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Band 09
Cork RFID wristbands
Cork is stripped from a living tree that regrows the bark and is harvested again nine years later. That makes it the one natural material in the range whose environmental claim survives a procurement questionnaire without qualification. It is also very light, warm to the touch, and naturally water-repellent — which is a better fit for a poolside band than wood is.
| Face material | Agglomerated cork on a fabric backing |
|---|---|
| Source | Bark harvested from living trees, not felled timber |
| Weight | Approximately half a comparable hardwood faceplate |
| Frequency | 13.56 MHz |
| Cord | Organic cotton with a sliding adjuster |
| Marking | Debossed, or laser-marked to a darker tone |
| Water | Naturally water-repellent; pool and shower tolerant |
| Working life | A full stay |
| Lead time | 21 days production, after artwork and technical approval |
Compatibility
Bands are encoded to work with the lock and point-of-sale systems your property already runs. We supply entry, standard and high-security HF transponders at 13.56 MHz, and 125 kHz where a property still runs a low-frequency estate.
Name the system on your enquiry and send a spare card if you have one. Bands arrive in sequential blocks, ready to issue, with nothing to program on site.
All third-party marks are the property of their respective owners. Any reference indicates compatibility only and does not imply affiliation or endorsement.
Substrates
Available in cork and organic cotton.
The construction is fixed; the substrate is the decision. This is where wear period, water behaviour and unit price are actually settled.
Bark composite
Cork
Cork bark shaved into sheet and backed onto a textile carrier. Warm, light, water-shedding, and unlike anything else on a wrist.
Material specificationNatural staple fibre
Organic cotton
Woven cotton with no synthetic content in the textile itself. The familiar material, chosen when the story has to be legible without explanation.
Material specificationWhat can and cannot be claimed about cork
The harvest cycle is the claim worth making, and it is verifiable. Cork oak bark is stripped by hand from a mature living tree, the tree seals and regrows it, and the same tree is harvested again after roughly nine years across a productive life measured in generations. No tree is felled to make a cork wristband. That statement is true, specific and checkable, which is exactly what a procurement questionnaire is testing for.
What cannot be claimed is a closed loop. Our cork faces are agglomerated — granulated cork bound and pressed onto a fabric backing — and the binder is a polymer. A band is therefore not home compostable and we do not describe it as biodegradable. Saying so plainly is the point: a sustainability claim that collapses when a guest reads the small print does more damage to a property than never having made it.
Physically, cork behaves better beside a pool than wood does. Its cell structure is a closed honeycomb, so it repels water rather than absorbing and swelling, and it does not cup with humidity the way a thin hardwood plate can. It is softer, which means it takes a scuff more readily and shows it less, because the surface is already textured. On a two-week stay a cork face looks lived-in; a lacquered wood face looks damaged.
Marking is debossed or lasered. Debossing works especially well here — cork compresses permanently under a heated die, giving a crisp mark with no ink and no additional material. Fine serifs and hairlines are the limit: below about 0.4 mm the granulated structure breaks the line up, so a property mark is redrawn rather than shrunk when it does not hold.
What it is used for
- Properties with a published sustainability commitment
- Eco-lodges and biosphere or reserve locations
- Wellness and thermal circuits where weight is noticed
- Tenders that ask for material provenance in writing
What ships with the order
- Material declaration for the substrate supplied
- Transponder type and encoding record, per block
- Batch and quantity reconciliation per carton
- Artwork proof as approved, for your records
FSC-certified material options available with supporting production documentation.
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Price cork RFID wristbands at your volume.
Runs start at 500. Send the quantity and the season length and we come back with a unit price, a delivery date, and samples of the recommended substrate.