I don't like "submarine" PR articles like this, because I feel like the author didn't ask any of the obvious questions around this zipper:
1. No closeup pics of how the zipper is actually sewed onto fabrics.
2. Is this design more likely to tear fabrics than a traditional zipper? A video another commenter linked made it look more fragile to me, but I don't know.
3. The biggest issue with any zipper is snags. This design looks like it would be a lot more likely to snag, but maybe not.
4. As other commenters mentioned, can it be repaired without special equipment?
I'm not saying this design is good or bad, just that this puff piece article didn't ask any of the immediate questions I had.
> Its dominance comes from an unusual level of control: YKK manufactures its own machines, designs its own molds, and even spins its own thread. That self-sufficiency lets it experiment in ways competitors can’t, turning a mundane component into a field for continuous innovation.
I thought the point was that there hasn’t been any innovation??
"The biggest issue with any zipper is snags. This design looks like it would be a lot more likely to snag, but maybe not."
I can't see this new design solving that problem. Of all the day-to-day inanimate objects I've encountered I'd single out zippers as the most problematic I've come across. I cannot think of another device I've had so much trouble with.
They snag, jam, the teeth fall out or tear out with little provocation, they come 'unraveled' at the ends and cannot be easily fixed. Fly zippers have even caused me injury, and when used on sleeping bags and like they catch the fabric and either damage it or break in the process of untangling them. And if that's not enough, the metal parts of zippers corrode in washing detergents and stain removers—often to the extent that it's a significant cause of zipper failures.
Moreover, zippers are much more difficult to replace than buttons—I can replace a button on a shirt or fly in a minute or two but replacing a zipper is a major undertaking especially if one is not expert with a sewing machine.
Zippers on jackets are often the worst, I've an ex NATO military jacket that's tough and hard wearing and extremely well made that I'd never be without in winter but its YKK zipper gives me no end of trouble. And recently I've scrapped two perfectly good high-visibility jackets because zipper teeth have pulled out and in both instances the zippers weren't subject to abuse (these zippers weren't YKK brand).
Give me buttons any day.
PS: my other peeve is Velcro on clothing. I dare not mention the tortures that ought to be inflicted on the person who came up with that abomination of an idea.
You seem to have... very unusual experience with zippers. I honestly can't remember the last time I had trouble with one or ever having any serious trouble with one.
With respect, I think it's your experience that is very unusual. I reckon you must never go camping and use a sleeping bag with a long zipper or you wouldn't say what you've said.
The woman who runs the drycleaning shop near where I live also provides a garment alteration service and her main business is shortening jeans and replacing broken zippers! She even specializes in replacing long zippers on leather jackets as they break so often.
When they're such a bane for others one has to wonder why you have so little trouble, or how careful and methodical you are when using them, and or what type you're familiar with, what garments you have them on etc.
Can you honestly say you've never had zipper teeth part company with the fabric or never had to apply candle wax or similar to the teeth so they run smoothly? If yes, then you're a very lucky person.
Really late coming back to this, but yes, I own several sleeping bags with zippers, tents with zippers, backpacks, down coats, gadget and storage bags of various kinds, various other jackets, all kinds of stuff with zippers.
You say "[w]hen they're such a bane for others," but that's not my experience. Here in my seventh decade of life, I have never heard anyone but you complain so much about zippers.
I don't go camping. I have had exactly one thing in my life that I can recall that the zipper broke on it. I think it really depends on what people are buying, how rough they are with their clothing, and many other factors.
> Can you honestly say you've never had zipper teeth part company with the fabric or never had to apply candle wax or similar to the teeth so they run smoothly?
Do regular people ever wax their zippers? (ChatGPT says it might be done by sailors or leatherworkers on occasion, for whatever that's worth.)
Agreed, or they use plastic teeth that easily part company with the fabric as with my hi-viz jackets. The nylon loop type are usually much more reliable.
Nitpicking here, but this is not a submarine article. This is above the waves, straight-ahead, overt PR.
