Luggage Hacks: 1-Wire Zipper Pulls

A while ago, I got a nice piece of luggage that a neighbor was going to throw out. All the zipper pulls had broken and he'd gotten tired of dealing with it.  The zipper pulls were made of cheap aluminum and would crack as shown below. My initial response was to make zipper pulls from twine or yarn, because zippers are pretty difficult to deal with if there's no zipper pull.

Then, I got a geeky idea... I have a bunch of 1-Wire key fobs. Most of these are for two-factor authentication for various electronic vault locks (such as the Cencon S2000 and AuditLock) but 1-Wire has many different uses. Certainly, these would be not only functional but worth geek-cred points for anyone who knows what they are.


I pried open the zipper just enough to slide the key fob into place, and then clamped the zipper back with a pair of pliers.  Instant 1-Wire Zipper Pulls!

You could do the same with an old key (bonus points for using a blank or a bump key!) or many other things that can fit on a keyring. You can even replace fully functional zipper pulls with something geeky if you wish.  

I just needed functional zippers on this luggage bag for my trip to IT Security World next week. I ended up with some serious geek flair and luggage that's unmistakably my own and easy to spot.  Unlike my other luggage modifications, this one won't raise the ire of the TSA...