What I can't figure out is how the new version attached to the fabric. That's at the core of this right? Metal-fabric interface.

I wonder how fabrics will handle the mechanical wear vs the durable tape “track” used in a traditional zipper

They won't. They only work with garments < 1.3mm. Nothing here is about durability.

“The absence of the tape posed various production challenges,” Nishizaki says. “We had to develop new manufacturing equipment and a dedicated sewing machine for integration.”

They found a worse way to create a worse zipper with a proprietary machine that no one owns . This is the future

It's not worse; it's different, and better for some applications. Specifically when high flexibility and/or sleek appearance are valued above cost and durability. One example that immediately comes to mind is zip-up pockets in athletic wear.

The pdf linked in other threads shows that the teeth have a fabric cord running through the middle of them. Then each tooth is surrounded by about 18 tiny stitches.

https://imgur.com/a/o1jxAuS

PDF catalog for the AiryString has a lot more details and technical information.

https://ykkdigitalshowroom.com/assets/AiryString_202507_en.p...

It looks like there is a core cord inside the zipper teeth. The specialized sewing machine stitches the cord to the fabric in between each teeth... tooth?

> Their new AiryString zipper looks ordinary at first glance. Then you realize what’s missing: there’s no tape. That absence transforms everything. Without the woven fabric that normally flanks the teeth, the AiryString is lighter, sleeker, and far more flexible.

Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/FQGdSkg

Yes, so the zipper hasn't changed, just the way it is attached to the fabric.

From the Wired article: "The teeth were redesigned..."

Redesigned to attach to the fabric in a different way, I think.

Usually the teeth are attached somehow to the fabric strip. I think the strip has a ridge at the edge where the teeth go, and the teeth are clamped over that ridge to hold them in place. Then the fabric strip is easy to sew onto a garment. It looks like the new design has only the ridge, hence it's called a string, and is hard to sew onto a garment.

No, from the article:

"Without them, YKK had to rethink every step of production

The teeth were redesigned, the manufacturing process rewritten, and new machinery developed to attach the closure to garments. “The absence of the tape posed various production challenges,” Nishizaki says."

The fourth, and last, photo of zippers in the article shows the old and new versions side by side, making it easy to see what is different.

Then you didn’t read the article. It’s spelled out pretty explicitly.

Apparently no tape, the zipper is bare, so special sewing machines are required and you plebs cannot just repair your clothes affordably (or yourself) anymore.

All the other zippers will still exist. Clothes without zippers will still exist. Roughly nobody does this anyway.

>Roughly nobody does this anyway.

I had at least z dozen zippers replaced through my life. Some times you a very good product with poorly chosen zipper, some times it is some sort of an accident.

I find the idea of buying a new coat instead of fixing a small part of the old one weird.

This doesn't change that, I expect you can still remove this a zipper and have another sewn on, just as before

You can, but you (or rather atelier\studio) will have to buy a special machine to do so.

If these become commonplace, so will such machines.

I hope in case of success this will be just one of the programs in your generic sewing machine.

I'm afraid YKK might not be generous

I'm in my 40s and don't think I've ever replaced a zipper. I'm sure a handful have broken over my lifetime, but never on something nice enough to be worth repairing. I wouldn't buy clothing based on the possibility of this (to me) extreme edge case.

> nice enough to be worth repairing

I guess it's just cost of repair vs cost of garment. I always opt to spend $15 replacing the zipper than to buy another coat or whatnot.

That's $15 including new zipper and cost of labor?

Yes, but I live in a LCoL country.

> Roughly nobody does this anyway.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and at least here in this so-called "third world" country plenty of people makes their clothing to be repaired in any way or do it themselves (even me, sometimes)

Funny enough they mention that this new zipper cuts emisions but at the same time requires another (propietary) machine to sew them into clothing... are net emmisions actually going to be diminished?

Not only that, but DIYers and alteration/repair will be out of luck too.

You can. You’d just attach a fabric tape zipper and the clothes would stop being as flexible. So you get the best of both worlds: a fancy zipper to start with that delivers increased performance and then you remove the performance and have an old zipper placed in there.

You just get an extra semi rigid fabric track when you repair. Your clothes should still work.

I wonder if you could do repairs by hand stitching. Presumably the special machine does a special stitch which is lined up exactly with the teeth. A regular machine can't do that, but I bet a skilled human could.

You'd need a way to hold the zipper teeth and the fabric in place while you stitch. Maybe temporary tape or some special-purpose jig thing.

That cloth strip the zipper is attached to so it can be sewn into the clothing is gone.