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The problem was that his friend could not do up his shoes. Judson came up with a slide fastener that could be opened or closed with one hand. This was an absolutely new idea, and in a few weeks Judson had a working model. On August 29, 1893, he patented his new "hookless fastener." The earliest zip fasteners were being used in the apparel industry by 1905, but they weren't considered practical until after an improved version was developed by Gideon Sundback, a Swedish scientest working in the United States. When the B. F. Goodrich Company decided to market galoshes with hookless fasteners, the product became popular. These new galoshes could be fastened with a single zip of the hand, and soon hookless fasteners came to be called "zippers." By the 1920s, zippers were widespread use in clothing, luggage, and many other applications |