Rainbow Loom, another Malayisian's story at Overseas

Rainbow Loom was created by Cheong Choon Ng, a Malaysian immigrant of Chinese descent who came to the United States in 1991 to attend Wichita State University because Malaysia practises a system of racial quotas for university placements, with preference given to the Bumiputera community that is largely Malay.where he earned a graduate degree in mechanical engineering

He was employed as a crash-test engineer for Nissan Motor Company in 2010 .

He conceived the idea of a toy loom for rubber-band crafting after seeing his young daughters make rubber-band bracelet. He tried to show them how they can link the rubber bands together but was unsuccessful, so he stuck a scrapboard with multiple rows of pushpins on which the bands can be linked more easily.

The bracelets became popular with the neighborhood children, and his daughter suggested that he sell them. He spent six months developing the loom kit and designed 28 different versions. His prototype, which he called Twistz Bandz, used a wooden board, pushpins, and dental hooks. He invested $10,000 and found a factory in China to manufacture the parts, which he and his wife assembled in their home in June 2011.

Ng renamed his product after discovering an elastic hair band on the market named Twist Band. His brother and niece came up with the name Rainbow Loom.

He then attempted to convince toy stores in Michigan to stock the bands, but found no success for months as people simply did not “understand how they worked”. Ng started a website and filmed instructional videos featuring his daughters and niece.

In summer 2012, Ng received his first store orders from franchises of Learning Express Toys, a specialty crafts chain, and sales picked up.In June 2013 arts and crafts retail chain Michaels test-marketed the product in 32 stores; by August the chain was carrying Rainbow Loom in its 1,100 U.S. locations.

Rainbow Loom is also sold at Mastermind in Canada and in specialty stores.

As of August 2013, 600 retailers were selling Rainbow Loom at a retail price of $15 to $17. The kits are manufactured in China, and Ng supervises distribution out of a 7,500 square feet (700 m²) warehouse near his home.

In 2013, Ng worked with The Beadery and Toner Plastics to produce the Wonder Loom, a redesigned version of the Rainbow Loom that is made in the United States. The Wonder Loom is sold by Wal-Mart. In April 2014, a travel-sized version of the Rainbow Loom was released called the Monster Tail.Ng’s “Rainbow Loom” went on to register over US$40 million in sales last year, a figure he expects to double this year.