Company bottles and sells air to health-conscious

ST. LOUIS -- Health nuts hungry for an energy boost can look beyond vitamin water and smart drinks to a new product hitting the shelves: bottled oxygen.

It comes in a super-sized metal can and feels, well, empty.

It is, sort of. It's filled with air.

"Most people are like, 'What is this?"' said Joe McNamara, who sells the product in the Amoco station he manages in Creve Coeur, about 20 miles west of St. Louis.

Even in the flatlands of the Midwest, where oxygen supplies rarely seem lacking, the cylinders of 93 percent pure oxygen make a unique promise: just one can will relieve stress, zap a hangover and pump up performance.

Thirty breaths' worth of the air runs between $10 to $15.

That's the sales pitch from the Springfield company that recently began marketing Big Ox at hundreds of gas stations and other stores in Missouri and Illinois.

While similar products are sold in other states, Big Ox says it is the first company to offer bottled air in different flavors, such as tropical breeze and mountain mint.

Two former car salesmen from Springfield hatched the idea while relaxing at an oxygen bar in Las Vegas a few years ago.

"Why can't you have oxygen in some other device you can use at your leisure?" asked one of the men, David McKeown.

After refining the concept and locating a few investors, they began selling Big Ox in May. They did their market research: Bottled oxygen already was selling well in Japan.

Big Ox entrepreneurs said bottled oxygen would fit right into the booming market for energy bars and energy drinks such as Red Bull or Monster, and their marketing rap taps a similar vein.

The back of each can reads "In today's stress-ridden, high-energy environment, you've got to be at your peak performance."

Gas stations, gyms and health-food stores began selling the product in May. In the coming weeks, Schnucks plans to roll out Big Ox at a limited number of stores. QuikTrips in the St. Louis area sold it for a trial period, but decided not to renew their order.

At Mallory Sports in Wood River, Ill., sales of canned oxygen are picking up, said salesman and triathlete Tim Wiemers, who has tried Big Ox.

"I noticed a burst of energy toward the end of a workout," Wiemers said.

Even on the most humid of days, the free air most breathe contains 21 percent oxygen, enough for a healthy person to maintain a good blood oxygen concentration around 95 percent. Doctors doubt breathing in a burst of concentrated oxygen has any lasting, healthful effects, though they said Big Ox is probably not dangerous for a healthy person.

"Any proposed benefit from this is really a stretch," said Mario Castro, a pulmonologist at the Washington University School of Medicine.

Big Ox's founders say their product will soon be distributed nationwide. Next month, they'll start offering two more flavors: citrus and original.

Original, they said, tastes a lot like air.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com