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May 20

Levi Strauss Receives Patent for Blue Jeans (1873)


On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and his partner Jacob Davis received a patent for blue jeans with copper rivets on the pockets. The patent was officially given for "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings."

Strauss was a dry goods merchant who sold blue jeans under the "Levi's" name to the mining communities of California in the 1850s. Jacob Davis was one of Strauss's customers. He was a tailor, and frequently purchased bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co. wholesale house. After one of Davis's customers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn pants, Davis had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the top of the button fly, in order to make the jeans last longer.

Since Davis did not have the money to purchase a patent, he wrote to Strauss suggesting that they go into business together. Strauss accepted Davis's offer, and the two men received U.S. Patent 139,121 for jeans with copper rivets on May 20, 1873.

Levi Strauss & Co. then began manufacturing the pants under the Levi’s brand. The patented rivet was incorporated into the company’s advertisements and became a huge selling point for the brand. The jeans cost $1.50 and were mostly worn by miners, factory workers, lumberjacks, and other hard laborers. Jeans as we know them today began to appear in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that jeans became popular, particularly among teenagers.

Today, Levi Strauss & Co. is still a popular manufacturer of blue jeans. It is still owned and controlled by members of Levi Strauss’s family.