A medal is read once, at arm’s length, by somebody exhausted.

Why we exist

Race medals get quoted on a diameter and a unit price, by suppliers who have never stood at a finish line.

So the artwork is drawn at 400% on a screen and comes back too fine to read. The medal is big and thin, so it bows in the post. The ribbon is a stock width that does not match the opening, so it hangs skewed. And the ship date is a range rather than a date, on an order for an event that cannot move.

The ribbon is half the product

It is treated as a colour choice made last, and it is the half a runner actually handles.

The bar width has to match the opening in the medal, or the medal slides and hangs skewed all day. The drop length decides whether the medal sits at the sternum or swings at the navel. Sublimated polyester takes photographic artwork, woven jacquard holds bold type crisply for years, and they are different jobs rather than better and worse.

It is also the cheapest place to carry a year, because changing a ribbon does not mean changing a die.

Legibility beats detail, and finish beats shine

Relief depth and letter height are what carry the event name, the distance and the year to a tired person at arm’s length. Fine line work is the first thing we take out.

The finish follows the same logic. A bright mirror polish flares under a finish-line gantry and in every phone photograph taken there, so an antique or satin finish nearly always looks better in the pictures your event actually gets — and it is usually the cheaper of the two.

Gauge, not diameter

Buyers ask for size because size shows in a photograph. Thickness is what makes a medal feel like one.

A five-inch medal at a thin gauge bows in a mailing bag and feels hollow in the hand. A smaller medal at a proper gauge feels considerably better. We quote both numbers together so the trade is visible rather than hidden.

The date cannot move

An event date is fixed, which makes lead time the whole risk and the unit price a secondary question.

So we put a ship date in writing, tell you the artwork cut-off that protects it, and tell you the date after which sea freight stops being an option and what the air alternative costs. And we will push you to order a buffer, because entries creep up in the last fortnight and a sold-out race cannot re-order into a fixed date.

How we price

No dollar figures on this site. Price moves with size, gauge, finish, ribbon and quantity, and it falls steeply at mass-participation volumes. Send the details and a real quote comes back the same day, with a lowest-price guarantee if you are already holding a cheaper one.

What we will talk you out of

A five-inch medal at a thin gauge. A spinner on a design that gains nothing from turning. Separate tooling for every age category. Artwork too fine to cut. And a mirror polish on an outdoor event that will be photographed in full sun.

Every one of those costs us money to say and saves you more.

How we work

Who we serve