In the manufacturing of an operating element (10) for an air vent, a first partial element (12) is manufactured from a hard component in a first injection molding process and a second partial element (14) is manufactured from a soft component in a second injection molding process. The second partial element (14) forms a bearing (20) for a support of the operating element (10) on a vane (22) of the air vent. During its manufacture, the second partial element (14) is connected with the first partial element (12) by adhesion and/or by geometric shaping. The two partial elements (12, 14) that are captively connected with each other constitute a prefabricated unit.