Hi, I'm Cristen from
Stuff Mom Never Told You.
And if you are wearing
pants or shorts,
pry your eyes away from
the screen for a moment
and XYZ your zipper for
a YKK on the pull tab.
What up with all those
YKK's on zippers?
Why does it always say that?
YKK stands for-- say it
with me now-- Yoshida Kogyo
Kabushikigaisha.
Yeah.
And that's roughly translated
to Yoshida Company Limited which
is, you might have guessed,
a Japanese company which
was founded in 1934 and
specializes in zippers.
It actually makes the
entire zipper, not just
the pull tab, including
the dyed cloth around it
and the brass or
plastic that make up
the teeth of the zipper.
Now today, thankfully, the
company just goes by YKK.
And it's essentially a
zipper conglomerate made up
of dozens of
individual companies
at hundreds of facilities
in more than 50 countries.
And did you know the
largest YKK zipper factory
in the world is located in
beautiful Macon, Georgia?
Now, there are plenty of
rival zipper companies,
mostly located in China.
So why though do we
still see YKK so often?
Well, apparel
manufacturers aren't
so interested in
scrimping on zippers,
because they aren't
a major expense.
And saving a few pennies
by using lower quality
and possibly cheaper
zippers could
result in some massively
dissatisfied customers.
Because, folks, a zipper
will never make a garment,
but it can surely
break a garment.
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