May 20, 1873: The Pants That Changed the World

1873: Blue jeans assume their distinctive form when a patent is issued for the rivet process used to strengthen the pockets on what were then called “waist overalls.”

Jacob Youphes, a Latvian immigrant who changed his name to Jacob Davis after coming to the United States in 1854, was working as a tailor in Reno, Nevada, when he hit on the idea of using copper rivets to reinforce denim working pants. Since he obtained his denim from Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco, Davis approached Strauss with an offer to file for a joint patent.

Nevertheless, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Blue jeans (a misnomer, since the pants were made of denim and not the lighter cotton textile known as jean) were an immediate success. So impressed was Strauss that he brought Davis to San Francisco to establish and supervise a factory when the demand for blue jeans outstripped the ability of individual seamstresses to make them.