page_title: Power Balance
hierarchical_section_title: Power Balance
caption_attribution_description: English: Power Balance Band
context_page_description: Power Balance is the original brand of hologram bracelets claimed by its manufacturers and vendors to "use holographic technology" to "resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body", and increase sporting ability. Numerous independent studies of the device found it to be no more effective than the placebo effect for enhancing athletic performance, and the manufacturer was forced by the ACCC to retract any previous claims in 2010.
  The product was originally promoted at trade shows in the beginning of 2006 utilizing applied kinesiology as its most effective sales tool. They then began selling the product in 2007 and had amassed countless celebrity endorsements many free and some paid they had become a trend among high school, collegiate and professional sports in 2008-2012 although bands are regularly sighted on athletes today, those 5 years were the biggest boom for Power Balance. Leading one journalist to say that "a growing number of professional sportsmen and their attendants are starting to sound like New Age crystal healers." Another journalist gave Power Balance the CNBC Sports Product of the Year in 2010.
context_section_description: Power Balance is the original brand of hologram bracelets claimed by its manufacturers and vendors to "use holographic technology" to "resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body", and increase sporting ability. Numerous independent studies of the device found it to be no more effective than the placebo effect for enhancing athletic performance, and the manufacturer was forced by the ACCC to retract any previous claims in 2010.
  The product was originally promoted at trade shows in the beginning of 2006 utilizing applied kinesiology as its most effective sales tool. They then began selling the product in 2007 and had amassed countless celebrity endorsements many free and some paid they had become a trend among high school, collegiate and professional sports in 2008-2012 although bands are regularly sighted on athletes today, those 5 years were the biggest boom for Power Balance. Leading one journalist to say that "a growing number of professional sportsmen and their attendants are starting to sound like New Age crystal healers." Another journalist gave Power Balance the CNBC Sports Product of the Year in 2010.
  Power Balance Headquarters which was located in Laguna Niguel, California at the time, denied that they made any medical or scientific claims about their products, but after an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruling, the Australian distributor of Power Balance was forced to recognize and retract any possible claims. The company had been the focus of significant criticism, particularly for false advertising. It has been described as "like the tooth fairy" and a "very successful marketing scam". Although Dylan Evans, a lecturer in behavioral science at Cork University's School of Medicine and author of Placebo stated "I was really impressed by the marketing. They have managed to get away without deceiving anyone in the sense of an overt lie. There are no claims on the packaging itself."They don't make any reference at all to any health outcomes. They leave that as an inference that most people will draw"
  By the end of 2011 the company was reported to be on the edge of going out of business after allegedly having to settle a $57m lawsuit, in the course of which company executives acknowledged that their past claims to improve strength and balance were not backed by science. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to a multitude of lawsuits, but the brand has since been transferred to a new company, Power Balance Technologies and is still selling Power Balance bands and other items today.
caption: A Power Balance wrist band
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