When was velcro made

Article originally published on The Vindicated, nymag. Born in the tiny town of Saint-Saphorin-sur-Morges in , George de Mestral filed his first patent at the age of 12, for a toy airplane.

Where many might have brushed them off in irritation, de Mestral decided to study the burs under a microscope, more out of curiosity than sensing a new business opportunity. If you need to know how something works, sometimes you just need to know. However he was constructed, he just really needed to know. De Mestral realized that if he could create a synthetic form of this fabric, it would allow for a new way to fasten things, a middle ground between buttons, zippers, and simply sewing stuff together.

This prompted many companies to find innovative and versatile methods of using Velcro, from attaching electronic devices to car seats to toys with Velcro materials for catching balls. In , Velcro made significant headway in the industry by gaining the U. Army as a client. Originally available only in black, the tape's aesthetic appeal expanded when the company began offering it in multiple colors.

A fashion show at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel displayed everything from Velcro diapers to Velcro golf jackets to stylish society matrons; a New York Times report declared it "the end of buttons, toggles, hooks, zippers, snaps and even safety pins.

In , Puma became the first major shoe company to offer a sneaker with Velcro fasteners. Other companies caught on most notably Adidas and Reebok and by the s, every child in America seemed to own at least one pair of those three-strap Velcro wonders.

By then, the Velcro company's original patent had expired and companies in Europe, Mexico and Asia were making cheap knock-off versions. Perhaps this is the reason why Velcro fights so hard for its name: these days, anyone can make a hook-and-loop fastening product, but only one company makes Velcro. When the interview was over, he launched himself via trampoline onto a Velcro wall. It was extremely useful but also extremely ugly—a hard sell given that de Mestral mostly envisioned it being used on clothes.

Krivsky told Hamilton. Spurred on by competitors beginning to make and sell Velcro, the company worked to get its product into as many niches as possible.