Rainbow Loom
A craft-toy brand built around a peg loom and colored rubber bands used to make bracelets, charms, and other small woven creations.
Last updated October 7, 2026
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Overview
Rainbow Loom is an American craft-toy brand centered on a small plastic loom, a hook, and collections of colored rubber bands. Users stretch bands across the loom's pegs and loop them together to create bracelets, rings, charms, animals, and other designs. The product is aimed primarily at children and families, but its appeal also developed through school-age craft communities, online tutorials, and user-created patterns. The loom was developed by Cheong Choon Ng, an engineer who sought to make rubber-band bracelets after observing his daughters working with bands by hand. Early attempts reportedly used household materials and improvised peg arrangements. Ng refined the design and filed for patent protection before introducing the product commercially. The Rainbow Loom name became associated not only with the original loom but also with a broader system of compatible bands, hooks, connectors, storage cases, instructional materials, and successor looms. Rainbow Loom achieved broad visibility in the United States during 2013 and 2014, when rubber-band bracelet making became a major children's craft trend. The brand's growth was supported by demonstrations, retail distribution, school and community use, and online videos showing how to make designs of increasing complexity. Unlike a conventional action figure or electronic toy, the product depended heavily on participation: the basic kit supplied the tools and materials, while the user community generated much of the continuing content and design variety. The brand's product family expanded beyond the original loom to include refill bands in numerous colors and finishes, combination kits, storage and carrying products, hooks, clips, and larger or redesigned looms. Rainbow Loom also became a generic reference point in public discussion of the wider rubber-band jewelry craze, although competing products and unbranded bands were sold by other companies. Rainbow Loom is associated with Choon's Design LLC and is a privately held brand rather than a publicly traded company. Publicly available material identifies Cheong Choon Ng as its inventor and founder. The brand's precise current corporate structure, financial performance, executive roster, and market-by-market sales figures are not sufficiently documented in the supplied reference material. Its lasting significance lies in popularizing a low-cost, hands-on craft format that combined a simple physical tool with a large, socially distributed library of patterns and tutorials.
History
Rainbow Loom originated with Cheong Choon Ng, an engineer in Michigan who was looking for a way to make rubber-band bracelets more easily and consistently. His daughters' hand-made bracelets helped inspire the project. The initial challenge was that ordinary rubber bands were difficult to interlace with fingers alone, especially for children. Ng experimented with boards, pegs, and improvised tools before developing a compact loom with rows of upright pegs and a hook for lifting bands over one another. Ng pursued intellectual-property protection for the design and established a business around the product. The loom and its associated bands were marketed as a creative activity rather than as a finished toy: the user had to learn a sequence of loops and transfers to produce a bracelet or other object. This structure allowed the basic kit to support many different patterns and encouraged children to exchange designs with friends and through online video platforms. The product entered the market before the largest wave of public attention, but its visibility accelerated in 2013 and 2014. Retail availability, demonstrations, craft instruction, and user-generated videos helped turn the loom into a widely recognized children's activity in the United States and other markets. The term Rainbow Loom was often used in coverage of the broader rubber-band bracelet phenomenon, even though competing looms, bands, and accessories were also available. As demand increased, the product line broadened. In addition to the original loom, the brand offered refill packs with different colors and finishes, hooks, clips, storage products, and kits designed around particular projects. Later products and compatible accessories served users who wanted larger patterns, easier portability, or more specialized designs. The underlying proposition remained consistent: inexpensive consumable bands combined with a reusable tool and an expandable library of patterns. Rainbow Loom's growth also brought attention to questions common to children's craft products, including age suitability, small parts, material compliance, and risks associated with wearing rubber-band jewelry. Public safety guidance during the peak of the category's popularity addressed rubber-band jewelry generally. No reliable source in the supplied material establishes a Rainbow Loom-specific major scandal, criminal matter, or product recall. The brand is associated with Choon's Design LLC and remains privately held. Cheong Choon Ng is publicly identified as its founder and inventor. Detailed current information about corporate ownership, senior management beyond the founder, financial results, and international subsidiaries is limited. Historically, however, Rainbow Loom's importance is clear: it helped transform a simple rubber-band weaving technique into a global craft-toy format built around repeat purchases, peer instruction, and user-created design culture.
- 2014
Expansion of the product category
[1]The brand and competing products offered increasingly broad selections of refill bands, kits, accessories, and project patterns as the craft trend matured.
- 2013
Rapid popularity in the United States
[1]Rainbow Loom became widely known as rubber-band bracelet making spread through retailers, schools, families, and online tutorials.
- 2011
Commercial introduction
[1]The Rainbow Loom product was introduced commercially through the business associated with Choon's Design.
- 2010
Development of the loom
[1]Cheong Choon Ng developed and refined a peg-based loom to make rubber-band bracelets easier to produce.
Products and positioning
Accessible, screen-free, hands-on children's craft and creative-play brand.
Craft loom · 2011
Original Rainbow Loom
The core reusable plastic tool uses rows of pegs to hold rubber bands while the user lifts and interlocks them with a hook. It is designed for bracelets and can also be used for rings, charms, figures, and other small woven forms. The loom's value comes from the number of patterns that can be created with the same basic arrangement.
Craft consumables · 2011
Rainbow Loom rubber bands
Refill packs provide the colored elastic bands consumed during bracelet and figure making. Packs have been sold in assorted colors and, depending on the product, different visual finishes. These consumables support repeat use of the loom and allow makers to vary color combinations and pattern designs.
Craft kit · 2011
Rainbow Loom bracelet-making kits
Kits combine a loom or related tool with bands, clips, and instructions so that a beginner can start a project without assembling components separately. The kits are generally organized around bracelets and small accessories, while more advanced users can apply the included materials to community-created patterns.
Craft accessory
Rainbow Loom accessories
The accessory range includes hooks, fastening clips, storage products, and related organization items. These products address practical parts of the activity: manipulating tight loops, joining the ends of a finished piece, keeping many colors separated, and transporting materials.
Brand decisions
2013
Expanded from a single loom into a broader craft systemStrategyBackground
Growing interest in rubber-band crafts created demand for more colors, replacement materials, project formats, and ways to store the supplies.
Action taken
The brand broadened its offering with refill bands, kits, hooks, clips, storage products, and additional project support.
Aftermath
Rainbow Loom became a repeat-purchase craft platform rather than a one-time loom sale.
2010
Developed a dedicated loom instead of relying on hand weavingStrategyBackground
Hand-made rubber-band bracelets were difficult to produce consistently, particularly for children using only their fingers.
Action taken
Cheong Choon Ng created a peg-based loom and hook system that made the technique more repeatable and teachable.
Aftermath
The tool became the foundation of the Rainbow Loom brand and enabled a broad library of bracelet and craft patterns.
Recent events
- 2014
Rubber-band jewelry safety concerns prompt public guidance[3]
Regulation · Other
During the wider rubber-band jewelry craze, safety discussions focused on children wearing bands and charms around the neck and on the use of compliant materials. These concerns related to the product category broadly and do not establish a Rainbow Loom-specific recall.
- 2013
Rainbow Loom becomes a major children's craft trend[1]
Other
Rainbow Loom bracelets and related rubber-band crafts gained substantial attention in the United States, supported by retail sales, demonstrations, and online instructional content.
Sources3 sources
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