MCI wants to look into the world of zippers, because today is National Zipper Day in the USA. Also, the zip (as we know it in the UK) was invented by an electrical engineer. It can’t get better than that! The zipper is one of the most underrated inventions in the world. After all, everyone uses them, and we can’t really imagine the world without them.
The journey to the invention of the zipper started in 1851 when Elias Howe got a patent for the “Improvement in Fastenings for Garments”. It wasn’t anything like the zip we know though, more like a complicated drawstring.
In 1893, a shoe fastening device based on hooks and eyes was invented by Whitcomb L. Judson. The idea wasn’t popular and was never used in clothing. Judson, however, helped start the Universal Fastener Company, which would be instrumental in the invention of the zipper as we know it. This is largely because Gideon Sundbäck started working there in 1906. This young electrical engineer was head designer and worked hard to improve Judson’s fastener. In 1909, he registered a patent in Germany and set up his own company in Canada – the Lightning Fastener Company. Sundbäck continued to improve the zippers and was producing 100m of zipper a day.
By 1923, Sundbäck had sold his European rights to Martin Othmar Winterhalter, who further improved the design in his company Riri.
The word “zipper” came into being in 1923 when a company used Sundbäck’s fastener on a pair of their boots and called the fastener a “zipper”. By the 1930s, children’s clothes started using zips, and it wasn’t long before they appeared on trousers.
We are delighted to discover the link between electrical engineering and zippers and hope you have a happy National Zipper Day!