YKK universal zippers question

[dinomartino1]

YKK universal zippers question
Anybody know if there is anywhere who will sell you a YKK universal zipper [known in Japan as old american] on its own without them doing the zip replacement as it's just too expensive to do that with two way shipping costs from Australia, after fruitless hours on google I believe and this probably goes for all repro zippers that they are wholesale only you order size, end type material etc. and they make them for you or sell the parts and you make your own zips up. Sad thing about this is how cheap the are, I found a japanese leather shop selling them but closed end so no good for a jacket, a 50cm universal zip is USD$11.
Probably a really good business opportunity for someone ordering all the tapes, zip pulls etc from ykk and making them up to customer requests you would just about be cornering the world market for replacement repro zips as paying for the postage both ways to a jacket maker can become very expensive for some of us.

https://www.ykkfastening.com/products/search/detail.html?pdid1=Universal(R)

 

[Canuck Panda]

If you only need to swap out the pull there are lots of different options on Amazon, USA made brass ones too, in all sizes:

But for me it's usually the whole tape that needs replacing. Either the male pin has frayed so much it doesn't work, or the zipper teeth coming off the tape. I can get full zips at many places for not a lot of money, but I don't know how to replace them myself. Something I still need a workshop to teach me... Zipper replacement is at least 120 dollars, most of it goes to the seamstress. It's a good skill for jacket collectors to pick up.

 

[dinomartino1]

I meant the whole a complete zipper, I can't stand modern looking pulls on a vintage jacket, sometimes old pulls will work on a on ykk zipper, I have two jackets with trashed tape beyond repair.

 

[Canuck Panda]

about 20 dollars, only 3s and 5s made in Japan

https://leathercrafttools.com/craft-material/Zipper/list/

 

[Canuck Panda]

I finally found a place that will do custom Waldes for retail customers (all types of Talons, Crown, Conmar...etc)

https://phoenix-shop.jp/products/detail/141506969

I will give this place a try once I get my little Singer fixed up and learn how to replace zippers myself.

 

[handymike]

They'll do small quantities?!?
Waldes unfinished brass is great! It tarnishes like old vintage ones.
Your "little' singer won't do leather very well without a walking foot.

 

[dinomartino1]

https://leathercrafttools.com/craft-material/Zipper/list/
Thats the shop I was talking about in my post , but all the zips are close ended for bags so you can only use them for pockets or sleeves because thats a leather craft shop, I bought some long zips just the get the heads. They respond very quickly to queries and the shipping is dirt cheap as they will send by small parcel post and they reply in english. Postage for 5 zips to Australia was only USD$5
Shortening zips is easy but converting a closed end to open would be hard and I would not want be playing around with the parts that are going to have the most strain.
The shortest 5# I got just to take the head off is 30cm and is $8.55 and I tested that on a regular YKK tape and it works fine.
I bought some zips for sleeves and pockets and a 14cm was $2.73

And the following applies only to this shop because that how they made their zips up or got ykk to make them.
One thing to be aware if you won't to be able to see the universal logo which is only on the top of the pull and this does not apply to the 5# long zip head the logo will be the right side up and a regular non locking pull.
The 3# it's made to pull down from the top so if you used it a in pocket that way you will see the logo, if you use it in a sleeve which opens from the bottom you will be seeing the back of the pull.

On a sleeve it would look like this

The 3# in this style has a locking pull tab so it can be either be locked up or down, up you see the logo down you don't. The pic is the way it would look on a sleeve locked up

Locked down

I've got two British 1950s size 40 highwayman style jackets, these used to be almost impossible to find in the UK in the pre-internet days, probably easier now with the internet, you came across the odd 3/4 length british jacket but even they were not that common.
One is black by millets and anyone from the UK knows who they are and a brown one by swan, both need the front zips replaced, I will probably have to sell the brown one here as its too wide in the body for me.

I live in Australia now most clothing here had aero [ they dominated the market here, they opened a factory in Bankstown NSW in 1955] or lightning, some local makers here's a nice looking locally made zip by rondo.

 

[dinomartino1]

I tried looking at lewis leathers before but could not find zips on their own but doing a search for lightning zips on goggle this came up.
The front zips only come in 10# so too big for me the #5 sleeve zips are cheap.

https://www.lewisleathers.com/lightning-fasteners.html
https://www.lewisleathers.com/lightning-fasteners.html

 

[Canuck Panda]

They'll do small quantities?!?
Waldes unfinished brass is great! It tarnishes like old vintage ones.
Your "little' singer won't do leather very well without a walking foot.

