It occurred to me when I was thinking about the importance of such items as corporate ties, custom ties and school ties that in many cases, custom ties are a forever item in one’s cupboard.

You may ask what am I talking about, this makes no sense, but actually, it does make a lot of sense.

The reason I say that is if we look for example at custom ties which could be most certainly along the lines of corporate ties or even branded ties, matric ties or even long service ties, it is quite easy to understand that many recipients would not want to get rid of such custom ties simply because they hold so much value from a sentimental or achievement based perspective.

When I say achievement based,  I am referring  to for example those who have won colours at their school for anything that qualifies for colours or for participating in a major national sport or other discipline(generally a sport or discipline not offered at the school and to have the opportunity to hold on to that particular item of clothing as a constant reminder of what they were back in the day and how well they actually did perform in the sport or interest in order to win the right to be able to have such a thing as prestigious as a school sports tie or such like.

The dynamic of such an interesting process of receiving branded ties which end up being forever is a really interesting thought because it goes to show how important to some people items such as school ties, sports ties, corporate ties or custom ties really are when it comes to memories and important items that a person just never wants to part with.

So although these custom ties are left in the cupboard or a box or old suitcase, they are there for ever as a keep sake.

I do believe that the same hold true for the ladies as in custom scarves or corporate scarves, especially when it relates to long service scarves either for corporates or institutions who are known to celebrate such a thing and I have to tell you that it wasn’t so long ago when big employers of staff such as the mines or parastatals were always handing out long service awards in the style of items such as ladies custom scarves or mens custom ties.

So very often corporate ties would be ordered together with corporate scarves, there would be many standard ones made for staff who had not yet achieved a level of service recognition. Then, there would be for example 5 year, 10 year and upwards long service ties and long service scarves.

There were people in certain organisations who owned custom ties or branded ties made as corporate ties and custom scarves with every year for which they qualified in terms of long service awards.

I recall making a 55 year long service tie for a certain individual who had been at the company since he was around 16 and was still going as a full time employee.

This is the kind of special item I refer to when I talk about custom ties being forever. How can one get rid of such a wonderful recognition of achievement?