Customer Reviews

Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty

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4 star:		(1)
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This is the history of the zipper's evolution from unwanted gizmo to ubiquitous tool. The story of the tinkerers who invented it, the hucksters who sold it, and the businessmen who persevered and - at last - succeeded with it is not very different from those of many 19th-century inventions. This is one of the most interesting to read about. The emphasis is more on the early "hookless fastener" devices than on the zipper we know today.

This is the fascinating story of this marvel of "ingenious and effective design" that everybody today takes for granted. From the late 19th century invention of the hookless (but bugfull) fastener that was sold door to door by peddlers to today's ubiquitous zipper, it is the story of the Hookless Fastener Company's and others' decades-long search for mass volume consumer applications and how it eluded them one after another until Goodrich introduced its Zipper boots.

It is the story of how and why the design evolved over time. It is the story of the people behind this innovation, and it is the story of how a little company grew to become a 5000 employee leading company in 1937 and then lost its grip on the market as its innovation got universally adopted.

R. Friedel illustrates in the most interesting and convincing way how a discontinuous innovation like the zipper gets accepted: one successful application at a time. There is much to be learned in this fascinating story for impatient entrepreneurs and whoever wonders how to bring innovative products to mainstream markets.

A great read. Highly recommended.

The above reviewer (atlanta) does the book a disservice. Zipper is a wonderful read, from top to bottom,a nd I have even re-read the book. I don't usually re-read anything! In fact, I gave a copy to a business colleague since it is exactly such an interesting confluence of industrial and business history!

Buy the book. It's highly enjoyable reading. Not technical, not threatening, but a wonderful romp through the difficulties and challenges of building the common everyday object, the Zipper. Esp3ecially noteworth is the author's research into the zipper's international marketing and the zipper's socio-cultural impacts.