The arm.ID.illo story

The idea for arm.ID.illo bandz came about one night at dinner with friends when we all ended up sharing the nightmare stories that happened to us, the day we couldn’t find one of our children. We talked about different ways we’d seen parents and teachers ID children in busy public places – like by writing their phone number with a Sharpie up their forearm, taping a piece of masking tape with the phone number on the back of their shirt and even using paper wristbands like you get in the hospital and writing the number on those.

We thought wouldn’t it be great if there was an easily identifiable, wear-resistant, waterproof bracelet that showed our phone numbers? This way if a grown-up spots a kid who looks lost and sees the bracelet, they’ll know the child’s parents are only a phone call away and can feel more confident walking up to the child and trying to help them find their parents.

We knew a couple things, the "bracelet" had to be cool, trendy and unisex so that kids would want to wear it and it also had to be easy to use and affordable so parents would want to buy it. So we put our heads together and created arm.ID.illo bandz.

We named it after the armadillo because this little animal, born wearing a natural suit of armor, is known as a symbol of safety. In fact, the Spanish word armadillo literally translates into "little armored one," which is exactly how we’d like to see our children, safe from harm.

Our hope is our bright orange band with its interchangeable blue and white numbered "pupz" or buttons (we call them pupz since that’s what armadillo babies are called) will soon become synonymous with safety as well.

Our long-term goal is to build a Safe Kids Network, a nationwide group of arm.ID.illo kids and parents who work together to help kids and parents quickly find one other in public places. It’s more than just knowing your child is only a phone call away, it’s the peace of mind that comes from knowing there’s a community focused on keeping your child safe. That’s why our motto is Safety in Numberz.

Jennifer, Tony, Nicolas (8) & Gianlucca (4) Tiberia