Zippers Might Be Getting a Makeover

Few inventions reach such widespread use as the zipper. Odds are, you’re wearing a zippered garment right now. And yet—in its over 100-year-old history—it has received no significant updates. Until a few years ago.

Traditional zippers rely on a piece of fabric surrounding the teeth, which is sewn into garments. This is called a tape, and can sometimes make designs bulkier and less flexible. Now, zipper company YKK is releasing its new AiryString zipper, which is absent of tape and instead sewn into the fabric using a special machine.

“By eliminating the zipper tapes, the AiryString zipper offers more flexibility and weight reduction of the final product, in turn allowing for more design possibilities,” the YKK website says.

While the the zipper’s origins can be traced back to two American inventors, control over it’s production has fallen into the hands of Japanese manufacturer YKK. To understand their prevalence just look down on your zipper, and it most likely will branded with YKK.

With control over a large part of the market, the Japanese manufacturer, with over 46,305 regular employees, 3,079 part-time workers, boasts, according to a recent Wired report, $6 billion in 2023 revenue.

Per Wired, AiryString’s conception sparked from a collaboration between YKK and industrial sewing machine manufacturers JUKI Corporation, the company behind the machines needed to sew the new zippers. While the partnership dates back to 2017, a first iteration of AiryString appeared five years later at the JIAM Osaka trade show. Following its 2022 debut, The North Face became the first adopter for a down jacket, per YKK.

In addition to providing more flexibility and weight reduction, AiryString’s lack of tape provides a seamless integration with fabric, allowing for softer texture and less friction. Additionally, the design allows the zipper to appear thinner while on the garment, allowing for sleeker designs.

But not everyone will get their hands on the new zipper just yet. Since the new zippers can not be installed with any regular machine, those interested will have to contact their YKK representatives to lease an appropriate sewing machine.

“Anyone trying to mend an item made with this zipper who doesn’t have the ‘special sewing machine’ will just end up cutting it out to install a normal zipper, which may or may not work for that particular garment,” a user shared on Reddit.

It is also not YKK’s only stint at innovation, with a tent-sized prototype of a self-propelled zipper announced earlier this year.

While some are intrigued by YKK’s innovation, others are not as excited.

“I always wondered about zipper technology and when it would get updated,” one user said on Reddit. Another one added, “Great. One more thing to charge.”