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KF5JRV > TODAY 20.05.24 16:00l 31 Lines 2105 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 151_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 20
Path: IW8PGT<LU4ECL<JE7YGF<JH4XSY<N3HYM<VE3CGR<KF5JRV
Sent: 240520/1159Z 151@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.24
On May 20, 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent
to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.
In San Francisco, Strauss established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and worked as the West
Coast representative of his family’s firm. His new business imported clothing, fabric and other dry goods to sell in the
small stores opening all over California and other Western states to supply the rapidly expanding communities of gold
miners and other settlers. By 1866, Strauss had moved his company to expanded headquarters and was a well-known
businessman and supporter of the Jewish community in San Francisco.
Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, was one of Levi Strauss’ regular customers. In 1872, he wrote a letter to Strauss
about his method of making work pants with metal rivets on the stress points—at the corners of the pockets and the base
of the button fly—to make them stronger. As Davis didn’t have the money for the necessary paperwork, he suggested that
Strauss provide the funds and that the two men get the patent together. Strauss agreed enthusiastically, and the patent
for “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openingsö–the innovation that would produce blue jeans as we know them–was
granted to both men on May 20, 1873.
Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacturing facility for “waist overalls,ö as the original
jeans were known. At first they employed seamstresses working out of their homes, but by the 1880s, Strauss had
opened his own factory. The famous 501 brand jean—known until 1890 as “XXö—was soon a bestseller, and the
company grew quickly. By the 1920s, Levi’s denim waist overalls were the top-selling men’s work pant in the United
States. As decades passed, the craze only grew, and now blue jeans are worn and beloved by people old, young
and everything in between around the world.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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