In lieu of the recent debate over the health ramifications of BPA in consumer products, I had the perfect excuse to purchase the Kor One Hydration Vessel. I’m not quite sure where I first saw the Kor, but I instantly loved the unique design, BPA free materials and the fact that Kor donates 1% of their sales to a different water-related cause depending on which Kor you buy. I wanted a new bottle considering the age and condition of my Nalgene.

My initial hesitation to purchase this bottle lied in the one aspect people criticize first: the price. At $30 dollars, the Kor is basically just a pretentiously named, grossly overpriced water bottle. I’ve definitely taken some flack from friends over this. The cost of the Kor makes the (previously expensive but now relatively less so) Nalgene and Sigg bottles which serve the same function a fraction of the price, look like a steal. However, the same can be said about nearly everything we purchase; a cheap Timex watch tells time just as well as an expensive Rolex. The difference lies in the statement the Rolex makes for the wearer. The fact is, we pay a premium for things that provide value to us beyond that item’s intrinsic function (thanks largely to some tricky marketing).

For me, I found the Kor to be superior to other similar water bottles on an intrinsic functional level, as well as a more abstract philosophical level. The design of the Kor is much more appealing than any other water bottle I have seen. I get comments everyday on my Kor. It is also transparent so you can the contents (something the Sigg and Kleen Kanteen doesn’t allow) and has a hinged lid for one handed operation (sorry Nalgene). Kor donates to worthy causes, albeit given the price, Kor should probably donate much more than 1%. Kor also greatly reduces plastic bottle consumption; even though I always recycle my plastic bottles, reducing demand for them couldn’t hurt. I also find that I’m drinking much more water daily which, as an athlete, I definitely wasn’t drinking enough of before.

Ultimately, I am very satisfied with the Kor and it’s undeniably unique design. Even if you still think the Kor is ridiculous, I hope you consider doing something about the bottled water you consume. Packaging and transporting bottled water creates a huge carbon footprint people don’t normally think about. The amount of these recyclable (petroleum-based) bottles that end up in landfills is also staggering. Filtering your own water and carrying it in your own bottle is just one of the many small steps we can take to living more responsibly.

P.S. I got the green one from Koyono. Read more about Kor at http://blog.korwater.com/.

WordClock by Simon Heys is simple, yet elegant screensaver I found that serves also as a clock. It can be customized in a variety of ways. Check out the video to see what I mean.

Word Clock for Mac, PC, iPhone from Simon Heys on Vimeo.