Salt is not chlorine

Sea water is not simply wet

As a band dries, dissolved salt recrystallises inside whatever structure it has soaked into. Those crystals are hard and angular, and every wrist movement then grinds them against the fibre from the inside. Sand does the same thing from the outside. The result is a band that goes furry at the edges and looks cheap, on a timescale far shorter than the same band would show at a chlorinated pool.

It reads as a quality failure and is not

This is what makes it worth writing down. A property switches to a woven band, uses it at a beach club, and concludes within a fortnight that the supplier sent poor stock. The band is fine. It was specified for water it will not meet. The distinction matters because the remedy is a different construction rather than a different supplier, and properties frequently change the second while keeping the first.

What tolerates it

Tight braided cord and solid silicone. A braid has far less internal void for salt to occupy and carries load through its geometry rather than through surface fibres, so abraded outer filaments do not weaken it meaningfully — it looks worn long before it is weak, which is the right way round for a credential. Solid silicone has no structure for salt to enter at all.

A rinse doubles the life

The cheapest intervention available to a beach property is a fresh-water rinse of recovered bands at end of day. Bands stored salt-loaded continue abrading themselves in the box; rinsed bands do not. It is a housekeeping instruction rather than a product feature, and it is the difference between one season and two out of the same run.