-Retracting, and Positioning Lanyards.
Disclaimer: The information presented here is for general information purposes only and true to best of our understanding. Users are requested to use any information as per their own understanding and knowledge. Before using any of the information, please refer to our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.
