How else would you define a clear cord used to suspend something or everything? 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 practically all walks of life are using lanyards today, and oh! So creatively:
1. Promotions: This, probably, 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 lowest cost and most attractive way of promoting your business in a large gathering. There isn’t anybody that misses the vibrant colors of lanyards and you can personalize the lanyards with your company name and message. Many firms offer them free to visitors at trade fairs and some even use them in mailers.
After all, all of us 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 vacationing gear is a nightmare only campers relate to. The solution again is a lanyard. Secure everything. People even use it to hang washed vessels from tree branches to air dry them, and spiffy a wine bottle in the river!
3. Boating: This more than likely is the only line of action that cant do without lanyards. From paddles to map cases to water bottles, everything needs to be secured with lanyards for a successful adventure!
4. At home: Have you ever wanted to pull the house down because you couldnt locate the nail cutter or the can opener or the bottle openerthe 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 vanishing when you need them the most!
5. Even the garage! Thats 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 prepared and your resources should be handy.
6. Just for fun: Creativity makes the world go in dimensions other than round! Lanyards have become an avenue for expression and you can now pick up beaded lanyards, leather lanyards, plastic lanyards and much more in a good amount of knots, braids and shapes!
7. And this: You cant 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 basically everything thats become a necessity today.
A easy piece of string has turn out to be 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 unsafe, on the road it could wind around the wheels!