MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Close your eyes and imagine this scene - you're out for an evening walk with your beloved when they stop and drop to one knee and ask you to spend eternity with them. A little velvet box appears, and you pull out a purple plastic band?
BRIGHTON JONES: We get a lot of blowback from people finding this morally reprehensible that we would even suggest anything other than a $20,000 diamond.
KELLY: Brighton Jones co-founded Enso Rings. They're squishy, stretchy, colorful. His is one of many companies now making alternatives to metal wedding bands. They pitch them to weightlifters, to nurses who don't want to rip their latex gloves and to lovers of the great outdoors like Jones himself.
JONES: So a few years ago, I was rock climbing and I fell. And on the way down, my wedding ring got cut on the rock face. And there was that split second, you know, where, oh, I'm going to lose the finger. And fortunately, the rock actually broke off. And so when I landed on the ground, though, my body was trembling. And it was a very sobering experience, and my resolve at that point was to not wear my wedding ring anymore. It just wasn't worth it.
KELLY: Eventually, his wife started to wonder why he wasn't publicly showing his commitment to her - enter the soft $10 polymer ring. You can buy them in three packs. Jones says they are not meant to replace a traditional metal band just something you can slip on when you're headed to the gym. Still, a little weird to buy a three pack of wedding rings.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE CLAW PHILHARMONIC SONG, "PACHELBEL CANON IN D") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.