1853

Levi Strauss arrives in San Francisco and opens a wholesale dry goods business, selling clothing, blankets, handkerchiefs, etc. to small general stores throughout the American West.

1872
Jacob Davis, a Reno Nevada tailor, writes to Levi Strauss, telling him about the process he invented to rivet the pocket corners on men’s pants to make them stronger. He suggests the two men take out a patent on the process together and Levi agrees.

1873
Levi Strauss & Jacob Davis are granted a patent on the process
of riveting pants by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on May 20. It is patent number 139,121 and this is the invention of the blue jean.

The pants - called “waist overalls” - have one back pocket with the Arcuate stitching design, a watch pocket, a cinch, suspender buttons and a rivet in the crotch. We don’t know the origin of the Arcuate stitching design. Stories about it representing the wingspread of a bird are myths; the loss of our records in 1906 (see below) makes it impossible to know why the stitching was first used. There may have been a tradition of pocket stitching on men’s workwear but this has not been found in any research done so far. The cinch and suspender buttons were standard on men’s pants. Keep in mind that we did not invent the cut or fit of the waist overalls; what we did was take traditional men’s work pants and rivet them, creating the new category of workwear which we today call blue jeans.

The pants are made of 9 oz. XX blue denim, which comes from the
Amoskeag Mill in Manchester, New Hampshire.

They are sewn in San Francisco, probably in a combination of factory production and home sewing. Because of the loss of historical records
in the 1906 earthquake and fire we don’t yet know when the first factories were opened. It’s also possible we leased factory space in the 1870 and then opened our own factories in the 1880s.

1886
The Two Horse brand leather patch is first used on the waist overalls. Its purpose was to demonstrate the strength of the pants and reinforce our status as the originator of patent riveted clothing.
We knew that the patent would go into the public domain around 1890
and decided to reinforce our message of originality and strength graphically. There may also have been a tradition of some sort of patch on men’s workwear at this time, but this has been hard to research.

1890 The rivet patent goes into the public domain, so that Levi Strauss & Co.
is not longer the exclusive manufacturer of riveted clothing.

Lot numbers are first assigned to the products being manufactured. 501 is used to designate the famous copper-riveted waist overalls. We don’t know why this number was chosen. We also made a 201 jean, which
was a less expensive version of the pants, as well as other products using other three-digit numbers. Because of the loss of our records in
1906, the reasons for many of these changes are unknown.

1901
The pants – now just called “overalls” - now have two back pockets. It’s likely we added this additional pocket due to consumer requests or changes in men’s fashions at the time.

1902
Levi Strauss dies at the age of 73. His nephews take over the business;
their descendants still run the company today.

1906
The San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys the headquarters and factories of Levi Strauss & Co.

A new factory is built at 250 Valencia Street in San Francisco and opens in November.

1910
Sometime during this decade the jeans are sewn with a felled inseam.
Prior to this time the inseam was “mock” felled.

1915
The overalls win a “Highest Award” at the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition in San Francisco.

LS&CO. begins to buy denim from Cone Mills in Greebsboro, North
Carolina.

1922
Belt loops are added to the overalls, but the suspender buttons are still retained. The cinch is also still used on the pants, but some men cut if off in order to wear the overalls with a belt. Again, the addition of belt loops was in response to changes in men’s fashions and our understanding of what consumers wanted.
LS&CO. now buys its denim exclusively from Cone Mills.

1927
Cone Mills develops the 10 oz. red selvage denim exclusively for the
501® jeans. The denim is woven in 29” wide looms.

1936
The red Tab is first placed onto the right back pocket of the overalls. The word “Levi’s is stitched in white in all capital letters on one side only.
The Tab is created to differentiate Levi’s® overalls from the many competitors in the marketplace who were using dark denim and an Arcuate stitch. We had not yet trademarked the Arcuate so other companies were using it in direct imitation of us.