Short answer Zipper was originally a name for rubber boots in 1923. The fastener ended up taking the name.
You pull zippers up and down several times a day. But “zipper” wasn’t originally the name of this little device.
So what was it called?
In 1893, American inventor Whitcomb Judson patented a device. He called it the Clasp Locker. It fastened shoes without laces.
In 1913, Gideon Sundback made it sturdier and began selling it. This time, the name was “Hookless Fastener.”
In 1923, the American company B.F. Goodrich attached the fastener to rubber boots. One quick pull was all it took to close them.
ZIPthe sound of something moving quickly
Goodrich named those boots “Zipper.” But people started using the name for the fastener instead of the boots.
So the fastener stole the boots’ name
Zippers beat buttons on trouser flies in 1937. That was when French designers embraced zippers for men’s trousers.
Watch it as a short
Sources
Photo credits
- Coil plastic and metal zippers.jpg, Woodbine9, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
- Judson clasp locker patent 1893.png, United States Patent Office, Public domain (source)
- 001 Sundback zipper 1917 patent (cropped).jpg, Gideon Sundbäck, Public domain (source)
- Converse rubber galoshes, 1910, Converse Rubber Company, Malden, Massachusetts - Bata Shoe Museum - DSC00741.JPG, Daderot, CC0 (source)
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