It’s a standard product launch article. The news is: Company Announced Product. The article is: what the company says about the product. There’s not much more to report than that, yet. Once the product actually hits shelves there can be more articles with real world tests, breakdowns, close-ups, etc.
The reality is that YKK does not actually know if the new zipper will cause more tears, snag easier, be harder to repair, etc. No one will know until the product actually comes into extended contact with the real world.
The biggest issue with zippers is durability. I’ve had dozens of broken zippers over my lifetime on clothing that was far from end of life.
If I could pay $20 extra dollars for a piece of clothing with a twice as durable zipper I’d do it. I’m pretty sure zippers cost a dime so that’s a good margin.
"If I could pay $20 extra dollars for a piece of clothing with a twice as durable zipper I’d do it."
Agreed, the biggest issue is durability, like you I've had many broken zippers which often seem to break at the most inconvenient time, embarrassing experiences such as having to secure my fly with bent paperclips pushed through the fabric come to mind.
But I think there's more to it than just durability as there are some basic design issues that are hard to overcome. For instance, if a tooth gets pulled out or it does not mesh properly with its opposite mate then all will unravel (and that happens surprising often). It only takes one missing tooth or the first teeth to be not properly anchored for the whole zipper to fail. Cascading failures don't happen with buttons (one missing isn't much of a problem).
"Major Upgrade" for the fast, disposable fashion crowd.
Major downgrade for maintainability and ability to repair.
This "upgraded" zipper will be impossible to replace if broken at home, by hand or with a machine, or even at a typical professional repair shop. YKK documents say a "dedicated AiryString® sewing machine" is required.[1]
Fabrics have gotten a lot thinner, and thus develop holes a lot more quickly.
I have t-shirts from 2010 which are faded but have 0 holes. Whereas t-shirts I bought half a year ago have holes in them.
Also, you mentioning the inability to repair stuff at home makes me sad. My mom, 72 year old, repaired my nephew's jacket the other day. Brand new zipper.
The machine in that PDF you shared makes me feel YKK is going in the direction of Apple. They supply the parts and the manufacturing device.
You do something they don't like? Sewing machine turns off.
"All AiryString® part sales and leasing of dedicated sewing machines are conducted between YKK and the customer. YKK will also coordinate the installation and startup of sewing machines at garment manufacturing factories. For more information on leasing dedicated sewing machines, please contact your YKK representative"
Yes, survivorship bias is real, but it's absolutely true that clothes are often made of more delicate fabrics today.
Some of it is fashion-motivated; a shaved leather jacket that has a feel almost like cloth lays very differently on a person than a bomber- or motorcycle-weight jacket.
The rest is because lighter threads are cheaper. And lighter-weight zippers are cheaper.
We won't know if this self-lauded new product is an improvement or not for a while.
The comment means "you throw away the shirts with holes, so obviously any shirt you have from 2010 has no holes". Unless every single new shirt the GP has has holes in it (which they don't), we can't draw any conclusions from this, except "some shirts from any year last a long time and some don't".
> I have t-shirts from 2010 which are faded but have 0 holes. Whereas t-shirts I bought half a year ago have holes in them.
One of the little things I find most satisfying about getting old is hearing the same proclamations about quality going to shit today that I heard when I was much younger, only now the supposedly-good baseline of the comparison happened well after the complaints I grew up hearing. I, too, want everyone to get the hell off my lawn.
If your mother has to drop-spindle the flax your father helped gather from the retting pond to make the thread to weave the garment... that tunic better damned-well last several years. In fact, garments were mentioned in estate records of the deceased because they were so valuable.
If you can shop online for a new T-shirt while riding the bus to work, and have it delivered to your door the next day... your children aren't going to hope to inherit it.
Sadly, I have garments from my grand-parents made 40 years ago which are much better than my parents garments made 20 years ago, themselves much better than what you can find nowadays at the same price points from the same brands.
Thankfully, with the internet, it's easier than ever to buy actually nice and well made pieces of cloth. They are not cheap however.
That seems consistent with a progressive slide towards lower quality. The products that were available when I was young where dramatically lower quality than those available to my parents but are dramatically higher quality than what is available now.
