Origin of the Fashionable Zipper

The B.F. Goodrich Company introduced the Mystik Boot “with the patented Hookless Fastener” for the winter 1923 season, but salesmen did not care for the name Mystik.  Goodrich’s president agreed that what was needed was “an action word [to] dramatize the way the thing zips” and came up with “zipper.” The word was registered as a trademark by the rubber company for its “Zipper Boot” but soon came to be used as the common name for the slide fastener itself.

From: The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski

The B.F. Goodrich Company introduced the Mystik Boot “with the…