How did YKK corner the market in zippers?

Chinese slave labor

This is the kind of hard hitting issues I want to know about on a Tuesday.




No joke, I want answers too.

cornering the zipper market in preparation for WWII

Why so many designers use YKK and some history

Founded by Tadao Yoshida in Tokyo in 1934, YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (which roughly translates as Yoshida Company Limited). The young Yoshida was a tinkerer who designed his own customized zipper machines when he wasn’t satisfied with existing production methods. One by one, Yoshida brought basically every stage of the zipper making process in house: A 1998 Los Angeles Times story reported that YKK “smelts its own brass, concocts its own polyester, spins and twists its own thread, weaves and color-dyes cloth for its zipper tapes, forges and molds its scooped zipper teeth …” and on and on. YKK even makes the boxes it ships its zippers in. And of course it still manufactures its own zipper-manufacturing machines—which it carefully hides from the eyes of competitors. With every tiny detail handled under YKK’s roof, outside variables get eliminated and the company can assure consistent quality and speed of production. (When the Japanese earthquake hit last year many supply chains were shredded, but YKK kept rolling along.)

YKK is to the zipper what Otis is to the elevator. I don't know if I've ever been in a non Otis elevator.

We should just call them "Y" zippers. Adding the KK is like saying Microsoft Incorporated, Aflac Incorporated, Apple Corporation, et. al.

YKK zippers are really good. At least the ones I have. They don’t get caught or come off the track or break the teeth. The other random zippers I’ve had on stuff tend to do those things

I prefer YYZ.

After 41 years they split up this week, sad .