Like many minor sports organizations, my daughter’s baseball league was facing a funding crunch last year. Many parents were facing some economic difficulties and as a result, the number of players was down and the league’s revenues were correspondingly lower. The board was on pins and needles as opening day approached, hoping they’d have enough cash on hand to cover all of the operating expenses. It was a close thing, but they managed. However, the one thing that had to be cut was trophies for the kids. And that was too bad, because much as kids enjoy playing the game just to have fun, there’s something about the custom of handing out trophies or even an award plaque at the end of the playoffs. Unfortunately, both of those can be expensive. Frankly, the ones that were handed out last year weren’t all that great anyway. They were largely plastic, with a gold paint that rubbed off. I remembered seeing an invoice through my company for promotional lapel pins and decided that this might be worth looking into.
I looked around locally, but couldn’t find any companies that offered custom lapel pins. There was one place about 50 miles away, but they sourced everything from China and didn’t use air shipping, so by the time I placed an order, it could be a month before I saw the pins. Not good enough. On top of it, they wanted to charge me a fortune to help set up the artwork and I don’t know how to design a lapel pin, so costs would have kept creeping up. When searching online, I came across pinpros.com and quickly realized that I’d hit the lapel pin jackpot.
There are roughly two hundred girls signed up for our baseball league this year and the ideal situation is to be able to offer each of them a small recognition of their sportsmanship and accomplishment that season. Pin Pros offered lapel pins that are made of durable metal with enamel paint baked on, at prices that are way cheaper than those plastic trophies. The thing is, a lapel pin looks a lot nicer, the kids will actually wear them (on their hats, shirts, shoes or even lapels) and they’re inexpensive enough that we can purchase them for every kid in the league. That way they all have a sense of achievement, not just the dozen or so on the team that took first place for the year.
Another nice thing about custom lapel pins is that parents and grandparents will also wear them in support of their kids. The more we talked about this, the better an idea it sounded. We were able to get 300 diecast soft enamel pins in a 2 inch size with the leagues’s logo for only $1.65 each through Pin Pros. These diecast pins were made in America and shipped within a week. We had one for each girl and sold the extra hundred to parents for $5 each, earning enough extra money to pay for year end party.
