Pinfinity Brings Licensed Enamel Pins to Life with AR
Pinfinity is a company that makes enamel pins for fandoms. These aren’t just any pins though. These pins are officially licensed and use AR technology to create unique experiences for users. All you need is one of their pins and their free app (Android, iOS). They have pins for a variety of franchises including Street Fighter, Tetris, and Crypt of the Necrodancer with more on their way like Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons. They were kind enough to send me a set of their current Street Fighter pins and they’re pretty cool.
The AR aspect is mostly a novelty thing showing animations and playing music. This is pretty cool, but doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than to be that guy with the pin you can scan for animation and music. However, they’ve also made some of the pins a bit more interactive so you can tap items on your phone to do things like take you to specific sites, give fans digital wallpapers, or even create frames for selfies. This has some potential. You can find all their pins on the Pinfinity site.
In addition to merely purchasing a cool enamel pin for roughly $12, there is another way. The company also has a subscription service called Pinfinity+. This service costs $19.99 a month or $99 for 6 months (neither includes shipping and handling). Subscribers secure exclusive pins each month, a 25% discount on all purchases, access to community events, get automatically entered to win prizes every month, and more. The drop for November features two more Street Fighter characters including one of my favorites, Cammie. The other is Akuma. You’ll also get premium decals and if you subscribe now you’ll get a founders pin as a bonus. Even if that’s just the two pins, that more than justifies the $20 price tag for a month.
What do you think of these pins? I’ve recorded a video of what the AR feature of the apps is like so you can see real-world experience.