The Little-known Partnership that Changed what the World Wears

This story came to mind today, because it was on this Day, February 26, 1829, that Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria. Levi was the son of Hirsch Strauss and his second wife, Rebecca.

At age 18, Levi Strauss travelled with his mother and two sisters to the United States to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co. Their business was thriving.

When the Gold Rush hit, they wanted to meet the needs of the miners and farmers also seeking their fortune, and devised a plan for Levi to travel to the West Coast and set up a version of their dry goods business there.

Strauss boarded a steamer bound for Panama, then walked across the isthmus and boarded another steamer sailing north to the shores of the California Gold Rush. He arrived on a rainy March day in 1853, and soon set up a dry goods wholesale business on San Francisco’s waterfront under his own name —Levi Strauss & Co.

Within two decades, Levi had established a successful business by making connections with retailers throughout the West.

Meanwhile, Jacob Davis, who had emigrated from Riga, Latvia at the age of 23 years—had opened tailor shops in New York and Maine made his way West. They didn’t know one another at the time, but Jacob was also Jewish and only two years younger than Levi Strauss.

Jacob Davis was operating a tailor shop in Reno, Nevada in 1871 making and selling functional items like tents, horse blankets and wagon covers for the railway workers on the Central Pacific Railroad. The fabric Davis worked with was heavy-duty cotton duck cloth and cotton denim which he bought from Levi Strauss & Co.

One day a woman entered Davis’ shop and asked him to construct durable pants for her husband: “My husband is a woodcutter and is really hard on his work pants. Is there anything you can do to make them stronger?”

Davis thought about it, and said he’d do what he could. Ultimately, he used used duck cloth and reinforced the weak points in the stitching of the seams and pockets with the copper rivets from his shop—that he used to attach straps to the horse blankets he made for local teamsters.

Word quickly spread throughout the labourers along the railroad. Davis was making these working pants in duck cotton and, as early as 1871, in denim cotton. Before long, he found he could not keep up with demand.Davis had previously applied for patents for other inventions, and had a good understanding of the complexities involved in the patent and production process. Davis knew that his supplier, Levi Strauss, was a much more successful, well-resourced businessman.

The pants were an immediate success—and on one days, as Jacob Davis was putting in an order for supplies to Levi Strauss he had something else on his mind. A potential partnership. Accompanying that order was a letter from Davis with his personal pitch to Strauss asking for his financial backing in the filing of a patent application.

It was an intriguing proposal, describing his innovation in sewing men’s trousers—by adding rivets to the pocket openings.

Strauss agreed, and on May 20. 1873, US Patent No. 139,121 for "Improvements in fastening pocket openings" was issued in the name of Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss and Company.

Strauss became a manufacturer of the jeans. Strauss set up a sizeable tailor shop in San Francisco for the production of Davis' working pants and Jacob and his family had moved back to San Francisco for Davis to run this shop.

As demand continued to grow, the shop was superseded by a manufacturing plant that Davis managed for Strauss. Davis continued to work there for the remainder of his life, overseeing production of the work pants as well as other lines including work shirts and overalls.

Their whole philosophy, once the rivets became part of the pants, was that, as a miner or laborer, you could probably own just this one pair of pants for the rest of your life. They came up with the image of two horses moving in opposite directions, each attached to one leg of the pants, unsuccessfully trying to rip them apart.

That same year, Davis started sewing a double orange threaded stitched design onto the back pocket of the jeans to distinguish them from those made by his competitors (they were called “waist overalls” or “overalls” until 1960, when baby boomers adopted the name “jeans.”). This trademark feature became Registered U.S. Trade Mark No.1,139,254.

Strauss became a respected civic leader and philanthropist with a friendly, warm nature, widely known as a humble and down-to-earth person.

Davis died in San Francisco in 1908.

Levi Strauss had died six years previous on September 26, 1902.

The rest, of course, is history.

Today’s Levi’s? jeans are a direct descendant of that first pair made back in 1873.

That year, two visionary men — Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis — Jews facing persecution, emigrated from Europe, came to the United States seeking opportunity and the American Dream. It wasn’t a linear path for either man. In forming a little-known partnership that became the foundation of immense and enduring success—they turned denim, thread and a little metal into what has become the most popular apparel on earth.

Levi Strauss left his company to his four nephews, Jacob, Sigmund, Louis, and Abraham Stern, the sons of his sister Fanny and her husband David Stern. His estate was worth about $6 million (equivalent to $177,300,000 in 2019).

Certainly, we all know the name Levi Strauss—but it was through his partnership with Jacob Davis that truly changed what the world still wears today.

Happy Birthday to Levi Strauss! It’s Jeans Day!

#OTD #History #Levis