[Dillon]

I'll second all the stuff that Andy already threw out there... building mic rigs have developed into quite an art for the Broadway engineer.

My two cents worth:
1- Ditch the plastic ear clips. More often than not, they don't fit as well as a piece of bent bailing wire will. Buy a spool of wire at the hardware store for a few bucks and play around with different rigs for differently-shaped ears... some stores will call it "hanging wire" in the plumbing section. The rigs hold up pretty well... I have a couple dozen that have been in use since March.

2- If the investment in a hellerman tool is too much for your organization, try picking up some heat-shrink and use it in the same way. I've had luck with some 3:1 shrink (so it would fit over the mic head) on wire rigs. Be careful to keep the heat away from the mic element when you are shrinking.

3- Colors. I haven't found anything yet that will return a mic cable back to it's natural beige color. So if you are renting, keep the markers in the drawer. Otherwise, I'll second the Pantone markers. I've had good luck matching skin and hair tones with a set of these markers. In many cases, a simple black sharpie will go a long way as well.