The Zipper
From clasp locker to everywhere. The zipper took decades to get right: Whitcomb Judson's 1893 clasp locker, Gideon Sundback's 1917 patent and the boot that gave it a name.
A zipper on jeans: see file page, CC BY-SA 3.0
A slow invention
Chicago inventor Whitcomb Judson showed a clasp locker for shoes at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. It used hooks and eyes and jammed easily, so it was not a hit. His company kept experimenting, and the breakthrough came from Swedish-American engineer Gideon Sundback, who joined the firm and designed interlocking teeth that meshed smoothly.
Sundback's design
Sundback's Hookless Fastener, patented in 1917, used rows of small metal teeth pressed together by a slider. He also built machines that could make the fastener cheaply, which mattered as much as the design itself. Early uses included money belts and tobacco pouches.
Getting a name
In 1923 the B.F. Goodrich company used the fasteners on rubber galoshes and called them Zipper Boots, after the zip sound they made. The name stuck for the fastener itself. In the 1930s, children's clothing makers promoted zippers as easy for kids, and tailors began using them in trouser flies, replacing buttons in many garments.
Zippers today
Today zippers come in metal, moulded plastic and coil versions, including waterproof designs for drysuits and tents. Japan's YKK, founded in 1934, is the world's largest maker, and its initials appear on zipper pulls around the world. If a zipper splits, the slider is often worn; pinching it gently with pliers or replacing it can save a jacket.
How it changed everyday life
Before zippers, clothes closed with buttons, hooks, laces and pins, which took time and fiddly fingers. Zippers made dressing faster for children and adults alike, and they made new designs possible: sleeping bags, tents, luggage, wetsuits and sports bags all rely on them. Fashion designers in the 1930s first resisted zippers as too industrial, then embraced them as a modern detail. Today billions are made every year, and repairing a stuck or broken zipper is one of the most common jobs at any tailor's shop. Old-school denim fans still debate button flies versus zip flies on classic jeans.
Did you know?
The word zipper was a trademark at first, but it became so common that it is now a generic word in English. In much of the world people simply say zip.
- A zipper on jeans: see file page, CC BY-SA 3.0
Text written by Original General.
