Comments on: It's not too late / To zip it / Zip it good!

It's not too late / To zip it / Zip it good!

DakotaPaul — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:07:11 -0800

Look at your zipper -- was it made by Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, or YKK? Probably. With seven million zippers produced every day at YKK America's National Manufacturing Center in Macon, Georgia, alone, it's no wonder that the zipper on whatever you're wearing right now is a YKK...or is it?
[a bit more inside]

By: DakotaPaul

DakotaPaul — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:08:07 -0800

Some zipper history and info, YKK FAQs, very important suits with zippers, and the Zipper Stop, for all your zipping needs. Makes me wonder, does YKK have a monopoly on the zipper market?

By: maniactown

maniactown — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:10:54 -0800

I had forgotten that I'd wondered about that. Interesting post. And yes, all the zippers I have with me now (pants, coat), are all YKK in origin.

By: DrJohnEvans

DrJohnEvans — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:23:18 -0800

It's very odd to see the same stamp on the zippers of both my brand-new jeans and the lining of my 40-year-old leather jacket. Luckily, my $10 briefcase is exempt.

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:28:11 -0800

Mine's an XQUZYPHYR.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:36:28 -0800

Strangely my pants' zipper says "Talon" I don't think I've seen pants without the YKK!

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:42:06 -0800

Counterfeit zippers! When will the madness end?!

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:43:09 -0800

When I started checking the zippers on my clothes, it seemed slightly more then half had the YKK imprint. Then I looked closer, some have a brand name on the tab, but YKK is printed on the body of every zipper I've looked at! It's actually, I'm discovering, quite common for a company to have a virtual monopoly on particular products. I did some freelance work with a small family business who are the sole producer of a clip used in large construction projects. Often, if the quality and price are right, monopolies like these exist without anyone really noticing. Interesting post. Question: Would we think of MS as a monopoly if they only made OS's?

By: BigPicnic

BigPicnic — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:02:56 -0800

I'm sick of YKK stifling innovation in the zipper industry! That's why I've adapted the open-source zipper (a paper clip attached to a stick). It's free, available to all, and more secure than YKK's by far.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:07:47 -0800

Talon are the zippers you most often see in a sewing/notions department. But YKK seem to be the most commonly used by clothing manufacturers. Pollomacho, did you make your own trousers?

By: schmedeman

schmedeman — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:39:50 -0800

The zipper on my pants is a Talon as well. Wow, this is a perfect subject for Paul Lukas' Inconspicuous Consumption, isn't it?

By: Acetylene

Acetylene — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:45:09 -0800

OK, so who makes the buttons on my Levi's 501 blues?

By: eddydamascene

eddydamascene — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 15:19:25 -0800

Is this zipper something you need pants to have heard of? Because I do not own pants.

By: aaronscool

aaronscool — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 15:48:13 -0800

Hmmmm...seems a lot like Sloan and their ubiquitous flushometers. At least for guys anyway...

By: Ty Webb

Ty Webb — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 15:49:03 -0800

I make my own zippers, don't trust anybody else to. I mean, come on.

By: Sr_Cluba

Sr_Cluba — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 16:05:15 -0800

As Outkast says... "I'ma show you how to wild out like Jack Trippa Let me be bambino on your snippas YKK on yo zippa lick you like a lizard When I'm slizzard or sober 6 million ways to fold ya Like Noah I get crews to choose and you get pretty deep But i'll call yo ass round 8-ish I know you'll be there for me"

By: Degaz

Degaz — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 16:40:50 -0800

Boycott YKK!!! CCL Zipper in the house!!

By: sinical

sinical — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 17:24:08 -0800

A while ago, I had a zipper that said KKK on it. Who the hell made that one?

By: duckstab

duckstab — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 18:15:47 -0800

Eli Gut keeps my privates private.

By: jazon

jazon — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 18:56:25 -0800

I've got a Talon on an old sweater my Grandmother knitted many, many years ago. Still works great. My pants are YKK.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 21:06:10 -0800

I'd heard of YKK years ago, when I read Cecil Adam's Straight Dope column about them. But I didn't know about their big plant in Macon -- I've wondered for quite a while why on earth YKK has a billboard just outside the Atlanta airport. Now I know. Thanks, DakotaPaul!

By: alas

alas — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 22:08:42 -0800

Talon? CCL? Screw all that! ALL of my zippers are 100% y2k compliant! I'm glad I wasn't around any of you when the date changed; dingleberry city, I'm sure. Not to mention, I saved a ton by avoiding the expensive retrofittings peddled by those "millenium bug" extermination agencies. *snickers* Suckers...

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Sat, 08 Feb 2003 02:36:26 -0800

checking...YKK here. I used to wonder about the choice of initials, too. As DakotaPaul wrote, the "KK" stands for "kabushiki kaisha," stock-issuing corporation, so you will see "KK" after a lot of company names in Japan, equivalent to "Inc." As you might expect in Japan, you can't just rig up a corporation online with hundred bucks via paypal. You must have ¥10,000,000 (US$80,000) in starting capital. Yugen gaisha is a limited liability corporation (¥3,000,000), and gomei gaisha is a limited partnership.

By: DBAPaul

DBAPaul — Sat, 08 Feb 2003 08:35:41 -0800

In order to tackle this [counterfeiting] problem, YKK has developed a program to help protect our trademark rights, and also our customers from inferior quality resulting from the use of fake YKK zippers. The following items are included in this program: . . . increase public awareness by having someone post this topic to a website named MetaFilter, everyone reads MetaFilter, don't they?

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Sat, 08 Feb 2003 10:43:41 -0800

Vidiot, I've always wondered about that billboard, too.

By: gi_wrighty

gi_wrighty — Sat, 08 Feb 2003 17:17:22 -0800

"YKK. The largest zipper manufacturer in the world. In fact, it’s the only brand of zippers people even know."

By: krebby

krebby — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 08:39:55 -0800

The correct expression is "XYZ - eXamine Your Zipper". HTH!

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 09:24:49 -0800

hmm. a quick scan through my closet reveals a max (cheap pair of chinos from mr price - can't find anything on the net about the make, so wonder if it's a ykk with something else stamoed on), a pex (ron hill running jacket) a ybs (a cheapish jacket from c&a - website dead), and two with no name (soft guitar case and jacket of uncertain origin) as well as a handfull of ykks. it's surprising how much they differ, too - someone must spend their time designing different zipper shapes/tags. the open directory listing of zipper suppliers. doesn't look like a monopoly from that list.

By: filchyboy

filchyboy — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 11:33:17 -0800

The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski has a great chapter on the evolution of the zipper. It follows the patent trail and the human stories behind the invention. Very interesting read for those interested in learning more about the 'hookless fastner'.