Also called baller bands, these silicone wristbands are usually made from silicone rubber.  Silicone rubber is a type of polymer that contains silicon, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that is combined together to make a rubber-like material. Silicone rubber is able to retain its properties even if it is subjected to extreme environments and temperatures; it is a stable and non-reactive material. Because of its properties, silicone rubber is extremely versatile and is used in a lot of industries, tools and products. Including sportswear, footwear, electronics, medical devices, and of course, silicone bracelets.

Ever since Lance Armstrong came out with his LIVESTRONG bracelets, silicone rubber bracelets have grown in popularity and have been used to raise awareness of certain issues and to show support for different causes. Not only are they fashion accessories, but they are also symbols of your show of support for a cause. Silicone rubber bracelets that are used to show support for a cause come in different colors with each color representing the cause, including:

• Yellow – testicular cancer
• Purple – LGBT rights
• Pink – breast cancer
• Blue – colon cancer and child abuse

Silicone rubber bracelets are also used as a type of marketing strategy by some companies. These are usually distributed during expos and trade fairs. They can also be used by organizations to identify members.

The market for customized silicone rubber bracelets is highly competitive due to its popularity. There are a lot of manufacturers of these bracelets, each have different product offerings. If you are thinking of ordering your own rubber bracelets you can choose your style of lettering (how the message is included in the silicone), size of the bracelet, and color of the bracelet.

Style of Lettering

• Debossed – the most popular style of lettering in rubber bracelets, these are similar to what the LIVESTRONG bracelets have. It refers to the design of the bracelet which are imprinted or recessed down into the bracelet itself. To do this, a custom mold is made incorporating the design you want. Debossed rubber bracelets can be in a single color, or it can be color-filled (the message has a different color than the rest of the bracelet).
• Embossed – embossed rubber bracelets have raised letters instead of etched letters. These are also made with the use of a custom mold.
• Printed – the message is printed on the surface of the blank bracelet with the use of screen-print.
• Laser-engraved – the message is engraved on the surface of a blank bracelet with the use of a laser engraver

Size

You can choose between a 1-inch bracelet and 3/4-inch wristband; or the standard adult 7.9 inches or the standard youth 7.1 inches.

Color

You have a broad range of colors to choose from. You can have them in solid, swirl patterns, tie-dye patterns, or in vertical stripes.

Rubber bracelets have been seen around more often since they have been effective in the field of advertising. More and more companies, organizations and groups are using rubber bracelets as a way to send their message across. The following are the most common use of rubber bracelets:

• For advertising a certain brand – manufacturers of clothing lines, sports equipment, shoes, jewelry, etc uses rubber bracelets to market their brand. Company or brand logo, name and catch phrases are often seen on bracelets. Many celebrity actors, athletes and pop icons who endorse these products wear bracelets to advertise them. Manufacturers have realized the effect of mass media in our everyday choices; that is why they spend millions on famous celebrity endorsers to promote their brand.
• For supporting a certain cause – “awareness” bracelets are for raising awareness for a certain advocacy. Disease awareness bracelets have funded many organizations in their research for the cause and sure of a certain disease. Breast cancer awareness, which has a pink rubber bracelet as their awareness color has been the most common awareness bracelet raising millions of dollars for breast cancer research, education and cure. The organization has benefited thousands of women around the world by raising awareness of the disease and helping cancer victims fight for their lives.
• For supporting environmental causes – environmentalists groups are raising awareness for many causes. Some of the most common ones are saving the rain-forests, cleaning up oil spills, saving endangered plant and animal species, protecting the ozone layer, and other worthwhile causes. They need all the funds they can get for research and other group efforts. Rubber bracelets and other paraphernalia are sold to help fund these groups’ activities.
• For supporting change – groups who want to raise awareness for change also use rubber bracelets to shout out their message. Changes in governance, fight for more rights, change in policies, advocating a certain law or bill, and other worthwhile political causes may give out free merchandise to support their campaign.
• For political causes – political groups use rubber bracelets during election campaign. Bracelets with their candidate’s name, team logo and catch phrases are printed onto the bracelets. These are distributed among supporters of their political group.
• For supporting a team – rubber bracelets are commonly seen my fans of a certain sports team like basketball, baseball, football and motor-sports. Fan apparel may also include hats, shirts, stickers, decals, car accessories and even banners. These may be sold during games or sporting events.
• For company affiliation – company employees wear bracelets to show they work and support their company. These may have company logo and name.

