"The birth of Velcro®, yet another unique plastic product which has impacted nearly all of our lives occurred in 1957. A Swiss engineer named George de Maestral was impressed with the way that cockleburs - a type of vegetation - would use thousands of tiny hooks to cling to anything with which they came into contact. He devised a product, using nylon, that replicated this natural phenomenon. The result, Velcro®, could be spun in any required thickness, would not rot, mold or naturally degrade, and was relatively inexpensive."