The fix is easy:
Don’t buy new clothes from fast fashion brands or stores.
If you only buy quality from small stores and independent designers you still get the same quality you got 15 years ago. Sure it’s 2-3 times the price but it’s worth it.
It feels easier to me: buy second hand, look for natural fibers, take care of your garments (wash according to tag, don’t use fabric softeners or dryer sheets).
Learning to mend isn’t too bad either, especially with fabrics that are sturdier.
I don’t know how to mend at all - but I have an excellent tailor in my neighbourhood who mends stuff like jeans and shirts for me for a reasonable price. Also I love his little shop so I’m happy to pay a bit extra to support that business!
That’s awesome! I love community solutions. I recently moved out to a more rural area so places like that aren’t as walkable as my old place in the city - we had a sustainable store with refillable soaps, detergent, etc; a good half dozen hair places, a local yarn and slewing shop that doubles as a place for people in the refugee community to learn techniques and get assistance; there’s also food co-ops, community garden, etc.
It’s all been really cool to see as it grows, and while I’m sad to have moved away, it also gives me an opportunity to find and form new communities.
I try to buy my clothes from shops that sell to the trades/safety gear (e.g. brands like "Hard Yakka", although I guess that brand probably doesn't exist outside of Australasia). Most of these shops do a good line of cargo pants/shorts.
But where does one get jeans that were made of the non-stretch denim that we use to get in the 1980s? That stuff was as thick as a tarpaulin (for those of us who are younger, tarpaulins used to be made of fabric, not plastic).
Stretch denim drives me insane. Not only is it much thinner and more fragile it's also just straight up a time bomb. Given enough time the elastic just deteriorates and you get super weird wrinkles all over. Not to mention that pants that fit just fine in the morning need a belt in the afternoon because the whole thing stretches out.
>Major downgrade for maintainability and ability to repair.
But it seems the exact opposite is true. These zippers should be easily removable, leaving the fabric mostly intact. After that you can put in a normal zipper.
But you can just cut it off entirely, with minimal losses to the fabric, which is preferable to pulling out the seams, which will leave damaged fabric behind.
It remains to be seen if it can be repaired by hand. A special sewing machine is required, as opposed to using a regular sewing machine. The document you linked is about garment production, not repair.
How things get repaired is not up to the original company in most cases. People are inventive when they need to be.
Almost anything that can be sewn together by a machine can be sewn together by hand too. That said, sewing doesn’t do much for most zipper failures anyway, which are usually broken teeth or sliders.
> This "upgraded" zipper will be impossible to replace if broken at home, by hand or with a machine
It looks like they just replaced the tape with cord. I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to hand stitch it in, though it might need some temporary stitches to hold it in place.
> That incremental progress mirrors YKK’s founding philosophy, the “Cycle of Goodness.” The principle—that no one prospers without benefiting others—has supposedly guided the company for decades. It’s visible in its other micro-improvements: corrosion-resistant alloys, sound-dampened sliders, recyclable polyester tapes. AiryString continues that tradition, shrinking the zipper’s physical and environmental footprint at once.
This is alien to SF AI startups and patent trolls.
Having your customers suddenly require proprietary machinery (only sold/licensed by you) to unlock the full potential of your upgraded product line.. does seem compatible with the SF startup way of thinking.
The SF approach would be to lock down every aspect of the new zippers with as much proprietary BS as possible for as long as possible, charging high fees the whole time and quite likely causing relatively poor market penetration. Relatively few people will pay $50 extra for a thinner zipper on a typical jacket. To combat this, one SF approach might be to pump out ads and branding to to make the new zipper a status symbol.
e.g. Will we start to see fashion designers paid to highlight the new zippers on their products rather than hiding them behind flaps or in folds? Are Brando biker jackets about to trend again?
On the other hand, YKK might simply do what they've been doing for the last century: Obliterate the competition by doing what they do better and cheaper. This is how they took the market from manufacturer's like Talon. They might maintain control of their new zipper tech with patents, etc., but they might also make the tooling affordable and try to maximize uptake by manufacturers.