These are just some of the most common ways bracelets are used in the field of advertising. If you want to use rubber bracelets for your advertising or marketing needs you may look for shops that sell and print out rubber bracelets by bulk.

Silicone bracelets for advertising may be bought in bulk and may be printed in different ways. Advertising or messages may be embossed on the bracelet of laser printed for a more realistic effect. They come in any color imaginable. Here are some ways silicone bracelets help advertise brands and important causes:

• Awareness bracelets – these bracelets come in different colors depending on the cause they support. For example, pink bracelets are for breast cancer awareness while red ones are for AIDS awareness. Proceeds from these bracelets have funded disease research and cure. Famous faces in the media have been seen wearing these bracelets and have increased sales for these items as well.
• Ad campaign bracelets – silicone bracelets have been used in ad campaigns for certain political causes like change in governance, more health care benefits, more public school funding, etc. These have known to work and were able to get the message across.
• Political campaign bracelets – what better way to show you support a certain politician or a political party by wearing their own customized silicone bracelet. They may be printed with the political logo or the name of the politician. These are usually given out to campaign supporters during rallies and official campaign meetings.
• Environmental awareness bracelets – These bracelets show you support environmental groups like Green Peace or Friends of Nature. They want a message to be sent across that the Earth needs our help in saving what is left of the environment. Proceeds also go to the organizations work and projects to clean up the environment and protect endangered species.
• Brand bracelets – silicone bracelets also advertise brand names for sporting apparels, perfume and even gadgets. There are hundreds of bracelets given for free after purchase of these products for marketing purposes.
• Sports team bracelets – these popular bracelets have team logo on them and may be engraved for a better effect. These are common for basketball teams and baseball teams. They also come in different colors to signify team color and motif.
• Company logo bracelets – these bracelets are common company party souvenirs and they may have their company name and logo on the bracelet.
• Group affiliation bracelets – these bracelets tell everyone that you are a part of a certain organization, fraternity, school group or community group. These bracelets may have the logo and the name of the group embossed or printed on the bracelet.
• Party souvenirs bracelets – you may also have silicone bracelets as a giveaway for your party or get together. You can order them before hand in different colors to match your party motif and theme.

There are other ways  silicone bracelets may be used but nevertheless they have been proven effective in sending the message across.

The best thing about customized rubber bracelets is that you can purchase them by bulk and you can have them printed out for the least possible price. More companies have realized the effectiveness and the low cost of advertising through personal accessories like rubber bracelets. Let us see how a customized rubber bracelet can help you and your growing business:

• Customized rubber bracelets are a good advertising strategy. You can print or emboss your business name or logo on the bracelet to cover more ground. Your business name has to stand out from others so think of the best caption to go with it and if possible a standard color that can stand out. For example a logo for a famous shoe brand is like a check mark, even with just the logo on the bracelet you can already tell what it means.
• Customized rubber bracelets can be informative – you may have bracelets with your company name and logo plus your direct telephone number for product inquiries. A famous fast food chain uses a catchy and easy to remember telephone number with repeating digits; they even had it turned into a catchy song for customers to easily remember the number.
• Rubber bracelets may advertise a certain cause – if you are a member of a certain organization or group that advocates a cause for a disease or illness you might want a color to stand for your organization. The most common advocate for breast cancer awareness have pink as the color of their awareness bracelets, red color for AIDS and other colors for other advocate groups. Colors make a brand or an organization stand out from the rest and for people to easily get the message of their cause. The net sales of these bracelets go to funding for research, education and cure of people suffering from these diseases.
• Customized rubber bracelets are great fan apparel – you might want to start a business that appeals to sports fanatics everywhere. You can have bracelets with the sports team logo and their specific team color as souvenir items for fans. You may also print out a player’s name on the bracelet together with the team logo. You can take advantage of championship matches and finale games to customize rubber bracelets with the team logo and championship year. Aside from bracelets you can venture out to different fan apparels like shirts, caps, pins and even mugs!
• Customized rubber bracelets are great fashion accessories – since rubber bracelets come in different colors it is just as good as it is. You can match every possible color of outfit if you have multicolored rubber bracelets. Make them customizable by embossing or printing customer names on them for a certain fee.

There are more ways you can use customized rubber bracelets in your business strategies and as a business on its own. Either way, have fun and good luck!

