What kind of silly band is this




















In , the Toledo, Ohio-based company started a national fashion phenomenon with the introduction of colorful, shaped rubber-band bracelets called Silly Bandz. It's funny. Everyone wants to take people like me and say, "That guy got lucky. It all started when I was 23 and took over my grandparents' restaurant.

During the '90s, I opened two more. I also started a concert promotion company and a custom apparel company, and had some minor success selling custom silicone bracelets online. I always believed I'd have that one big hit, because I had so much going on, but nothing ever really took off.

I remember my mom saying once, "I don't understand why you don't just go get a job. Then, the lid blew off. I went to a trade show in China around and saw shaped rubber bands created by a Japanese designer. Months later, the idea came to me to make them bigger, thicker, and more detailed. So Silly Bandz was born. It was an insane few years. At our peak, in , we were selling more than a million packs of Silly Bandz a week.

We had people driving to our offices from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, you name it, because they couldn't get through on the phone, and they needed Silly Bandz for their stores.

One day, we were so overwhelmed with shipments and phone calls, we ran an ad on Facebook saying if anyone was looking for work, we'd hire them on the spot. We had a line down the sidewalk. Croak, who also created the customized silicone bracelets made popular by Lance Armstrong and his Live Strong campaign, saw the opportunity to branch out.

Making the bands slightly thicker, he envisioned them as a fashion accessory [source: Berfield ]. Made of what the Silly Bandz Web site calls " percent medical-grade silicone," the bands are manufactured quite cheaply in China [source: Silly Bandz ]. In fact, a toy analyst estimates that each Silly Bandz package costs "nickels" to produce, and eyes the profit margin at close to 75 percent [source: Berfield ].

The science behind the bands is predictably simple. Silicone is a very malleable material. With changes to its molecular structure, the substance can become quite rigid and hard like the rubber in car tires or it can take on the properties of a thin fluid think silicone gel in breast implants.

Landing somewhere in between both extremes, the silicone in Silly Bandz is able to have a "backbone" that can bend without breaking and mold toward specific forms [source: Dow Corning ]. And while some might grumble that loads of rubber bands aren't helping the environment, the original use from a Japanese designer who molded rubber into flexible shapes was actually intended to prevent people from throwing away countless rubber bands by keeping them attached to their frog-shaped band [source: Marek ].

So far, we know that Silly Bandz are made of silicone rubber and come in shapes. That's all fine and good, but what the heck are people actually doing with them besides oohing and aahing as their bracelet comes off to reveal a blobby bear-shape? First of all, let's establish who exactly is wearing these bands.

Silly Bandz were first targeted toward elementary school-age children manufacturer-recommended for ages 5 to 12 [source: Amazon ]. While that certainly makes up the bulk of their audience, it's not limited to children. Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Anthony Bourdain and Shakira have all shown up on red carpets or in paparazzi snaps sporting their favorite kid's fad.

Teenagers -- perhaps propelled by a sense of irony -- have begun embracing the trend in , wearing the bracelets to high school [source: Stone ]. Now that we know who's wearing them, the question quickly becomes why. Like a lot of trends -- especially those popular among elementary school kids -- Silly Bandz aren't exactly answering life's larger questions. In general, the bands are traded for interesting shapes and styles there are many debates about "rarer" Silly Bandz.

Many companies, celebrities and any number of endorsements have formed partnerships with Silly Bandz. Some seem to hit the target audience just right Justin Bieber Silly Bandz, in the shape of his trademark baseball cap , while others seem a little bizarre Kardashian Silly Bandz in the shape of a purse. Internationally, Silly Bandz have also made a big splash. By August , Silly Bandz were getting buzz in Britain as the "next big thing.

But Silly Bandz aren't all fun and no games. Embracing the madness, shoot over to the next page to see how teachers are using the accessories for educational tools -- and how Silliness extends to far more than just Bandz. It may not be entirely accurate that Silly Bandz are going to spark a lot of intellectual curiosity, but it's also true that there are redeemable educational moments to be found in the stretchy shapes. Targeting the elementary set, how about asking children to present a report on their favorite Silly Bandz animal [source: Kreusch ]?

Because of the plethora of shapes, it's also a convenient way to get kids to remember lessons in a tactile way. For instance, little ones can play with letter-shaped Bandz as they learn their alphabet.

Math lessons such as grouping or even simple arithmetic may also become clearer when children can see a tangible product. And although Silly Bandz can be choking hazards for little ones, a parent who's supervising might be able to give a lesson or two about colors or sorting to a toddler. Some even argue that Silly Bandz are teaching an even more realistic life lesson: Trading and scrupulously keeping track of Silly Bandz shows youngsters the joys of budgeting and saving, not to mention pooling, sharing and bargaining their resources.

Even more realistic than teaching kids the joys of socialism, many teachers are finding a much more traditional way to use Silly Bandz in the classroom: good, old-fashioned bribery for excellent grades or exemplary behavior. Say you're trying to teach your kids the importance of religion or their cultural history?

Don't you fret with heavy books or tedious stories -- instead, consider buying your child Silly Bandz of the Aleph Bet, or Hebrew alphabet [source: Biblical Bandz ] Don't worry, they're kosher.

Let's not stop there. Silly Bandz have expanded and reached into many sectors of children's lives. There are now Silly Earringz to match your Bandz just don't try stretching them to your wrist , Silly Slapz slap watch which, it must be said, is more "slap" than "silly" and even wall calendars admittedly, this is just a calendar with Silly Bandz included. Of course, Silly Bandz can also be scented, glow-in-the-dark and tie-dyed.

But that's not the only thing Silly Bandz have done to snag publicity. Read on for some Silly Bandz rumors and lore that will make you clutch your pearls or silicone bracelets -- whichever is most handy.

While Silly Bandz were certainly marketed as a fun, playful accessory for kids, others saw far more insidious reasons that children were interested in the accessory. One of the ideas floating around was actually quite disturbing: that school kids were using Silly Bandz to denote and engage in sexual acts.

Naturally, this was much more media maelstrom than it was credible. It seems like every few years, there's an alarmist story about how kids are using some benign object to signal their sexual experience or desire. Remember the idea that if you pulled the tab of a soda can, it somehow meant you could redeem it for a kiss? Or that removing a label from a beer bottle without tearing it meant something sexual? In , the bracelets-signaling-sex-acts angle first popped up, with the idea that different colored bracelets meant a different activity could be asked for if a boy "snapped" one off a girl's wrist [source: Haberlin ].

This was never confirmed by any actual kids. It reappeared briefly when Silly Bandz became popular and was just as baseless.



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