How to display race medals

A finisher medal is a small, heavy proof that you did the thing. A year later it is usually in a shoebox with a tangled ribbon and a bib you meant to keep flat. The fix is not a nicer box. It is a wall.

Give the medal a job

A display works when you can read it from the doorway: whose race, which sport, and the bib if you still have it. Hooks alone do that halfway. A name, a year, or the distance does the rest. If the piece has to hold a bib, say so at the start. Several of the wooden medal holders in this shop are built with a bib slot for that reason. The acrylic hangers are the other path, when you want a sport silhouette or a cleaner medal display and you are not keeping the paper number.

Skip the joke engraving. “World’s okayest runner” is funny for a month. A name and a year still make sense when the tenth medal joins the first.

Wood or acrylic

Wood reads as furniture. It suits a hallway, a home office, a club room with other wood in it. Acrylic is lighter in the room and takes a silhouette well: a runner, a swimmer, a rider. Both are laser-cut here in Waterloo, and both are made to order, so the line of text is cut for that person rather than picked from a bin.

If you are choosing between two wooden hangers that look similar, compare the photographs on each product page. They are separate listings because the layouts are not the same.

Measure the wall before you fall in love

Hold a dinner plate where the medals will sit and step back. Most hangers want a clear patch about the width of two or three plates, with room under the lowest medal so it does not knock a light switch. A bib adds height. If the wall is a rental, a single picture hook is usually kinder than a row of nails, but that depends on the hanger, so ask before you assume.

Clubs have a different wall: a clubhouse, a gym corridor, a table at the year-end banquet that later goes home with each athlete. That is a bulk order, not ten separate checkouts. The useful details are the sport, about how many, whether the names change, and the date. There is a club order form for exactly that.

Timing

A single hanger is made when you order it. A set for a banquet needs more air, because each name is its own pass on the laser. Shadow boxes are the slow pieces in the shop (two to four weeks). Medal displays are faster than that, and still not same-day. If the race is Saturday and the party is Sunday, order before Saturday.

What to do with the bib

If you care about the bib, do not fold it into the medal box “for now.” Slide it into a hanger that has a slot, or accept that you are only keeping the medal. Ironing a crumpled bib on the morning of a gift rarely ends well. The wooden displays with a bib slot exist so you do not have to choose.

Start with the medal and bib displays, or send the team’s count through custom orders if the wall belongs to more than one person. Clubs in Kitchener-Waterloo can also start from custom medal displays. Lead time, pickup, and materials are on the FAQ.