It was bound to happen sooner or later. We are now a family contributing to the “Silly Bandz” craze apparently sweeping the nation and children’s wrists in a town near you.
The neighborhood has been buzzing with the sounds of chattering six year olds trading animal shaped colored silicone bracelets for the past month*.
*Does this remind anyone at all of the jelly bands those of us children of the eighties found fashionable?
A word to the wise, hell hath no fury like a child separated from their Silly Bandz.
Michael Lewis, owner of Forever Collectibles based in Edison, N.J., makes Logo Bandz. He said the craze started in America about a year ago but has been going on in Asia for several years.
“It’s a very unique phenomenon. There is no marketing,” he said. “I have never seen anything like it.” His company is selling more than half a million packages a day — and rising.
Kids have been known to wear more than twenty on each arm with some kids in the hundreds.
You would think these things were made of solid gold, 5/24/2010
So far, Ryan hadn’t shown much of an interest to us in Silly Bandz. I don’t know how much she had been inundated with them as status symbols in the childhood pecking order or how much she cared if she were. That was until today when I picked Ryan up from school and found two brightly colored rubber animals gracing her wrist. She was so excited that two of her friends each gave her one of their Silly Bandz and not knowing — ok, kind of knowing — what I was getting myself into, I asked Ryan if we should get some Silly Bandz so that she could give her two friends bands in return. I though this could serve as a good lesson in reciprocating kindness.
I should have, however, done a little research before opening my mouth. Remember that Wii craze during the Christmas of 2008 or the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of 1982 or the Tickle Me Elmo phenomenon? Two Walgreens and no rubber bracelets later, I smartened up and called a Rite Aid not to far away from where we were and was thrilled to hear that they were in fact in stock.
Needless to say, I stocked up on a few packs, thinking they would be big hits in Ryan’s party favors for next weekends’ birthday party. Ryan, to her credit, started immediately thinking about which bands from the pack she was given would go to her friends that gave her bands that day at school. Then she proceeded to get excited about the possibilities of giving a band to her friend Shaelyn who didn’t know about them yet and even more excited as I explained the concept of “trading” to her*.
*I swear this is the truth…on the way to drop Ryan off at school today I passed a driveway in the neighborhood whose blacktop was adorned with a chalk message that could be seen from the car;
If you are looking to trade silly bands, stop here and ask.
I fear that I may have opened up Pandora’s box…and even worse, it may in fact be filled with millions of silicone rubber bracelets.
Of course…don’t tell anyone, especially Ryan, that the ones we found were nothing but a cheap knockoff “Silly Bandz”-impostor.
Don't be fooled by a knock off brand. "Shaped Rubber Bands" don't even have a cool "z" and the end, 5/24/2010
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