Ziploc’s closure began as a Danish inventor’s failed clothing zipper.
Around 1951, Borge Madsen patented interlocking plastic tracks meant to replace the metal zipper on clothes. It flopped as apparel. A Japanese firm later supplied the trick of building the zipper into the bag. Dow Chemical licensed it and launched Ziploc in 1968, then in 1997 sold its consumer brands, Ziploc included, to S. C. Johnson for more than $1 billion.
Ziploc on Brandseum