Discussion: Producing Orienteering Bib Numbers

One of the quiet developments at orienteering events in North America in recent years has been the appearance of individualized bib numbers for the participants to wear. These usually have the event logo, the participants name and number.
Quite simply: how do they do that?
What is the program that spits out these designs and numbers? What is the recommended paper source?

I printed the Bibs on Pretex for our Easter event, graphics were done by someone else using some program he had

Here is a Sample

I have been producing the bibs for a number of A meets in the past year.

My design work is generally done on Illustrator/Photoshop, and then I use Indesign to merge the variable fields from a csv file with name/class/start time etc in it.

I experimented with a bunch of paper/printing methods before settling on my current material. I started out using Yupo, which is a great waterproof material, and is easily available, but even though it is very strong and tear resistant, putting a pin through it makes it tear very easily. I finally have found a source for a specially coated tyvek sheet that I can run through a digital offset press.

You can see some of my designs at www.orienteering-services.com/bibs If your interested in a run of them, they are $1/each for a 6inx6in, including design services, no minimum. I can print any size up to 12x18in though.

Better question is - why? We used to supply them for recording results in the finish chute in the days before electronic timing. Do the current benefits justify the organisation of a registration service to hand out each of those bibs to the correct person?

Do the bib numbers themselves make the event any easier to organize? No

Are the bibs important for a big event? Yes. When done properly with name, start time information, etc. they can be useful to the competitor in that they have the information to get to there start time pinned to them. The name / number also make it easier for the person running the start line and the name can be nice when taking to people you don't know very well.

Mostly importantly it just doesn't feel like a big sports event (to me anyway) if you don't have bibs. It seems to me all the major races still have bibs.

Bibs let you use a camera at the finish for backup timing.

The largest trail running series in the Bay Area has bibs with names. Makes for a great finish-line social!

Having bib numbers and names right in front of you also makes working download much easier when anything goes wrong.

We used Marathon Printing in Portland, Oregon for the NAOC 2012 bibs. They were very easy to work with. (www.marathononline.com)

We thought it provided a nice touch - for all the reasons mentioned above. It also allows for easy identification of photographs.

Bib numbers are great for those who like to take pictures of events, in terms of being able to identify who is who in the pictures.

At my last event, my bib almost made it to the fourth control.

The why is a good question.
I'm putting on several JROTC team orienteering events where bibs are needed to keep track of the teams in the relay and score event. We are not using e-punch. The numbers (10-1, 10-2, 10-3 etc) also add to the sense of team unity for the students.
So far my method has been producing numbers in MS Word, printing on letter sized paper then laminating and cutting the numbers.
(Before tRicky chirps in let me say that I've already considered going the triathlon route and using a magic marker to the forehead. I rejected the idea.)
I was hoping there was a non-commercial method of producing the numbers. So far photoshop for design and tyvek for paper seems to be the best suggestion? Where do I find tyvek without having to buy it by the ream?

Printing on tyvek is hard, because it is so porous, and static. You can't run it through a laser or any other printer that will heat it too much. Also, being plastic, you have to do it just right to get ink to adhere to it without bleeding.
I buy it by the ream, specially coated so the ink will adhere, from a company that converts it off of rolls. Even then I end up wasting a lot of it because the coating has an expiration date. We had to reprint all the IS/IC bibs since the stock we used the first time around was out of date and it didn't completely pull the black off the blanket.

There is some heavily coated tyvek available that can be run through an inkjet with some success. Its expensive though. And then you still have to print and cut them.

Basically I'm strongly suggesting you have them commercially done.

Thanks Ed,
Does anyone have any experience with revlar, a supposedly waterproof paper sold through Staples?

The first time I experienced a personalized bib number was at NAOC 2010. And I was so enamored by it that one of the "must haves" when I directed the 2012 IS/IC Champs were personalized bibs.

For the participant, having a personalized bib is cool in that that it can convey useful information to you (start times) and useful information to the event staff (knowing your name). A personalized bib makes for a much better event souvenir. I have several maps with bib numbers displayed at my desk at work, and the ones (by far) that get the most comments are the ones with professionally done, personalized bibs.

And just as important, I think personalized bibs encourage more social behavior, since you can put names with faces and race results. One of my primary goals at 2012 IS/IC was to create a social atmosphere with all of the juniors, and having personalized bibs certainly helped that.

I went through bibnumbers.com (which is coincidentally out of Ottawa, Gord). They were one of the better vendors I worked with. We had custom graphics and personalized names (but no color, which was another option), and they were $0.42 USD per bib. I'm not sure of the material, but it was same as what NAOC 2010 had.

That said, after seeing what they had at 2013 IS/IC (which were done by Ed), I think I'd go that route next time I need bibs. He can customize a lot of orienteering-specific info, print in color on Tyvek, have a quick turnaround, and he can do the graphic design, too (for those who aren't so graphically inclined).

Bibs are great for big events - for the competitors, the starters, the finishers and also helps remind you of the names you had forgotten, putting a name to a face you know and vice versa. Usually the Printer just needs a spreadsheet of the information to be printed, plus the logos you want.

