Chinese Zipper Helps Build a Strong Clothing Nation

Author: Zipper Association

Source: China National Garment Association

2024-09-10 10:45

A zipper cannot create a piece of clothing, but it can destroy it. The quality of a zipper is crucial for clothing. If there is a problem with the zipper's closing function, the clothing is likely to be thrown into the trash can by the owner. Compared with other accessories, zippers have the shortest history, but it does not prevent them from becoming one of the key components of clothing, not only making clothing more malleable in structure, but also making clothing more aesthetically pleasing. Zipper is an accessory product of clothing, but it has a separate industrial system and industrial chain, with a high degree of independence. The development of China's ethnic zipper industry has gone through a hundred years, but industrialization, clustering, and modernization have only been developed for more than forty years. Chinese zippers follow the pace of Chinese manufacturing and continue to develop towards novelty, advancement, and progress, making their due contribution to the high-quality transformation of China's clothing industry from a major country to a strong nation.

1、 Zipper opens, ushering in a new era of modern clothing

Zipper, also known as zipper, is one of the most important accessory parts for clothing. It ranked first in the top ten inventions that had a significant impact on people's lives published in the 1986 issue of Science World magazine in the United States. According to historical records, the invention of zippers (the first patent related to zippers was born in 1851) has a history of more than 170 years. Like other industrial products, zippers have also undergone a complex and long evolution process, from simple and unstable construction to today's precise, flexible, and convenient beautiful design. From the initial single metal zipper and single opening and closing function, to today's multi class, multi specification, multi-functional, multi variety of metal and nylon, injection molded zippers and other series, zippers are presented to people in a rich and colorful and exciting way. Their materials, properties, structures, and uses have undergone tremendous and profound changes compared to the original design, expressing increasingly rich content, and their application scope is becoming wider and wider. Cultural information is becoming increasingly rich

From the ingenious idea of solving the problem of putting on and taking off women's high boots to its widespread application in clothing, luggage, and other fields, today's zippers are not limited to the traditional concept of opening and closing functions, but also have new functions such as functional practicality, fashionable design, style narration, and aesthetic expression. In the industrial era, modern clothing is mainly dominated by "industrial ready to wear", with non ceremonial clothing occupying most of the daily scenes. The invention of zippers has brought about advances in clothing fabrics and production methods, gradually separating global fashion trends and daily wear from traditional clothing. Especially driven by post-war denim and punk styles, zippers have directly become one of the most important functional accessories for clothing, ushering in the era of personalized fashion trends.

Zipper is a two-way pursuit of aesthetic design and industrial design. In the thousands of years of human clothing history, accessories represented by rope buckles carry people's longing for beauty, and in the past century, the emergence of zippers has provided a new carrier for humans to seek new expressions of clothing personality. Zipper and modern clothing design blend together, complement each other, and collide with each other. Zipper, as an important opening and closing connector, has the characteristic of non-destructive operation, which can improve the restoration and integrity of clothing pieces. Its external form is also well adapted to the overall integrity and symmetry of clothing, and can better convey the beauty of clothing structure and lines. The diversity of materials, colors, structures, and styles of zippers provides unlimited possibilities for innovative combinations of different clothing. For example, the small and concealed size of invisible zippers allows traditional clothing to have greater flexibility and enables traditional elements to be integrated into modern fashion trends.

The small zipper contains great questions. Zipper manufacturing is a symbol of a country's industrial strength, involving 37 disciplines that can be directly found from the existing disciplines in China, including 12 first level disciplines. It can be said that the modern zipper manufacturing industry is supported by a complete industrial system, which is the intersection of multiple disciplines such as materials science, mechanics, and chemistry. It is a microcosm of the high-level development of China's civil industry.

2、 The rise, prosperity, and flourishing of Chinese zippers

In the 1920s, zippers were brought to China along with foreign military products (mostly used in military uniforms). Foreign firms sold zippers in Shanghai, most of which were Japanese zippers. With the large-scale boycott of Japanese products in China, many Chinese hardware enterprises entered the national zipper business one after another to revitalize Chinese products. A "Wu Xiangxin" hardware military clothing factory took the lead in setting up a zipper factory, which was the first recorded zipper manufacturer in China, and even registered China's first zipper trademark - "Iron Anchor Brand". With the needs of war, the market demand for zippers as military supplies has become increasingly strong, which has also driven the vigorous development of the zipper industry in Shanghai. Similarly, due to the war, the newly grown national zipper industry has quickly disappeared like sand. In the most turbulent era, amidst the vast waves of fragmentation and separation, the zipper industry was like a grain of corn, drifting with the wind on the torn land, deeply feeling the mission entrusted to it by the times. "Today's merchants exercise the right to the survival, prosperity, and decline of our nation." The birth of Chinese zippers was rooted in the "greatness of the country," maintaining a patriotic and faintly patriotic spirit, and is a dignified industry.

