YKK tries to have a public image. They have their own anime, "Fastening Days".
Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
51–60 of 61 posts
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#52This just seems like a blatant submarine article [1] - anyone who upvoted want to share what they found interesting about it? [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
There's reasonable skepticism, and there's paranoia. YKK owns half the market and doesn't market to end-users. It doesn't engage in that whole sphere of PR, much less this form. If this were a PR piece, the reporter might have actually managed to talk to someone from the company. (Submarining doesn't usually involve outright journalistic fraud.)
It's just an interesting puff-piece. I was curious and voted it up because I've always seen "YKK zippers" mentioned on any vaguely rugged piece of luggage.
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#53So who makes zippers that are better than YKK? There must be smaller manufacturers with higher prices and higher quality.
riri - an Italian firm - makes very high quality zippers. I prefer them to YKK.
Aside: if you're looking for really good buttons, try this company: http://www.corozobuttons.com/ (Made exclusively with tagua nut, also known as 'vegetable ivory'. Very tough, plastic-like, and you get to support the Ecuadorian economy!)
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#54"The EU’s General Court backed the European Commission’s fines of 150 million euros ($187 million) for YKK, based in Tokyo, and 110 million euros for Coats in 2007 over cartels involving fasteners and related machinery, one of which ran for more than 21 years. The EU said at the time that the zipper market was worth about 400 million euros a year and the market for other metal fasteners was worth 200 million euros."…
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Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#55I suspect many people who've ever idly looked at a zip will have noticed the letters "YKK" on them, and at least a few of those people will have made it to YKK's Wikipedia page, which is at least equally as informative as this article. I was a bit confounded by this sentence: "The precision necessary to craft a working bicycle chain or a smoothly meshing zipper was simply beyond us for all those prior millennia." Sur…
I think that this is only part of the story. It isn't only that we didn't possess the technology to mass-produce these things, we also lacked the need to produce these things at all, let alone in mass-quantities.
The need for a chain that is used to transfer energy between two gears, like a bicycle chain, would only be apparent to you if you had a regular source of energy, like say an electric motor or internal combustion engine. After realizing that these things could be used to turn motors at unprecedented speeds, you would naturally look for ways to more efficiently transfer energy between the motor and a receiving point to harness the energy for something useful. Then you would design a system of gears and chains.
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#56I really wish I understood all the fuss about YKK zippers. I first heard the word on the street about YKK being amazing many years ago, perhaps 20 years ago, in a similar article. Then I see plenty of support for this, but my own personal experiences are that YKK are average to middling at best. YKK may have once been the best, but this is certainly no longer true. All I can assume is that this is the most successful…
So what's a better zipper and on what clothing brands can I find them on?
Riri, Swiss brand. E.g Aquazips on some Patagonia shells.
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#57After witnessing a half-dozen zippers fail on my partner's hoodie collection, none of which were YKK, it is gratifying to see this article.
The Chinese garment industry has gotten really good over the past decade, but fasteners is still where they fall down, in my experience. If I buy a jacket made in China I can expect the tailoring to be perfect, right down to lining up patterns at the seams, but the zippers are crap and buttons inevitably fall off. It is very frustrating.
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#58So who makes zippers that are better than YKK? There must be smaller manufacturers with higher prices and higher quality.
riri - an Italian firm - makes very high quality zippers. I prefer them to YKK. Aside: if you're looking for really good buttons, try this company: http://www.corozobuttons.com/ (Made exclusively with tagua nut, also known as 'vegetable ivory'. Very tough, plastic-like, and you get to support the Ecuadorian economy!)
Because they aren't molded, Ralph Lauren laser engraves their corozo buttons.
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#59Here's a thought, I don't think YKK would have lasted as a publicly traded company in the US.
Pressure for profit growth from Wall St would have forced them to make cheaper buttons, until their brand name was destroyed and the company had no value.
Re: Why YKK? The Japanese company behind the world’s best zippers
#60YKK gets a shoutout on So Fresh, So Clean by Outkast.