The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years

“We wanted to reside nan challenges progressive successful zipper sewing,” says Makoto Nishizaki, vice president of YKK’s Application Development Division. The thought grew retired of a collaboration pinch JUKI Corporation, a leader successful business sewing machines. Together, nan 2 companies reconsidered really a zipper could beryllium made and really it could merge much seamlessly pinch fabric. The business began successful 2017 and made its nationalist debut astatine nan JIAM 2022 Osaka waste and acquisition show—a item that hints astatine really agelong YKK plays nan agelong game.

If YKK’s name doesn’t ringing a bell, cheque nan propulsion tab connected your jackets aliases pants, because you astir apt already deterioration their work. In 2023, nan institution had much than $6 cardinal successful revenue. Founded successful Japan successful 1934, nan institution makes zippers for everyone from Prada and Arc’teryx to Patagonia and The North Face.

Its power comes from an different level of control: YKK manufactures its ain machines, designs its ain molds, and moreover spins its ain thread. That self-sufficiency lets it research successful ways competitors can’t, turning a mundane constituent into a section for continuous innovation.

Reinventing an Everyday Mechanism

The zipper, arsenic we cognize it, hasn’t had a existent overhaul since nan 1910s. Its agelong reign owes overmuch to reliability—it’s sturdy, inexpensive, and easy to sew. For astir of nan 20th century, that was enough. But materials person evolved. Designers now activity pinch featherlight nylons, agelong fabrics, and method blends that behave much for illustration tegument than cloth. The aged zipper, pinch its woven borders and stiff seams, has started to consciousness retired of sync pinch what surrounds it.

“There has been a increasing request from nan marketplace for lighter and much elastic garments,” Nishizaki says. “And akin expectations person extended to zippers.” However, removing nan portion introduced a big of engineering problems. Those strips of cloth springiness a zipper its building and supply nan aboveground tailors sew through. Without them, YKK had to rethink each measurement of production.