If you've yet to hear about Animal rubber bands, you're bound to be bombarded in the next few months. First appearing on the scene in 2002 as a specialty product of an older company, the rubber band craze has compelled manufactures and retails from all the across the globe to get in on the fad.
In actuality, the craze began back in about five years ago and spread from the Eastern coast of the United States to the West very quickly, getting the attention of school aged kids, pre-teens and teens and even of young adults in college. While they have also become increasingly popular among working adults and office settings, their main demographic is overwhelmingly youth culture who are infatuated with wearing the bands as bracelets, flicking them around in classic fashion and lately--trading them. Yes, like trading cards.
But what exactly makes these seemingly ordinary, albeit fun shaped office supplies so alluring?
It could be the bright colors, the range of which is expanding proportionately to the bands still growing popularity. Or it could be the large selection of animals to available to choose from: crustaceans, commonly known zoo animals, every day house hold pets, reptiles, birds, fish and even dinosaurs.
However, it is most likely that the latest bands' forgiving elastic limit is to blame for their, as of yet, still undiminishing popularity.
The bands sold during the early years of the new millennium were not very spectacular; they were manufactured from the same material as other ordinary office rubber bands and were not particularly more durable than their traditional counterparts. The animal bands of today, however, just as those that hit stores in 2005, are made out of a crucial component for their famed durability: silicone.
The silicone in these bands are what permits the product to stretch out farther and stay that way for longer periods of time without compromising the overall shape of the band. It also makes it more durable, resilient and prone to a longer use life.
The latest models available today are extremely elastic and very good at retaining their shape over all and returning to it promptly, even after multiple periods of prolonged use. Best of all, they are perfectly capable of handling the usual necessary rubber band demanding tasks, whether in the home, in the office or in the classroom.
People in the children's toys industry have compared the growing fad to the similar over night success of beanie babies in the mid nineties, which became a world spread sensation in very little time.
Because the items are in such high demand, there is heavy competition between manufacturers, a happy fact for competing retailers who are not partial about who they buy the product from. They say, no matter what the brand, the items have been known to sell out within hours of a new shipment being stocked.
The powerlessness of the brand in this instance is peculiar, but has its ties to the history of the bands the current major vendor is not the one who first created the product; and the nature of the product: simple to recreate. So many competing companies have surfaced in such a short time that the public has yet to find appreciable differences in quality or variety.
For many industry insiders, the consensus prediction is that the popularity of the bands will dove tail fast soon after they reach their peak infamy. Market saturation of the product, which has yet to occur, is well on it's way, they claim and is bound to end the pop culture phenomenon almost as quickly as it began. Get them while they're hot!
In actuality, the craze began back in about five years ago and spread from the Eastern coast of the United States to the West very quickly, getting the attention of school aged kids, pre-teens and teens and even of young adults in college. While they have also become increasingly popular among working adults and office settings, their main demographic is overwhelmingly youth culture who are infatuated with wearing the bands as bracelets, flicking them around in classic fashion and lately--trading them. Yes, like trading cards.
But what exactly makes these seemingly ordinary, albeit fun shaped office supplies so alluring?
It could be the bright colors, the range of which is expanding proportionately to the bands still growing popularity. Or it could be the large selection of animals to available to choose from: crustaceans, commonly known zoo animals, every day house hold pets, reptiles, birds, fish and even dinosaurs.
However, it is most likely that the latest bands' forgiving elastic limit is to blame for their, as of yet, still undiminishing popularity.
The bands sold during the early years of the new millennium were not very spectacular; they were manufactured from the same material as other ordinary office rubber bands and were not particularly more durable than their traditional counterparts. The animal bands of today, however, just as those that hit stores in 2005, are made out of a crucial component for their famed durability: silicone.
The silicone in these bands are what permits the product to stretch out farther and stay that way for longer periods of time without compromising the overall shape of the band. It also makes it more durable, resilient and prone to a longer use life.
The latest models available today are extremely elastic and very good at retaining their shape over all and returning to it promptly, even after multiple periods of prolonged use. Best of all, they are perfectly capable of handling the usual necessary rubber band demanding tasks, whether in the home, in the office or in the classroom.
People in the children's toys industry have compared the growing fad to the similar over night success of beanie babies in the mid nineties, which became a world spread sensation in very little time.
Because the items are in such high demand, there is heavy competition between manufacturers, a happy fact for competing retailers who are not partial about who they buy the product from. They say, no matter what the brand, the items have been known to sell out within hours of a new shipment being stocked.
The powerlessness of the brand in this instance is peculiar, but has its ties to the history of the bands the current major vendor is not the one who first created the product; and the nature of the product: simple to recreate. So many competing companies have surfaced in such a short time that the public has yet to find appreciable differences in quality or variety.
For many industry insiders, the consensus prediction is that the popularity of the bands will dove tail fast soon after they reach their peak infamy. Market saturation of the product, which has yet to occur, is well on it's way, they claim and is bound to end the pop culture phenomenon almost as quickly as it began. Get them while they're hot!
About the Author:
Locate a great collection of animal rubber bands that are great fun to wear or share today! You will get amazing animal bracelets, and other great shapes in colors that include the super glow-in-the-dark now!
