In The Know: Cheong Choon Ng, inventor of Rainbow Loom

TIGER charm and rainbow bracelet—all made from rubber bands especially manufactured for looming.

A Malaysian immigrant in the United States, Cheong Choon Ng, is the inventor of the Rainbow Loom, a popular toy for making bracelets out of colorful rubber bands.

The Rainbow Loom kit, now sold in more than 20 countries, is composed of plastic template boards, a hook, plastic clips and mini-rubber bands.

Ng was a crash-test engineer for Nissan when he first thought of the Rainbow Loom in 2010. He wanted to impress his daughters Teresa and Michelle with his bracelet-weaving skills, only to encounter a problem: His fingers were too big for the small elastic bands.

Ng, who graduated with a mechanical engineering degree, soon found the answer in a primitive loom—an old wooden board with rows of pushpins—which helped him create bracelets out of rubber bands. Soon, he was using the loom to weave complicated patterns at a faster speed.

His daughters began using the loom to create gifts for family and friends. In August last year, Michaels Stores, an arts-and-crafts retailer, began selling the Rainbow Loom for $17 each (about P744). It became one of the store’s bestsellers.

Today, kids and adults alike are into the loom band craze, with the likes of Kate Middleton and David Beckham among the global celebrities who have been seen wearing the popular bracelets.

Source: New York Times, Fortune.com

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