I assume that’s what they meant. It’d be just like Buckleguy RiRi I assume, they have all the parts like tape and pulls just need to cut to size and assemble. Will get there when I get my machine fixed.
I have a walking foot attachment it can sew through multiple layers of 14oz denim, but I have to use the hand crank. It’s the bobbin timing that keeps getting messed up on my little singer. I’ve done coilover swaps but I can’t fix the damn bobbin timing, very frustrating. Hot weather not helping. Must calm down first…

 

[Canuck Panda]

https://leathercrafttools.com/craft-material/Zipper/list/
Thats the shop I was talking about in my post , but all the zips are close ended for bags so you can only use them for pockets or sleeves because thats a leather craft shop, I bought some long zips just the get the heads. They respond very quickly to queries and the shipping is dirt cheap as they will send by small parcel post and they reply in english. Postage for 5 zips to Australia was only USD$5
Shortening zips is easy but converting a closed end to open would be hard and I would not want be playing around with the parts that are going to have the most strain.
The shortest 5# I got just to take the head off is 30cm and is $8.55 and I tested that on a modern YKK tape and it works fine.
I bought some zips for sleeves and pockets and a 14cm was $2.73

And the following applies only to this shop because that how they made their zips up or got ykk to make them.
One thing to be aware if you want to be able to see the universal logo which is only on the top of the pull and this does not apply to the 5# long zip the head because you bell taking it off, the logo will be the right side up and a non locking pull tab.
The 3# it's made to pull down from the top so if you used it a in pocket that way you will see the logo, if you use it in a sleeve which opens from the bottom you will be seeing the back of the pull.

View attachment 532595

View attachment 532596

The 3# in this style has a locking pull tab so it can be either be locked up or down, up you see the logo down you don't.

View attachment 532597 View attachment 532598

Iv'e got two British 1950s size 40 highwayman style jackets, these used to be almost impossible to find in the UK in the pre-internet days, probably easier now with the internet, you came across the odd 3/4 length british jacket but even they were not that common.
One is black by millets and anyone from the UK knows who they are and a brown one by swan, both need the front zips replaced, I will probably have to sell the brown one here as its too wide in the body for me.

I live in Australia now most clothing here had aero [ they dominated the market here, they opened a factory in Bankstown NSW in 1955] or lightning, some local makers here's a nice looking locally made zip by rondo.
View attachment 532603

View attachment 532602

Ah I didn’t look in the details….
for open zippers / main zip, then the custom Waldes is what I’m gonna try. There are some NOS open / main zips on Rakuten, but over ¥6000. I am guesstimating the custom Waldes would be about half that, given a brand new custom RIri is under 30 bucks and I think they’re one of the highest quality brass casting modern zippers around. It would be hard sell if Waldes wants more just because they are casting the pulls in the vintage shapes.
Anyways, I need to fix my singer first. One thing at a time…

 

[dinomartino1]

Riri ain't my style but along with ykk probably the most reliable longest lasting zips you can buy, when you see the prices on the ykk universal and how cheap they are and the shop can still make a profit it shows the crazy mark ups on other repro zips. I will probably ask for a quote on the waldes just to see how dear they are and if the shipping is reasonable, if they will sell pulls on their own that would be very handy If waldes works on ykk, I have a few jackets where previous owners have replaced zips with crappy looking ykk and it bugs the hell out of me, no normal person would notice but I know. It's very easy to swap pulls.
They have a really good range of sizes as well.

 

[Canuck Panda]

Riri ain't my style but along with ykk probably the most reliable longest lasting zips you can buy, when you see the prices on the ykk universal and how cheap they are and the shop can still make a profit it shows the crazy mark ups on other repro zips. I will probably ask for a quote on the waldes just to see how dear they are and if the shipping is reasonable, if they will sell pulls on their own that would be very handy If waldes works on ykk, I have a few jackets where previous owners have replaced zips with crappy looking ykk and it bugs the hell out of me, no normal person would notice but I know. It's very easy to swap pulls.
They have a really good range of sizes as well.

The Waldes pulls might not work on the YKK tracks. I got some Japanese jackets with them Waldes main zips and I cannot zip them with up with the Universal/YKK from Aero.
For the most part I can actually zip the Waldes about half way before it starts to get very stiff with the NOS Talons.
YKK has much better tracks than the Waldes. But Waldes have all the vintage styling. Even the full Crown line up with the chevron teeths.
BTW every Crown zipper jacket I have, nylon or leather the zipper is wavy, not sure what's the deal there but they're all high end brands too, SC, BR, RMC. Could be the teeth/tape thing. Works just fine but all wavy.
It will be interesting to find out how much they want for the custom Waldes. I am guessing in the ¥3000 range for a 21"+ one up front. Anymore than that they price themselves out of the market.
These won't zip together:

 

[Aloysius]

Dino, have you tried writing Aero and asking if they might be able to supply some? Given their interest in preserving vintage I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to send you the replacement zips you need, because it would be enormously costly to send a jacket from Aus to the UK and back.

 

[dinomartino1]

Dino, have you tried writing Aero and asking if they might be able to supply some? Given their interest in preserving vintage I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to send you the replacement zips you need, because it would be enormously costly to send a jacket from Aus to the UK and back.

Not yet, I am on their books though with jackets I have bought, I just thought it would they would be expensive but maybe not, what I am think of doing is creating a new thread named were to buy repro zips and putting it in the important threads sticky. I'm sure a lot of us have know places where we can get repairs done way cheaper than the jacket makers. There's a retired Iranian guy where I live, still does work from home he started learning the leather and clothing trade when he was very young it was the family business, charges me about $US80 to change a front zip. There's a Vietnamese family tailoring and alteration shop near me, same thing learnt the family trade at a young age, his dad was conscripted into the South Vietnamese army and was put in reducation camp after the fall of Saigon, later they escaped the country and spent six years living in tents in a refugee camp eventually being able to immigrate to Australia. Their repair work is amazing, sometimes the very elderly father is there and recognises the unit patches on stuff I have brought in to repair.