Animal Bracelets

Animal bracelets, made popular by the company Silly Bandz, are blowing up as a trend in kids fashion and collectibles. These bands come in the shape of every imaginable creature, from the common cat or dog, to the long-extinct triceratops. Their popularity is rising much in the same way as fads in the past; beanie babies, Tickle Me Elmo, etc. Their creator, Robert Croak, hopes this isn't a fad, of course, and instead he believes it's only the beginning of a wider trend. Considering that accoring to USA Today, the bands are now a 200 million dollar business with the possibility of expanding to 1 billion dollars per year, can you really blame him? Whatever happens, this silly animal bracelets trend has made him and others quite rich.

These silly bands come in a wide range of shapes, not just animal bands. You can find them in generitc geometric patterns, various sports equipment shapes. As Silly Bandz, and a variety of copycat companies expand their licensing rights, you'll be able to find them in the shape of your favorite sports team logos, cartoon characters, and basically any symbol you can imagine.

Why Are Silly Bandz So Popular?

Many parents, and adults who stumble across these animal bracelets and their fans, find themselves asking "Why are Silly Bandz so popular?" That question is really easy to answer if you just think back to your childhood. Wasn't there something that everything was trading, and collecting that you just had to have?

When I was a kid, we had slap bracelets; you know, those metal bands covered in fabric that can be pulled straight, and then slapped onto the wrist. That's right, this isn't the first wrist trend. And how about several years ago, when if you didn't have a rainbow of silicone bracelets supporting every imaginable cause up your wrist, then you were considered heartless. And then there was the seedy underbelly of the wrist fashion world, the jelly bracelets, but we won't get into that conversation here. All kidding aside though, what makes animal bracelets, and other similar trends so popular is that this basic level of trading and interacting is really appealing to kids, and helps develop all kinds of interesting skills like basic social interaction, as well as haggling and bargaining.

Whatever the reason for this trend, these rubber band animals aren't going anywhere any time soon. Silly bandz is already preparing for the back-to-school season by releasing new products over the summer. Recently released products include the Sillybandz necklace, used for dangling your bracelet animals when you've simply run out of arm real estate, a series of Silly Bandz that change color in the sun, and Silly Pailz, which are lunchboxes packed with Silly Bandz. Whether or not animal bracelets are going to stand the test of time has yet to be determined, but it seems like the creator of this phenomenon, Robert Croak, is going to have a fun time riding the wave until it dies.