About 15 years ago I found out what the YKK stood for on the zippers of most clothing. Through the years it’s become somewhat of a habit for me to look for YKK on new clothing I purchase. Every single piece of clothing that contained a zipper was stamped with YKK. Every one. For fifteen years. Is this the only zipper company in the world?
Ten years ago, in What does YKK mean on zippers?, Cecil noted that Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha claimed that it was “the foremost manufacturer of closures [zippers, mostly] in the world,” but didn’t say anything about them completely monopolizing the zipper markets.
An excerpt from The Way of Strategy notes that “YKK, a Japanese zipper company, captured market share from Talon by shortening its distribution chain. YKK bypassed
wholesalers and sold zippers directly to clothing manufacturers. [Porter, 1985, p. 522]”
I have at least one article of clothing with a Talon zipper, so I assume that at least one competitor is still in business. And I wouldn’t get too worried–my understanding the that the “mark of the beast” will be on our “right hand or foreheads”–not our zippers.