ANATOMY OF A BADGE REEL

Badge reels are available in a variety of shapes, sizes and configurations. No matter which style you are considering they all share four main parts:

1. Clothing attachment hardware

Typically, badge reels are worn either on a belt, attached to a shirt or pants pocket or to the bottom of a neck lanyard. The clothing attachment hardware is either a belt clip or a spring loaded clip. The latter is used to attach the badge reel to an article of clothing other than a belt. Other badge reels have a slot at the top for attaching directly to lanyard material. Belt clip badge reels are by far the most common. The clothing attachment hardware is on the back of the case which houses the cord and a spring mechanism which controls the release and automatic uptake “retraction” of the cord. Because of this they are also referred to as retractable badge reels.

2. The housing case

The case can be either plastic a combination of plastic and metal or all metal. The plastic variety is the most popular and available in round and square shapes. Combination plastic and metal and metal are available in only round shapes and are typically more durable and costly than plastic badge reels. It’s the round plastic badge reel that’s typically used in the retractable lanyard. All badge reel varieties are available either blank or with a custom imprint. The imprint can be applied via pad printing directly to the surface of the badge reel or by placement of an adhesive vinyl sticker with a full color imprint. The downside to pad printing is that the imprints can scratch off and is usually limited to one or two colors. Full color process printed vinyl stickers are scratch and smudge resistant and are not limited to just one or two imprintable colors.

3. Retractable cord

The retractable badge reel cord is typically nylon, but some heavy-duty badge reels use steel. The most common and “user friendly” cord length is 30” with some as short as 17” and as long as 45”.

4. Attaching hardware

The badge holder hardware is almost always a vinyl strap clip which consists of a short vinyl strap which forms a closed loop via a metal snap. The straps fit through the slots at the top of badge holders and id cards. some varieties of badge reels come with a snap hook at the bottom for attaching either id cards or keys. This hardware is similar to the snaphooks used on lanyards discussed above in the lanyard hardware section. In addition to id cards and keys other convenient uses for badge reels include holding pens, small tools, and mini flashlights.

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