Name: YKK Sells 10 Billion Zippers a Year. How Did It Get So Big?
Uploaded: 2026-07-29T16:00:00Z
Duration: 6 min 47 s
Description: YKK is on everything from your clothes to furniture to even space suits. WSJ travels to Japan to figure out how a small component helps a business grow into a global fastener empire.

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YKK is on everything from your clothes to furniture to even space suits. WSJ travels to Japan to figure out how a small component helps a business grow into a global fastener empire. Photo Illustration: Ryan Trefes

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260729/584634ce-4c9a-4e46-9383-df7e2c6e553e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

YKK is on everything from your clothes to furniture to even space suits. WSJ travels to Japan to figure out how a small component helps a business grow into a global fastener empire.

YKK Sells 10 Billion Zippers a Year. How Did It Get So Big?

Look closely at the zippers around you, and there's a good chance you'll find the same three letters. YKK. They're on everything from clothes, backpacks, and furniture, to NASA spacesuits.

Zippers are often considered extremely small components in the textile world, but for our products, zippers are very often a critical component to the performance of the suit.

It's so ubiquitous that we live with it and work with it without even knowing.

YKK sold 10 billion zippers in a year. We always think about what new function will make our customer satisfied.

YKK is a giant in the global zipper market, but it didn't get there by simply selling more zippers. It built a business model designed to control nearly every step of how its zippers are made, turning an often overlooked product into a multi-billion dollar global empire.

YKK stand for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushiki gaisha. It was established back in 1934 by our founder, Tadao Yoshida. He was very, very conscious about quality, so provide the customer with the best qualities, not just the product. How we make it, with what material we use it.

It's not just quality. In Japan, YKK offers more than 100,000 zipper types.

All right, this is a very fun example of a Japan souvenir jacket. This is made in the 1950s, an early example of a YKK zipper. They were nimble enough to create so much variety in their manufacturer and their making of these zippers that they were able to suit a lot of different companies' needs and a lot of different makers' needs.

YKK operates a highly vertically integrated manufacturing system. That means it controls nearly every aspect of production, from raw materials to developing its own production machinery and proprietary technology to finish zippers in-house. The strategy sets it apart from many competitors who outsource parts of the process.

We are losing the price competitiveness against the Chinese competitors, so we have established some project in which we developed new machines that can make the very competitive zippers without any quality failure. We are producing machines that can produce zippers in-house. That is our priority.

Today, YKK says it operates in 69 countries and regions, manufacturing its products close to the customers who buy them.

They're employing people in those communities and creating a foundation and a community base for what they're doing, and effectively came to dominate the market.

But when YKK first established its US operation in 1960, it had to combat a larger geopolitical perception.

That was before Japanese technology was acknowledged in USA. So, sometimes like a import from Asia was taken as a cheap garbage.

But YKK doubled down and stayed put.

As manufacturing in the United States by American companies was starting to go offshore in the 1970s and '80s, YKK did not do that. In fact, they kind of dug in deeper and they remained in the United States.

And by late '80s, we became number one. We've been acknowledged by the market and by the customer.

On our anti-exposure dry suits, the main zipper is the barrier between the suit remaining a dry suit or the suit leaking and letting water in, which would severely compromise the ability of the suit to keep somebody alive.

For the last 11 years, Frank Stagliano has helped choose the materials that go into Switlik's survival gear. He relies on YKK.

YKK is the go-to manufacturer for those extremely high-performing zippers.

In some cases, YKK also develops specialized products. For Switlik, that's a zipper that could help an inflatable life preserver deploy more quickly.

So, this is our Switlik LPU-10 Mark 2 life preserver, and it's primarily fielded by the US Air Force. YKK and Switlik work together to develop this quick-burst zipper design. You can see it here, so those yellow elements, upon inflating the life jacket, will burst open and allow the life preserver to expand.

Switlik says about 60% of its products are made for the US military, and that's where YKK's local operations really make a difference.

Part of that equation is that our supply chain has to come from US sources. YKK, having a facility in Georgia, allows them to be compliant with that regulation. Switlik and YKK have worked together for decades now, so there's a certain amount of trust that we have, both YKK with Switlik and Switlik with YKK.

YKK's supply chain control, proximity to its buyers, and quality has helped it grow, but the company has also drawn regulatory scrutiny. In 2007, the European Commission fined YKK and other zipper makers for colluding behind closed doors, fixing prices and dividing up customers so they wouldn't have to compete. YKK appealed. While courts reduced the fine, it largely upheld the Commission's findings. In an email to the Wall Street Journal, YKK said, "We view these matters as important reminders of the need to continually strengthen compliance, internal controls, and fair business practices." Today, YKK has expanded their operations beyond zippers, with businesses including architectural products and equipment development.

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