Summer Games Helped ‘Pin Lady’ Build a Business

During the 1980 national swimming championships in Irvine, pin collector Margarita Volker spotted a man with an interesting lapel pin and asked him if he wanted to trade.

“I don’t think I could trade my Secret Service pin,” replied the agent, who was guarding then-presidential nominee Ronald Reagan, on hand to present the awards.

That was one of the few times Volker has been turned down on a pin trade, but the same energy that made her a successful collector has also led her into a flourishing pin-making business, Designs by Margarita, in Fountain Valley.

Last year, Volker, 42, made the pins that the U.S. Olympic Committee gave the members of all of the U.S. winter and summer teams, and sold many other pins that she designed--including those with flag and sport motifs--to eager collectors during the Olympic trading frenzy.

That craze, which continued well after the Games closed, kept the former home economist and interior designer and her family busy for months, filling orders for the hand-enameled cloisonne pins, which are manufactured for Volker in Taiwan.

“We weren’t prepared for such an onslaught after the Olympics,” she said. She would not give exact figures, but estimated that the Games increased her sales by up to 75%.

Demand Remains Steady

The fad has quieted down, but Volker still finds a steady demand for the brightly colored pins.

And Olympic pins aren’t the only ones in vogue. The pin craze during the games helped establish a market acceptance of the tiny enameled ornaments, and Volker said she receives orders for pins and pin designs from companies, organizations and collectors throughout the country.

She still has some Olympic pins in stock but said she does not intend to manufacture any more because the designs were limited editions. Custom orders from organizations now make up about half of her sales, and she also retails her lines of sports, animal, humorous and patriotic pins through catalogues and gift shops.

Volker currently is designing collector pins for the city of Huntington Beach, for several high school reunions and for a number of colleges and clubs.

But her biggest project is creating 20 Statue of Liberty designs, at suggested retail prices from $4 to $8. About 15% of the money from the pins will go to the restoration of the statue through a manufacturing agreement between Volker and the Ellis Island Foundation, sponsors of the refurbishment.

Volker said she has begun thinking about the 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics--but more as a trader or retailer than as pin manufacturer. She said that the licensing agreements for those games probably will be awarded to pin manufacturers in Canada and Korea, the host countries.

“I absolutely love the Olympics,” said Volker, who served as an Olympic volunteer before the 1984 Games began. “During the Olympics it was so magical--it was such a special feeling. People of all races, of all different countries, were really working together and trading pins,” she said.

‘Obsession’ With Trading

Volker described the pin-trading fever that kept traders bartering until 1 a.m. near the Olympic sites as an obsession that almost broke up marriages. “It was this feeling that it was all going to end and you had to have a part in it.” She said that although the hectic pace has slowed, pin collectors are still trading regularly.

“Pins are really here to stay,” said Volker. She said she anticipates that demand for the Statue of Liberty pins may require her to hire additional help, although she prefers to keep the business small enough so that she can retain personal control and spend time with her family.

She has only one part-time employee, so she frequently enlists the help of her husband and their three children, whose ages range from 12 to 16.

Last summer, the Volker home was turned into an assembly line as the family worked diligently to put together 325 sets of pins ordered by the U.S. Olympic Committee for officials of the Games.

One set of 27 pins--one for each sport represented in the Summer Games--went to President Reagan, and Volker’s method of quality control was to admonish her children to remember that each set they assembled might be the one the President received.

Volker’s own collection includes thousands of framed commemorative pins. Most are Olympic pins, and some of these date back to the 1932 Games. One of her favorites, obtained in a trade, is the 1984 Olympics Red Cross pin, bearing the Red Cross symbol with the Olympic stars-in-motion logo.

Red Cross Pin Rare

“People were willing to give blood or anything for that pin,” Volker said. Only about 16,000 of them were made for the American Red Cross, which gave the pins to volunteers, staff workers and blood donors.

The Summer Olympics, in addition to helping Volker increase her pin collection, gave her own pin designs exposure to a wide audience.

Shortly after the Games ended, Volker said, she received a letter from a Los Angeles municipal judge. Volker opened the envelope, expecting to find a summons. Instead, it was a letter that began: “Dear Margarita, I would like to have your ‘Love a Judge’ pin.”

The jurist ordered three of the pins, originally designed for judges in gymnastics contests. He said he wanted to give them as Christmas presents.

Volker started collecting sports-related pins in 1979, when her daughters became involved in gymnastics and ice skating. Shortly afterward, she began designing pins for local athletic clubs. She was quickly dubbed the “Pin Lady” because she always brought pins to the competitions.

Her line of pins has grown from five designs in 1979 to more than 600 today, mainly sports motifs. Volker said she is continually being asked to design pins for fund-raising projects and special events.

Her pins are made in Taiwan because the skilled labor is readily available there at a lower cost, she explained. The eight-step process involves hand-painting and individually firing each color. Many of her designs are suggested by friends and relatives, such as an “I love dinosaurs” pin and a rainbow design with the word “Winner” on it. Other pins feature a figure-skating penguin, a hockey-playing bear, and slogans such as “Coaches know best” and “I’m a hockey puck.”

Most of the pins are priced between $1 and $10, although larger or rare pins cost more. Volker said she wants her pins to make a positive statement, and she won’t make anything that is in poor taste or that infringes on copyrighted designs.

Cheap Copies Overpriced

The only negative aspect of the Olympic pin saga, Volker said, is that cheap copies of many of the authorized pins have appeared on the market recently. Many of the new pins are low-quality reproductions of the original, limited-edition pins, Volker said, but people pay relatively high prices for them, believing they are originals.

But the positive side of pin trading far outweighs any drawbacks, she said, because it can forge a bond between people who speak different languages and offers chances to make new friends.

“A little pin can make such a statement. It always represents something you believe in.”