Banff bottled air sold around world
Edmonton company targeting world’s most polluted cities
This Edmonton company offers a breath of fresh air — literally.
Vitality Air sells air bottled in Banff and Lake Louise and straight oxygen. The company was founded by Moses Lam and Troy Paquette last November and started shipping bottles of air three months ago. Lam says they have averaged about 300 bottles per month.
The Herald’s Erin Sylvester spoke with Lam about selling air and who it could help.
Q: So why did you start selling bottled air?
A: We just wanted to start something that was cool and fun and something that could help people, right? So when we first started we sold a bag on eBay for 99 cents and you know we got really excited and after that we actually sold another bag for $160 US so we kind of knew there was a demand for this product.
We can fit more than just a bag of Ziploc air into a bottle so that people can enjoy the fresh, clean air more and people can enjoy it from around the world, so my partner and I, we feel like the fresh, clean air is something that everyone takes for granted everyday, especially for us in North America here.
Q: How do you bottle this air?
A: We sit out at the location, right now we’re doing Banff, so we sit out there for about 10 hours gathering all the air and then we take it back into our headquarters there and we put it into these little bottles here.
Q: How do you gather the air?
A: That we can’t disclose, it’s a little bit of a trade secret.
Q: So the bottles come with a little mask?
A: It’s a two-in-one cap/mask. The reason we have that is so that users that are in contaminated areas or polluted areas, we don’t want them breathing in the contaminated air, we want them to fully enjoy the freshness of the air inside the bottle.
Q: Where have you sent this air?
A: We’ve shipped it worldwide actually. We’ve gone everywhere from Israel, Thailand, Turkey and the funny thing is even in Calgary here.
Our main target areas, though, are India, China and Dubai because they contain the world’s most polluted cities.
So as much as this started as a gag gift or whatnot really we want to help people, help them enhance their vitality one breath at a time, that’s our slogan.
Q: Why do you sell air and oxygen?
A: Oxygen was basically a byproduct of our business. It was just so easy to do we decided just to do it, but really our main target is the air.
The difference between air and oxygen is that air you breathe only has about 18 to 30 per cent oxygen content in it ... so we did the oxygen as a byproduct because there’s demand for it. Because, let’s say for athletes, people who are working out, after they’re done a set their body is huffing and puffing, their body wants pure oxygen so we found a way to bottle the oxygen for them so they can deliver it, they can use it as a water bottle in one hand, oxygen in the other hand.
Q: Why Banff air?
A: It’s just easy for us to get it from Banff. It’s just something about the altitude in the mountains, it’s higher, less vehicles, less pollution, less traffic and all that kind of stuff that makes it attractive, I guess.
Q: Do you use the bottled air?
A: I absolutely do. My nightstand is stocked with bottled air and oxygen. It’s the first thing I do every morning and the last thing I do every night. Oxygen helps you relax, it helps give you more energy as well. I don’t really drink coffee, so my oxygen is my cup of coffee in the morning.
Q: How heavy are the bottles?
A: It’s just as heavy as the bottle itself. Most people they pick up the bottle and they kind of have that hand motion where they’re expecting it to weigh like a water bottle, but it doesn’t, so their hand kind of goes higher. One of the large bottles weighs 0.15 of a kilogram.
Q: Does it have that piney mountain smell at all?
A: No, it doesn’t, but the place that we bottle it from doesn’t really have that kind of stuff ... but, you know what, it smells really fresh, really crisp. Some clients have even put it in their refrigerator so that it’s more cold and more mountain feeling.
Q: I saw that you’re considering donating to the Red Cross.
A: In the beginning, we weren’t expecting any of this, it just so happened that the unfortunate situation with the smog in Calgary and now we’re on the map ... so any bottles that we sell between now and Nov. 30 we’d love to offer a portion of the proceeds to B.C. wildfires and the Red Cross.