While not Velcro per se and not really the answer to most soft good problems, the new Metaklett fastener from the TUM Institute of Metal Forming and Casting in Munich, Germany takes a new look at the hook and loop concept.
Manufactured from perforated steel strips 0.2 millimeters thick, one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes, the Metaklett can support a maximum weight of capable of supporting 35 tons at temperatures up to 800ºC when pulled in the direction of the plane of the strips, and a square meter can hold a perpendicular load of seven tons.