1873: Levi Strauss Patents Copper-Riveted Pants

Though an American icon, the original copper-riveted jeans were a creation from a Bavarian immigrant – Levi Strauss. Strauss arrived in the US during 1847 and began selling dry goods along the East Coast but was encouraged by his brother-in-law to move to San Francisco. He arrived in 1853 with supplies that he had hoped to sell to mining camps but found that large roll of canvas didn’t sell well. However, he came up with the idea of creating pants out of the material since the miners complained that regular pants wore out too quickly. In 1872, Strauss received a letter from Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada who told him that the product could be improved he added copper rivets to the pocket seams. On this day in 1873, Strauss put in his patent for the pants. Soon, he would switch from canvas to denim. Since then, Levi has sold more than 200 million pairs of blue jeans.