This Day in History: , Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis Receive Patent for Blue Jeans.
May 20, 1873.
Strauss shared the patent
for the "Improvement in Fastening
Pocket-Openings” with Jacob Davis, a tailor.
Hailing from San Francisco,
Strauss was well-known as a
wholesale dry goods businessman.
He had recently started importing
fabric and clothing to meet the demand
of gold miners and other settlers
during the California gold rush.
The "work pants" were an invention of Davis,
who used metal rivets at stress points
to make them stronger.
Davis needed Strauss to
fund the paperwork for the patent.
Originally known as "waist overalls,"
the new jeans quickly took off in the U.S.
By the 1920s, they were the top-selling work pants
