Happy Zipper Day: Zip It!

April 29 celebrates a "handy" product millions of people around the world use every day and is often taken for granted. It's Zipper Day, an annual "holiday" that celebrates the zipper!

Zipper History

Whitcomb Judson patented the first one back in 1891 but it was not very user-friendly. Electrical engineer Gideon Sundback took Judson's idea and tweaked it a bit. And on this day back in 1913, Sundback received a patent on his "Hookless" fastener which was originally used on shoes and tobacco pouches. It wasn't until a few years later that the zipper was used in clothing. B.F. Goodrich used the product in its Zipper Boot, and the "zipper" was born.

It's hard to imagine what life would be like without the zipper, isn't it? Can you imagine how cumbersome it would be to button and unbutton, snap, hook or tie all your dresses, trousers, children's clothing, bags, purses, backpacks, coats or footwear? But thanks to a few creative minds, the revolutionary zipper was invented which made life a whole lot easier to maneuver - as long as we remember to zip it up!

In 2012, the creative minds at Google, honored Gideon Sundback with an interactive zipper Google Doodle. April 29 is also Viral Video Day.