Patent Approved: Levi Strauss, Denim King, Got His Official Start in 1873

United States patent #139121 was approved May 20, 1873, a move that firmly cemented an American garment and fashion dynasty's place in history.

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, a friend and former customer of Strauss, applied for the patent on rivet-reinforced denim pants. The rest, as they say, is history.

Levi Strauss was born Loeb Strauss, in Bavaria, now part of Germany, in 1829. Strauss, and his mother and sister, moved to New York to join the rest of their family in 1847, who were running a dry-goods business. Loeb adopted the name Levi in 1850.

The discovery of gold in California's America River in 1849 was the event that would catapult Strauss, a simple merchant, to the status of cultural icon. Small-town San Francisco had turned into a boom-town after the discovery of gold. Americans and immigrants from across the globe, an estimate 300,000 descended on the then small-town. Strauss relocated to San Francisco in 1853 to sell his wares in a burgeoning market.

His dry-goods business, Levi Strauss and Co., opened on California Street. Strauss and his brother-in-law imported fabric, clothing and other dry goods to sell to the 49ers, as the miners were known. By 1866 Strauss was a successful businessman and had moved his business to a larger location.

According to legend Strauss heard complaints from miners about their easily torn cotton pants. He created pants made from brown canvas sailcloth that were nearly impossible to split and sold them to the prospectors and miners. After using up his stockpile of sailcloth for the very popular trousers Strauss started to use serge fabric from Nimes, France. Called serge de Nimes, the name of the fabric was contracted to denim.

In 1872 Strauss received a letter from Jacob Davis, a customer in Reno. Davis was reinforcing his pants with metal rivets at stress points. He didn't have the money to patent the idea and asked for Strauss to be his partner in the process. It was May 20, 1873 that Strauss and Jacob received a patent on using copper rivets to reinforce the pockets denim work pants.

The pair started to manufacture the garment, first in their homes with local seamstresses, and then in a factory in 1880s. The now-famous 501 brand was born in 1890 with a name change from, "XX." By 1920, 501s were the top-selling men's work pants in the United States.

Even with his nephews running the business Strauss continued to head the firm. Strauss said in an interview published by the San Francisco Bulletin in 1895 "I do not think large fortunes cause happiness to their owners, for immediately those who possess them become slaves to their wealth. They must devote their lives to caring for their possessions. I don't think money brings friends to its owner. In fact, often the result is quite the contrary."

Strauss died in 1902, and Jacob eventually sold his shares in the venture back to Strauss's relatives.

Today Levi Strauss and Co., a company started to sell pants to miners, has annual sales of more than 4 billion dollars in 110 countries.