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high concept
Ups and Downs in Zipper History
by Hugh Musick
Photo by Scott Blankenship
P
rior to the 20th century, one needed
the manual dexterity of an expert
locksmith to unhinge the web of fasteners, hooks, and buttons that held lovers
captive in their clothing. Disrobing—
that necessary and exquisite prelude to
lust fulfilled—became a whole lot easier
with the introduction of the zipper.
The zipper’s development is a compelling example of the extensive efforts
required to transform an idea into reality. An inventor, marketers, investors, engineers, salesmen, and financiers all had
a hand in working through the countless
details of bringing a feasible product to
market. Long before it took the form we
know today, the zipper was an idea that
excited the imaginations of many.
Chicago farm equipment salesman
Whitcomb Judson is the father of the
zipper’s precursor, the sliding fastener.
Conceived in the early 1890s, his device
was largely informed by his trade: witnessing how farm equipment was automating many labor-intensive processes,
he applied similar principles to simplify
the process of hooking shoe clasps. In
1891, he filed a patent for a “Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes.”
The two-part device consisted of a
fastening guide and a series of clasps
referred to as “fastening elements.”
The guide served the purpose of drawing together two lines of opposing elements. Like the modern zipper slide,
the two lines of elements entered at
the top of the roughly triangular guide,
met at the point of convergence, and
exited the bottom an interlocked line.
The guide was without precedent and
marked the emergence of a compelling
new technology. The same could not be
said of the fastening elements. Although
the series of clasps could be brought
together, without some mechanism to
apply downward pressure they could not
be held in place. Despite this shortcoming, the device was granted a patent that
same year.
Judson attempted to address the
deficiencies of the fastening elements
in a second patent application filed the
following year, proposing a series of
lightweight hooks linked together into
Finally Fall 2008 Ambidextrous
19
be sewn into place. This idea simplified the
chains that could be fed through shoelace
holes. However, in the application he failed to
fastener, its method of production, and its
explain how the hooks actually locked together.
installation. This latest development inspired
Nevertheless, Judson received a second patent
one of Earle’s original investors, Colonel Lewis
for the idea in 1893. With two patents in hand,
Walker, to create a new company to produce it.
Judson’s device caught
For the next decade, Walkthe attention of friend and
er’s firm, Automatic Hook
The zipper demonstrates and Eye, and its product
fellow farm equipment
salesman, Harry Earle.
based on Judson’s innovathat a transformational
Earle straddled the world
tion, the C-Curity Sliding
technology is seldom
of invention and business
Fastener, kept the dream
and dedicated himself for
of the device alive.
born fully formed but
a decade to creating a marDetermined to autoevolves by incrementally
ket for Judson’s concept.
mate the production of
refining the original idea. C-Curity, Earle purchased
By simply recognizing the
specially made equipment
potential in Judson’s idea,
from a machinery foundry.
the unsung and largely
invisible Earle can be credited with laying the
The machinery required that two foundry mefoundation for all that followed. Assembling a
chanics be at Automatic Hook and Eye to overgroup of investors, he founded the Universal
see its operation. A young engineer, Gideon
Fastener Company in 1894.
Sundback, was invited to join the factory.
Even though Judson had established the
Sundback’s arrival at Automatic Hook and
fundamental components of the modern zipEye marked a shift from improvised developper, the Universal Fastener Company struggled
ment to a more systematic approach aimed
to make it real. The fastening elements deat correcting the device’s shortcomings. He
scribed in Judson’s patents simply could
framed the problem of the C-Curity as such:
not be produced. Thus the “Clasp Locker or
“When the fastener was put in the placket of
Unlocker for Shoes” was just the beginning
a ladies’ [sic] skirt, and the lady bent over, the
of a 35-year journey that ended in the zipper.
fastener would pop open.” Although such a
While it makes a nice story to imagine great
design flaw is not without a certain lascivious
inventions being based on one man’s stroke of
charm, from a commercial standpoint it was
genius and then the next day made ubiquitous,
unacceptable. Sundback worked on the probthe zipper demonstrates that a transformalem for two years before arriving at a solution.
tional technology is seldom born fully formed.
