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On its earnings call at the end of April, Newell Brands, which owns the 70-year-old Elmer's Glue business, reported historically positive numbers for the first quarter of 2024. It was Elmer’s first cash-flow-positive Q1 in four years, and only its second positive quarter since 2016.
This growth is mostly thanks to an unexpected, nostalgic trend, something rooted in science as much as the shelves of the household pantry: Slime.
There aren't many Americans who don't have childhood memories of using Elmer's Glue to make everything from popsicle stick cabins to sock puppets with stuck-on googly eyes. The brand is a classroom staple that has enjoyed a steady, reliable popularity in the kids’ craft market for decades. That whole time, there was almost no chatter about how the brand would grow or evolve, because it never really needed to.
That all changed in 2017, when tweens and teens began using Elmer’s to make slime at home, allowing the glue business to hit its renewed stride. The slime craze just happened to closely follow a rise in interest around video and audio content that causes an autonomous sensory meridian response, the cultural phenomenon you know as ASMR. Data from Google shows that the number of YouTube searches for ASMR saw year-over-year growth of 200 percent in 2015.
Everything about slime is appealing to the ASMR crowd: playing with it, watching it get made, listening to the squishy sounds it makes. When the worlds of slime and ASMR collided, the popularity of both got a boost.
Most slime recipes require just three ingredients: glue, water, and some form of activator. (You can find branded products called “slime activator” on shelves, but contact lens solution and makeup remover also work well.) Making slime is a messy, fun, and freeing activity.
And it hits all of the right sensory notes for ASMR: sight, touch, and sound. Now, though, a growing body of research on ASMR—Dartmouth College and Ohio State University are among those studying it—backs the psychological merits of the phenomenon. Furthermore, YouTube is overflowing with videos and ASMR channels—many slime-related, many not—that have evangelized these merits to the general public. To tap into this fanatical consumer interest in ASMR and slime, a cottage industry is emerging.
Businesses like the New York City slime museum and shop Sloomoo Institute are in growth mode; the business started as a pop-up in 2019 and reported $30 million in revenue in 2023. Social media influencers such as OG Slimes and Karina Garcia have built their brands—and large followings—by posting reviews and homespun slime recipes on TikTok and YouTube.
Slime is undeniably more popular than ever. Millions of people find it playful and soothing, and they actively seek out ways to make it, buy it, and watch others do the same. It appeals to all ages; Gen-Z kids, tweens, and even adults make and play with slime in their kitchens, on their living room floors, in their dorm rooms, and sometimes even in bed. All this messy fun is flanked by the fringe benefits of ASMR: boosted brain function, curbed anxiety, or more readily managed stress tied to breakups, work, and family.
From a business standpoint, there’s clearly money to be made. Elmers’ market research shows that college-age kids consume 81 percent of slime content on social media, while #slime videos across all ages accounted for 360 million views in May 2024. At the same time, Sloomoo is expanding its reach, adding new locations in Houston and Los Angeles.
At the center of this positive momentum are bottles and bottles of the slime-lover’s favorite ingredient: Elmer’s Glue.
“It’s funny to hear some of the language that slime is ‘back,’” says Nikki Lesperance, marketing director at Newell Brands. “Slime never went away. It’s a new category to market, and it’s part of our DNA now.”
As part of a new marketing effort, Elmer's is launching a digital hub dedicated to slime-making. The special website, called Elmer’s Creations, is filled with new slime recipes (Mello Mallow, Lightning in a Bottle) and features some new products developed just for this ASMR crowd. One of the new Elmer’s products, Squishies, are stress-ball-like squeezable, squishable toys molded in the shapes of 12 different characters. They offer many of the same benefits of slime—the sensory experience of stretching and pulling, the customizable colors and shapes, or the addition of visually stimulating elements like glitter. Importantly, the Squishies kits focus on the process of making more than the resultant product.