Seems to me the main argument is that you feel like you are at a big event if you are wearing bibs. That makes it an optional extra to me. If you have the spare workforce, fine. If your workforce is over-committed, then the extra workload needs to be questioned. In our just completed national carnival the angst caused by bib numbers behind the scenes was a pain in the rear end. Of course, none of the runners saw that so they probably still think they are wonderful. My suggestion is to supply a blank bib and if someone wants to be identified, let them write their name on it. Get rid of registration processes other than self-serve. Its one less organisational task.

CCOF 2011 used bibs from bibnumbers.com, and upgraded to a sturdier material (as we intended them for a full week's worth of events).

In the scheme of things, they seem like a good identifier and advertising expense for the modest cost. It also allowed us to mention the sponsors again.

I took the registration list from 7 days before the event (name and start number), mailed it off, and we had them over nighted.

Well I'd better clarify that I use the numbers for the very smallest of events. Six weeks ago I had 45 students that were divided on to 15 teams, next week there will be up to 46 divided in to teams of four or three.
They compete as a team to complete a score orienteering event in the morning then a relay in the afternoon. We are not charging A-meet fees, not even B-meet fees. We are on a VERY limited budget.
It is nice to have the name of the event on the bib, that takes the word orienteering back home with the kids but it is essential for the organizers to keep track of the teams on the return from the score and on the relay to announce incoming runners and help make sure the right team gets the right map at the exchange.
Thanks to input today I've concluded that standard word processing programs can do the bib preparation. Now it is left to find the right paper and find out how joe average (me) can get his hands on a reasonable supply of the paper, say 200 pages/year that can be printed on an inkjet printer. One page can produce 3-4 bibs.

My only issue with bibs (having never created them myself) is having to stick safety pins through my nice O shirt.

Maybe Teslin paper is a good alternative to Tyvek? The APOC 2002 organizers printed their maps and bibs on Teslin, if I remember correctly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teslin_%28material%29

Charge more. You are under no obligation to subsidize recreation for anyone.

Mine usually ends up being more a belly number for some strange reason.

That makes the bib more prominent. 8-D

Re Uncle Jim's post, the software I used for those bibs is PrintShop Mail. It is a specialised Variable Data Print app and requires no graphic designer capability. Just take a PDF with artwork or create by assembling images such as logos and adding text. Then add logic to handle the relevant entry data.

However it is relatively expensive. When I sold my print & design biz it is one of the few items I retained and I enjoyed doing the Easter 2013 bibs and the coming Ultra-long. These are showcased at MapSport Cartographic.

Teslin is a good alternative to the Pretex map substrate but in AUS is more expensive than Pretex. Tyvek is the ultimate for bibs imho. Apart from Ed's solution, the only suitable non-offset Tyvek printer I know of for A5 or larger is an Oce wide format /plan printer released 2 years ago.

APOC 2002 Canada info...

Paper:
Teslin SPID 1000 10 mil waterproof laser printable paper (teslin.com) was used for maps and individual bibs

Bibs:
Microsoft Word's mail-merge

(we thought these personalized bibs were so cool that we put the above info in the meet info booklet so everyone could copy it. Guess Gord didn't keep his copy ;-)

We printed on our own printers - but it was quite slow. I think I used my HP LaserJet 6p (or something like that). I can't remember what we did for the pin holes, we might have used a hole-punch.

However, that was a long time ago, and there must be better solutions now (at least on the sturdyness side). I remember one problem was that the bibs tended to rip easily - once they got a nick on an edge it was only a matter of minutes before the nick expanded to rip the bib in half

Invis - thought the Registration process was easy and what I anticipated it would be. But I think the Start officials leant heavily on the bibs to process people in the 1 minute timeslots and would (maybe?) have struggled if we each had to say our names etc. Also the idea of course number as the prefix was a reinforcement of picking up the correct descriptions and to be in the correct lane. Probably been used before, but a first for me - v good! The other benefits for the participants in knowing/recognising people, big event, even putting into a scrapbook (little kids) are the warm fuzzy extras that add to such an event.(yes they added to your work and stress load).

Thanks for all the advice. AZ, yes I kept my APOC 2002 booklet. How did I ever forget that information was there?
I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a supply of waterproof paper for next year, MS Publisher for cooler designs and learning how to 'mail merge'.
In the meantime for the 12 4-person cadet orienteering teams I'm going to have next week, using Word, I am printing the numbers on standard 8 1/2 x 11 inkjet paper, four numbers to a sheet.
like so:
Dade Battlefield Orienteering
10-1
Dade Battlefield Orienteering
10-2
Dade Battlefield Orienteering
10-3
Dade Battlefield Orienteering
10-4
then laminating the sheets using Fellowes Self-Adhesive Sheets found at Staples (I would use a heat lamination if I had the device.)
The numbers are then cut individually and each will be hole punched by hand.
Good thing there are only 48 participants. I'd be punch-drunk if there were many more. On the other hand if I weren't 100 miles away from where the event will take place I'd get the students to do the work and they would do a better job than I'm doing.
Thanks again everyone.

That APOC 2002 map "paper" was weird. Kind of rubber-y; a bit difficult to draw routes (no RouteGadget back then!) on with a ballpoint pen. IIRC they did not need map cases.

Interesting stuff. I have not run using that kind of map since.