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The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

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Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#71

Post by chrchr »

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.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Zipper-Exploration-Robert-D-Friedel/d...

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#72

Post by ardit33 »

behnamoh wrote: post #51

> 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 a…

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.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#73

Post by Gud »

portaouflop wrote: post #69
OptionOfT wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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.

I don’t know if it’s that easy.

I have a few favourites t-shirts I rotate around. My H&M Iron Maiden t-shirt for $20 has surpassed much more expensive t-shirts by a long shot.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#74

Post by kakacik »

behnamoh wrote: post #51

> 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 a…

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.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#75

Post by pavon »

constantcrying wrote: post #68
emptybits wrote: post #30

"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...

>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.

This looks much harder to seam-rip to me, as the stitching is going between the individual zipper teeth.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#76

Post by edelbitter »

behnamoh wrote: post #51

> 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 a…

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.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#77

Post by constantcrying »

pavon wrote: post #75
constantcrying wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

This looks much harder to seam-rip to me, as the stitching is going between the individual zipper teeth.

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.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#78

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

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.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#79

Post by dingnuts »

edelbitter wrote: post #76
behnamoh wrote: post #51

> 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 a…

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.

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.

Re: The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years

#80

Post by [deleted] »

gilfoy wrote: post #12
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

All the other zippers will still exist. Clothes without zippers will still exist. Roughly nobody does this anyway.

[deleted]
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