Product Review: SMART ID Tag

Some of us carry ID on our shoes.
Click to enlarge and see the details.

Before we left for vacation, I made a point to get a SMART ID Tag for the members of my family who tend to go out without pockets and purses for holding identification information, like a student ID card.

An ad in the latest Iowa Momentum Magazine noted that a recent running race had a runner removed to the hospital. Without ID, family members were uninformed for hours. Knowing that four kids with different interests could easily become separated from a mom and dad with different interests in an unfamiliar town, I made a point to buy tags. This could also happen very easily in the deep and disorienting woods where we love to geocache.

When I'm geocaching, I try to travel as lightly as possible. Many of us like to pack very little on the trail, and if we're racing to find caches at an event (can you say FTF, anyone?), I intentionally leave the wallet behind. A SMART ID makes a sensible replacement.

I started using my ID (got it from a running club) last year. It snaps around your laces so you can move it to different shoes. Inside, the tag contains empty spots to fill in medical info as well as emergency contact info. I never thought to ask for one when I took my daughter shoe shopping for cross country (they're free at Fitness Sports with the purchase of shoes), but we were able to get a free one for her, post-purchase. One feature of note is that the information you put on the tag is private until it's removed.

While you can purchase the tags from the website, it's cheaper for Des Moinesians to buy from the store. They are almost half the price that way. They come in nine different colors and are reflective.

Young children may not have lace-up shoes, and most young children certainly do not have student ID cards (or pockets that would be large enough to hold such a card). In this situation, I feel that some type of ID is very important, and that a SMART ID tag could be placed somewhere else on the shoe -- the strap of a croc or sandal, for instance.

*** I was not paid for this post. I did not receive free product. I wanted present a solution to an important issue to a larger audience. But if a company wanted to have me review a similar product, hey, bring it! ***