Running Bib Clip by CuriousConstruction

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Updated to fit all bibs and now has a slot in the pin now with more spring action. You'll like my pins, I guarantee it. The tolerances are on the tight side on purpose. A very light sanding of the hole in the top piece can custom fit it to the thickness of your clothing of choice.
As a new runner to races and as an owner of a 3D Printer it seemed silly to use the same safety pins I used on my kids to attach the 'runner bib' aka the number to my shirt. Taking a queue from the attachments I have on some tarps to create attachment points for lines I came up with this little two part clip.
You put the part with the post on the inside of your shirt, you press your bib onto the post, part of you shirt will come through the hole pressed out by the pin, then you put the other part on the outside of the shirt and it'll capture the bit of shirt with your bib stuck between them. So outer piece, bib, shirt, inner piece. You can go the other way but then the pins might poke you, I made them a little long on purpose so they accommodate thicker shirts.
The outer piece has a step on one side, I use this for the outside to give the cloth of the shirt a place to expand into to help lock it down.
The edges are rounded but should print fine on any printer. The glass side will be against your skin and should provide a smooth non-irritating surface.
The ones I use on tarps actually have oval holes and pins with a slot so you twist them to lock them down but I didn't want to be twisting clips on my shirts for fear of cutting a thread or something so it's just a push through. Which seems to work okay. THey held up for my first 5K without any problem.
The pin versus the hole is deliberately a little on the tight side so you can take a piece of sandpaper and just smooth down the hole to reduce any risk of messing up your shirt and tailor the opening to your shirts thickness. For me, a quick hit with some 220 grit smooths thing thing out and makes a perfect fit.
I've since found out there is a commercial product that does pretty much the same thing and arguably probably lasts longer than this one 3D printed. But at $0.36 a set of four (based on what I paid for my current on the printer spool of Hatchbox) printed in PLA versus a few dollars I'll stick with printing my own. And if I lose a piece, well I don't plan on running that many races a year so if I have to print a full set every couple of years, well it's 36 cents and about 20 minutes.