Custom Trading Pins Are More Popular Than Ever

Custom Trading Pins have long been a part of youth sports, nowhere more so than in the world of youth league baseball and softball. Teams throughout the world love to get together at games and tournaments to trade pins. The invitation to trade pins quickly turns strangers into friends.

It’s not difficult to see why custom trading pins are so popular among both children and adults. They’re a great souvenir, linked to specific games and opponents, a terrific memento. Custom trading pins, properly designed, feature attractive artwork that captures the spirit of the teams, and are easily affordable.

Another key factor is that just about everyone has a natural desire to belong to a group, to be a part of something larger than themselves. Custom trading pins satisfy that desire by making traders feel that they are members of a group linked by the pins they trade. For parents, siblings and friends, custom trading pins offer a way to feel like they’re part of the team too.

Custom trading pins have a distinguished history among amateur athletes. The first such pins, in the Swedish colors of blue and yellow, appeared more than 100 years ago at the Olympic Games of 1906.  Soon, athletes from around the world began swapping custom trading pins as a way to demonstrate international fellowship through sports.

Athletes from all over the world began trading pins representing their countries as a way to show the joys of international friendship developed through sports competition. Custom trading pins were soon part of the Olympic tradition.

For many years, pin trading was largely confined to Olympic athletes and officials. But by the 1980s, spectators entered the realm of custom trading pins as well. Little League baseball issued its first official trading pins, and the hobby really took off. Today, the swapping of custom trading pins even attracts people to the Little League World Series each year who never see a baseball game while they’re there. For many more, the appeal of custom trading pins is secondary only to the games themselves.

Custom trading pins have proved popular in baseball and softball that other youth sports programs, including hockey, soccer and volleyball have begun to adopt custom trading pins of their own. But nowhere is the frenzy for the pins as strong as it is in baseball and softball.

One part of the fun of custom trading pins is in designing your own team’s pins. Mascots can be menacing or whimsical, depending on the team. They can have blinking eyes if desired. You can add motion to the pins in the form of spinners, sliders or even bobble heads. It’s up to you and your players to create the coolest designs for custom trading pins that you can imagine. The sky’s the limit! Let your imagination and that of your players run free.

Any good supplier of custom trading pins will have graphic artists on staff who will be able to help you turn your team’s vision into reality. The first time your players see their trading pin design and hold it in their hands, you’ll understand why custom trading pins are so popular.