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Olympin Tales

Stories from a Pinhead

By Rachel Tobias

August 17^th, 2016

i'll bet you didn't know about this [unofficial] olympic sport.

When I was nine years old, I discovered the brilliant experience that is Olympic pin trading. It has happened at every Olympic Games (in earnest) since the mid-twentieth century, although the first Coca-Cola pin trading center didn’t pop up until the ‘88 Calgary Games. While it may sound a bit, well, lame, to the average person, pin trading can turn the most professional, cool cat into a total pinhead nerd.

When I was a little kid at the Nagano Games, I had a clear advantage. Firstly, kids can play the ‘cute’ card, and boy did I work that angle. Second, kids have no shame; they’re not afraid to saunter up to adults with the utmost confidence, and ask for whatever pin looks prettiest (also: they have no concept of value). My pin collection by Nagano is by far the biggest, likely because I lacked the embarrassment and tenuousness that comes with adulthood. While it may seem silly, I learned a lot about negotiation through my experience pin trading in Nagano, Sydney, Salt Lake City, and Athens, and I have the pins to prove it.

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New friends from the Tokyo bullet train. Notice the lanyard of a budding pin pro.

Here’s how it works. Most every Olympic spectator has a lanyard and credential of some kind, or at the very least, a lanyard that attaches to to a little pouch that holds your event tickets. These lanyards are where most people display their pins. Serious traders have hats and vests, and the even more serious traders have towels and sheets of cardboard covered in pins.

My USA House credential and pin-covered lanyard.

My Olympic Committee pin given to me by my friend who works for the IOC.

When it comes to trading, it happens everywhere. It happens formally, at the Coca-Cola pin trading center, in front of the megastore, or other hotspots with ‘pros’ that set up shop and trade with spectators. It happens informally, while walking on the street; just walking home tonight, a young Brazilian concierge was eyeing a pin, and I traded him for his Team Netherlands pin. You start to recognize the pinheads by their ‘lanyard-gaze’. While for some, this is serious business, for me, it’s one of my favorite ways to strike up conversation and make new friends. You can learn a lot about someone from their pins, as it turns out.

In terms of pins, there’s quite a few different kinds. There are sponsor pins: each sponsor has a set of pins they make for each Olympics, such as Coca-Cola, Visa, P&G, Hershey’s, Citi, NBC, and so on. There are country pins created by the NOC; these are some of the most coveted, as they are only given to country officials, athletes, and team staff. There are media pins, security pins, individual team/sport pins. It’s seemingly endless.

One of my favorite parts about working at the registration desk in the USA House is the generosity of guests who give their pins away to us in exchange for helping them get set up. I’ve been given team pins by athletes, country pins by NOC guests, sponsor pins by the loads of sponsors who come visit, and more. Here are a few of the pins I’ve been particularly excited about over the last couple of weeks.

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My U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation pin was given to me by a new friend who I was very excited to meet, and who is responsible for helping raise money for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic program. Each executive branch or member of the U.S. Olympic Committee has their own pin such as this, and it immediately went into the pile of ‘do-not-trade’ pins. Next to it, my USA Swimming pin was given by a member of the U.S. swim team, who came to the house for a private event, as was the U.S. Rowing team pin, which is one of the most beautiful pins I’ve gotten in all of the six Olympics I’ve attended.

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I think P&G have some of the best pins at this Olympic Games. They release a new pin every day, which means if you’re a guest of P&G House, you’re extremely lucky. The toucan one was one of my favorites, although I’m still after the carnival mask, so let’s see if it comes home with me. The NBC pins are also great, although I think this one on the right is the best, although I’m admittedly partial to anything beach volleyball.

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My diplomatic security pin will probably be one of my favorites from this game (although I’m still after an FBI pin). At USA House, we have several special agents who look after the security of the House, and they’ve been kind enough to share some of their pins. Of course, my IDEO pin has been pretty popular, despite not having the actual Olympic rings on it (thanks to very strict licensing restrictions). My colleague at IDEO and I collaborated on this pin to make sure IDEO had a strong presence at Rio 2016.