During the period of socialist exploration in New China and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, the spark of Chinese zippers quickly reignited in the strategic layout of national priority industrial development. The state-owned zipper industry grew rapidly, but due to complex conditions such as funding, technology, and market, the development of domestic zippers was still difficult.

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China opened the curtain of reform and opening up. The dawn of the market economy melted the ice and snow, and thousands of clear streams converged into a surging force. Private industries sprouted up like mushrooms after rain. The zipper industry was the first to anchor in the southeastern coastal provinces. Against the backdrop of relaxed policies in mainland China, open channels in the Hong Kong market, and the introduction of machinery and equipment from Taiwan, the domestic zipper industry has relied on the trend of the times to become self reliant and rapidly developed into a modern zipper production and sales system that integrates raw material supply, professional equipment research and development, zipper production and manufacturing, and technical quality standards.

After entering the new century, with the active development of the market economy and the rapid growth of textiles and clothing, Chinese zipper enterprises have gathered in clothing production areas, forming relatively obvious industrial clusters, such as Jinjiang in Fujian, Shantou in Guangdong, Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Wenzhou, Yiwu, Changshu in Jiangsu, and so on. The production method has also shifted from manual semi-automatic production to fully automated and intelligent upgrading. Chinese zippers have formed an industrial pattern from scratch, from small to large, from weak to strong, from low-end products in the industrial chain to mid to high end products, with internal supply chain matching and competition among large, medium and small enterprises. As of now, the output value of zippers in China is 50 billion yuan, with a production of over 42 billion meters, of which exports account for 11 billion yuan, accounting for 50.4% of global zipper trade. There are over 3000 industrial chain enterprises and over 300 enterprises above designated size, providing matching services for more than 170000 clothing enterprises in China and clothing for 8 billion people worldwide, making an indelible contribution to the development and growth of China's clothing industry.

3、 New changes in domestic zippers from a development perspective

In recent years, Chinese manufacturing has made qualitative breakthroughs in transformation and upgrading. China's high-tech manufacturing industries such as chips, large aircraft, new energy vehicles, quantum communication, heavy industry equipment, and high-speed railways have taken us out of the shackles of "low-end contract factories". Chinese manufacturing is ushering in a new historical change, which has also caused developed economies such as the United States and Europe to pursue and block us, attempting to prevent China from advancing upstream in the value chain. So, as consumers, we should give more confidence, respect, and tolerance to Made in China. The arduous process of independent creation by Made in China for more than 40 years reflects the solid steps of the national zipper industry towards high-quality development.

In the early stage of reform and opening up, China's civil industry focused on solving the quantity problems of "whether there is" and "whether there is enough". Product manufacturing was in the "imitation" stage, pursuing quantity as the main focus. The huge market blue ocean made enterprises neglect quality control, resulting in low-end and poor quality of Chinese industrial products in the early stage. Chinese zippers also had the same common problems, such as zipper chain jamming, chain breakage, and belly breakage. This is an undeniable fact.

Since China's accession to the WTO, more and more "Made in China" products have been exported globally. The rapid increase in the scale of Chinese product exports and the strict quality requirements of international buyers have forced Chinese enterprises to improve internally. With the introduction of advanced equipment from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and other countries, domestic zippers have jumped to a new level in terms of product efficiency, and functional quality problems have been basically solved. Enterprises have also begun to increase innovation investment, strengthen quality management, and optimize marketing services, gradually breaking away from the path dependence of low-end industries and launching an impact on the mid to high end market.

From accompanying to leading, Chinese zippers have embarked on a path of independent innovation and transformation. During the forty years of expansion and increment, Chinese zippers have never stopped innovating, systematically advancing in manufacturing innovation, material innovation, and product innovation. From the innovation of zipper basic materials to the research and development of multi in one intelligent devices, the technological synergy formed by more than 200 equipment research and development enterprises is enough to achieve a qualitative leap for this niche product, zippers. Multiple zipper head enterprises have collaborated with Donghua University, a prestigious textile and clothing institution, to enhance their innovation sustainability and strengthen the transformation of innovative achievements through industry university research cooperation. Under the simultaneous advancement of the multi combination innovation matrix of system integration innovation, integrated collaborative innovation, and enterprise independent innovation, the efficiency of enterprise innovation has been greatly improved, innovative achievements continue to emerge, and endogenous driving force continues to strengthen.

Polish product strength with innovation and drive brand strength with product strength. From benchmarking international zipper brands to creating the label "Good Zipper, Made in China", domestic zippers adhere to the innovative concept of continuous advancement and iteration, constantly creating good products. Under the macro lens, SBS (Xunxing Zipper) assists in the product strength of China Aerospace Six Questions Sky, SAB (Weixing Zipper) assists ANTA in creating the brand power of the "Champion Dragon Clothing" for the Winter Olympics, YCC (Donglong Clothing) anti wrinkle zipper solves the century old problem of clothing arching, HSD (Huashengdala Chain) uses digital twins to assist in developing trendy zipper adaptation solutions, 3F (Fuxing Zipper) anti-static zipper wins the gold medal in the international design competition, KEE (Kaiyi Zipper) no tape zipper wins the red dot best design award... In recent years, avant-garde products such as slide zipper, high air tightness zipper, variable light zipper, color zipper, biological Kira chain, etc. have emerged one after another, constantly improving. Satisfying the "whimsical ideas" in the field of fashion design.