I have a vintage reproduction of a 1920's cafe racer with a Talon zipper on it. That thing needs to be babied. Zip it up wrong and the slide will bend, teeth will stop engaging, etc.. If you want a jacket that you'll think twice about zipping up (e.g. "Am I really so cold it's worth it?"), get something with a vintage Talon zipper. The first thing that stood out to me as a falsehood in this article was the claim that this is the first upgrade to the zipper in a century. YKK has been quietly making them better and better that whole time.
yes, and the fact that the article brushes over this and is so breathless -- it's an ad, right?
My first question was: if they remove the tape, how do you affix it to the garment? and you're right, the article glides over the fact that this company, which is largely a monopoly, is creating garments that will apparently require a proprietary device to repair.
It's like a Juicero ad, but for your fly. I'm good.
But its not anything like a Juicero ad is it? They are not halting production on all other zippers or charging you a monthly zipper refill fee… but adding a new product line with more and different possible uses. An innovative new design for a product most don’t think twice about. It’s pretty cool, really.
not a productive comment. The web is made and run by myriad of frameworks, that were developed open source by startups, or folks that worked in tech that wanted to improve things bit by bit and wanted to share to the community.
Tech in general is the much more open industry compared to any other (cars, biotech, etc), and it is uniquely where closed sourced frameworks have a har time to succeed.
None of them will be around for long, and if yes only by pure unintended accident.
But dont blame the participants, they fight for money in system setup for them. If people will reward clearly more moral businesses, over time even the most hardened sociopath will pick up the cues.
If you want to hate something, hate how uncaring an average person is, driven by simple, easy to manipulate emotions, not fighting primal urges even if they drive them off the cliff, or even caring more deeply about themselves, who they are and where they go.
Isn't it kind of the opposite? Taking a ethical stance is often superficially suboptimal at maximizing personal value. Obviously moral frameworks vary by culture, but commonly involve setting aside some amount of self interest.
The same is true of a business, primarily driven by the executives and carried out by rank and file.
The excellent Avery Trufelman (formerly of 99% Invisible) has been running Articles of Interest (<https://www.articlesofinterest.co> and <https://articlesofinterest.substack.com>), a surprisingly interesting podcast about clothing and and culture and so much more. The Ivy League episodes are a great example of what they're about.
Anyone interested in zippers, or, more significantly for this website, how new technologies are invented, adopted, and mature, should read "Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty" by Robert D. Friedel [1]
YKK is kind of one of the heroes of the story. The zipper was pioneered by the U.S. company Talon Fastener, which was acquired and parted out in the 1970s. YKK bought the legacy machining for manufacturing zippers and went on to dominate the global market.
Until a few years ago they had a hold on the upper end of the market. The chinese competitor's quality was unreliable enough that clothing manufacturers were willing to pay a premium to ensure a failed zipper does not trash a garment. That situation has been changing, and chinese companies are offering zippers which are getting used on progressively higher end products.
By releasing a new product with substantial changes and thus patentability they can buy a few decades at the top of the market. I suspect this technology has been in development for a long time, and held back until competitors were threatening the premium traditional zipper market.
YKK still has the advantage in that they are known for quality. I use YKK in my sewing because I can count on them being good. On the other hand, I don't know which Chinese manufactuers are reliable.
"Please be aware that when using AiryString® on fabrics with the following characteristics,
there are concerns that the zipper may come unstitched, roll into the slider, or not be strong enough.
◇ Fabrics with notably low slippage resistance
( woven fabrics: fabrics with low thread counts, knitted fabrics: fabrics with loose tension).
◇ Fabrics with low friction resistance
◇ Fabrics with large bumps
◇ Shaggy fabrics"
My first thought was "Arc'teryx will probably adopt this immediately." They (and similar brands) are already pushing as hard as they can on seamlessness or very very tight seams.
Doesn't Arc'teryx make outdoor gear? That's something where I absolutely would not buy a product that I couldn't repair in the field with a needle and thread.
Yes, Arcteryx makes outdoor gear, but more along the line of technical climbing and backcountry skiing, not backpacking. Not likely to carry a needle and thread to repair your 3L Goretex shell.
