Most zips you own probably have all the same writing on them for one reason
It’s pretty likely that the majority of the zips sitting in your wardrobe all have the exact same writing on.
No, pack it in, I’m not suggesting you’ve got a big box of zips sat amongst your clothes. But I’m talking about the actual zips on all those bits of clothing.
For a very specific reason, most of those zippers will have three little letters on.
Sure, in some cases maybe they’ve got the specific designer branding on or maybe even a fashionable little pattern. However, a huge number of zippers all over the world have the same bit of writing on them. So yeah, you’re really not so unique, hate to break it to you.
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It’s not some kind of weird policy either though, but it’s because there’s quite the global domination of zippers.
The bit of writing found all over these zips is the simple ‘YKK’. Yeah, bet that’s ringing a bell now isn’t it?
Most of us probably don’t even realise, but it’s all because there’s one big company that is said to produce about half the world’s supply.
Founded in Japan all the way back in 1934 by Tadao Yoshida (who designed his own zip machines), YKK was originally called Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha.
The name was changed to the three letters in 1994 with the privately held group now made up of 106 companies across 70 countries.
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YKK doesn’t just make the actual zip either, but the dyed cloth and the brass used, said to produce over 1.8 million miles worth every year. Plus, it even produces the machines that make the products themselves.
So, all the zippers made are stamped with the YKK as a form of the company’s branding.
It’s reported that one of the factory sites in Macon, Georgia, produces more than five million a day, in 1,500 styles in over 400 standard colours.
Despite this domination of zips across the globe, YKK didn’t actually invent them. Someone developed a bit of a hook-and-loop fastener back in the 1890s which looked like a zip without the slider.
Then in the early 1900s, Swedish-American engineer Gideon Sundback is pretty much given credit for inventing the zip as we know it.
On Reddit, users agree that the majority of zips have YKK on them pretty much because they’re the best.
“YKK is ubiquitous but for a reason. They make incredible zippers,” one pro zipper wrote.
As another echoed: “If you see it, you know you got a good zipper. If not, prepare for imminent zipper malfunctions.”
Topics: Fashion
Jess Battison