Livestrong Bracelets

No, this is not a request for one. But I found an article on SI.com talking about them.

More than a fad
True meaning of the LiveStrong bracelet lost in hype


Lance Armstrong will return to the Alps and the Pyrenees this summer in an attempt to win a seventh consecutive Tour de France title. You know what that means, right? Another six months of people wearing those yellow LiveStrong bracelets. And you know what? I couldn't be happier.

The bracelets, which debuted last May, quickly became a fashion trend rivaled only by Von Dutch hats and Ugg boots. But like all trends it has garnered the backlash of trend-haters who despise anything that creeps into the mainstream. We all know at least one. This is the person that brags about an underground band or an unknown clothing line but quickly labels it "dead" when it goes public because it's now been "tainted" by the masses. I guess that thought process would make sense if you were egomaniacal, but I would follow the road less traveled with the LiveStrong bracelets.

The difference between LiveStrong and other chic fashion trends is that the bracelets stand for something. I first found out about them while I was volunteering at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital in Los Angeles last year. I was told by one of the receptionists that Nike was hoping to sell 5 million of the yellow bracelets to help the Lance Armstrong Foundation. As of today, it has sold close to 35 million, making it arguably the greatest trend in fashion history, not for how it looks but for what it has done to fund cancer research and awareness

It's an amazing idea on so many fronts. Not only do the bracelets raise money for a great cause, but they are a way of showing support for Armstrong and other cancer patients and survivors. And, unlike other chic fashion accessories, it's cheap -- $1 per bracelet. It's a cause everyone can support and be a part of, no matter what your income is. I went home from the hospital that night and bought 100 bracelets for my friends, family and classmates. At the time they were just being released and no one knew much about them but I hoped that would change when Nike began running ads about the bracelets prior to the Tour de France.

Sure enough, the popularity of the bracelets swept the country in the coming weeks and months as celebrities from John Kerry to Lindsay Lohan began flaunting their yellow bling-bling. The streets were filled with people wearing the rubber bracelets. Somewhere along the way, however, the meaning of the bracelets got lost. Whether it was by people who resold the bracelets for $20 a pop on eBay or others who sold knockoff versions or alternative wristbands with slogans like "LiveWrong."

This is the best example of a trend jumping the shark: when the streets are littered with knockoffs and when everyone from grade schoolers to grandparents are flaunting the once-popular item as if it's still cool. But LiveStrong is much more than a fad. Every time I see someone wearing a legitimate LiveStrong bracelet, I know at least $1 went towards cancer research and that someone is showing their support for cancer patients and survivors by wearing yellow, the color of the Tour de France leader's jersey that Armstrong has made his own the past six years. Unlike other trendy fashion items that do nothing but benefit big companies and feed individual egos, the bracelets serve a purpose.

Although it's about as cliché to knock the rubber yellow circles these days as it is to knock Paris Hilton, people who criticize the bracelets or laugh at others who wear them fail to realize how much they have helped those affected by cancer. The day hospital at the Norris Center, along with thousands of other facilities around the country that treat cancer patients, is filled with people wearing these bracelets today. It might seem vain or foolish to think these bracelets make a difference, but they do.

Sit with a kid undergoing chemotherapy with her parents besides her, all of them wearing LiveStrong bracelets, and tell them the bracelets are a joke, that they don't mean anything, that they're just a fad. To them the bracelets aren't fashion statements, but survival statements. As tacky as it may seem to others, when cancer patients, especially younger ones, see celebrities and people they respect wearing LiveStrong bracelets, they know they aren't alone in their fight.

The look on the patients' faces when they see Armstrong demolish the competition year after year has proven to me that Armstrong's accomplishments have been the best medicine hospitals have had to offer patients for the past six years. It's a living, breathing inspiration to see Armstrong do what he does. It shows them that there is not only life after cancer, but that it can be better than anything they had experienced before. In a time when cancer is still the cause of 548,000 American deaths per year, according to the National Cancer Institute, watching Armstrong win the most grueling event in sports year in and year out continues to inspire people to "Live Strong."

While trends and fads may come and go, supporting cancer research and those affected by the disease is one that, like watching Armstrong win the Tour de France annually, will never get old.