I pitched an investor a week or so ago and she asked me about switching costs.

I said, “I don’t think any company has switching costs.”

She didn’t agree.

Now, I realize that I was speaking from my perspective.
All of the companies that contact me whether in fashion, furniture, packaging, and whatnot just have greater zipper problems and a greater desire for zipper innovation than they have switching costs.
I feel pressure from them to start selling to them fast. I felt I needed to focus on a specific niche market and chose packaging to make ALL bags open like ‘zip lock’ bags. But, in reality, I’m moving too slowly for the demand.

When you’re an innovative consumer-facing company putting electronics in fashion items or trying to get to Mars without dying in space, you want a new zipper…especially one that passes the same standards as current zippers and provides more hermetic quality under pressure.
Everyone wants a choice. And, no one has really had that with a zipper for a century.
Now, people can choose between two zipper brands that have different finishes and precision but nonetheless make the same exact thing of a varying quality – high end, low end, middle market zippers.
Yep.
Current zipper buyers get to choose between a smoothly polished high end zipper or a less polished low end zipper.
All of which have the exact same design flaws – tiny, interlocking parts. They all still pose a choking hazard for children!

The Army (and DOD in general) likes YKK’s lobbying. Foreign aid.
Thus, the government has the highest switching costs.

Yes, they KNOW YKK’s zipper (and all other toothed fasteners) is the weakest part of protective gear and shelters but are reluctant to pay for a potential solution because of the foreign aid.

Sheer negligence.
High switching costs.