Why Do Blue Jeans Contain Rivets?
Tom Black
Jean trousers have come a long way since their original corduroy design crafted and exported from Genoa, Italy. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the first known use of the word “jean” on record was 1577. As time passed, the corduroy gave way to a cotton interlaced twill material called “denim.”
Modern jeans and their rivets are the product of Loeb Strauss, a German businessman who originally immigrated to the United States in 1851 and changed his name to the now well-known name "Levi Strauss,” and a Reno, Nevada tailor named Jacob Davis.
Among a wide range of dry goods, Strauss sold denim and similar fabrics to laborers, tailors and others who wanted to make strong, durable clothing. Davis designed and made clothing for miners and laborers in Nevada. At some point, he noticed that certain clothing spots, such as pocket corners, would wear and rip faster than other spot and came up with an idea to use rivets, metal fasteners made of headed bolts originally used in wood and metal boat and structure building, to reinforce these weak areas.
Davis wanted to manufacture his work clothing on a larger scale and, since he purchased his fabrics from Levi Strauss & Co., contacted Strauss in 1872 with a business partnership proposition. In 1873, Strauss and Davis patented Davis’ idea and began manufacturing labor clothing held together in certain spots with metal fasteners.
Think about it…
Without one man’s brilliant idea and a single business partnership, modern blue jeans wouldn’t exist. Although holes do eventually appear in blue jeans from a lot of wear and tear, without metal fasteners they would appear faster and the world would be a completely different place in which jean wearers would spend a lot of time and money sewing and patching holes.
Jean trousers have come a long way since their original corduroy design crafted and exported from Genoa, Italy. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the first known use of the word “jean” on record was 1577. As time passed, the corduroy gave way to a cotton interlaced twill material called “denim.”
Modern jeans and their rivets are the product of Loeb Strauss, a German businessman who originally immigrated to the United States in 1851 and changed his name to the now well-known name "Levi Strauss,” and a Reno, Nevada tailor named Jacob Davis.
Among a wide range of dry goods, Strauss sold denim and similar fabrics to laborers, tailors and others who wanted to make strong, durable clothing. Davis designed and made clothing for miners and laborers in Nevada. At some point, he noticed that certain clothing spots, such as pocket corners, would wear and rip faster than other spot and came up with an idea to use rivets, metal fasteners made of headed bolts originally used in wood and metal boat and structure building, to reinforce these weak areas.
Davis wanted to manufacture his work clothing on a larger scale and, since he purchased his fabrics from Levi Strauss & Co., contacted Strauss in 1872 with a business partnership proposition. In 1873, Strauss and Davis patented Davis’ idea and began manufacturing labor clothing held together in certain spots with metal fasteners.
Think about it…
Without one man’s brilliant idea and a single business partnership, modern blue jeans wouldn’t exist. Although holes do eventually appear in blue jeans from a lot of wear and tear, without metal fasteners they would appear faster and the world would be a completely different place in which jean wearers would spend a lot of time and money sewing and patching holes.
2 Comments:
I love my denim skirts, Lieve Zus :)
Audrey,
I love denim, period. Grin.
(((HUGS))) lieve zus.
God's Grace.
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