I'm kind of surprised a computer savvy guy like yourself hasn't looked up the answers to your questions on the Internet before now, but anyway here ya go.
Yes, the zipper was invented in Akron strangely enough by a guy whose name was Kangaroo. So the animal kangaroo actually has nothing to do with with our nickname, but it's a happy coincidence there is an animal called a kangaroo which we use to commemorate the inventor of the zipper, Fenmore T Kangaroo.