Clothing

Pin Locks Enamel Pin Keepers

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Keeps your favorite enamel pins from falling off your clothes

If you wear enamel pins, particularly pins that have any kind of sentimental value to you, I highly recommend a set of pin locks.  ($6 for 12) I picked up a set of ten pin locks similar to these at Disneyland last year for $9.99 in the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit store near the entrance to Disney’s California Adventure, because I had already lost one Tomorrowland enamel pin from a shirt while I was at the parks a couple of years ago and another (also Tomorrowland!) from the backpack I carry during my daily commute via train and foot and because the other pins I have on the bag constantly needed to be pushed back onto the simple tension-style pin backs that enamel pins typically come with.

The Disney pins currently come with a rubber Mickey-shaped pin back, but they still essentially work using tension. The way this tool works is that there is a metal sleeve that you put over the sharp end of the pin with a threaded hole in the side and a small set screw that screws into that hole. The set screw is tightened down using the included hex wrench, and then your pin is not going anywhere. I have used these for about six months now and they show no sign of becoming loose. The only drawback is that the locks stick out a little bit further than the typical pin backs that come with the pins, so if you’re wearing a pin on a shirt with nothing underneath the lock itself might be uncomfortable, but not much more so than the pin back itself. One caution is that the set screws are also really tiny so you need to be careful – I dropped one at work and it disappeared forever into the dark carpet.

-- Steven Coallier 04/22/19

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