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YKK is presenting a new series of zips that reuse pre- and post-consumer products. The group’s aim is to show that processed products can look new and can be applied to other textiles. ‘Extending the life cycle of products or giving them a new use is becoming very important for the fashion industry, and repair-orientated initiatives have been on the rise,’ they explains in an announcement, presenting the VISLON zip that comes with repair tools.
The result will be ‘easier reparations for the brands’ maintenance centres and a significant reduction in repair time, since only the damaged elements are repaired instead of removing the entire zip’.
On the occasion of Modtissimo 60+4, YKK Portugal told T Jornal that it was committed to using more and more recycled material. ‘We don’t yet have biodegradable fasteners for quality, resistance issues and difficulty in obtaining raw materials, but we already have fasteners made from natural fibres such as sugar cane and coffee,’ they said.
There is also a mono-material option, all made from recycled nylon – ‘if the piece is all made from econyl, you only have to remove a small part of the fibreglass and it all goes to recycling,’ they assured us.
The company, a finalist in the iTechStyle Awards with a fishing net fastener, is also making a considerable investment in digitalisation. ‘The digital showroom, developed in Japan, allows customers to see all our products and access a simulator to see how the zip will look with a given slider, colour and finish,’ they say. The tool is called ‘Trim Creator’ and is accessible to the public.