The question of Magnetic Pinbacks vs Clutch Pinbacks as the games approach.

This here might be something trending that not only sponsor collectors, but all Olympic Pin collectors could be concerned with.  In the sponsor pin collecting area, and to a lesser extent other types of pin collecting, we are seeing a tendency moving towards “magnetic” backings, as opposed to what might be considered the traditional clutch pinback.

As of this date, I have not seen any reason for this change.  For those of us who have been collecting for a long time, (as for myself since 1984), we have seen the hobby go from basic stick pins to safety pins, about a 60/40 mix in 1984, to the standard clutch which we see today. 

Now it seems, seemingly increasing during the delayed Tokyo 2020 games, that the magnetic pins seem to be coming more and more into the forefront.  As with any pin we all collect, it is not so much what we do with the pins during the games, but what we add to our collections, once the games become history. Most of the collectors I know will usually take their treasures home, apply them to some type of surface, and frame them for display.  A magnetic pin may or may not make this more difficult.  

Not to mention that one of the ways that we show we are collectors is that we wear the pins during the games.  With the clutch pinback, we can attach it to many things, (scarves, hats, lanyards, etc.).  With my experience with magnetic backing pins, which I was first exposed to before the Olympics, during my volunteer work for Wounded Warriors Foundation in the United States back in 2019, one of the sponsors went to a magnetic pin.  One interesting fact about this pin was that when you apply it to almost anything, if for some reason the pin or the magnetic backing move it becomes very easy to lose the pin.

For some this may be a problem, for others, it may not be but here we are faced with it. Do we all begin to change the way we collect; do we increase or lessen the value of a pin with a magnetic backing?  Do we go out and buy available kits on websites to turn that pin from magnetic to a clutch pinback?  So many questions, but something we will do at one time or another before the Paris 2024 games are over, we will all answer in our own way.