A zipper is something that most people use at least once every day but don’t give too much thought to. People zip their pants, their purses, and an assortment of other pieces of clothing, but they don’t give the zipper the respect it deserves. Fortunately, there is a holiday that aims to correct that oversight and help put the zipper back in the forefront of people’s minds—at least for the day. This holiday is called National Zipper Day, and it falls on April 29th.

The History Of National Zipper Day

We’re unsure when this day was made a holiday, but we do know why it’s celebrated on April 29th every year. This is because the date of the first zipper being patented fell on April 29, 1913. Although the zipper was technically invented by Elias Howe in 1851, he never marketed his “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure.” In 1893, Whitcomb Judson began selling his clasp locker and debuted it at the Chicago World’s Fair. He also created the Universal Fastener Company—a company that employed Gideon Sundback, the man who would go on to invent the modern zipper.

Facts About Zippers

As we researched this holiday, we came across some fascinating facts about zippers. We’re going to list some of the facts we’ve discovered below so that everyone can have a little bit of trivia to use on National Zipper Day.

• YKK sells 46% of the zippers sold in the world.
• Zippers are only a little over 128 years old.
• Buttons, on the other hand, have been around for over 4,000 years.
• B.F. Goodrich is credited with coming up with the name “zipper.”
• At one time, zippers were called morally corrupt because they made taking off your pants easier.
• The first big customer for the zipper was the U.S. military during WWI.
• French designers during the 1930s helped to popularize zippers among the general public.
• Levi’s first used zippers in 1954, but not on a widespread basis until the 1970s.
• YKK has factories in 71 different countries.
• YKK makes zippers in 20 shades of black and over 9,500 other colors.
• The global market for zippers is estimated to be over $11 billion a year.
• Over 4.5 billion zippers are used in the U.S. every year.
• Over 1,700 men go to the ER every year due to zipper-related injuries.

Observing National Zipper Day

National Zipper Day is a holiday that can be observed by spending a few moments of your time thinking about some of the ways that you use zippers on a typical day. If you’re really into celebrating this holiday, you can also use the hashtag #NationalZipperDay on your social media accounts along with some zipper trivia to get other people engaged in this holiday.