In 1907 Sundback filed his first of many
Instead, it evolves through a series of incresliding fastener patents. He christened the
mental refinements to the original idea.
improved fastener the Plako and described the
Two years later, in 1896, the company hit
main change as follows: “The major problem
I tackled...[was]...to make the fastener more
upon a new solution: a menacing-looking
chain of hook and eyelets curving out to face
flexible, and I devised a new eye in the Plako
an opposing but identical chain. The two
fastener. The solution…was successful to the
chains were spaced in such a way that the
extent [that] the hook would not snap out of
hooks of one chain received the eyelet on the
the eye when the fastener was being flexed.”
opposing chain. The problem now was that
In appearance, the Plako resembled the
while the company had a fastener that could
C-Curity except that the eyes were larger and
be produced, it did not function well.
held fast to corresponding hooks. Though it
Eight more years passed before Judson hit
corrected the problems of its predecessor, the
upon a design that could be marketed to the
Plako remained tethered to outdated technolpublic. In 1904, he moved away from chain
ogy: the hook and eye fastener. Between 1908
links and instead proposed clamping the
and 1913, its improved performance helped
fastening elements to cloth tape that could
bolster investors’ spirits, re-focus marketing
20
Ambidextrous Finally Fall 2008
Photo by Scott Blankenship
efforts, and keep the company afloat. It wasn’t
on a pair of gloves and was inspired to put
until the unexpected death of his wife Elvira in
them on his company’s new rubber galoshes.
1911 that a despairing Sundback, yearning for
Originally named the Mystik Boot, Goodrich’s
distraction, turned his full attention to elimipresident was so charmed by the novel closure
nating hooks and fasteners.
that he suggested the galoshes be renamed
Abandoning all aspects of prior designs
the “Zipper” to highlight its unusual point of
except for the slider, Sundback arrived at a dedifferentiation.
vice that was flexible and did not separate. He
The galoshes became an enormous sucexplained, “One side of the fastener has spring
cess because of their unique sliding fastenjaw members which clamp around the corded
ers. In fact, they were so successful that B.F.
edge of the tape on the opposite side. The
Goodrich registered “Zipper” as the trademark
slider opens up the jaw members and carries
named for its boots. 70 percent of all of Hookthe corded edge in under the jaws.” What he
less Fastener Company’s production during
hit upon was the modern zipper.
the mid 1920s went into the making of the gaSundback’s rethinking of the sliding fasloshes. By the time the galoshes sales tapered
tener sparked the imagination of Walker, the
off at the end of the decade, the term zipper
invention’s principal backer. By early 1913
had taken root in the American lexicon.
Nevertheless, the zipper was still not widely
Walker was developing a sales strategy, soliciting investor interest, and planning a relocation
used. It took another 15 years for Walker’s
of the factory. So entranced was he with the
sons to finally gain the acceptance from the
new fastener that he decided to close down
garment industry that had eluded them for so
Automatic Hook and Eye and replace it with
long. Behaviorism, a new school of thought in
the new Hookless Fastener Company. Walker
early childhood development that promoted
sent his adult sons to New
independence, endorsed the
York City to handle sales to
use of zippers in children’s
It is easy to make
the garment industry.
clothing. The success of zipWalker insisted that his
pers as an aid for helping
a fastener even for
sons not just try to sell the
dress themselves
universal use. Provided children
new technology, but propaved the way for adult clothyou don’t have to make ing manufacturers to follow.
vide vital feedback on the
nature of their sales calls.
Demand suddenly exploded
it, you can let your
“Take time to write me full
in 1937 with factories going
imagination run riot.
details of each case you
into 24-hour-a-day producvisit...with...a full account
tion, and with it, the zipper
of just what you said and what took place. I
became a ubiquitous fastener.
Reflecting on his breakthrough Sundback
want these reports to help me to a full and
complete understanding...so I can take a hand
wrote, “It is easy to make a fastener even for
in this game you are learning and teaching me
universal use. Provided you don’t have to
at the same time.”
make the fastener, you can let your imaginaIn spite of his markedly forward-looking
tion run riot. When you design a fastener you
approach to sales, selling to clothing manufachave to consider commercial production or
turers proved more difficult than he imagined.
mechanical means of making a commercial
The new technology was more expensive than
product.” What appears so obvious in the abbuttons, unfamiliar to users and therefore
stract becomes less so once it confronts realnot a compelling offering. Undeterred, Walker
ity. It is only through the combined efforts of
continued to fund and nurture the idea. It took
a number of actors that design ideas become
almost another nine years to convince clothing
the fixtures surrounding our lives. Keep that
manufacturers of the zipper’s worth. The turnin mind the next time passion demands some
ing point came in 1922 when an engineer at
hasty disrobing.
B.F. Goodrich saw the Hookless Fastener used
Finally Fall 2008 Ambidextrous
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