Latest / The Hidden History Podcast
History of the Zipper
The zipper feels invisible now — it's in your jeans, your jacket, your dress. But its road to your closet was almost 20 years of failure.
In 1893, Whitcomb Judson unveiled the "Clasp Locker" at the Chicago World's Fair — and it jammed constantly. It took until 1913 for Gideon Sundback to re-engineer the mechanism into the "Hookless No. 2" — essentially the modern zipper.
Even then, the fashion industry rejected it outright. It took World War I military contracts and a clever pivot to children's clothing (teaching kids to dress themselves) before the zipper found its way into adult fashion —…
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