
Why Do So Many Zippers Say YKK? (2012) - Tomte
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/branded/2012/04/ykk_zippers_why_so_many_designers_use_them_.html
======
ktamura
YKK epitomizes why Japan, despite the recent decline, continues to be a major
economy: manufacturing giants that continue to serve as the backbone of the
global economy.

Another example is FANUC [1], a manufacturing device maker headquartered in
Yamanashi, Japan's equivalent of Idaho (i.e., there are people there, and I'm
sure it's nice to live, but few travel there for vacation).

There are countless such examples: Minebea [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minebea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minebea)
has 60% market share for miniature bearings (ex: the trackpoint for Thinkpads)
and has been more than doubling their revenue YoY.

As long as Japan's high-end manufacturing sector stays healthy, they will be
fine for a little while.

[1] FANUC stands for Factory Automation NUmerical Control. You've gotta love
Japanese people's creativity when it comes to company names.

[2] Minebea stands for Miniature Bearing. Again, very creative.

~~~
babuskov
> Again, very creative.

When you manufacture boring stuff, you don't need a fancy name.

------
shpx
An interesting thing about zippers (the post doesn't specify who's factory
this is, maybe it's not part of the YKK group), is that you can fully automate
their manufacture, but then you have to make them with a small notch at the
top of the handle [0]. But customers perceive the notch as a manufacturing
defect, so some guy in china has sit and feed zipper handles into a machine
all day [1]

[0]
[http://bunniefoo.com/bunnie/zipper/zip_difference.jpg](http://bunniefoo.com/bunnie/zipper/zip_difference.jpg)

[1]
[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4364](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4364)

~~~
diziet
Interestingly enough examining a couple of my apparel with YKK zippers, I see
a specifically machined tab like here: [http://www.reissverschluss-
zipper.de/WebRoot/Store5/Shops/62...](http://www.reissverschluss-
zipper.de/WebRoot/Store5/Shops/62967830/51B4/AAAB/61AF/C12D/E697/C0A8/28BB/6519/YKK-
Aquaguard-5CN-schwarz.jpg)

------
bonyt
> There used to be a saying among corporate technology workers—or, as you
> might call them, I.T. guys—which held that “you’ll never get fired for using
> Microsoft.”

Before that, it was "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM."

:)

~~~
morgante
I've never actually heard the Microsoft version.

The IBM version is well-known and I've heard it despite being young and
startupy.

~~~
anonbanker
Nowadays, some of us will actually fire an employee for buying either
Microsoft or IBM.

~~~
cdf
You will stay hired if you buy AWS

~~~
13of40
Unless you work at Microsoft. Then: Fired.

------
bagacrap
It seems to me that pneumatic tires were the missing piece of the bicycle
puzzle, and that required vulcanization to first be invented. The first bikes
didn't have chains (rather they employed direct drive, ie pedals attached to
the front wheel) so the author is pretty far off base in trying to draw that
connection.

------
RijilV
> You don’t buy your jeans and jackets by looking for their letters on that
> pull.

I actually do check for a YKK zipper, though I tend to mostly buy second hand
clothing and focus more on the quality rather than style.

~~~
Mindless2112
Maybe I'm weird, but I have a favorite zipper: YKK Vislon #5

The teeth are plastic, and you'd think plastic means crappy, but it's actually
fantastic.

~~~
leetrout
Except when you have them on a motorcycle jacket and they touch something hot.

I know that wasn't your point but it certainly surprised me when I found my
zipper melted when I carelessly laid my jacket over my seat...

------
danielrhodes
YKK zippers are one of those things that show if you can win a good unsexy
niche, the benefits are huge.

~~~
labster
Since when have zippers been unsexy? A lot of niche filling happens when
zippers come down.

------
cpach
Previous discussions:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=ykk_zippers_why_so_many_design...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=ykk_zippers_why_so_many_designers_use_them_.html&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

------
imrehg
Living in Taiwan, married to a girl here. When going to visit their family in
the sprawling between-cities urban area of Zhongli, the landmark for me to
remember to turn off the main road to their house is the big building of
a(?)/the(?) YKK factory. Big YKK lettering on the facade, and fills a few
blocks. Was an interesting feeling seeing it for first time, instinctively
checked which one of zippers was also marked with YKK at a time...

