It is difficult to distinguish between actual Silly Bandz and other brands of bands unless you know what comes in each package. The products are essentially the same except for the licensed products touting specific characters or shapes. When collecting, it is not necessary to stick with one brand, but rather purchase the items you like to collect and trade. The best way to find the actual Silly Bandz products is to search Silly Bandz for the shapes you are looking for. A few examples include the Marvel Characters. This is exclusive to the Silly Bandz company and includes Iron Man, Spider Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor. Although, Stretchy Bands produced by Creative Designs International, LTD., has a line of Marvel Super Hero Squad containing more kid like action heroes.

The other Silly Bandz are similar to the generic or off brand shapes and can easily be mistaken. The Farm Animals and Zoo packs are common in nearly all brands of shaped rubber bands. These include shapes of pigs, turtles, ducks, dogs, bunnies, and cats along with giraffes, hippos, kangaroos, ostrich,  rhinoceros, and an elephant. Because these are quite common, it may be difficult to tell them apart unless you pay specific attention to the type of silicon, colors, and resiliency.

Ways to Tell the Shaped Rubber Bands Apart

I don’t know if will make a difference to your children as they trade for their favorite character who actually made the product, but it may be a wise choice to understand the differences upfront. Three things can be examined if you do not know who made the product: material, longevity, and coloring.

Material Used in Shaped Rubber Bands

The quality of the silicone used is a key indicator of being a true Silly Bandz or one of high quality. Silly Bandz hold their shape well, return to the original position and shape, and do not break as easily as off brands. Although not all variations are poor quality. Many of the other companies such as Stretchy Bands are producing high quality products (for this type of product) and are comparable to actual Silly Bandz products. Character Bands are also a high quality shaped rubber band product.

Longevity of Shaped Rubber Bands

As mentioned, many of the generic bands will break easily when stretched. This must be a production flaw that saves money for the company producing cheaper bands. If stretched to many times, all of the bands will eventually break, but the lower quality products do so more rapidly.

Coloring of Shaped Rubber Bandz

Actual Silly Bandz and other high quality bands have bright colors that do not fade easily. Even the tie-die colors are quite defined. Many of the off brands have lighter colors and are not as uniform in quality.  However, some of the alternative bands come in great shapes such as Walt Disney characters (Stretchy Bands) and are on the same level of quality as the original Silly Bandz. The Silly Bandz are also color specific for each shape. For example, in the Princess Shapes Silly Bandz, all the Diamond Rings are gold and all the Glass Slippers are white.

In the Character Bandz each shape comes in one of each of the four colors in the pack. As seen below, the Superman symbol came in one of each of the colors listed on the package.

Other Names for Shaped Rubber Bands

The product is easy to reproduce and many varieties exist. Fun bands, Stretchy Bands, Googly Rings, Character Bandz, Shaped Rubber Bands, and Zanybandz are just a few examples of the various names the shaped rubber bands are going under.

Collecting Silly Bandz or shaped rubber bands is a fun hobby and children get excited with the purchase of a new package. Keep having fun and enjoy the craze. At this point, I am not sure if there is any advantage to simply buying the name brand products as long as your children are enjoying their new hobby.