The water resistant zipper is not a 100 years old, and that was a huge upgrade.
The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
31–40 of 154 posts
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#32After reading the article I have no idea what is different in the new version.
What I can't figure out is how the new version attached to the fabric. That's at the core of this right? Metal-fabric interface.
“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.”
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/FQGdSkg
Yes, so the zipper hasn't changed, just the way it is attached to the fabric.
No, from the article:
"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."
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the other zippers will still exist. Clothes without zippers will still exist. Roughly nobody does this anyway.
>Roughly nobody does this anyway. 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.
This doesn't change that, I expect you can still remove this a zipper and have another sewn on, just as before
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#35Link to what the upgrade looks like https://ykkdigitalshowroom.com/en/item/143/
This one[1] shows how the teeth are sewn on, which does look like it would be hard to do by hand (and impossible with a normal sewing machine).
1: https://ykkdigitalshowroom.com/assets/80006b690a9e47db1e62ad...
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#36How do you replace a broken zipper than?
I expect the same way you do now
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#37After reading the article I have no idea what is different in the new version.
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.
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.
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#38After reading the article I have no idea what is different in the new version.
What I can't figure out is how the new version attached to the fabric. That's at the core of this right? Metal-fabric interface.
They found a worse way to create a worse zipper with a proprietary machine that no one owns . This is the future
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#39"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] [1] https://ykkdigitalshowroom.com/assets/AiryString_202507_en.p...
It might be more challenging but I don't see why you couldn't also sew this by hand.
Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years
#40"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] [1] https://ykkdigitalshowroom.com/assets/AiryString_202507_en.p...
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.