Collection: Levi's

In 1871, in Reno, Nevada, Jacob Davis, a tailor originally from Latvia, had the idea of using copper rivets to reinforce stress points on trousers, such as pocket corners, and found a way to apply the necessary pressure to secure them. Lacking the $68 needed to patent the idea, he partnered with Levi Strauss, who in 1853 had founded the Levi Strauss & Co. wholesale business with his brother-in-law David Stern, from whom he frequently purchased hemp fiber fabrics. From 1849, Strauss's business focused on the street vending of work clothes to laborers and gold prospectors, capitalizing on the demand for specific fabrics useful for mining, for pioneer wagons (conestogas), and for boat sails. It was precisely with the needs of these workers in mind that he designed and created the overall, still considered the most comfortable and practical garment for manual labor. Strauss boasted that business was going well and decided to finance the patent and immediately apply the method in factories. On May 20, 1873, the modern denim jean was patented under No. 139,121, and the long history of Levi Strauss & Co. began. The distinctive "double arcuate" stitching on the back pockets was created in 1873, but was not registered (no one had thought of it before) until 1942.