On wrist watch

Wearing a yellow wristband? That’s so 2004.

The rubber-wristband-for-a-cause concept -- launched last spring by Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong to support his cancer foundation -- has exploded like dynamite in a paint store, producing bracelets in every imaginable color benefiting every imaginable cause.

In addition to the 40 million yellow “Live Strong” bracelets Armstrong has sold for $1 each, there are now teal, orange, pink, purple, blue, clear and glow-in-the-dark colors as well as combo versions in red, white and blue, camouflage, rainbow stripe and a Rastafarian red, black and yellow.

The panoply of causes for which the new bands have been enlisted include AIDS, poverty, muscular dystrophy, breast cancer, relief for the South Asian tsunami and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Some bracelets bang the drum for Jesus, others denounce bullying, some proclaim “Support Our Troops,” and some get political: a “Never Surrender” bracelet issued by Working Assets, a long-distance phone service that donates to nonprofits, benefits organizations “fighting to offset damage caused by current policies of our national government.”

And in true all-American fashion, if one band is good, more are better, even at the risk of losing sight of their messages.

Santa Monica High School junior Tommy Duarte has been known to wear an armful of the bands. “It’s better than spending money on fast food,” says the 17-year-old, sporting a multicolored assortment nearly reaching his elbow.

Customers at Finish Line athletic shoe store in Culver City’s Fox Hills Mall, where many retailers sell the bracelets, buy as many as eight at a time, their motive often no loftier than color coordination, says sales associate Alicia Wilson. “People will buy a pair of green shoes and get a wristband to match,” she says.

Eddy Reyes, a three-bander on a class break at West Los Angeles College, says, sure, he wears the bracelets for style. He recently slipped on all seven in his repertory on the way to a workout.

“They’re something that people recognize me by,” says the 22-year-old from Inglewood. But like many wristband wearers, giving to charity and making a public statement of support also matter to Reyes, who has an uncle in remission from prostate cancer and counts a “Live Strong” yellow among his collection.

The bands have become a sort of collectible currency among youth across the nation. “There’s a lot of trading going on,” says Johanna Leister, 14, a student in Chatham, N.J. And while Johanna owns only four bands, they are no less trendy back East. “There’s someone in my dance class who has 11 or 12,” she says.

They have become so popular that some retailers sell the fundraisers at a markup or sell generic bands strictly as personal adornment -- no cause attached. Knockoffs of the “Live Strong” bracelets are also big business.

Idea quickly spreads

Some bands are marketed on EBay as collectors’ items going for $22 or more a pair. The 7-Eleven chain sells a “Support Our Troops” band for $2.99, $1 of which goes to the USO (United Service Organizations). Others have been sold at Target, spotted locally at Vons and are flying off the shelves at athletic-shoe stores. Like other sports-shoe makers, Nike Inc., one of Armstrong’s sponsors and the designer of his band, sells three-packs of for-profit bracelets for $5. On the market about a year before Armstrong’s bands hit, these bear such catchwords as “respect,” “team” and “player” and adorn sweaty basketball players’ wrists from coast to coast.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation is currently selling up to 130,000 “Live Strong” bands a day, spokeswoman Michelle Milford says. On Feb. 11, that figure soared to 900,000 when Armstrong appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and Winfrey challenged her viewers to break the previous single-day’s record of 382,000. (The highest volume of bands are sold on the foundation’s website.)

Since October, which was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Target stores have raised about $1 million for the Wisconsin-based Breast Cancer Recovery Foundation through sales of bracelets and other pink accessories and clothes, according to a Target spokeswoman. The pink bands are still being sold on Target’s website.

Clearly, message bracelets gone wild is good for charity. But could the trend backfire by giving donors the impression that they’ve done enough by spending just $1, or even $3 or $5? On the contrary, says Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofits, similar “marketing gimmicks” haven’t historically depressed donations. More often they’re a first step to more giving.

“Usually, once people do one thing, they get more interested and give $10 the next time,” Palmer says.

Indeed, Linda Nicholes’ two bands cost only $1 each, but she donated $20 when she bought them online to benefit Planned Parenthood. “Overpopulation and women’s rights issues are extremely important to me,” said the Anaheim Hills resident.

Nobody seems too terribly worried that the fad will trivialize any cause or charity, even if teeny-bopper accessory stores are selling matching hot pink sets for “lil’ sis” and “big sis.”

“That’s the way it goes,” says Francine Stein, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation. The organization put the bands on the market in January to raise awareness of the 32nd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion. “They’ve been selling like hotcakes,” Stein says.

Some of the wristbands, however, have posed a problem for Florida hospitals. A story posted on the website of the American Medical News, a physicians’ newspaper, reported that the yellow bracelets could be confused with “do not resuscitate” tags -- also yellow bracelets. Similarly, some hospitals use red bands to indicate patients with allergies and purple to signal a patient at risk of falling down. Patients are now generally asked to remove or cover their non-hospital bands.

Guess not everyone can jump on the bandwagon.

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Philanthropy’s palette

Yellow wristbands have been indelibly linked to supporting cancer research, but it’s far from the only shade with a cause. Here’s a guide to the fad’s color-keyed themes:

Pink -- Breast cancer research and awareness

Red -- AIDS awareness; heart disease research; support for troops

Teal -- Ovarian cancer research

Yellow -- Cancer research and awareness; support for troops

Blue -- Tolerance; anti-bullying

Orange -- Multiple sclerosis research and awareness

White -- “Jesus Loves Me”

Camouflage -- “Support Our Troops”

Blue and white -- Tsunami relief

Green -- Muscular dystrophy research and awareness