Who Owns Ziploc?

The Ziploc brand was test-marketed by the Dow Chemical Company in 1968. The resealable zipper seal technology that powers Ziploc bags has its origins in the work of Romanian-born engineer Steven Ausnit, who with his father Max and uncle Edgar purchased the rights to a plastic zipper designed by Danish inventor Borge Madsen in 1951. The Ausnit family formed a company called Flexigrip to manufacture the zipper, which used a plastic slider to seal two interlocking grooves. When the slider proved costly to manufacture, Steven Ausnit created the press-and-seal zipper that became the basis for modern resealable bags.

In 1962, Ausnit learned of a Japanese company called Seisan Nihon Sha that had developed a method to incorporate the zipper directly into the bag itself, cutting production costs by half. After licensing the rights, the Ausnits formed a second company called Minigrip. Dow Chemical approached Minigrip to develop zipper bags for consumer food storage, leading to the test marketing of Ziploc bags in 1968.

At the time of its introduction, consumer food storage options were limited to twist-tie bags, wax paper, aluminum foil, and rigid containers. Ziploc's resealable zipper seal offered a convenience advantage: consumers could open and reclose the bag multiple times without the contents spilling or the seal failing. The product found rapid adoption for food storage, lunch packing, and household organization.

In 1978, Minigrip was acquired by Signode, Inc. In 1986, Signode and Dow formed a joint venture called Zippak to develop zipper bags for food products. ITW acquired Signode in 1987, making Minigrip a subsidiary of ITW. In 1991, ITW acquired Dow's interest in Zip-Pak, making it a fully owned subsidiary. The Flexigrip, Minigrip, Zip-Pak, and Dow entities obtained over 300 patents for plastic zippers, zipper bags, and related manufacturing methods.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, Dow expanded the Ziploc product range to include multiple bag sizes, from sandwich bags to gallon-sized storage bags. Freezer-grade bags, designed to withstand low temperatures without becoming brittle or losing their seal, extended the brand's utility to frozen food storage. Ziploc became a fixture in American kitchens, and the brand name became widely used as a generic descriptor for resealable bags. Dow Chemical and later S.C. Johnson have worked to protect the trademark through enforcement actions.

In January 1998, S.C. Johnson completed its purchase of DowBrands from Dow Chemical, acquiring Ziploc along with other brands. Under S.C. Johnson ownership, Ziploc expanded beyond bags into rigid storage containers in the 1990s and 2000s, competing with Rubbermaid and Tupperware in the food storage container segment.

Product innovation continued through the 2000s and 2010s. In 2010, the Ziploc Evolve sandwich bag, made with 25 percent less plastic than the standard bag, was named "Best in Show" at the Best New Product Awards in Canada. S.C. Johnson has continued to invest in sustainability-oriented product development, including bags made with recycled materials and reduced plastic content.

By 2025, Ziploc maintained its position as the dominant brand in the US zipper food storage bag market. Market analysis published by IndexBox in 2025 confirmed that Ziploc dominates the zipper food storage bag market by sales volume and market share, with superior customer ratings relative to competitors including Hefty and store-brand alternatives.