There were many inventors that took part in creating their own version of the zipper, but Mr. Whitcomb Judson was the man who displayed the zipper at the Chicago World's Fair (18).   With the help of businessman Colonel Lewis Walker, Whitcomb started Universal Fastener, a company that made the zippers for the public (19).

After many complications with the zipper, the company soon hired Gideon Sundback. His design skills quickly made him the head of Universal Fastener (20). When Sundback's wife died in 1911, he spent many hours a day at the drawing board making his new design (21).  In 1913, he designed the Seperable Fastener, what we now know today as the zipper (22).