~~~
imrehg
BTW, here's the view:
[https://www.google.com.tw/maps/@24.9647655,121.2378239,3a,75...](https://www.google.com.tw/maps/@24.9647655,121.2378239,3a,75y,190.14h,85.29t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stclxtBDJTcqI1bPV5gXj0Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

------
applecore
Weixing SAB[1] has a good brand reputation if you're sourcing your zippers
from China. In my opinion, their quality is better than the lower-end YKK
zippers for a similar price.

[1]: [http://www.sab-cn.com/](http://www.sab-cn.com/)

------
cJ0th
Can anyone shed some light as to why (apparently) still no one can compete
with YKK in terms of scale and value for money?

~~~
foota
I don't know anything about YKK in particular, but a company that has large
economies of scale can operate at a lower cost than a new firm could, allowing
them to continue to dominate the market.

edit: this doesn't seem to be the case here after reading the article, because
it states YKK zippers are generally more expensive.

~~~
vertex-four
It is possible that their zippers _do_ cost less than if their competitors
attempted to make zippers of similar quality - i.e. that their competitors
can't make profit on quality zippers due to not having the same economies of
scale.

~~~
rasz_pl
That never stopped china.

------
thevibesman
Figuring out why all my zippers said YKK was an early search I remember on the
web for a piece of knowledge I didn't have locally.

I'm glad I clicked through to the article though; great YKK anime!

------
cjubb39
I learned that YKK was a thing from Outkast

------
callesgg
I think this is a bit narrow minded of me but then again i do work with IT,
not zippers:

“you’ll never get fired for using Microsoft.”

But if anything goes wrong your boss will wonder why you didn’t opt for old
reliable.

That is not why people chose windows, it is cause they are uneducated(and get
the only thing they know) or they dont have a choice for various reasons.

(I might not get fired but my boss sure ain't happy when we get new windows
servers, just a major hassle to update and maintain)

~~~
lemiffe
Except for the fact that a lot of people choose Windows on purpose.

------
rch
I prefer Talon, even though it's just a resurrected brand with production in
Asia. I got a jacket from the Real McCoy's in SOHO and immediately noticed the
difference in zipper quality - which is pretty ridiculous for such a minor
feature.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talon_Zipper](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talon_Zipper)

------
henvic
"Likewise, you almost certainly wouldn’t nix a garment purchase because the
zipper isn’t YKK." Until now.

~~~
kfriede
I've actually seen certain garments (usually one's meant for tougher
situations) marketed with YKK zippers. Little did I know it's actually a
pretty common zipper.

------
slipperyp
This post by Bunnie Huang, on the manufacturing process observed at a plant in
China, is relevant enough to mention here:
[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4364](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4364)

------
nihonde
All the windows and doors in my house in Japan are made by YKK.

------
DanBC
137 points, 57 comments.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8655580](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8655580)

~~~
moron4hire
We can't all be so lucky as to have caught and remembered the original release
of this masterpiece of an album 522 days ago.

~~~
DanBC
Which is why I posted a link to it, so people who are interested can read the
comments.

I'm not sure why you chose to see something negative in a plain link.

------
hobaak
Can software biz grow like YKK? The cycle is too short here. Any other
thought?

------
jonah
* Checks CofH pants and Chrome messenger bag, yep, both YKK.

------
meeper16
[http://lexcognition.com/recommend/app/getSummary?query=http%...](http://lexcognition.com/recommend/app/getSummary?query=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Farticles%2Fbusiness%2Fbranded%2F2012%2F04%2Fykk_zippers_why_so_many_designers_use_them_.html&getSummary=getSummary)

~~~
emptybits
Why share that summary? It isn't just inadequate, it's actually wrong and
misleading: "Likewise you almost certainly nix a garment purchase because the
zipper YKK"

------
sansom
Read this piece by Paul Graham:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html).

Now, re-read this article.

~~~
Tomte
Reading this comment under every article that is about a company gets real old
real quick.

~~~
CPLX
It's even worse in this case because for once it's probably not applicable, as
the company is publicity shy and declined to participate in the article.

