In 1853 , with the California Gold Rush in full swing , a 24 - year - erstwhile German - Judaic immigrant named Levi Strauss arrive in San Francisco . Strauss ' brother ran a ironical trade good clientele in New York City , and he head west to open a California ramification . He add good deal of rough canvass for making tents and wagon screen , but his early customers told him he should have bring in pants , since a dear solid yoke was arduous to find in mining townspeople .
Strauss started make pants from the canvas , but miners complain that they rub . Strauss switched to a subdued twilled cotton cloth , originally made in NÃ ® mes , France , call " serge de NÃ ® mes" ( which would afterwards become known as denim ) and did brisk business selling these drawers to mineworker .
Jacob Davis , a Latvian - put up tailor from Reno , Nevada , was a regular customer of Levi Strauss & Co. ’s wholesale house . In 1870 , a cleaning woman came to Davis ' store ask for a couplet of pants , " made as warm as possible,“ for her husband , a large gentleman who tended to outwear his pant out quickly . Davis decided to reward the sac corners , where pants get a lot of stress , with some of the copper rivets he used to attach straps to horse blanket . The adult female and her hubby liked the bloomers , so Davis make up one’s mind to make more and commercialise them . Within eighteen month , he had trade over 200 pairs of rivet knickers and was begin to worry that someone might slip his idea . He needed a patent , but did n’t have the $ 68 ask to apply for one , so he sought out a business partner.(Davis was apparently conversant with both the patenting operation and not deliver a lot of money . He had previously applied for patent of invention for a steam - powered canal boat and a steam - power ore crusher , and when he first settled in Reno he lost all his money when brewery he had induct in pop off under . )
In 1872 , he wrote to Levi Strauss , key the winner of rivet pant and asked if Strauss would like to enforce for , and support , the patent with him . Strauss accord , and on May 20 , 1873 , the two men receivedU.S. Patent No . 139,121from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for an " Improvement in Fastening Pocket - Openings . “
Though Genoese sailors had been wearing denim trousers as far back as the mid-18th century , that letters patent was the beginning of denim ' mastery of style across the world . Today we like blue dungaree a happy 136th birthday with a few trivia nugget :
" ¢ Levi Strauss ' dungaree , both pre- and post - rivet , were dye with indigo because ( 1 ) indigotin was cheap and readily uncommitted , and ( 2 ) gloomy blue denim hid dirt and stains well , which was great for Strauss ' miner customers . The crinkle were sewn with orange yarn to match the coloring of Davis ' copper rivets .
" ¢ The double quarrel of stitching across the back pockets of Levi ’s jeans " “ hump as the Arcuate stitching design " “ has been there since the earliest pairs made in 1873 . For a few years , the design was hand painted on the pouch of each duet of pant when the government ration out certain materials , like train of thought , during WWII .
" ¢ A pair of Levi ’s 501 jeans is composed of 1¾ yards of denim , 213 yards of thread , five button and six rivet and want 37 separate stitching operations during manufacture .
" ¢ In 1997 , Levi Strauss & Co. paid $ 25,000 for a pair of 100 - class - old jeans regain in an old Colorado mine . This oldest known pair of Levi ’s denim go on presentation in the company museum .
