Class Action: Power Balance Bracelets Don’t Work

January 7th, 2011. By AbiK

There’s Even One to Match our Site!

So wait—I really can’t be like Kobe? or Shaq? Seems not if I was banking on wearing a Power Balance Bracelet to take me to super-athlete heights. (And I was just getting over not being like Lance…) That’s because a new Power Balance Bracelet class action lawsuit has been filed stateside in LA this week—seeking $5 million from the California company.

I’m thinking it must’ve been California dreamin’ that the makers of these fine hologram bracelets—retailing at $30 a pop—thought they’d ride the wave of pop culture fanaticism into history as the performance booster of all time. After all, that future royal bride, Kate Middleton, has sported one! Even Robert DeNiro! (according to a report over at startribune.com)

So, holograms, huh? Here’s what Power Balance says its bracelets do:

“The Power Balance bracelet contains a Mylar hologram designed to react with the body’s natural energy flow.”

Uh, ok. I can remember going to the opening of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh a number of years ago. My friend, Sue, and I were having a blast sipping champagne and hob-nobbing with whomever when we happened upon the Silver Clouds exhibit—a large room filled with nothing by silver mylar balloons—the vid above doesn’t do it quite justice; it was impressive. And, admittedly, we spun and hopped around like idiots in cocktail dresses and heels. It was, a heck of a lot of mylar. And one could argue it reacted with our bodies’ natural energy flow. Either that, or the champagne had kicked in.

What’s interesting with the Power Balance Bracelet is that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised an eyebrow not long ago about the claims Power Balance was making. This in turn drove a response, in now widely distributed letter form down under, from Power Balance that apparently said, “We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims… Therefore we engaged in misleading conduct.”

Did they really want that in print?

Since that time, the company has seemingly tried to save some face by posting on Facebook that the bracelets will continue to be sold and that the claims merely fell short of Australia’s regulatory standards.

Yeah, and those of any rational human being.

Here’s another one from Power Balance regarding the question, “Will wearing Power Balance make me stronger, more balanced and gain greater flexibility?”:

“Power Balance will not make you stronger than you are, but is designed to help make you as strong as you should be by interacting with your body’s natural energy flow.”

This, from the company that says its bracelets are “based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies.”

Eastern philosophies? Not to go all Zen on everyone, but I’m thinking about tenets such as “Everything exists according to its own nature”—well then, why would I need to be as strong as I should be? Isn’t what I am what I am supposed to be? And aren’t I supposed to already be collaborating with the nature I arose from rather than trying to master it?

Oh, I’m getting too deep here for a silly neoprene or silicone bracelet with a little mylar hologram…just wish so many folks hadn’t drank the kool-aid and gone so deep into their pockets to don one…

Tags: Andy Warhol, Hologram, Kate Middleton, Kobe Bryant, Mylar, Power Balance Bracelet, Shaq

This was posted on Friday, January 7th, 2011 at 11:23 am and is filed under Class Action, Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.