Name: Loom bands.
Age: Barely a year old.
Appearance: Ubiquitous.
Ubiquitous? Why do I have no idea what you're talking about, then? Perhaps you are not the parent, guardian or minder of any children, particularly girls, aged six-to-14ish.
I am not. If you were, you'd know that loom bands are small, brightly coloured elastic bands that you weave together on a loom into bracelets used for bartering or to be given as gifts to your friends.
Oh, a playground fad! Like Pogs and Tazos and Panini stickers! And very, very like Scoubidous, which you wove and knotted into wristbands or corn dollies and gave to your friends. And very, very, very like friendship bracelets that… I see where you're going, yes. But these are mightier and more creative than anything that has come before them.
How so? They involve a loom and a crochet hook, for a start, and some fiercely complex patterns, passed from weaver to weaver at playtime or via YouTube. There's the fish tail, railroads, dragon scales, the inverted hexafish, Loosey Gooseys. Learn these and you too can transform a £1.99 pack of 1,800 bands into something amazing.
This sounds too quaint and innocent to be true. Who's behind it? Big Rubber? Or are we secretly training the next generation in necessary post-apocalyptic survival skills? Nope. Cheong Choon Ng, a former seatbelt technology developer from Michigan, saw his daughters playing with elastic bands one day, couldn't join in because his fingers were too big, so threw together a little wood-and-pins loom …
… and then thought "Hang on a minute – I may have something here!"? Pretty much. He invested $10,000 in setting up his own business, got one toy shop to stock the loom and bands, which sold out in the first few hours, and the rest is very, very recent history.
So he's made his money back? He's sold 4m starter sets (at around £20 a pop) since last year, and that was mostly before David Beckham, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, and the Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge were spotted wearing loom bands. So, yes, he's probably doing very nicely, thank you.
Do say: "Come on, brain – one great idea, that's all I need from you. Just one."
Don't say: "I'd rather have a PlayStation."
