Everyone in America knows Levi Strauss. That is because everyone enjoys wearing his jeans.
Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, the son of a small town merchant living in a small German town. Levi probably would have followed in his father’s footsteps except that his father died of tuberculosis when Levi was a teenager. Faced with having to raise three children alone, Levi’s mother decided to sell everything in 1847 and move to America. Fortunately two of Levi’s brothers had settled in New York City several years before, so Levi, his mother, and his two sisters did have a home to go to once their ship docked in port.
Smart and ambitious, the two Strauss brothers were always one step ahead of their competition. A year after Levi’s arrival they opened up a small dry goods store. Bringing Levi into the business they taught him everything. But when he was ready did they send him out on the street to compete against all the other New York City vendors? No, they sent him to Kentucky.
Actually Kentucky was a good learning experience for nineteen-year-old Levi. He got a chance to improve his English. He had the opportunity of meeting some Americans from the middle of the country. Most importantly, he learned what kind of merchandise everyday Americans wanted: needles, handkerchiefs, and a bit of shiny ribbon to brighten up a faded sunbonnet.
Levi spent several years carrying his 100 pound pack around Kentucky. He might have set up a dry goods store in Louisville, but there was some exciting news coming out of the West. Gold had been discovered in California. As luck would have it Levi had a sister and brother-in-law who had started a small business in San Francisco. Levi decided to join them but he was not coming to mine. He was coming with merchandise, and all of it supplied by his brothers in New York.
Levi was very successful as a businessman. When miners needed supplies, he was there to give them what they wanted and at very competitive prices.
He would have gone down in history as a man greatly respected by his family, his community, and the members of his synagogue, but the one event that set him apart from all other store owners took place in 1872.
For years Levi had been expanding his business. Gone were the days when he would sell work pants one at a time. Now he was the head of a company that sold dry goods throughout the West, and one of his best customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada.
One day a woman came into the Davis shop saying that her husband went through work pants almost as fast as she could buy them. He’d put tools and heavy objects in the pockets, the seams would burst, and then he’d tell her that she had bought him another pair of worthless pants. She was tired of his complaining. Could Davis do something?
That night Davis went to work trying to solve this woman’s special problem. Sure, he could double sew the pant seams, but that was no guarantee. Then Davis had a sudden idea. Recently he had used rivets on some horse blankets that he had made. If he attached rivets to the pocket corners, wouldn’t that provide the reinforcement that was needed? Excitedly he finished the pants and handed them to the woman the next time she came in.
The pants were an instant hit. As word spread Davis got more orders for his new invention. During the next 18 months he sold over 200 pairs.
Davis was a smart man who knew he had a good thing. He also knew that if he didn’t act quickly someone would steal his idea, so he wrote a letter to Levi Strauss. If Strauss would put up the money for the patent fee (after all, Davis was a poor tailor), Davis would agree to share the patent with him.
Everyone who comes up with a new idea expects everything to work out perfectly, but for some reason the reality is different. The first patent application Strauss and Davis submitted was rejected. Officials said that rivets had been used on some fancy Civil War uniforms several years before, so the idea was not new. Strauss and Davis rewrote their application. Again patent officials rejected it, but Strauss and Davis did not give up. They carefully rewrote the application a third time explaining that yes, they were using rivets but they were using rivets for a special purpose—to keep sewed pocket seams from ripping. It had taken ten months, but finally their patent was approved.
One year later Levi Strauss & Co. had produced over twenty thousand pants and coats with riveted pockets. And who did Levi appoint as the supervisor of the new factory making these clothes? Jacob Davis.
Two people working together. Two people sharing their talents. Davis got to see his idea come to life, and Levi Strauss had the satisfaction of having his name linked to one of the most popular pieces of clothing in America.
To read more, see: Sondra Henry and Emily Taitz, A Biography of Levi Strauss: Everyone Wears His Name (1990).