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  • From: "Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT mail2.pvco.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Bull riders and Wranglers question
  • Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:17:35 -0500

At 03:30 PM 10/30/2008, Don Bowen wrote:
Levi Strauss & Co started in San Francisco and were making pants for the
gold rush miners. They used a Genoan sail cloth riveted in strategic places
to make a pair of work pants that were sturdy enough to stand up to heavy
mining work. A mispronouncing of Genoan leads to Jeans.

Don,

That is the story popularized by Levi Strauss' advertising. The actual story is that Levi Strauss did not arrive in San Francisco until 1853. For the first 20 years, the company sold wholesale dry goods, but not clothing. A Las Vegas tailor of Latvian origin, Jacob Davis, made work pants, and came up with the idea of using rivets to reinforce the strain points on pants. However, he could not afford the patent fee, so talked Levi Strauss, from whom he bought his cloth, into becoming partners on the idea. The patent was issued in 1873. While Jacob Davis had made pants with rivets, initially, the Levi Strauss company, when it did start making clothing, made only bib overalls.

Lynn Downey, Levi Strauss & Co.
Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing Co. (2007)

Sondra Henry and Emily Taitz, Everyone Wears His Name: A Biography of Levi Strauss
Minneapolis: Dillon Press (1990)




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