In today’s visual environment, trading pins don’t just get stuck on jackets. You’ll also see them on hats—baseball hats, in particular—as well as on warm-up jackets, sweat suits, and running outfits. Trading these pins is a new way for kids to meet others and save the memories.
Since the 1924 Olympics, athletes have traded lapel pins prior to competition. The activity encourages the teams to intermingle, which fosters sportsmanship between them. Even though the traditional time for trading is during opening ceremonies, kids trade baseball trading pins all year long with their newly-found friends, especially since it’s so easy to stay in touch with the internet. They learn the culture of their pen pals by sending them across the nation and around the world.
Most leagues will order pins for their tournament team, made up of all-stars from within their league. The pins become a visible, valued token of their achievement that they’ll wear with pride. Imagine how impressive it would be for an athlete to earn a baseball trading pin every year for each of their years in Little League. Very few players will be able to do that.
When the all-star team travels for tournaments, take extra baseball trading pins and have the kids trade them with the members of other teams. The more you have made, the more you’ll have for trading. Maybe you want a short run of 100 each year with the date. You could also order a lot of 1,000 with your team or city’s name. The pins will be evergreen, never going out of date, so you can use them for a few years.
When you design your pins, go for the gold. The flashier your baseball trading pins, the more demand your team will receive for them, giving them an advantage when trading. Quantity discounts can really lower the price of 1,000 trading pins, but if you can only afford 100, they’re not that much more expensive per unit. Multiple colors and any of the new embellishments will cost more, but also increase the value. And you can bet that every year the technology leaps ahead, giving you the newest state of the art in trading pin production.
Trading pins aren’t just for baseball teams. Cheerleaders, basketball squads, track teams—in fact, any team with esprit de corps–can design their own unique trading pins to save and swap with other teams. The pins trade fast and last longer than the endless summer.