When Nevada tailor Jacob Davis was asked to make a pair of sturdy trousers for a local woodcutter, he struck upon the idea of reinforcing them with rivets. Extremely durable they were soon in high demand. Davis realized his product’s potential but couldn’t afford to patent it. He wrote to his fabric supplier, San Francisco merchant Levi Strauss, for help. On 20 May 1873 Strauss and Davis received the patent; the result – blue jeans known as Levi’s! The ‘Arcuate’, the double arch stitching on the back pocket, is a Levi’s trademark.
The story of the blue jeans goes that both prospectors and miners were often complaining about the easily torn cotton trousers and pockets, that’s why the practical Levi decided to make solid overall pants for the miners and other workers to wear. Levi Strauss was sure that his “waist overalls” (the old name for jeans) would become very popular with miners, ranchers and farmers for their close-to-the-ground line of work. Strauss opened a “wonderful pants of Levi’s” factory in San Francisco. These hard-wearing overalls were fashioned by Levi from a sturdy fabric called serge, made in Nimes, France. Originally called serge de Nimes, the fabric later became known as ‘denim’.
Another story tells that Levi began adding copper rivets at the stress points in his overalls and changed canvas to a heavy blue denim material called genes in France, which became “jeans” in America.
Nevada tailor, Jacob Davis suggested that Levi pay the fee and share the patent of his overalls’ improvement. Davis was one of Levi’s constant customers who purchased rolls of cloth from the company for his own business, Davis could not afford the $81 needed to apply for a patent. Therefore Davis shared with Levi the way he made pants for his customers: by riveting at the points of strain—pocket corners and on the base of the fly.
On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Jacob Davis received US patent ? 139121 for the riveting process to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. This date is now considered the official birthday of “blue jeans.” And in 2003 “Levi Strauss & Co” celebrated the 130 anniversary of the invention of “blue jeans” by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis.
The successful clothing business wasn’t the only sphere of public life for Strauss. He served as a director of an insurance company, a utility company member, a Jewish community leader, and a contributor to the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home, the Hebrew Board of Relief, San Francisco’s Temple Emanu-el Sisterhood, the University of California and other civic and cultural institutions. He participated in various charitable organizations and helped to fund the gold medal awarded each year to the temple’s best Sabbath School student. Even as his company and fame grew in size, Strauss insisted that his employees and relatives call him Levi, not Mr. Strauss.
Credit : German Culture
Picture Credit : Google