Awareness bracelets can be considered by some as a futile attempt to voice out concern about something as important as cancer, but believe it or not, it does work. The simple idea of wearing rubber bracelets to show support for cancer awareness is slowly getting up there as a fad, but because it is for a good cause, it has ran for more than a couple of years now. Many of these awareness campaigns started out as simple fundraising events for people stricken with cancer but due to its rising popularity that coincides with the rise of cancer itself, not only people who are affected directly by cancer wear them but people who have been indirectly hit by cancer such as friends and family members of patients are starting to wear them as well.

Cancer awareness bracelets come in a variety of colors that corresponds to the different kinds of diseases. Red is known for AIDS, purple is for lupus, dark blue bracelets are for colon cancer, pink is the official color for breastcancer, a gray rubber bracelet is for brain cancer, while gold is for childhood cancer and yellow is known as the international color for hope. These cancer awareness bracelets first started out as ribbons and people wore them near their hearts, but wearing bracelets became ideal and more practical while still supporting cancer awareness everywhere.

Other campaigns have sprung from this wherein they also made use of bracelets to allow people to show their support for a common cause. Eventually, there will be other campaigns that will be using this method, but cancer awareness bracelets will always be the first. Hopefully, those other campaigns that will make use of bracelets to let the world know of their mission and to raise awareness will prove to be successful. While rubber bracelets might seem tacky at first, when you get to know the real reason why they are being worn, they will not seem so tacky after all.

Why Choose Rubber Bracelets?

Rubber bracelets are a great choice for your charity to use for fundraising for several reasons. These accessories are affordable, noticeable, and are popular among people everywhere. A bright pink bracelet for cancer awareness is going to get more attention than you may expect, so don’t be afraid of fun, bold colors when advocating for your charity. You can also include a message on your order, as well, so make sure you include some information on how people can donate in the future.

Some good information to include on your rubber bracelets is the website for the organization, and if you have a local group or chapter then you may want to include the address. Your customization can include a combination of smaller and larger fonts, so you have some room to work with when creating your custom message. For some charities, simply the color is enough to remind people it is time to donate again, but the message you send is also important.

Gathering Donations

Without donations a charity may find it hard to survive. Rubber bracelets are a simple solution when you are having a difficult time coming up with ideas to raise money. Donations can be rewarded with the bracelet, or you can give them out at an event for your organization. There are many ways that you can use this fun accessory to raise funds for your cause.

Breast cancer is an increasing problem in the United States and other parts of the world. Each year, the number of women suffering from this disease keeps on increasing. The promising thing about breast cancer is that if treated in time, it can often lead to a 100% cure rate. Cancer awareness organizations have been faced with this basic problem. Being aware of the symptoms and testing for those that are most susceptible to the disease can greatly improve ones survival rate.

However in many cases, lack of awareness can lead to unnecessary suffering from some sort of cancer. This is the reason why many charities have taken to using cancer awareness bracelets.

Origin

The Live Strong Foundation, with their yellow rubber bracelets, was one of the first charities that brought forth the awareness created by these bracelets. Gradually awareness about cancer began to increase and later, pink rubber bracelets became the sign of breast cancer the world over.

These bracelets are very stylish and help to raise awareness about breast cancer. They also raise thousands of dollars for their organizations each month.

The worst thing about cancer is that anybody anywhere can have it. Nobody is immune to the disease. You can have the healthiest of past generations and yet fall prey to this dreaded disease. This is why it is important to be aware of this disease, and support research for a cure.

Variety

There are a variety of materials in which cancer awareness bracelets are made. The most common are the silicone rubber bracelets that sell for as little as $1 each. But if you want pearls or cat’s eye in your bracelet, it is going to cost much more. Then the cost of the bracelet will increase to $30. It will increase the cost of the bracelet but the best thing about this is that you can also wear it as jewelry in different parties!

In fact, custom made awareness bracelets also contain messages regarding many other diseases. These messages can be of endurance, hope or of success. Most of the time one finds the family members and friends of the struggling person wearing cancer awareness bracelets to support him or her.

Who wears them and why?

These rubber wristbands provide a platform for the youth of the nation to showcase their beliefs. It is one way through which they can show what they believe. If you are part of the youth community, you know how important it is to youngsters to get their voices heard. It is not merely a fashion statement, such a wristband signifies much more.

