Why do runners still race with paper pinned to their shirts?

Trayvon Bromell had a problem. There was a stadium of fans awaiting him, and he wasn’t ready to race. He needed a few safety pins.

"All I wanted to be thinking about is the race,” he recalled of the 2021 U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Instead, he found himself frantically searching for four safety pins to pin his bib onto his jersey before a race that would send him to the Tokyo Olympics. "Something as small as a piece of paper can be the biggest distraction."

Racing bibs, which help track and identify runners, are a cornerstone of a runner’s race day kit and a source of race day revenue through sponsorships. But many professional runners are questioning why they are still being weighed down by a large piece of paper attached to their high-tech race-day outfits.