Blue jeans are, perhaps, the most widely reconized symbol of America. All over the world, Americans can be easily seen and pointed out by their distinctive denim. But what few Americans, and indeed few people at all realize, is that the world-famous American blue jean was invented by a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria.

Levi Strauss was born in 1829 in Bad Ocheim, Germany. Nearly twenty years later, following the political upheaval of 1848, Strauss emigrated to the United States, where two of his brothers already lived. Upon his arrival, he took up business as a door-to-door peddler in New York and then Kentucky. In 1850, drawn by the good markets he heard were available in Gold Rush California (and by his sister’s offer to pay for his boat passage), he set out for San Francisco.

Strauss soon sold out of most of the materials he had brought with him, but he still had several rolls of canvas he had brought for tents and Conestoga wagons. One miner looked at the canvas and told Levi that it would have been better for him to have brought pants--the miners wore theirs out too quickly with their rough work. Looking at the canvas, Levi was struck with an idea and took some of the canvas to a nearby tailor. The resulting pants proved to be an instant success, and the remaining canvas was soon gone.

When Levi wrote to his brothers in New York and asked them for more canvas, they quickly responded--by sending a heavy French material known as serge de N”mes for the area of France from which it came. In California, however, this was quickly shortened to denim. A similar material could also be found in Geona, Italy, called Genes in French. This word has come to us in the familiar word for Levi’s pants--jeans.

In 1853, Strauss formed Levi Strauss & Company with his brothers. They ran a steady business supplying jeans wholesale to retail stores around the West. The original pants pattern remained the same until 1870, when Jacob Davis, a tailor in Virginia City, Nevada, put copper rivets on the pockets of a pair for a difficult customer. Although the action was intended as a joke, it worked so well that Davis wrote to Strauss reporting his new discovery. Together, Davis and Strauss patented the copper-riveted pants in 1873. Strauss subsequently hired Davis as a regional manager for his company.

The original patent, in addition to the rivets with which we are familiar today, featured a crotch rivet below the zipper. This was a fixture on the pants until the 1940s, when Walter Haas, then president of the company, had an uncomfortable encounter caused by standing too close to a fire while wearing his copper rivets. The crotch rivet was subsequently removed.

In 1890, Levi Strauss & Company was incorporated and continued manufacturing pants until the death of Levi Strauss in 1902. Little is known about Strauss’ life during this period. However, he was considered a fair and benevolent businessman by his employees and other residents of San Francisco. Following Strauss’ death, his nephews Jacob, Sigmund, Isaac, and Abraham Stern continued to carry on the business.

Today, Levi Strauss & Company is an internationally recognized company that specializes in manufacturing one of the most typically American items of clothing in the world. Their clothing line has expanded from clothing only for miners and cowboys to include clothes specifically for women, and different colors and weights of denim.

Additional information on Levi Strauss