Knobby blobby, skinny squatty, square and round, plain or spotty. ZoLO® is everything imaginable and it all goes together as one.

ZoLO® began with a dream to make the most wildly fun toy ever. Something that went back to basics and would inspire creativity in everyone. Armed with felt-tip markers, color pencils, and paper, designers Byron Glaser & Sandra Higashi cooked up the idea for ZoLO around the kitchen table in their small Chelsea design studio in New York City. The two knew it was one of those “aha” moments that came once in a blue moon. But that was the easy part. Was it for girls or boys? Ages 3 to 5? 6 to 9? or 10 to 12? The industry wanted to know and when Byron and Sandra declared that it was for everybody of all ages—they were quickly rejected by all 3 major toy companies. ZoLO was not destined to be pigeonholed.

Long before crowdfunding—or for that matter, the internet—and with little money, Byron & Sandra made ZoLO a reality with pure idealism and entrepreneurial grit. The original 55-piece, hand-carved, hand-painted wooden ZoLO® playsculpture set first made its debut in 1986, introduced to the world by The Museum of Modern Art, New York and won the Accent on Design Best New Product Award at the NY International Giftshow. ZoLO’s sensory-appealing shapes, organic construction method, open-ended play, and defiance of age and gender stereotypes soon carved a niche as diverse as the ZoLO pieces themselves—including adults and kids, people of challenged skill levels, individuals who connected with its inclusion of difference, and many who simply wanted a more creative form of play and self-expression. More than 20 years after its creation, ZoLO was recognized by the Toy Industry of America in their Commemorative Book,100 Years of the Power of Play, cited for its influence in the world of play alongside some of the most well-known and beloved toys of our time.