(I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place; mods, feel free to move it.)

If you've been at the Rio for WSOP, you may have noticed a hallway kiosk selling fancy-looking bracelets for hundreds of dollars each. I recently had some time to kill before a tournament, so I decided to finally stop and check it out. The company claims these bracelets improve balance and increase strength, among a long list of other miracle health benefits—weight loss, stress reduction, etc. To “prove” this, the salesperson asked me to stand on one leg and extend my arms. He pressed down on one arm, and asked me to resist. I lost balance. I tried again, and again I lost balance. Then he put one of these bracelets on me and pushed down on my arm again with just as much force, and this time I could resist and remain balanced on one leg! It felt like magic. It was magic.

The next test was similar: I clasped my hands behind my back, the salesman pushed his fists down into them, and his weight pulled me backwards. Then with a bracelet on my wrist, he did the same thing, and this time he literally came off the floor so all his weight was in my clasped hands. I remained balanced and felt strong, supporting his whole weight! The difference was astonishing… a little too astonishing. So I walked away from his “special deal” and decided to do some research.

Perhaps most notably, I found a Scam School video on YouTube in which Brian Brushwood fools people with these same balance tricks and then explains how it’s done. The video starts off with, “This week, we’re gonna learn how to take $2 wristbands and sell them for $50 each!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpLt0oUWfOk

You can find a whole bunch of other articles about how these balance bracelets are a scam, and at least one company has started issuing refunds. There’s also an Australian company called Skeptic Bros who sells these bracelets for $2—the same ones Purlife sells for $100 as their cheapest, low-end model. The basis of the tricks is the angle at which the force is being pressed; the variation between even a few degrees can make a big difference in terms of how our bodies support weight.

Needless to say I’m glad I didn’t impulse-buy one only to do the research later and feel like an idiot. To be clear, I am not making an argument against the potential benefits of tourmaline—the gemstone Purlife claims is the active gemstone embedded in the bracelets—which honestly I know nothing about and don’t have an opinion on. I do, however, question how much tourmaline, if any, is actually in these bracelets; and clearly the “strength tests” these salespeople are performing are a sham.

Cliffs: don’t be fooled into buying a $2 bracelet for $100.

I'm on the scammers side of any scam where the marks literally have to be the stupidest people on earth in order to fall for it. This qualifies.

WSOP Merchandise Sales Manager:... Get the heads in bro, as long as theyre makin us money, fill the hallways with em.

Kiosk Rental Sales Guy: ...Should I perform thorough backround checks on potential businesses that are renting space?

WSOP Merchandise Sales Manager: ...No time for legit kid, in a couple days this place is gonna be crawling with people and we need in their pockets..this is Vegas son, now go make some money

yes, to the rubbish bin

Loooool. I saw in 2nd part. Being pushed down and is like yeah I can resist. And I walked infront of her and interrupted te guy and said this is a complete scam and walked away.

Also. If you bought a solar powered case GG your $300

Yeah I'm undecided on whether I think these people should even be allowed to sell these in the Rio... I'm leaning towards no but I guess casinos are at least partly based on fooling people into making bad decisions.

haha nice... I'm thinking about just standing in front of the kiosk and telling everyone it's a scam. If anyone wants to do this for $5/hr lmk and I might hire you.

aw thanks

I knew a guy in Michigan who was a semi-professional bowler and was shilling these things on the PBA (Pro Bowlers) tour in the form of a necklace & pendant. In back to back weeks in 03 or 04 I believe, a guy won back to back titles or 2 titles in a span of 3 weeks or something like that using the "balance pendants". He did a cross country tour out of his Tahoe shilling these things for upwards of $300 a piece.. It was a fad that died out within months and he moved onto shilling other As Seen On TV products.

He later made 6 figures in 3 months as an affiliate for the Snuggie back in 2009 and spent every last dime of it on pain pills until his unfortunate overdose in 2012. Rough life.

LOL people still getting scammed power "Power Balance" bands I saw this edition at WSOP at thought to myself "LOL people are still falling for that.... nah!"

I guess I was wrong

They claim these bracelets increase strength? So if I ask the scammer if they will significantly increase my bench press while I'm wearing one the scammer would say yes? Lol.

