We have a lot of fun inventions that are used for a variety of reasons. Once everything gets established, it’s hard to really recall times before this was used. An example of this is a Ziploc bag, since they’ve been around in all sorts of ways, even though they’ve only been in existence for about 60 years or so. They have a ton of uses, and they’re used to store things, pack items, organize different things, and even ship, and they come in tons of various sizes. Where did this originate from, and how did it get to the type of state that it is today?
The history
This all began in 1951 and through a notable inventor named Borge Madsen, who created a side fastener made of plastic, and he patented this. This was basically the original version of the Ziploc bag. This, of course, had a bit more complexity than what we see these days, and it used two different areas to engage, or fasten the sides together. These days, you usually see one of these. It had a look that was a bit more traditional, with a zipper and even a tab on this. But there weren’t any teeth on each of these, this was literally just a zipper.
Of course, there were companies interested in them, and one of them by the name of Flexgrip did look at possibly making products that are based on this. At first, the applications were for simple things, such as keeping binders together, and also keeping briefcases closed. This type of tab style soon became popular in the consumer world, and it was something that people liked.
But the founder of this, Steven Asunit, actually wanted something different than the tabs. He wanted it to press and seal, using the zipper, and that’s where zip lock came from. At this point, the only type of sealing that Flexgrip used was the heating and sealing type, in order to get the zippers directly onto the film area before making them into the bags that we know.
Then, in 1959, the next major step happened, and that was when Ausnit founded Seisan Nihon Sha, wand this was a company that used these zippers onto polyethylene film types, and this created the similar bags that we see today. This halved the expenses, and then, inside the industry, there were then now integral zipper baggies, and this of course, was how Flexgrip created the Minigrip in 1961, a smaller gripping bag that used the zip lock to this.
Then, there was the evolution of this, which created a zip lock bag that had the red line that sat over the zipper. They managed to create an agreement for licensing with Dow Chemicals, and this was soon put in stores and supermarkets.
This was then what created the Ziploc bag that we know about, and in 1968, this then started to show up in shelves.
While it did take a couple of years, by the time the 1970s rolled around, this then soon got even more popular. People were using Ziploc bags for different things, including product storage, and also for foods, especially lunches at school.
Dow Chemical eventually sold these rights to S.C. Johnson, and then of course the brands started to evolve, and this created a lot of the other private labels that we know of today such as Hefty and Glad-Lock, which are still available on the shelves.
That’s the story of the zip lock bag, a bag that we use today, and is vital for storing foods.
Antoine Sides 