Levi Strauss was the kind of man who could recognize a business opportunity when it landed in his lap.
During the California Gold Rush, he moved from New York City to open a new San Francisco branch of his family’s dry goods business. Ostensibly, he planned on making his fortune panning gold. But why spend hours standing in a river when gold diggers would bring cash to you regardless of their success?
So Strauss didn’t. Instead, he opened stores selling dry goods and clothing across the American West.
By 1872, Strauss was already a successful businessman—successful enough to be known as a philanthropist and city leader in San Francisco. That was also the year he received a letter from a customer in Reno, Nevada.
John Davis was a tailor who thought he might have discovered an ingenious solution to a problem that plagued the mining community he served. It turns out mining is rather tough on clothes—especially on pockets and flaps. Davis’ solution was to fasten metal rivets at the stress points in the garments. It was a fix that worked wonders; Davis just needed a way to patent it, which is why he sent a letter to Strauss.
It didn’t take much convincing. Strauss agreed to fund the application, and on May 20, 1873, the two men were granted Patent No. 139,121 for “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.” Less than a year later, they were in the courts defending their invention (they succeeded but were only granted $2,000 of the $20,000 they had claimed in damages).
He may have been a successful businessman, but he wasn’t great at naming things. Strauss called the first blue jeans “waist overalls” and brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee a small army of seamstresses all working from home. That didn’t last long. The pants were incredibly popular, so Strauss opened a factory.
Strauss died in 1902, but the invention he had sponsored continued to grow in popularity. By the 1920s, Levi’s were the most popular work pants for men.
Strauss’s story and the product he and Davis created together feel quintessentially American. After all, jeans were an invention born out of the needs of the American frontiersmen who needed them to be durable enough to withstand the wear and tear of building up a nation.
Happy Patent Day, Mr. Strauss!