Rainbow Loom creator looks to keep bracelet craze alive

Cooper Volkman, 8 years old, wears loom band bracelets that he made in Ridgefield, Wash. (AP / Lori L. Volkman)

WIXOM, Mich. -- Cheong Choon Ng was trying to make rubber-band bracelets with his daughters four years ago when he realized his fingers were too big to manipulate the bands.

So, the automotive crash-test engineer set about creating a tool that would help him do the job. That tool turned out to be the Rainbow Loom.

Headquartered in an industrial park in Wixom, Michigan, Ng's company, called Choon's Design, has sold 8 million units and 40 million packs of rubber bands.

Ng is aware the toy business is fickle and that the popularity of the Rainbow Loom could fade.

That's why he's introducing new products, such as the travel-size Finger Loom, which comes out Wednesday.

He's also fine-tuning the original and trying to drum up interest overseas.