A lanyard is a lanyard is a lanyard!
How else would you define a simple cord used to suspend something or anything? Actually, the term is as old as shipping, or perhaps older. Nautically, a lanyard is a short rope or wire rove through deadeyes to hold and tauten standing rigging.
Today, people from almost all walks of life are using lanyards today, and oh! So creatively:
1. Promotions: This, perhaps, is the widest use today after shipping! Be it trade fairs or office, you can see people walking around with multicolor strings around their necks, nametags or ids dangling from them.
These are the cheapest and most attractive way of promoting your business in a large gathering. Nobody misses the vibrant colors of lanyards and you can personalize the lanyards with your company name and message. Many organizations offer them free to visitors at trade fairs and some even use them in mailers.
After all, everyone can use a nametag!
Schools use lanyards to identify different grades and these are specifically helpful when organizing large events.
2. Camping: Losing a knife, compass or any other camping gear is a nightmare only campers identify with. The solution again is a lanyard. Secure everything. People even use it to hang washed vessels from tree branches to air dry them, and cool a wine bottle in the river!
3. Boating: This probably is the only line of action that can’t do without lanyards. From paddles to map cases to water bottles, everything needs to be secured with lanyards for a successful journey!
4. At home: Have you ever wanted to pull the house down because you couldn’t locate the nail cutter or the can opener or the bottle opener…the list goes on! And, only because you forgot lanyards! Hook up your kitchen and hang everything where you can see it. Just like keys, gadgets have a way of disappearing when you need them the most!
5. Even the garage! That’s true. You need lanyards here too for the same reasons as you do in the kitchen. In this ‘Do it yourself’ age you need to be equipped and your equipment should be handy.
6. Just for fun: Creativity makes the world go in dimensions other than round! Lanyards have become a medium for expression and you can now pick up beaded lanyards, leather lanyards, plastic lanyards and much more in various knots, braids and shapes!
7. And this: You can’t really walk around today without a lanyard holding your camera, your goggles, your spectacles, whistles (if you are a coach!), cell phones, I-pods, PDAs, pagers, in fact almost everything that’s become a necessity today.
A simple piece of string has become a large part of life but like everything else useful, you need to be careful with lanyards. A short lanyard is useless but a longer than required lanyard is an accident waiting to happen. On a boat, it could entangle the gear and become dangerous, on the road it could wind around the wheels!
