The world certainly has changed since 1960, when YKK first began expanding its Japan-based operations into North America. Driven by global shifts in manufacturing economics, ever-evolving demands for solutions and approaches to meet changing requirements, and the ongoing need to remain highly competitive in all respects, the YKK North and Central America Group has been a dynamic organization.
Today, our YKK Fastening Products Group is ideally positioned to provide a diverse range of fastening products, services, and solutions to meet virtually any technical, performance, and fashion application requirement. And, our YKK AP Architectural Products Group has become a highly regarded source of innovative commercial and residential fenestration solutions that meet new design challenges and exceed toughening energy management requirements.
While exceeding customer expectations has always been our primary objective, doing so with a focused eye on the positive effect we can have on society overall – both environmentally and through various corporate citizenship practices – has also been a cornerstone of our success; the working embodiment of our corporate philosophy we call The Cycle of GoodnessTM.
For more than 50 years, thousands of YKK North and Central America Group employees from Canada to Colombia have been driven to find more effective solutions, to offer better product quality and service, to help our customers remain competitive by offering added value, and to ensure end users are satisfied with their use of our products. To be sure, the future will be challenging. But the collective efforts of YKK North and Central America Group employees to innovate and excel will help us remain a valued partner to all of our customers.
The YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, in 1934 Tadao Yoshida founded Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (translated Yoshida Industries Limited). This company is now the world’s foremost zipper manufacturer, making about 90% of all zippers in over 206 facilities in 52 countries. In fact, they not only make the zippers, they also make the machines that make the zippers; no word on if they make the machines that make the parts that make up the machines that make the zippers.
Their largest factory in Georgia makes over 7 million zippers per day.
In any event, Mr. Yoshida’s company zipped to number one by practicing the “Cycle of Goodness”, as he called it. Namely, “No one prospers unless he renders benefit to others.” Using this principle, he endeavored to create the best zippers out there that would hold up over long periods of time in the end product. This in turn would benefit both the manufacturers who used his zippers and the end customer and because of these things benefit his company with higher repeat and referral sales, thus completing the “Cycle of Goodness” *zen moment*
I’ve bolded the particularly amazing features:
- Zippers
- YZip: Metal zipper, extra durable for jeans
- Ever Bright: Metal zipper, polished for visual appeal (oh yeah!) and corrosion resistance
- Excella: Metal zipper, polished and plated for visual appeal
- Conceal: Plastic coil zipper with no visible teeth
- Vislon: Rugged plastic zipper
- Hook and loop products, more commonly known under the Velcro brand name of a competitor.
- Plastic parts, including various types of clips and buckles
- Snaps and buttons, including snap fasteners and jeans buttons
- To make a long story short, YKK is “teh sexy” of zipper companies.
When you think Japanese companies, things like Sony, Nintendo, Toshiba, Honda, and Toyota come to mind… but never YKK. Next time you zip up, make sure to thank Mr. Yoshida for the bladed death teeth next to your private parts. YKK makes incredibly dependable zippers, ships them on time without fail, offers a wide range of colors, materials, and styles, and never gets badly undercut on price. The feeling in the apparel industry is that you can’t go wrong with YKK.