Of course the brand has been diluted to cater to a more mainstream buyer.
The upgrade I want is a two way zipper that actually works well. Current two way zippers suck, so most jacket manufacturers have abandoned them completely.
Honestly dont see the point of this "upgrade". Normal zippers work fine.
It looks like there is a core cord inside the zipper teeth. The specialized sewing machine stitches the cord to the fabric in between each teeth... tooth?
The pdf linked in other threads shows that the teeth have a fabric cord running through the middle of them. Then each tooth is surrounded by about 18 tiny stitches.
It's not worse; it's different, and better for some applications. Specifically when high flexibility and/or sleek appearance are valued above cost and durability. One example that immediately comes to mind is zip-up pockets in athletic wear.
“The absence of the tape posed various production challenges,” Nishizaki says. “We had to develop new manufacturing equipment and a dedicated sewing machine for integration.”
> Their new AiryString zipper looks ordinary at first glance. Then you realize what’s missing: there’s no tape. That absence transforms everything. Without the woven fabric that normally flanks the teeth, the AiryString is lighter, sleeker, and far more flexible.
Apparently no tape, the zipper is bare, so special sewing machines are required and you plebs cannot just repair your clothes affordably (or yourself) anymore.
Funny enough they mention that this new zipper cuts emisions but at the same time requires another (propietary) machine to sew them into clothing... are net emmisions actually going to be diminished?
I had at least z dozen zippers replaced through my life. Some times you a very good product with poorly chosen zipper, some times it is some sort of an accident.
I find the idea of buying a new coat instead of fixing a small part of the old one weird.
I'm in my 40s and don't think I've ever replaced a zipper. I'm sure a handful have broken over my lifetime, but never on something nice enough to be worth repairing. I wouldn't buy clothing based on the possibility of this (to me) extreme edge case.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and at least here in this so-called "third world" country plenty of people makes their clothing to be repaired in any way or do it themselves (even me, sometimes)
I wonder if you could do repairs by hand stitching. Presumably the special machine does a special stitch which is lined up exactly with the teeth. A regular machine can't do that, but I bet a skilled human could.
You'd need a way to hold the zipper teeth and the fabric in place while you stitch. Maybe temporary tape or some special-purpose jig thing.
You can. You’d just attach a fabric tape zipper and the clothes would stop being as flexible. So you get the best of both worlds: a fancy zipper to start with that delivers increased performance and then you remove the performance and have an old zipper placed in there.
You just get an extra semi rigid fabric track when you repair. Your clothes should still work.
"Without them, YKK had to rethink every step of production
The teeth were redesigned, the manufacturing process rewritten, and new machinery developed to attach the closure to garments. “The absence of the tape posed various production challenges,” Nishizaki says."
Redesigned to attach to the fabric in a different way, I think.
Usually the teeth are attached somehow to the fabric strip. I think the strip has a ridge at the edge where the teeth go, and the teeth are clamped over that ridge to hold them in place. Then the fabric strip is easy to sew onto a garment. It looks like the new design has only the ridge, hence it's called a string, and is hard to sew onto a garment.
For everyone in the comments assuming these will be unrepairable I... don't think they will be? As far as I can tell this has zipper teeth on cord instead of tape. I don't see why that'd be impossible to hand-sew. It might be a bit more fiddly because it'll be more flexible. If anything it'll be much easier to seam rip existing zippers because you can just put the seam ripper between the teeth and cut the cord instead of the stitching.
The proprietary sewing machine does seem like it's not amazing competition wise, but if you think Chinese manufacturers aren't going to have a clone the second this becomes popular you haven't been paying attention. It'll basically be a sewing machine that does a zigzag stitch with a modified transport so the needle doesn't hit the teeth.
The one thing I do think is a disadvantage is that this style of zipper would put limits on how thick the fabric it's attached to can be. Normally the tape goes between the sides of the runner, but now it's the actual garment fabric. Might have implications for wear too.
OK, finally I see why a new sewing machine was needed. Thank you! That's a sort of quasi-saddle-stitch, and one mistake in timing the length and 'phase' of the stitch means a broken needle.
