How to Choose the Right Custom Lanyard for Your Company
A few decisions determine whether your company's lanyards look sharp and hold up to daily wear, or end up a disappointing afterthought. This guide walks through each one, using PrintOnline's real confirmed product details.
Material: satin-type polyester, on both products
Both of PrintOnline's lanyard products use a satin-type polyester strap. The Full-Colour Custom Lanyards product is described as satin-type polyester printed by sublimation, and the Lanyards for Office product lists satin as its material too. So the material question largely answers itself here: you are choosing between printing methods and widths, not between fabrics.
Satin polyester is the normal choice for this kind of product because it takes a printed image cleanly and survives being worn, pulled and shoved in a drawer for a year.
Width: 20mm or 25mm
Two widths are stocked: 20mm on the Full-Colour product and 25mm on the Lanyards for Office product. A narrower strap is lighter and less bulky; a wider one gives your logo more printable area, which matters if your mark has fine detail or a long wordmark. Only these two are held in stock, and the office product's own FAQ says 25mm is the single ready thickness there, with anything else needing a conversation with customer care first.
Full-colour sublimation
The Full-Colour Custom Lanyards product uses CMYK sublimation printing on both front and back, which suits detailed logos, gradients, photographs and multi-colour branding. Note the constraint that comes with it: metallic and Pantone colours are not available on this product. Full comparison against screen printing is in sublimation vs screen printing for lanyards.
Screen printing
The Lanyards for Office product offers screen printing in 1 or 2 colours, on any of twelve stocked lanyard colours: white, black, yellow, orange, red, green, dark green, cyan, blue, purple, pink and maroon. It also offers up to 4-colour sublimation, but that route is white lanyards only. Screen printing suits simpler logos where full-colour isn't necessary, and lets you put a design on a coloured strap rather than a white one.
Hooks
Both products include a metal hook for attaching an ID card or badge. The Lanyards for Office product also includes a safety breakaway clip as standard, which the Full-Colour product charges for as an accessory.
ID holders
PVC ID cards and holders are not included in either lanyard's base price, but on the Full-Colour product you can add them to the same order: a standard ID card holder (AED 5 for one, around AED 3 each at 100) or a rigid holder for a more structured card. You do not have to source them separately, you just have to remember to tick the box.
Safety breakers
A breakaway safety clasp is available. On the Lanyards for Office product it is included as standard; on the Full-Colour product it is a selectable accessory starting at roughly AED 1 per lanyard and falling with volume. If your workplace has machinery, or the lanyards are for a school, this is the feature to specify rather than assume. It is not fitted by default on the Full-Colour product.
Buckles
A buckle is available on the Full-Colour product as a selectable accessory, priced like the safety breaker at around AED 1 per lanyard falling with volume. Be clear on what it does, though: this buckle lets the badge section detach from the neck strap, so a wearer can hand over their card at a reader without taking the lanyard off. It is not a length-adjustment slider. If you want an adjustable fit specifically, ask PrintOnline, and look at the separate Double Hook Cord Lanyard with Adjustable Lock product.
Single vs bulk
The Full-Colour product runs from an MOQ of 1 unit up to 5,000, and the per-unit price is where the real decision sits: AED 50 for one, AED 10.30 each at 100, AED 7.75 each at 1,000. The Lanyards for Office product has an MOQ of 5 units and a maximum of 250, starting at AED 125 for 5 in a single colour. For a company-wide rollout, ordering the whole batch at once rather than in handfuls is worth several times the saving most people expect.
Corporate branding requirements
This is where to set expectations honestly, because neither product will give you an exact brand-colour match.
The Full-Colour product states plainly that metallic and Pantone colours are not available: artwork is reproduced in CMYK sublimation. The Lanyards for Office product's own FAQ is just as direct about screen printing, saying colours cannot be matched 100% to a custom requirement. It also notes that printing there is done manually, with a possible 1 to 2mm deviation in alignment between pieces, and that the product carries a no-refund, no-reprint policy.
So the real choice is not which method hits your Pantone. It is: sublimation when your artwork is detailed, full-colour or gradient-heavy and close-enough CMYK is acceptable; screen printing when your logo is one or two flat colours and you want it on a coloured strap. If a colour is genuinely non-negotiable, raise it with PrintOnline before production, when a digital mockup is still in play, rather than after delivery.
Order custom lanyards for your company from PrintOnline.
Related: custom lanyards for companies in Dubai: the complete guide, custom lanyards for events, conferences and exhibitions and sublimation vs screen printing for lanyards.