When Craig Richard was a kid, he would grab a pillow, put an episode of The Joy of Painting on the television, and fall asleep on the floor of his family’s living room while listening to the soft tones of Bob Ross’ voice and the delicate swishes of his paintbrush on the canvas. Richard didn’t realize then that those Bob Ross naps were facilitated by the calm of an ASMR high. Today, Richard researches biomedical sciences at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, and coordinates one of the largest databases of ASMR research in the world.
Since starting this work in 2014, Richard has been learning how ASMR works and why individuals of all ages have found it beneficial in managing stress, anxiety, and overall wellness. “We did a brain scan study,” he says. “Individuals watched ASMR videos during the scan. We could see which areas of the brain were more active. A couple of the regions lit up and lined up with hormones I proposed, like oxytocin. The love hormone, the trust hormone, the hug hormone. It’s released when you receive positive personal attention from a kind or caring person.” In biomedical science, the release of hormones tied to receiving personal attention is called affiliate behavior, says Richard, citing the most common example of monkeys or apes grooming their loved ones. Watching an ASMR-triggering slime video, says Richard, evokes the same brain response as affiliate behavior.
ASMR videos that feature some sort of transformation—an individual making slime or brushing paint on a canvas to build a landscape—are even more attractive neurologically. “Our brains love that,” says Richard. “Transformation lights up our brains.”
People are so engaged by the slime videos that they’re often motivated to go make their own slime. That transference has helped companies in the slime businesses—the museum and maker-space Sloomoo Institute, online slime shop OG Slimes, and Newell Brands Elmer’s Glue—grow quickly.
“It’s the ultimate brain break,” says Karen Robinovitz, cofounder and co-CEO at Sloomoo Institute. “There is a reason this is a part of the zeitgeist and part of our culture.” With 30,000 people entering its doors each month, Robinovitz estimates that Sloomoo uses 10,000 gallons of Elmer’s a month to stock its DIY slime bar, stock more than 25 vats of slime customized by texture and scent, fill a 350 gallon slime “lake” called Lake Sloomoo, and create various slime experiences like Sloomoo Falls.
“Elmer’s makes the best slime, hands down,” she says, noting she and cofounder and co-CEO Sara Schiller have tested every option available. “We have a relationship with them because of their glue. We don’t use their glue because we have a relationship with them.”
Similarly, at OG Slimes, founders Christine Ly and Olivya Soth use nearly 1,000 gallons of Elmer’s each month to make unique slimes with different scents, textures, and themes which they then sell online. Some OG slimes include Tin Foil, Berry Compote, 777 Luck, Salted Butter, and Sourdough Starter. Each has the color and some characteristics of what its name suggests and is made to evoke specific sensory experiences. Soth says since she and Ly launched their business in 2016, OG Slimes has grown exponentially from a humble bedroom to an office, then to a 3,000-square foot warehouse and now to an 11,000 square-foot, two-story outfit selling and shipping its custom slime to customers worldwide.
At Elmer’s, Lesperance says, the company understands the power ASMR has with its customer base, so its latest push is into making products and building community to tap into the effects of ASMR. She’s hoping the collection of resources Elmer’s is providing in its digital creation hub can be a go-to for parents, teens, and other adults looking to build attention span and boost creativity. “We are trying to take what we’ve learned from slime,” says Lesperance. “It has permitted us to grow as a kids’ activity brand.”
The explosion in slime-making has led Newell to begin rethinking how some Elmer’s products are packaged and how their containers are designed. For example, not much thought was initially put into the design of the gallon and quart containers of Elmer’s glue, and those containers have become just as popular as the smaller, desk-sized bottles. But those redesigns are still very far off, she says, and the brand will continue to make the same bottles and gallons customers have relied on for decades.
“When you think of school paste you don’t think of fun or innovation,” says Lesperance. “But even some of the videos they’re doing now—they’re dumping glue right on the floor. Some people have even made slime on their carpet. They trust this product. And we absolutely believe that is fundamental to our success.”
