Velcro

Velcro is a brand of hook-and-loop fastener that allows two fabric surfaces, one covered in tiny hooks and the other in soft loops, to be pressed together and pulled apart repeatedly. The Swiss engineer George de Mestral conceived the idea in 1941 after noticing how burdock burs clung to his clothing and his dog's fur following a walk in the Alps, and after examining the burs' hooked structure under magnification he spent roughly a decade developing a practical manufacturing process, patenting the fastener in Switzerland in 1955; the brand name has since become a generic term for hook-and-loop fasteners worldwide.