Amidst the peer pressure, the wristband is a way of affirming their beliefs and values against all odds. But this is not the only reason for wearing these wristbands.

A lot of middle aged people are also wearing these wristbands now. Any guesses why? Well for the simple fact, that these wristbands not only affirm your individuality in the midst of homogenizing globalization, they also affirm your faith in the good old ideals of community and solidarity.

After all what better way to show your uniqueness but by wearing a wristband that speaks of human bonds and love? The reason is that many of these wristbands actually support some causes like awareness against suicide or AIDS. Silicone wristbands have also become quite popular in this respect. This is why these are also known as awareness wristbands.

Diseases and Causes

Cancer for instance, is one of the main causes which is supported by wearing rubber wristbands. For instance, Live Strong Foundation was one of the foremost pioneers in introducing the rubber wristband as a sort of awareness spreading jewelry. This was for a good cause. The endeavor was a big success and throughout the world people began wearing these wristbands to show their support for cancer patients.

In fact, cancer is one of those diseases which can be cured if detected early. Pink breast cancer wristbands have therefore been worn by women of all ages who wanted to create a difference. Breast cancer survivors and even those whose relatives suffered from this cancer, sported pink wristbands to spread awareness about this disease.

Parody

The wristband culture has also been used as a means of parodying corporate mass culture. A lot of the multinational corporations have tried to use wristbands to sell their own products. However in protest of these, newer versions of wristbands have come out that parody this very corporate materialistic trend. Rubber wristbands therefore are the perfect means to create awareness.

While there has been wide speculation as to the spread of occurrences of cancer, there is no answers to what the cause may be, thus making it very difficult for us to find a cure. Physicians say that it is a depressing factor that cancer is becoming more epidemic to a level where it is still unknown to human kind as to how the spread and cause of cancer still can’t be controlled.

Even though time will take to bring a complete halt to this epidemic, we can still strive to provide information and knowledge through the simple means of wearing cancer awareness bracelets. These bracelets can be pretty helpful because the can be obtained in bulk and can be sent to people through various means. High profile celebrities can have a huge impact in encouraging the peoples’ support. Celebrities like Lance Armstrong, Sheryl crow, Christina Applegate have all undergone cancer treatments and thus with their help during cancer campaigns can promote cancer awareness bracelets. From rubber bracelets to silicone bracelets, precious metal bracelets to beaded bracelets, cancer awareness bracelets have come to the point wherein millions of people are embracing it everyday. The different colors the awareness bracelets use will signify different types of cancer such as, yellow which is commonly linked to Armstrong’s foundation and pink rubber bracelets representing breast cancer. There are other colors such as blue, orange used for other cancers. It not only helps the patients but motivates the family members as well with bracelets like ‘Be Strong’ ‘Fear Nothing’ etc.

With the above mentioned points we do come to the conclusion that cancer awareness bracelets can play a significant role not only for the cancer patients but also for the whole human kind of this world.

Materials used in the production of these bracelets

The other materials that are used for charity bracelets include plastic, silver, silk and even satin. Some of the colors are representative of the charities that they support. Usually red colored bracelets denote AIDS charity while pink colored bracelets will denote breast cancer charities and so on. Sometimes the colors are specifically chosen as they will have wider appeal for the customers.

Often these bracelets are made in such a way, that both adults and children can use them. Some may be retractable bracelets and can be shortened or lengthened to fit the appropriate wrist size. The materials chosen for the production of the charity bracelets are such that they are flexible and won’t cause any skin rashes or any other adverse reactions. The manufacturers will also ensure that they are made in such a way that they don’t react with sweat either. Additionally, the fact that these charity bracelets should be able to withstand the wear and tear of daily wear is another important feature.

Colors and personalized messages can also be engraved on the bracelets

Along with the colors, the bracelets can also be emblazoned with a suitable message to make them more appealing for the customers as well. Most online shops that retail these bracelets can also personalize the messages for you. These bracelets have become so immensely popular that many celebrities such as Oprah have started wearing them for supporting many humanitarian causes.

Spreading awareness and raising monetary contributions through the bracelets

The charity bracelets cost only $1 or $2. When you wear these bracelets, you will begin to take an interest in a particular charity. Moreover, you will also be spreading awareness and helping the organization in raising funds to combat the problem. Many people also show a keen interest and are willing to help out when they see someone wearing these charity bracelets.