Velcro was inspired by the burrs (seeds) of burdock that kept sticking to the inventor, George de Mestral's clothes and his dog's fur.
(Originally people refused to take him, and the idea, seriously, but he ended up selling around 60 million yards (about 55,000 km) a year. Much more Velcro is made than that now, but it is no longer under patent. He took out the patent in 1955 and it ran out in 1978, unlike pop songs and books which seem to carry a copyright forever, somehow it seems unfair.)