Zipper

Gideon Sundback, USA, patent 1,060,478 of 1913. The separable fastener after decades of struggle.

Overview

Sundback, a Swedish-American engineer, solved earlier hook-and-eye failures with the dimpled scooped teeth of the Hookless 2, patented 1913. The B.F. Goodrich company named it zipper on rubber boots in 1923. Children's clothing kept it niche until the 1930s fashion wave. Schiaparelli's 1935 collections flaunted plastic zippers. The slide fastener's 20-year development became a design-school lesson in iteration. Today the YKK company makes most of the world's.