Pathtags - What’s the big deal with Pathtags?

If you’ve looked at our website pages for more than about 30 seconds, you’ve probably seen the word Pathtags pop up. Probably more than once. You may have even read that we (that’s ⅔ of your Executive Committee) REALLY like Pathtags. You may even get the impression we are a little bit obsessed (because truthfully, we are). But, what is a Pathtag and what is all the hype about?

Pathtags are really just user-created art turned into high quality metal tags, about the size of a quarter, that taggers can trade and collect. Some tags are super rare, selling for hundreds of dollars on sites like eBay - others are more common and tag owners are usually happy to trade so you can both add a new tag to your collection. The key concept here is that it is USER-CREATED art, which means that if you have an idea, you can probably turn it into a Pathtag. Our Executive Committee has collectively made more than 150 of their own tags, using just their imagination and Canva (and sometimes a design partner). Here is a sample of some of our personal Pathtags, to give you an idea of what they can look like:

Mainly used as trading and swag items for Geocaching, Pathtags have found their way into a whole host of places like Scouting, Military, Schools, Clubs, and more. At some Mega and Giga events, you can walk away with literally HUNDREDS of new tags by completing in-person trades during events like Midnight Madness and Pathtag trading (Pasha88’s record is over 520 tags brought home from MWGB 2024… but Bigguy frequently takes home more than 300 tags per event he attends). While many taggers prefer to trade in-person at events, you can also trade tags with taggers online from around the world - as of Jan 8, 2025 188,484 taggers from 86 countries have made 51,816 tag designs, completed 1,051,052 online trades, and collected 3,664,351 tags. That’s a TON of Pathtags!

Some events (such as our good friends over at ASP Geobash) give out Pathtags for attending their side events, as a memento for each side event you attend. Other events (like the awesome people over at Going Caching), make entire puzzle caches based on information collected from Pathtags that were available for purchase in their event store. Many events (Geowoodstock, Midwest Geobash and Fall Fest) have dedicated trading times where taggers can gather and complete in person trades. At Fall Fest, our goal is to have all three. 

Pathtags can come in 4 different finishes (gold, silver, copper and black) and have a range of enamel finishes that can be added, such as glitter, translucent, and glow in the dark. Pathtags can have up to 10 colours of enamel and can include elements such as raised metal metal, to give tags a slightly 3D effect. Pathtags can be the standard round tag, or shaped into whatever shape you would like (although round is the most common, and more cost-effective). When designing a round tag, typically you need to leave room for the hole (see the pictures above) and you can choose from an already-designed tagback in the gallery with a variety of topics. 

One way that large-scale, Mega and Giga events can receive support from guests, is by offering a Pathtag Back in the tag gallery. When an event has a Pathtag Back, this means they have an agreement that the AWESOME team over at Pathtags.com will donate the cost of the tagback back to the event, so the event can purchase even more event tags and giveaway tags at a lower price. Ten cents from every tag made with those tagbacks is donated directly back to the event. While it’s not enough to retire from, every tagback helps events pay their bills and makes sure we can continue to provide free tags to those who attend our events. 

For Fall Fest 2025, we have two special tagbacks, available in all 4 plating choices. If you are making a tag for Fall Fest, please consider giving back to the event by choosing our tag backs. They are available now in the gallery, and 10 cents from every single tag goes right back to support our event and gives you the opportunity to get more free stuff. 

While Pathtags have never been as popular in Canada as they are in the US, we’re trying to change that. We would love for Fall Fest to become THE Canadian Pathtag Trading Event, the way MWGB is THE Pathtag Trading Event in the US. We have a total of 36 event tags (including all of our prize tags, giveaway tags, those available for purchase in the event store, and side event tags) planned for 2025. Check out the designs currently in the gallery by heading to www.Pathtags.com and searching for username GeocacheON. With a total of three dozen event tags to trade and collect, you’re definitely going to want to bring your extras to be part of the trading action. 

If you’ve ever thought about making your own Pathtag but don’t know where to start, there are some pretty amazing Pathtag designers who can help you make your idea come to fruition. They charge a nominal fee (usually $20-30) for their time in helping create your Pathtag and usually includes any editing that needs to be done, so you get a production-ready blueprint you’re 100% happy with. Both Pasha88 and Bigguy have used a variety of different designers in addition to doing their own design work, so are happy to offer recommendations if needed or provide some pointers to get you started on your own Pathtag obsession. 

At the end of the day, we know Pathtags aren’t for everyone, whether due to the cost of production, or another reason. But if you LOVE Pathtags as much as we do, we’d love to see you at the event!