The Seed That Started Velcro

A simple walk with a dog created the famous fastener we use every day.

George de Mestral was an engineer from Switzerland who worked with many types of fabric. He went for a long walk in nature and enjoyed the fresh air very much. After he returned home, his clothes felt strange because they were covered in tiny seeds.

The problem was that the small seeds stuck to his clothes and his dog’s fur very well. De Mestral looked at the seeds under a microscope because he could not see them clearly before. He saw that each seed had hundreds of tiny hooks on its surface which helped it catch.

The seeds worked like little hooks that caught onto the soft loops found on cloth and fur. De Mestral wanted to make a fastener that worked in the same way as nature did for him. He used cotton thread to make simple hooks and loops that could stick together easily.

His idea was tested by other people who tried to use it on jackets and boots. Soon, everyone realized that this simple design was very useful for many different kinds of things. Today, we use Velcro on everything from sports shoes to space suits for astronauts.