YKK. If you look for it, more often than not, it’s there on you.  If you’re wearing clothes/accessories with zippers and or fastenings, that is.  YKK is the largest zipper producer in the world. It’s actually a Japanese manufacturing group of companies, named after Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushiki gaisha. Which translates to Yoshida Manufacturing Shareholding Company. Yoshida comes from the name of the founder, Tadao Yoshida. Mr. Tadao founded YKK in 1934 in Tokyo.

YKK produces about half of the world’s zippers. Why is YKK everywhere and what makes it so popular? Apparently, the quality of YKK zippers beats out the competition. Tadao personally designed the machines and brought every part of the process of making zippers into his design: smelting its own brass, weaving the dyed cloth and forging the zipper teeth. YKK even makes the boxes they are shipped off in.  YKK handles all aspects of the production process. Dependable quality and delivery, and only a few cents higher than the competition.