We Asked 4,513 People Why They Take Their Rings Off

Pixie Wing started in an operating theatre. Dr Poppy scrubbed in, slipped her rings off, and spent the rest of the shift wondering where she had put them. That was 2018. Since then we have sold more than 70,000 Ring Keeper necklaces, and we have quietly been asking every single customer the same question at checkout.

What activity will the Ring Keeper be used for most often?

Between November 2025 and August 2026, 4,513 people answered. They could pick more than one, and about a third did. Here is what they said.

The results: healthcare and the gym own two thirds of the answers

Where the ring comes off	Share of respondents
Healthcare	40.3%
Gym, fitness and outdoor	36.1%
Home keeping	19.0%
Heirloom or sentimental ring	9.6%
Crafts	8.4%
Trade services and DIY	6.9%
Pregnancy and postpartum	5.5%
Veterinary and animal care	5.3%
Catering and hospitality	3.9%
Other	12.8%

Base: 4,513 Ring Keeper buyers surveyed at checkout, November 2025 to August 2026. Multiple selections allowed, so percentages total more than 100.

Two numbers jump out.

65.8% of everyone we surveyed picked healthcare, the gym, or both. Not gardening. Not washing up. Two settings where the rules are non negotiable: bare below the elbows on the ward, and bare knuckles under a barbell.

10.6% picked both. That is one in ten people whose ring comes off for a twelve hour shift and then comes off again for a 6am session. Those people take their rings on and off more than anyone else on the list, and they are the reason the Ring Keeper mechanism has to work in seconds rather than minutes.

Why healthcare is number one

Hand hygiene policy is the short answer. Bare below the elbows is standard in most hospitals, which means rings come off before every scrub, every glove change, every procedure. Do that ten times a shift and the ring has to live somewhere.

The places it usually ends up are the ones people told us about: a scrub pocket, a locker, a tissue, a tray at the sink, or at home in a box where it does nobody any good.

"I am a doctor and life at the hospital can get messy and chaotic. Alas, that is no place for a beautiful engagement ring. Thanks to the Ring Keeper I can bring mine along regardless."

M, Nordika Ring Keeper

"I work as an operating room nurse and my biggest fear is losing my ring. Not only do I get to wear my ring, but even when I cannot have it on my finger it is with me."

M, Vesta Ring Keeper

It is not only about loss. Several people raised something we did not expect: the ring itself takes a beating.

"I had previously made the diamond loose by continuously taking off and putting on gloves. Now I place my ring on the Nordika and I am able to work and see patients without ripping my gloves or getting the prongs caught."

T, Nordika Ring Keeper

Hand sanitiser came up too, over and over. Alcohol gel forty times a shift is not kind to plated metal or to the glue in a setting.

Why the gym is a close second

Different setting, identical problem. A ring under a barbell or a kettlebell handle is a bent band at best. The standard fix is to leave it in a gym bag, a car console or a locker, which is exactly where rings get forgotten.

"When my jeweller freaked out that I was lifting weights with my engagement ring, I shivered at the thought of leaving my ring somewhere while at the gym. It is so wonderful to just put my ring on, work out, and it is right there with me the whole time."

C, Vesta Necklace

"She told me a story of how she lost some of her rings and bent some by stepping on them while at the gym because she had to take them off to work out. She would take off all her rings and put them in my bag, and sometimes she would forget them in there for a few days."

M, Nordika Ring Keeper

Note that our gym and fitness category also covers outdoor. Climbing, kayaking, horses, cold water swimming, mountain biking. Same principle: hands doing something the ring should not be part of.

The one in ten who do both

The healthcare and gym overlap is the most demanding group we have, and their reviews read like product testing.

"I work in healthcare and go to the gym regularly. It has only been two weeks, but so far the Ring Keeper has held up really well in both settings. So happy I still get to carry my ring around rather than leaving it in a box at home."

S, Nordika Ring Keeper

"I work in healthcare in a physical role where I am constantly using all kinds of tools, machines and plaster. I also mountain bike and lift weights. I take my ring off many times a day, and securing it on the Ring Keeper is absolutely a game changer."

A, Nordika Ring Keeper

What the reviews say that the survey could not

We matched the survey answers back to 200 published product reviews. 159 of them came from customers in the healthcare or gym groups, with an average rating of 4.97 out of 5.

Reading them together, three themes came up again and again.

1. Loss is the fear, not damage

Around one in five of these reviews mentions losing, dropping or misplacing a ring, either as a near miss or as something that had already happened. Damage came a distant second. People are not worried about a scratch. They are worried about the moment they pat a scrub pocket and feel nothing.

2. It has to be fast, or it does not get used

The most common complaint about older solutions, including plain chains, was fiddliness. If threading a ring onto a chain takes two hands and thirty seconds, it will not happen between patients.

"I used to wear my ring threaded onto a standard necklace but almost dropped it so many times when trying to thread it on. The Pixie Wing keeps my ring safe at work in a busy emergency department and it looks great without the ring on it too."

L, Vesta Ring Keeper

3. It has to look like jewellery, not like equipment

Almost every reviewer mentioned wearing the necklace with no ring on it at all. The Ring Keeper is worn for twelve hours and holds a ring for maybe six of them, so the other six it needs to earn its place on its own.

"As a dentist I could never wear my engagement ring at the clinic and now I can wear it every day with style. Best jewellery investment ever."

Z, Vesta Ring Keeper

What we take from this

Poppy designed the first Ring Keeper for a problem she had in theatre. The data says that problem is not niche and it is not only hers. Four in ten of our customers are in healthcare. Nearly four in ten are training. One in ten are doing both, on the same day, with the same necklace.

They are not taking their rings off because the rings do not matter. They are taking them off because their hands have work to do, and the ring matters too much to risk.

That is the whole brief. Practical peace of mind, without sacrificing style.

Frequently asked questions

Can nurses wear wedding rings at work?

Policy varies by hospital and by role, but most healthcare settings apply a bare below the elbows standard for clinical areas, which rules out rings with stones and often plain bands too. A ring holder necklace worn under scrubs is a common workaround because the ring stays on your person without being on your hands.

Where should I put my ring at the gym?

Anywhere that is not a gym bag, a locker or a pocket. Those are the three places our customers most often told us they had lost or forgotten a ring. Keeping it secured on a chain around your neck means it never leaves you.

Is it safe to wear a ring on a necklace?

It depends entirely on the chain and the closure. A ring threaded onto an ordinary chain relies on a single clasp and has to be unthreaded every time. A Ring Keeper is engineered specifically to secure a ring in seconds and hold it through a full shift or a full session.

How was this survey conducted?

Every Pixie Wing customer is asked a single question immediately after checkout: what activity will the Ring Keeper be used for most often. Respondents can select more than one answer. This analysis covers 4,513 respondents and 6,669 total selections between 13 November 2025 and 1 August 2026. Review quotes are drawn from verified published product reviews and have been lightly edited for length only.

Find your Ring Keeper

Whether your rings come off for a ward round, a warm up, or both before lunchtime, there is a Ring Keeper built for it. Explore the collection.