Velcro Industries B.V. · Willemstad, Curaçao Netherlands Antilles

Velcro Industries' story is fasten-ating. The company's versatile hook-and-loop fasteners originated in 1948 as the brainchild of a Swiss inventor, who became curious about cockleburs that stuck to his clothes. The resulting trademarked invention VELCRO (named for the French words for "velour" and "crochet") can be separated and reclosed 10,000 times and can hold up to nine pounds per square inch. VELCRO, now owned by Cohere, Ltd, has been around for more than 50 years and has been used in a plethora of company-designed and consumer-devised applications. Velcro sells its products to the apparel, auto, electronic, and consumer markets worldwide from about a dozen factories in the US, Europe, and Asia. To read the full description, subscribe now.