Rainbow Loom is a toy loom children can use to turn colorful rubber bands into bracelets, charms and other jewelry. It was invented in 2010 by Cheong Choon Ng in the basement of his Detroit home using a wooden scrub board, pushpins and dental hooks. [1][2]
Ng is a Malaysian immigrant of Chinese descent with a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Wichita State University. He came up with the idea in 2010 and began selling the kit while employed as a crash-test engineer for Nissan. In the past year, Rainbow Loom’s popularity has increased, with fans posting hundreds of YouTube fan videos and spurred on scores of so-called kidpreneurs who sell the jewelry they make with the loom. Ng claims he has sold over 1.2 million units, as of September 2013[2] and has sued the makers of rival products, FunLoom and Cra-Z-Loom for patent infringement.
Ng is a Malaysian immigrant of Chinese descent with a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Wichita State University. He came up with the idea in 2010 and began selling the kit while employed as a crash-test engineer for Nissan. In the past year, Rainbow Loom’s popularity has increased, with fans posting hundreds of YouTube fan videos and spurred on scores of so-called kidpreneurs who sell the jewelry they make with the loom. Ng claims he has sold over 1.2 million units, as of September 2013[2] and has sued the makers of rival products, FunLoom and Cra-Z-Loom for patent infringement.