Comparing and catching up under saturated competition. As the growth of the textile and clothing market slows down, China's zipper industry has also entered a period of deep adjustment, and the industrial pattern continues to evolve, with a general intensification of innovation "involution" among enterprises. The leading domestic zipper enterprises represented by SBS (Xunxing Zipper) and SAB (Weixing Zipper) are ushering in a new storm of transformation and upgrading.

Digitization transformation, seeking new transformative forces across borders. With the deepening development of digitalization and intelligence, the integration and innovation of zipper manufacturing have taken on new directions. The digital empowerment of domestic zipper enterprises has become a new trend. In this regard, Weixing Zipper is at the forefront of the industry: with the "1+N+N" architecture (1 clothing accessory digital platform, N brand merchants, clothing factory supply chain platform, N digital scene applications), it horizontally connects the entire value chain from suppliers to customers, enhances the digital collaboration of the entire industry chain product design, research and development, procurement, production, marketing, and service, realizes fast and flexible delivery of personalized customized orders for customers, and provides a practical digital transformation solution for Chinese zippers and even Chinese clothing.

Upgrade the quality again and build a quality foundation of "good zippers, made in China". In a market environment where progress leads to decline, quality is the lifeline of enterprises. The main line of progress for Chinese zippers is a protracted battle of quality upgrading. In the past decade, driven by leading enterprises, the overall quality of Chinese zippers has greatly improved. Nowadays, even mid to low end zippers do not have basic quality problems such as chain breakage or tooth loss. Instead, their physical performance indicators (flat pull strength, load pull times, color fastness, pull head self-locking strength, and light and smooth pull) have been greatly improved. They have become at the forefront of the world in controlling tape shrinkage, dyeing accuracy, surface detail treatment, and research and development of high-strength various metal and alloy materials. The quality standards for Chinese zippers are updated every three years and every five years, with patented innovative products being released at a rate of 20% annually. The market penetration rate of high-end brands exceeds 85%.

Green and low-carbon lead the new trend of sustainable development. In recent years, the clothing industry has seen a trend towards sustainable fashion. With the "dual carbon" goal entering the fast lane, clothing brands are also accelerating the construction of green supply chains. The green trend has also become a strong force in the zipper industry. Chinese zippers deeply practice the concept of green development, and have initially formed a system in green product design, green material research and development, and green manufacturing layout. At present, domestic brand zipper enterprises have passed the OEKO-TEX100 textile ecological label, BSCI and SEDEX certification, and many companies have joined international climate actions such as the Fashion Industry Climate Charter. In terms of products, green zippers such as biodegradable biobased zippers and recyclable zippers are constantly emerging. We are also actively working in green manufacturing and clean energy, such as major zipper companies building rooftop photovoltaic projects to achieve energy diversification and cleanliness; Weixing Zipper has significantly improved energy efficiency through heat recovery, centralized production, and equipment upgrades, and has released sustainable development reports for over a decade; Xunxing zipper achieves zero discharge of waste liquid through advanced technologies such as waterless dyeing and water circulation treatment... These practical measures fully demonstrate the green development vitality of China's zipper industry.

4、 Contribute the power of "ethnic zipper" to building a strong clothing country

The Chinese clothing industry has put forward a development vision and goal for 2035: to build the Chinese clothing industry into a clothing powerhouse that promotes, creates, and contributes to the development of the global fashion industry when China basically achieves socialist modernization, and to become the main driver of world fashion technology, an important leader in global fashion, and a powerful promoter of sustainable development.

Chinese zippers have flourished with the rise of China's clothing industry, and have also encountered new opportunities and challenges with the technological, fashion, and green transformation of China's clothing industry. The 2035 development vision of China's clothing industry has embarked on a new journey to become a clothing powerhouse, and the high-quality construction of domestically produced zippers is inevitably an important component of it. In the new industrial development cycle, Chinese zippers will continue to prioritize quality, keep up with the trend of clothing development, practice the concept of green and low-carbon development, adhere to the improvement of industrial technological innovation strength, and contribute the strength of national zippers to the goal of building a strong clothing country.

There are still some "carving boats and seeking swords" enterprises that "keep a distance" and "disdain" Chinese zippers. The reason for this is twofold: on the one hand, they have no sense of progress in "Made in China" and are still stuck in the stereotype of "cheap but no good goods"; On the other hand, there is a blind pursuit of foreign brands, lacking rational cognition and development vision.