Courtesy of Gym Beans

The Gym Beans bracelet. Not beautiful! But let’s use it as a starting point for a thought journey.

Okay, okay, so Gym Beans is not a beautiful bracelet, but it is functional and popular on Kickstarter, and I think that makes it worthy of sharing. The wearable tech craze—Fitbits, Jawbones, Apple Watches—has people really thinking about what else they can wear on their bodies, and jewelers would do well to take note.

Gym Beans is a bracelet with four compartments to store toiletries at the gym. It seems a bit silly, but then think of the logistics of gym showering: toting around bottles of shampoo in gym bag; storing them in your locker; retrieving them after your workout; carrying the bottles to the showers; finding a place to put them; wrapping yourself in a towel afterward; gathering the bottles again with a free hand… There has to be a better way, thought Uyanga Byambaa. And there is! It turns out that better way is a bracelet that she is calling the Gym Bean. The plastic compartments have twist-off lids for filling and, once unlocked, dispense product with a push of a button. The bracelet offers a hands-free gym shower experience—nothing to carry or stack.

Maybe a crystal-studded or elevated version of this particular bracelet would be impractical. Poison rings and lockets date back to several hundred years B.C., so wearable storage isn’t anything new. But the Gym Beans Kickstater, well on its way to being successfully funded, shows a piqued interest in functional wearables, even of the analog variety.

What can jewelry hold? Anything, everything. (Personally, I would love a beautiful, everyday necklace that secretly conceals one o.b. tampon.)

A Twitter conversation about Gym Beans between The Awl founder Choire Sicha and author Alexander Chee

JCK