This feels to me like the right place to be trying to innovate. Zippers tend to be pretty good for the most technical clothing (and some other cases that demand textiles). In ordinary settings, I find more and more that I prefer pullovers, buttons, or other traditional fastening/closure mechanisms.
Good question. They have a new Juki machine to sew these on directly, but I can't tell whether it will be practical to sew on by hand. I expect most tailor and seamstress shops won't be taking our loans to buy machines just to sew these new zippers in one size.
Average startup team replaced all zippers and buttons with experimental fasteners three sprints ago, because a tech that doesn’t get quarterly upgrades is clearly obsolete
Looks very cool, but absolutely laughable that they tried to sell an environmental angle. I don't say that because it's "actually the opposite" or anything like that - the impact either way will be fuck all.
In the grand scheme of textiles, which actually are a major source of environmental harm, it’s probably the choice of textile that would impact emissions the most. Cotton is one of the most water hungry crops we grow and resulted in the drying up of the Aral Sea; animal products have all the emissions associated with animal farming; and synthetics are generally petroleum based.
Hemp or linen probably. Cotton recycling is also better than new cotton. But for clothes the heavy emphasis is on "reduce" and "reuse" which is why fast fashion is so insidious.
One major problem that has arisen recently is that a lot of clothes now are cotton blends which cannot easily be recycled.
> When asked what zippers might look like in 50 years, Nishizaki doesn’t talk about smart fabrics or AI-assisted closures. He returns to YKK’s mantra: “Little parts. Big difference.”
AI-assisted closures? I'm struggling to imagine a use case. Surely this is humor...
So, uh, how is it attached to the garment? They talk about specialized sewing equipment, so it’s not bonded (although for polymer-based outerwear solvent bonding seems like the ultimate end-point)… but there’s no thru-holes or other obvious attachment points. Something boring but hidden (hole from the side to the bottom), or something more interesting?
There does appear to be a connecting strand between the teeth, and the article indicates you need a specialized sewing machine. They must sew it, but repairable is probably impacted.
tangent: all my pants have zipper pockets. after almost losing my phone in a taxi in dubai a long time ago, I always get pants with zippers, even though I do not always close them...
I similarly had an issue with stuff falling out of my pockets which made me get pants with zipper pockets. In the end I was disappointed. I had some pants and shorts from Fjallraven and the zippers on the pockets all failed in under a year from what I recall. I ended up switching to all Duluth Trading Co. pants/shorts. These do NOT have zipper pockets, but they DID solve my problem, somehow. The pockets are deeper and perhaps a better shape. I've hung upside down in an inversion table, pockets stuffed full with what some would call an excessive EDC, and nothing falls out.
I would say avoid excercise-y pants/shorts and pajama pants, they have particularly bad pockets. That alone helped me quite a bit. I went from more lounge-y wear to dressing like a tradesman on the average day. The Duluth Trading pants are a lot more comfortable than any blue jeans I've worn before, as well as more durable and with more pockets. I have seen some other brands with similar design but can't recall the names. I just know I got some pair from Menard's or Fleet Farm once as a gift and the pocket layout was surprisingly identical to my Duluth Trading pants. I didn't like them as much, but I don't remember any specific major flaws either. Mostly including that tidbit to sound less like an ad for DT.
With stuff like this, technical fabrics that manufacturers refuse to sell to anyone other than businesses, and Joann's going out of business, it almost feels like there's a push to prevent individuals from making or repairing their own clothes.
I don't necessarily think it's a conspiracy, but it does feel like the logical extension of late stage capitalism's love of planned obsolescence, vendor lock in, etc.
1. No closeup pics of how the zipper is actually sewed onto fabrics.
2. Is this design more likely to tear fabrics than a traditional zipper? A video another commenter linked made it look more fragile to me, but I don't know.
3. The biggest issue with any zipper is snags. This design looks like it would be a lot more likely to snag, but maybe not.
4. As other commenters mentioned, can it be repaired without special equipment?
I'm not saying this design is good or bad, just that this puff piece article didn't ask any of the immediate questions I had.