A word about zippers
A while ago I noticed virtually every zipper in my wardrobe had the letters YKK on the tag. Coincidence? I thunk not. I've been meaning to post this for a while, and I finally gave in tonight and took a photo. So here goes.
Turns out it stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (roughly Yoshida Co Ltd) a japanese company who, depending on who you talk to, essentially has a monopoly on the zipper market. Which sounds inconsequential, until you read that they make seven million zippers every day in their US factory alone.
Further reading at Mefi and The Straight Dope.
Pop Quiz: are you wearing a YKK zip? (I am)
Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 and filed under Life.
Comments
Thanks for the info. I like trivia like that. And no -- none in pj's.
Posted by: bill on July 14, 2004
Once upon a time, I was a seamstress at a dry cleaner, handling garments damaged in the cleaning process. It is virtually impossible to find a non-YKK zipper on a garment. This works in your favor should the zipper break for whatever reason (they are very good zippers, I might add). While the teeth generally cannot be repaired (aside from making the zipper shorter, bypassing the broken teeth), a broken tab can easily be replaced by popping off the metal stoppers at the top, allowing a replacement pull from another zipper to slide on. YKK tabs are always interchangable, as long as they are the right size... and most garments use one standardized size. Coats are a different story :-)
Strangely, despite YKK's dominance in the manufactured garment market, I have never been able to buy a YKK zipper from any fabric store to place in my own creations.
Posted by: chris on July 20, 2004
Wow, great info on the Monopoly thing. My partner and I were thinking about going into the business. He found a company that can produce the zippers at almost half price of what YKK is producting hopfully we will be shipping over 6 trillion zippers out of Vietnam in January of 08'. the only think that i am having a problem with is the whole logo thing. any ideas? we want it to do with our names Logan and Brian
Posted by: Logan on December 18, 2007
So, I have been online searching for the past 2 hrs before I came across this blog- why? I was trying to find a replacement zipper slide for a YKK zipper- although Chris had a great idea about the TAB portion- I am looking for the slide itself- 2 hrs later- and 30 websites...no luck.. whats that about? Logan and Brian apparently you didnt make it by Jan 08- coz I didnt find your website....
Posted by: Tamy on September 10, 2008
