Back in 1871, Jacob Davis, a Latvian-born tailor in Reno, Nevada, was making pants for local miners. But the garments kept ripping; they weren’t durable enough for their owners’ long, difficult shifts. To solve the problem, Davis added metal rivets to reinforce stress points. The new design was a hit in Reno, where workers scrambled to buy the trousers. Seeing how much potential his ideas had, Davis realized he needed to act to protect them.
Davis’ invention would become Levi’s blue jeans, which just celebrated their 150th anniversary. In 1873, Davis obtained a patent for his idea, thanks to the financial backing of Levi Strauss, a German-born immigrant who ran a dry goods store in San Francisco.
The two went into business together, with Strauss running logistics and Davis managing production of the jeans, then advertised as “waist overalls,” because they were often worn as a protective outer layer, according to Levi’s.
Soon after, they began making the trousers with denim, a fabric that was already associated with labor. “Denim had been worn by enslaved African and African American descendants for generations,” fashion historian Emma McClendon told NPR. “It was worn by Chinese immigrants who were building the Transcontinental Railroad. It was worn by women. It was worn by men.”
Still, adding metal rivets made denim more durable than ever. By the 1890s, Strauss and Davis had largely perfected the pants, which the company began referring to by the lot number 501. While small changes came in the years that followed - two pockets and belt loops were added - today’s 501s aren’t too different from the originals, Paul O’Neill, Levi's design director told CBS News.