“We wanted to address the challenges involved in zipper sewing,” says Makoto Nishizaki, vice president of YKK’s Application Development Division. The idea grew out of a collaboration with JUKI Corporation, a leader in industrial sewing machines. Together, the two companies reconsidered how a zipper could be made and how it could merge more seamlessly with fabric. The partnership began in 2017 and made its public debut at the JIAM 2022 Osaka trade show—a detail that hints at how long YKK plays the long game. Those strips of fabric give a zipper its structure and provide the surface tailors sew through.