Here's some trivia from seven years ago. This email forward from 1999 stated that Gap, Inc. was "confident" that their merchandise was Y2K compliant "and will operate perfectly in the years to come," particularly the zippers. That's right: the zippers and their "operating system" were Y2K compliant. Or at least that's what you were lead to believe...

Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, is a Japanese-based zipper manufacturer that has stamped their brand name "YKK" on their pull tabs (are you looking at your pants right now?) since 1994, which to the amusement of millennium enthusiasts meant they were quite the forward-thinkers. Actually, the company was founded in 1934 at a time when the fashion industry was just beginning to laud the novel fastener over the traditional button. Today, YKK's factory in Macon, Georgia is the world's largest, producing over 7 million zippers a day. And net sales steadily rise each year, ensuring the zipper's future... at least until the next pop-culture scare.

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