So what happens if I wear two of them? Will I be lifting more than anybody else in the gym?

lol @ falling for this. also $400 solar chargers that cost $25 on amazon. come on.

lmao, I had the same BS done to me at a restaurant equipment show but this guy was hawking shoe inserts.

I was all ready to buy some for $15-20 bucks until he said they cost $400

I read the whole OP expecting something to indicate that the OP was already in on the joke and knew that the whole idea of a 'balance bracelet' is ****ing dumb. It never came. Ban OP.

I literally hadn't heard of anything like this until yesterday. I guess I'm out of the loop but I guess so is everyone who actually buys them (and they seem to be selling a good amount).

Wonder if these are the same folks that convinced Mr Gullible, Negreanu to make a testimonial video.

Lol ran into this guy at the WSOP a few years back but i caught onto his scam after watching someone fall for it. I ran up next and pretended to care, and he had me put my hands out and he made me lose my balance with a patent move of his accept the next time he had me put the bracelette on and this is where he changes his move to where you feel like you have incredible balance, I called his BS out right away.

Im glad these things are successful cause that just proves how many idiots are out there.

For a brief time there was an NBA arena named Power Balance Pavilion home of the Sacramento Kings, so there are/were plenty of people duped by this BS.

Now it has the much more prestigious name of Sleep Train Arena.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Train_Arena

If you see a poker player wearing one of these at your table, get position on them

But their ranges will be power balanced.

During my first break into the film/tv industry I was still working my job at a running shoe store in West LA in 2010. Our buyer (who was a total TOOL to the definition) was sold by Power Balance on these stupid bands.

Us Salesmen were instantly sketpical the day of the demo when they brought the product to the sales floor but they attached bonus/prizes for selling them so we all got on board that day to use the demo taught to us (edit: that same one they are using at the WSOP this year F'in 6+ years later) to sell these things hand over fist. (if I remember right this happened on Saturday mornings before opening we would have sales meetings with vendor reps to talk about new products or have demos.)

After about 2 weeks of contest-based sales the best of us (about 5-6 of the 20) would only attempt to sell them to children, their dull parents and non-child rearing customers in our client bases who loved trends or were easily sold new and "exciting" products to improve their performance.

By 6-12 (edit: closer to 12 I'm guessing looking back) weeks in we were openly apologizing to even half-witted clients and admitting we were selling them to win bonus' from Power Balance and agreed to send out extra coupons to make up for the price of 1 unit of Power Balance (about $30 I believe). All the smart sales people were pretty embarrassed about the whole thing but it's part of the business when you're a commission salesperson on a retail floor.

I wore the 2 they gave me for free plus one i bought on 50% discount from the store because I really liked the color design and it matched several pairs of shoes I had at the time. My now soon to be wife was wearing one when I met her as well as a pair of Brooks running shoes that was one of my personal best sellers - I complimented the shoes and joked about the scammy bracelet and I guess it worked

Anyway we should all be embarrassed that any part of our population has ever thought a piece of plastic with a reflective sticker on it would do anything more then be the sugar pill of bracelets and necklaces.

I'm half-ashamed to admit I sold many a stupid/averge-to-low IQ people on those bracelets. Only half-ashamed because I made a stupid amount of bonus money on them that I spent quiet nicely on stuff for myself

EDIT: After about 3 weeks (5-9 weeks before the group of the best of us stopped BS'ing about them) I was still wearing them everyday but openly trashing them to everyone I saw and admitting I was only wearing them and selling them to kids etc. for the up-sale commission even on the sales floor in front of my managers... and I was STILL selling them to people without much issue.

Also I kept having to replace the 2 free ones every 2 weeks with as defective because they would thin out and break around my wrist even though I was wearing XL size slightly loose on my wrist... just the daily grind would weaking them near one of the imprinted letters on the band and it would snap off soon after.

Extra Edit: F'ing terrabad Power Balance used photos of Andy Irons and quotes of his as endorsements for the product months AFTER he had died tragically and posted the promotions in store.... what a bunch of penetrate apes

I like how people say "I caught on to this scam!" Like they are ****ing Sherlock Holmes or something. Really? Just hearing about a bracelet that improves your balance that doesn't involve a massive cantilever and counterweight didn't tip you off?

I lol'd

If you bought one, they probably sold you a solar powered torch to complete the set.