page_title: Rainbow Loom
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rainbow Loom / History
caption_attribution_description: A bracelet made with a Rainbow Loom.
context_page_description: Rainbow Loom is a plastic tool used to weave colorful rubber and plastic bands into decorative items such as bracelets and charms. It was invented in 2010 by Cheong Choon Ng in Novi, Michigan.
context_section_description: Rainbow Loom was created by Cheong Choon Ng, a Malaysian immigrant of Chinese descent who came to the United States in 1991 to attend Wichita State University, where he earned a graduate degree in mechanical engineering. He was employed as a crash-test engineer for Nissan Motor Company in 2010. He conceived the idea of a toy loom for rubber-band crafting after seeing his young daughters make rubber-band bracelets. He tried to show them how they could link the rubber bands together but was unsuccessful, so he stuck a scrap board with multiple rows of pegs on which the bands could be linked more easily.
  The bracelets became popular with the neighborhood children, and his daughter suggested that he sell them. He spent six months developing the loom kit and designed 28 different versions. His prototype, which he called Twistz Bandz, used a wooden board, pegs, and dental hooks. He invested $10,000 and found a factory in China to manufacture the parts, which he and his wife assembled in their home in June 2011. Ng decided to rename his product after discovering that an elastic hair band on the market was named Twist Band, and his brother and niece came up with the name Rainbow Loom.
  Efforts to sell the loom online and in toy stores, however, were unsuccessful because customers did not understand how to use the product. Ng started a website and filmed instructional videos featuring his daughters and niece. In summer 2012, Ng received his first store orders from franchises of Learning Express Toys, a specialty crafts chain, and sales picked up. In June 2013 arts and crafts retail chain Michaels test-marketed the product in 32 stores; by August the chain was carrying Rainbow Loom in its 1,100 U.S. locations. Rainbow Loom is also sold at Mastermind Toys in Canada and in specialty stores. As of August 2013, 600 retailers were selling Rainbow Loom at a retail price of $15 to $17. The kits are manufactured in China, and Ng supervises distribution out of a 7,500 square feet (700 m²) warehouse near his home.
  In 2013, Ng worked with The Beadery and Toner Plastics to produce the Wonder Loom, a redesigned version of the Rainbow Loom that is made in the United States. The Wonder Loom is sold by Wal-Mart. In April 2014, Ng released a travel-sized version of the Rainbow Loom called the 'Monster Tail,' which allows simple bracelets to be made on only 8 pegs, arranged in a rectangle.
  In mid-May 2015, Rainbow Loom released two new products:
  The Alpha Loom, another travel sized loom which can be used to make vibrantly colored name bracelets with special types of new bands, which are twice as thick but half the size of regular bands. It has seven pegs on either side, and it comes with a special hook that has seven hooks on so users can hook over seven bands at once, instead of one. It also comes with an instruction manual with pixelated grids for users to photocopy, cut out, measure around the wrist, and design the patterns themselves, with pictures and letters to spell words.
  The Hair Loom Studio, also released in May 2015, is used to make designs on the Rainbow Loom, Finger Loom, or Monster Tail, that can then be transferred onto the user's hair by pushing the design off a "guide tube" onto a long strand of hair. The bands for this are made of silicone and can be removed without pulling at the hair. There are two versions of the Hair Loom Studio, a large "double" and a small "single" loom.
caption: A fishtail bracelet made from loom bands
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