![]() So he had his daughters help him make videos. The problem, he posited, was that nobody understood how to use the product. Ng built a web site, still the same one they have today, in an effort to increase sales. Actually, Ng was even asked to leave several stores, and in not always the nicest of language. Ng would go to the local mall, and stop into every toy store pitching his product. They would sell kits to anyone who would buy them. Ng and his wife began selling the first Rainbow Loom kits in July of 2011. There is no and saying "We quit.' When you go into a business like that, you own the responsibility, you own the problems, good or bad," says Ng. ![]() "The $11,000 that we had saved up, that was for our daughter's education fund - that is all we can save up back then. "The problem though is that after three weeks or so, the kids got bored and they don't want to do any more," says Ng.īut Ng and his wife were already in too deeply to back out. At first, his two daughters and the neighbor's kids came to help out. The rubber bands needed to be segmented into small bags, the looms assembled from the various parts and Ng tried to include one completed bracelet in each package, too. Getting the product packaged required a lot of labor, even once the rubber bands were cleaned and the hooks bent into proper shape. Not only was Ng still working his full-time job at Nissan, but he also wasn't making money. "But most of the times, they are bad days," says Ng, laughing. ![]() In the earliest production phase, there were good days and bad days, says Ng. He was able to do 500 in approximately three hours. So, Ng, one by one, hammered the hooks into the shape necessary. Louis, One Programmer at a TimeĪlso, the first order of hooks used to pull the rubber bands through each other that Ng ordered arrived from China the wrong size. Related: Co-Founder of Square Wants to Save St. His next idea was to put the rubber bands through the washing machine in a special bag. Drying them that way took a lot of towels. His first thought was to dump them into the bathtub with soap and water and swish them around with a boat paddle. He determined all the rubber bands would have to be washed. The rubber bands also brought with them the first of what were to be many production hurdles for Ng: they arrived covered in a dust that Ng describes as uncomfortable to the touch. The first order of rubber bands arrived in June 2011 and weighed 2,000 pounds, approximately the weight of a mid-size car. Labor of love is an understatement when it comes to describing the process of assembling and packaging the looms. It cost him $5,000 to have the plastic parts made for the looms and another $5,000 for the rubber bands. I only have one shot, which is very scary," says Ng. I knew that a lot of mistakes can be made, but I cannot afford to lose. ![]() Ng interviewed five factories in China before ultimately selecting one. would have cost Ng $12,000, more money than he and his wife had in savings. To have his product manufactured in the U.S. Ng, a crash-safety engineer at Nissan at the time, had generated 28 iterations of what is now known as the Rainbow Loom. With his wife's formal blessing and access to the family's $11,000 in savings, Ng spent $1,000 submitting an invention record, a preparatory document filed before submitting a patent. I agree this is something that we should try,'" remembers Ng. " that point onwards, she was like, "Hey, honey, I think you are onto something. It wasn't until he made a colorful rubber-band ring and put it on her finger that her tune changed. Related: The Wild and Crazy Career Paths of 5 Self-Made Billionaires (Infographic) Honey, let's go to sleep.' She wasn't paying attention at all," he says. "She would wake up at midnight kind of mumbling, "Wow, that's great. Whenever he'd come up with a new way to weave the rubber bands together, he'd wake her up to show her. Ng would work late into the night in the basement of his Detroit home coming up with new patterns in the hopes of impressing his wife. from Malaysia in 1991 to attend college at Wichita State University. ![]() I was making lots of bracelets, rubber-band hair bands, wearable anklets, chokers, and she was kind of impressed but she wasn't agreeing to invest," says Ng, 45, who immigrated to the U.S. "She is the boss, she controls the money. Rainbow Loomįrom the end of the summer into the fall of 2010, Ng tried hard to convince his wife Fen Chan to let him sink all of their savings into a toy loom that turned small, colorful rubber bands into bracelets, charms and other jewelry. Choon Ng is like a lot of other men in one respect: He had to put a ring on his wife's finger before she was on board for the next chapter of their life together. ![]()
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