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Silicone wristbands are a traditional bracelet choice for charities, promoters and educational institutes. Silicone wristbands are often also referred to as gel wristbands, jelly wristbands, rubber wristbands and fundraising wristbands. These handy rubber bands are soft on the skin, waterproof and long-lasting. While the majority generally use silicone wristbands as a way to raise awareness for their charity or charitable cause, rubber wristbands have several purposes and can be worn for several hours, if not days.
To understand how best to use silicone wristbands, we’ll explain the different purposes they serve, various customisation choices available when creating the design on a silicone wristband, the reusable aspect of them and how technology has impacted the traditional ‘charity wristband’.
Silicone Wristbands can be used for:
Charity
Starting with the most obvious purpose of a silicone wristband, Charity Wristbands: a silicone wristband often custom designed to raise awareness of a particular cause or illness. The most commonly known charity wristband is Livestrong which propelled the use of silicone wristbands as a fundraising accessory in the 2000s.
Education
Silicone wristbands are a favourite with many schools. Plain silicone bands work extremely well for school dinner wristbands; using different wristband colours to identify a child’s food option and organise dinner operations. Printed silicone wristbands are also an important extra to children’s education with Times Table wristbands (silicone wristband sets with times table equations printed on them) available to ensure children learn at their own pace in a fun and unique way. Both are available from stock.
Sale Promotions / Marketing
We recently uploaded a post about using wristbands for marketing purposes. in general are a favourite for marketing promotions and merchandise due to their versatility. Unlike traditional marketing products, such as teddies or promotional pens, silicone wristbands do not have a shelf life. Cuddly toys are often discarded while pens will run out of ink fairly quickly in comparison to silicone wristbands. Silicone wristbands are easy to put on and remove, are durable and comfortable to wear for a significant length of time.
Customisation Choices
There are four main options when it comes to designing your silicone wristbands. Designs can either be:
Printed:
The design (text, logos, graphics, etc.) is screen printed unto the wristband. The majority of printed silicone wristbands have a design made of one or two print colours, because each colour in your design requires a screen. However, this is not to say you cannot have a full colour design with gradients.
Full colour print on silicone is not printed by screen, but by heat-transfer. (Screen printing is not possible as each print colour would require a screen, resulting in multiple screens in order to overlap the print in the design.) As a result, full colour designs are heat-transferred unto the bands to provide a smoother, cleaner and accurate print. The disadvantage of a full colour design is the quality of the print becomes weaker and will wear away quicker compared to screen printed designs.
Embossed:
Often confused for debossed (your design is carved into the wristband), an embossed design is where your design is raised out of the band. These designs are not coloured and are often kept in the same colour as the band.
Debossed:
As mentioned above, debossed designs are carved into the band. This customisation type is achieved by laser and can be filled with ink colour or remain without ink.
Debossed & Ink Filled:
Probably our most popular customisation choice, debossed designs are where your text, logos, graphics, etc, are lasered into your wristband and filled with the ink colour of your choice. This customisation type is also the chosen method for sequentially numbered silicone wristbands. Sequential numbering can either be with or without ink fill.
General Sizing
Our standard sizes can be found on our website here. While the standard adult, youth and nursery sizes are generally used, specialised lengths and heights can be ordered through our sales team, along with specialised circle faced silicone wristbands (usually used for RFID silicone wristbands).
Recycled Silicone
As many may know, silicone wristbands are not recyclable in the sense that they are not biodegradable. However, that is not to say silicone cannot be reused. Have you heard of recycled silicone wristbands? Custom ordered recycled silicone wristbands are made from recycled silicone. Because the wristbands are made from recycled silicone, they are not a stock item and are therefore only available through the office with turnaround times dependent on quantity, colour and designs.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Silicone Wristbands
With the development of radio frequency identification chips came the idea to incorporate them into wearable and comfortable wristbands which would later be used at resorts, advantage parks, festivals, schools, colleges, etc. The RFID silicone wristband is often circle or oval faced to incorporated an embedded chip that stores specific information to its owner. While perfect for advantage parks such as ride access, it should be noted that silicone wristbands are non-secure, and as such we would recommend using RFID silicone wristbands for access only purposes to avoid the band from being misused if misplaced.
Designing & Ordering Silicone Wristbands
For single colour printed or debossed and ink filled silicone bands in either adult, youth or nursery sizes, please see our website for prices and our online designer option to begin creating your own design. It’s quick and easy to use, but if you would like some help or a price and design for more than one colour, don’t hesitate to contact our office here and one of our team will be in touch.
