The Official 2009 Lady Dawg Trading Pin
The Official 2008 Lady Dawg Trading Pin
Girls Fastpitch Softball Pins are traded at nearly all Softball Tournaments. Pin trading has become one of the premiere activities in Girls Softball to make friends, exchange advice, share experiences, and promote your team.
Pin trading began in athletics, and the first recorded pin trading celebrations took place at the Olympics. But, Olympic pins had their beginning as badges. In 1896, in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, the badges of various colors were used to identify the officials and the athletes.
It is in 1906, at the Intermediate Olympic Games of Athens, that the first pin in the color of a delegation made its appearance, that being Sweden. Around 1924, the athletes started to exchange pins as a sign of international friendship. During the years that followed, the uses, manufacturing, and the varieties evolved to the pin we know today.
Until the end of the 70s, pin trading was mainly restricted to the athletes and to officials. It is at the 1980 Winter Olympics of Lake Placid that pin trading became an activity of the masses. They allowed the spectators to collect memories and stories, and to start their own pin collections.
For example: the pitcher trades her pin with the pitcher from a team we play. Then at the next game, she trades one of her pins with the pitcher on the other team ~ she has now traded 2 of her Lady Dawg pins for 2 pins from other teams. How cool will that be to trade pins with a girl from Iowa and a girl from Canada!