About Us
Who We Are: Zipperstop is a small 4th generation family business housing an enormous range of sewing supplies, specializing in YKK zippers. We are located in Long Island City, NY but ship anywhere in the world! We are celebrating our 80th Anniversary this year! Rumor has it we have more inventory ready to ship than YKK themselves! We turned our zipper warehouse into a one-stop shop for all things sewing and crafting! You need it for your project? We have it! And if you can't find it, just send us an email or give us a call! We pride ourselves in our customer service and love creating long standing relationships with ALL of you whether you need 1 item or 1,000! We love seeing your creations and hearing YOUR story!
Company History:
Let's go back in time to December 7th, 1941 - yes that is Pearl Harbor Day an important date in American history, but also an important date for Zipperstop. 12/7/1941 is the date Eddie Feibusch first opened our doors in the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Hester Street, now known as China Town.
Onto Eddie Feibusch - our founding father. Eddie, who many of our long time customers know very well, was born in Vienna, Austria. Escaping the Nazis at a young age and coming to America with very little to nothing, he left behind everything he owned in Austria including his family business of groceries stores.
Eddie worked as an errand boy at a grocery store in New York - he than worked for a zipper store and thought to himself if my boss can do this, so can I. With $100 to his name he opened up A Feibusch Corporation (you may know us as Zipperstop today) on Sunday December 7th, 1941 at the younge age of 16.
The zipper was very popular and hard to come by at this time, because Americans were sewing their sons and family members "Money Belts" to wear while at war to hold valuables and their family photos while they were away. The zipper kept these belongings safe! There was no YKK at this time, so Eddie got his zippers from different sources including taking the zipper out of used garments and reselling them.
Eddie went to go fight in WWII, where he got wounded in Anzio, Italy, receiving the high honor of the Purple Heart. While he was at War, his mother Anna ran the company.
After returning from the War, Eddie ran the zipper business on 109 Hester Street, with his wife Susie (who still is the big boss today!) eventually expanding to 111 Hester Street, when his son (who many of you know) Jeff came into business. Jeff expanded into the thread business and made local deliveries to the factories (that sadly no longer exist) that were located throughout the neighborhood.
Experiencing 2 large fires, and the hardship of 9/11 in NYC - they moved from Hester Street to 30 Allen Street to 27 Allen Street and then in 2019 to Long Island City, Queens.
After 9/11/2001, Jeff brought the business online, as business in NYC went to a halt with no deliveries or shipments going in or out of our area, being blocks away from the World Trade Center. This is when we started selling on places like Ebay. This was when "Zipperstop" was created!
He quickly expanded the business into a variety of other sewing supplies including: Swarovski crystals, elastic, glues, scissors. etc.
In 2013, Jeff's daughter, Michelle (4th generation) entered the family business, expanding the business into the ribbon world and bringing the company "more up to date" and "less old school".
In 2019, Michelle's husband, Keith, joined the crew and expanded Zipperstop further into the online world and marketplaces and started us on Shopify as well as helped us move our 78 year history in Manhattan to Queens.
We are excited for our future and love getting to know all of our customers! Send us an email, give us a call, and follow us on social media to say hi!
OUR CUSTOMERS:
ZIPPERSTOP is set up to service both retail and wholesale customers. For that reason many top fashion designers, costume designers, fabric stores, sewing and craft enthusiasts shop at ZIPPERSTOP. Some of our client list includes: Nike, The Walt Disney Company, The NYC Ballet and much more!