finding balance regarding the sales of lokai bracelets

“Find your balance” is the catchphrase of recently popularized accessory, the lokai bracelet. Although a bit pricey, the simplicity and the message behind this silicone bracelet made it the new staple item. With water from Mt. Everest (the highest point in the world) and mud from the Dead Sea (the lowest point in the world), this bracelet signifies finding balance within the highs and lows of the world. Like stay humble at the highest, and keep your hopes up at the lowest… or something like that.

At lokai.com, there was a limited edition bracelet that’s different from the typical translucent beads. The green lokai bracelets were sold as a campaign that benefits The Nature Conservancy. The lokai website pledged to plant 1 tree for every bracelet sold.

At first, I was immediately taken by the cause and the look of the bracelet. I’ve been finding the color green refreshing and being a wannabe environmentalist, I put this bracelet on my wishlist. Lokai has had a lot of different campaigns in the past; blue for water, a camo-pattern for the WWF (of which I own one), purple for Alzheimer’s, etc., all of which are sold as limited editions. Especially since I’ve missed like basically all of the special campaign/limited edition designs, I really wanted to buy one of the green ones. Then, during my hesitating regarding the price of the bracelet, a thought hit me.

“Does buying this bracelet really help the environment?” I mean, yes, we need trees in this world sooo much; humans have been destroying the natural habitats of earth for an incredibly long time, and it makes perfect sense that we should try our best to restore the Plantae Kingdom. But: how significantly will your purchase of a lokai bracelet impact the environment?

Lokai bracelets are advertised to be composed of silicone, water, and earth from two highly revered places on the earth. I had always thought the inclusion of water and mud in the bracelet to be fascinating– like this is the keystone of the lokai marketing. But once I started to think about the effectiveness of lokai on the environment, I questioned the ethics of using the earth’s resources in the accessory. From watching videos of different YouTubers fulfilling a curiosity of the masses, where they cut open the beads, we can learn that indeed, there are really contents within the beads as promised in these bracelets.

Although we can see that there is very little, if any, water and mud included, I was lost in a daze about how much of Mount Everest’s water and how much of the Dead Sea’s mud was used to fulfill the demand for these bracelets. Newsflash: these resources are not unlimited. The slogan for the green lokai is “protecting our earth begins with you”. I find this phrase to be a bit ill-fitting because the sale of such a bracelet is, in a way, demanding that you trade one resource for another– which isn’t necessarily protecting the environment. Like great, you’re paying money to have a company extract resources from the earth but that’s okay because you might end up contributing to planting a tree, so like.. the balance is restored? The whole chemical-polymerization-hydrolysis-creation of silicone is another concern of mine. After research, I’ve found several different answers regarding the safety and environmental-friendliness of silicone, but idk. I’m kind of hesitant and on the fence about it.

I don’t want to raise particular malignity about the lokai company; they appear to be a dedicated organization. However, in the capitalist-centered society that we live in, I have certain uncertainties for the claims of charity. Even actual, famous charitable organizations have been exposed to embezzlement. And, in reality, most of these people purchasing the green lokai probably have little interest in the environment. Okay, yeah, one probably has thought about wanting to save the pretty trees and the pretty birds and the pretty flowers, but do the individuals buying tons of these bracelets actually care about the rise of CO2 levels? The extinction of keystone species? The depletion of Earth’s resources? What makes lokai different from any other capitalist marketing project?

Even though I find myself supporting lokai and their products, I can’t help but give second thoughts to the ethics and viability of their actions. I have to give applause to their marketing strategy, idea, creativeness, and success. However, when it comes to the actual charitable, nature-based, zen-like picture that they paint? I’m not too sure. But can you blame them? #capitalism #marketbasedeconomy

Some might find my questioning silly: what can a blogpost from a basic nobody do? And why should anyone care? I’m questioning that as I write this right now. However, I’ve started to believe in the concept of voluntary simplicity; a personal approach to a simple style of living. Change has to start somewhere or another.

Overall, one thing I hope to remember, and I hope every person reading this will remember is that YES, PROTECTING THE EARTH BEGINS WITH YOU. Humans are at a point of no return with the exploitation of resources, but the question is, how can we find a balance within such exploitation to limit irreversible levels of destruction?

Despite all of this, and although this kind of hurts me to say, chances are, you might find me wearing a green lokai too sometime. Consumerism, I guess.