The World of Lanyards

Category: Fashion

The lanyard; that beautiful, printed, coloured band around your neck to which an identity card is attached, has come a long way since it’s invention more than 500 years ago by the French. Back then, the French called it the “laniere” which meant a strap or thong made of rope or cord or hemp and was used to keep their weapons in position especially whilst climbing a ships' rigging, entering combat or riding a horse. It was the ship Captains who first began using the laniere around their neck with a whistle attached. The British beat police found this useful and adopted it, calling it the lanyard. Gradually the use of the laniere or lanyard spread throughout Europe and eventually, the rest of the World. These days, only the armed forces continue to use the lanyards made from cord and are used to hold the ceremonial sword or pistol in place during official events. The rest of the World uses the lanyard around the neck and it has a spring-loaded metal clip to which an identity card or tag can be attached. The lanyard serves a dual purpose – make the identity card easily available and visible, and more importantly, since the lanyard is custom printed with the logo and colours of the establishment issuing it, the lanyard itself acts as a security tag. Anyone sporting a differently printed lanyard can be immediately spotted. Moreover, the lanyard can be colour coded for each department, floor, event, function or nature of the work of the individual wearing it. The lanyard therefore, has become more than just a tool to hold the identity card or tag – the lanyard itself provides visual information to the security staff. When it comes to cultural events, lanyards can become as funky as you like. With luminous ink, you can have lanyards which not only look cool in the daylight, you can have them glow in the dark and made from UV yarn material. Switch off the lights for a second and security staff watching the cameras will spot any collar that does not sport the glowing lanyard. Funky with a serious purpose. Today, lanyards are made from a variety of material and are broadly classified into ‘plain’, ’sublimated’, ‘Nylon’, ‘Woven’ and ‘Polyester lanyards’. Essentially, there are two types of lanyards - ‘plain’ and ’sublimated’. ‘Plain’ obviously means non-printed. It is generally a simple, single coloured lanyard. ’Sublimated’ is where the fun is. Here, anything can be done and the sky is the limit. Logos, text, colour matching, luminous paint or ink – you name it, it can be done. The best place to order is on https://www.irelandlanyards.com/. Select the type of Eco Friendly Lanyards you need, upload your artwork (for sublimated type lanyards), mention the quantity required, and it can be done and shipped to you as quickly as you require with a leadtime normally of about two weeks for production.