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The reason YKK has such a large market share is not only because they make high-quality zippers, but also because they manufacture the machinery used to produce those zippers.
This hits home. My father just closed his paint making company actually on 23 March 2026 after 78 years of operation. We were a small business in Osaka, but we had one claim to fame we were always so proud of: we provided the colouring paint for YKK zippers! It wasn’t the biggest profit maker, but knowing our family’s work was on zippers all over the world kept us going for decades. A bittersweet end to an era.
Still kinda wild that Japan’s YKK basically dominates the global zipper market, and even Chinese companies haven’t really caught up. Just shows how insanely reliable their stuff is, and how zippers are way more complex and precision-dependent than they look. I mean, if your skirt or pants zipper breaks in public, that’s instant embarrassment but on a more serious note, if a zipper fails on something like a wetsuit, spacesuit, or even building materials, that can literally be life-threatening. Kinda crazy how something so small is actually that important.
I've read that YKK was so into quality that he wasn't happy with the metal, so he began making his own brass. Then he decided that the nylon was inferior, so he began extruding his own nylon. Total commitment to quality.
I love these videos that include a large-scale cutaway version of the technology being explored, just like the sewing machine video. The huge amount of instant understanding that comes with seeing all the components blown up and moving slowly and deliberately is irreplaceable.
A few months ago, the pull tab broke off my favourite zip-up fleece sweater. It broke fully zipped-up, and I couldn't unzip it, so I just kept it as a pullover sweater. After watching this video, I took a closer look at the slider—it had one of those locking mechanisms! I threaded a piece of string through and tied it in a little loop to make a new pull-tab and it WORKED! My favourite zip fleece is BACK! Thanks Veritasium!
Imma just straight up say it, this is the kinda content I wanna see. Pls keep explaining these kinds of stuff for people like me. I find it so interesting how we just accept how these little things work in our lives without actually understanding how it functions. I'd love to learn more about these kinds of things
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