Silly Bandz the latest craze

Overwhelming markets in the US, Silly Bandz have become bigger than Paris Hilton, hot on the heels of Twilight. Teens and tweens have been seduced by the silicon rubber bands called Silly Bandz which resemble any normal bracelet when worn, but morph into animals, letters, instruments or other shapes when taken off.

Kids from the ages of five are collecting the bands, trading them and wearing them up to the elbow. Each genre of bandz, whether animals, dinosaurs or rock paraphernalia come in a set or pack of 24 and cost about R180. While the idea of wearing brightly coloured silicon bracelets has an immediate appeal for girls, boys are not exempt from the phenomenon.

Like most other trends of this nature, these make no sense while making someone very rich. The bandz are collected and swapped with friends in the hopes of getting that rare porcupine the way their predecessors traded baseball or football cards.

Creators Brainchild Products receive letters and testimonials from satisfied customers bestowing their gratitude for the “ingenious” bracelets that apparently sell out of all major toy stores forcing fans to go out of their city to find them. The testimonial page is full of comments like:

"All of my friends at school collect and trade these! We can't find them anywhere in our home town."

and,

"Thank you Brainchild Products for offering such a great product and customer service! I purchased the Zoo animal pack on a whim for my son for his birthday. He took them to school and they were all the rage! Kids are going crazy over these. Since then the school store has picked them up and they can't keep them in stock. The booster club just placed an order too!"

and weird adults who use the bandz as office currency.

Silly Bandz are available for delivery in South Africa from WantItAll.