Like the Pokemon fad, junior Aaren Connell has gotten swept up in the recent silly band fad. “It’s pretty much like every other fad that comes and goes,” she said. “You see other people wearing them and then you want them.” Connell said that her grandma got her started on the silly band trend. “It sounds kind of nerdy,” she said. “But my grandma got them for me and I thought they were pretty awesome. You can get all different shapes and they’re really cheap.” Connell’s collection of about 140 silly bands includes bugs, ninjas, pirates, kittens, airplanes, Disney characters and more. “My favorite is definitely my Perry the Platypus one, though,” she said.    

Sophomore Samantha Smreker carries her silly band collection with her every day. “I always have them in my bag,” she said. Smreker began her collection in the summer, when she saw people sporting the colorful bracelets everywhere. “I just started seeing them on everybody,” she said. “I thought they looked really cool.” Smreker currently has 170 bands in her collection. “I have princess ones, pirate ones, cars and miscellaneous ones. And most of them are glow-in-the-dark,” she said, with a grin. But Smreker’s most prized silly band is not worn around her wrist. It is tightly wrapped around her ring finger, and is shaped like a diamond ring. “It’s from my boyfriend,” Smreker said. “I always wear that one.”

Although many students’ wrists are stacked several inches high with silly bands, there are a few whose aren’t. Among these few is freshman Lauren Wood. “I don’t really like them or wear them,” she said, about the bands. “I don’t think they look very good. They look kind of weird.” But Wood once owned some of the popular wristbands. She first heard about them from a friend, so decided to get some. “I’ve passed them down to my little sister, though,” she said. She said that they are too childish for her style. “Everyone has them,” Wood said. “But I really don’t understand why.” Behind the Bands • Silly bands are colorful, elasticized, silicone wristbands that come in a variety of shapes and are worn like a regular bracelet. They can be stretched to go on the wrist, but always revert back to their original shape. • They were invented by Robert Croak in 2008• The East coast was the first to start the silly band trend. • There are more than 1,000 different kinds of silly bands. • They cost about$5 for a pack of 24 and $2.50 for a pack of 12. • Annual sales are now more than $100 million. • Schools in different states, including New York, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts, have banned silly bands for being a “distraction.”