Mastodawn

Behold the zipper’s first upgrade in over a century. YKK, the Japanese company that makes about half the world’s zippers, has created a zipper that removes the traditional fabric tape, creating a lighter, more flexible, lower-impact closure that sits flush with garments. It requires new machinery, but by trimming fibre and dye, it cuts waste at massive scale. Early adopters include The North Face. WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/the-zipper-is-getting-its-first-major-upgrade-in-100-years/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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The Waveform Conglomerate Nov 8

@adapalmer I can easily repair traditional zippers if they break. Repairing this sounds.. extremely aggravating.

And the overall savings *per piece of clothing* are.. minimal. In terms of a zipper, yes, but in terms of an ENTIRE outfit? Barely any difference.

And this is going to lead to more clothing being thrown away.

I can see this being, frankly, a net ecological *loss*.

Also if this is the *only* company making these zippers, you're going to be trapped in a specific ecosystem.

This sounds more like a shady tech company, than a maker of clothing components.

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Ada Palmer

@juniper This company already makes the majority of the global zipper supply. I believe the goal is to increase durability for things like luggage and windbreakers. From the samples I’ve seen, any of these garments can have a traditional zipper sewn in as a repair if needed. It saves the extra material for the repair stage only. Given millions of zippers annually, it’ll save many tons of plastic (since most zipper edges are plastic fabric) and reduce microplastics etc.