May 20, 1873: The Pants That Changed the World
Jacob Youphes, a Latvian immigrant who changed his name to Jacob Davis (.pdf) after coming to the United States in 1854, was working as a tailor in Reno, Nevada, when he hit on the idea of using copper rivets to reinforce denim working pants (.pdf). Since he obtained his denim from Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco, Davis approached Strauss with an offer to file for a joint patent.
Strauss — knowing a good thing when he saw it — accepted, and the modern “blue jean” was born.
Levi Strauss (.pdf) — himself an immigrant from Bavaria — arrived in San Francisco 20 years earlier, at the height of the California Gold Rush, to establish a wholesale dry-goods business. From various locations along the San Francisco waterfront, Strauss sold clothing, fabrics and other sundries all over the West, including to miners headed for the gold fields.
The business flourished, but the real turning point in company fortunes came when Davis, a regular customer, approached Strauss with his proposal to form a partnership selling these button-fly, riveted pants. Customers paid the then-princely sum of $3 a pair (about 55 bucks in today’s moolah). Davis’ decision to approach Strauss was a case of simple economics: He didn’t have the money to apply for a patent.
Nevertheless, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Blue jeans (.pdf) — a misnomer, because the pants were made of denim and not the lighter cotton textile known as jean — were an immediate success. So impressed was Strauss that he brought Davis to San Francisco to establish and supervise a factory, when the demand for blue jeans outstripped the ability of individual seamstresses to make them.
Davis remained at his post until his death in 1908, having sold his interest in the patent to Levi Strauss & Co. the year before he died.
Source: Levi Strauss & Co.
Photo: Marcos Andrè/Flickr
Last WebBuzz
-
WebBuzz du 24/11/2017: Pérou décoller comme superman-Peru Reverse bungee aka Superman Jump
Read 37551 times
-
WebBuzz du 22/11/2017: Une Femme Saoudienne fait du surf dans les rues-Saudi girl Car Surfing after heavy rains and flood in Saudi Arabia
Read 37920 times
-
WebBuzz du 20/11/2017: Maxi crach au grand prix GT à Macau-Huge pile up Crash 2017 Macau Grand Prix FIA GT World Cup
Read 32821 times
-
WebBuzz du 17/11/2017: Boston Dynamics fait le cirque avec ses robots-BD prepare to build a circus with his robots
Read 35567 times
-
WebBuzz du 16/11/2017: Une illusion d'optique féminine-a feminine optical illusion
Read 33651 times
-
WebBuzz du 14/11/2017: Roumanie un bus de police évite un tram de justesse-Close call between a tram and police's bus
Read 30280 times
-
WebBuzz du 13/11/2017: Arrivée fracassante d'un bateau sur les docks de San Diego-Whale Watching Boat Crashing Into San Diego Dock
Read 28560 times
-
WebBuzz du 08/11/2017: Créer des flammes de toutes les couleurs-How to make colourful flames
Read 29424 times
-
WebBuzz du 07/11/2017: Echec test du système de détection des piètons de la Volvo S60-Volvo S60 Pedestrian Detection System Test failed
Read 30632 times
-
WebBuzz du 03/11/2017: Slacker dans la forêt-slackline in the forest
Read 33075 times