History

One of Levi's customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from Levi Strauss & Co.'s wholesale house. After one of Jacob's costumers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the base of the button fly. Jacobs did not have the required money to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Levi suggesting that they both go into business together. After Levi accepted Jacobs' offer, on May 20, 1874, the two men received patent #139,121 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the blue jeans was born.

Trivia

• The logo featuring a pair of horses trying to pull apart a pair of Levi's jeans is a play on Otto von Guericke's famous experiment demonstrating the power of atmospheric air pressure by having teams of horses try to pull apart the Magdeburg hemispheres, made of copper and joined together with the air pumped out.

• In the early 1980s Levi Strauss tried entering the high-end suit market, attempting to target men who would normally buy very expensive tailor made suits. The aim was for the suits to be available with the different pieces in different matchable sizes at mass retailers. The project never really caught on, as men in the market they were targeting were more interested in tailor made suits and considered Levi's a "denim only" company.

External links

• Corporate site
• Online catalog
• www.levis.com