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In 1873, Jacob Davis filed a patent for the rivet design that reinforced the pockets of jeans. (Detail from U.S. Patent Office filing)

December 11, 2004

Take a good look at those Levi’s brand jeans you’re wearing. See those rivets that help prevent the pockets from ripping off? If you’re as amazed by the genius of those rivets as we are, you have a Jewish tailor from Rīga to thank.

Levi Strauss, an immigrant from Bavaria, founded Levi Strauss & Co. in 1853 in San Francisco. Among his customers for fabric was a Jewish tailor named Jacob W. Davis (1834-1908), who had immigrated to the United States from Rīga, now the capital of Latvia. Born Jacob Youphes, he changed his surname to Davis when he arrived in America. Davis ran a shop in Reno, Nevada.

Davis, according to a history (PDF, 108 K) of the first blue jeans posted on the Levi’s Web site, had a customer whose pockets frequently ripped. The tailor hit upon an idea: reinforce the pockets with rivets.

The reinforced pockets worked and soon many in Reno wanted work pants made by Davis. To protect his idea, Davis teamed up with Strauss to obtain a patent.

Strauss hired Davis to oversee production in his company’s San Francisco facility, a position Davis held until his death in 1908. The Davis family still is involved in the garment business. In 1935, Jacob’s grandson Ben founded Ben Davis Manufacturing, a company that produces a popular line of work clothing. More about Jacob Davis is available on the company’s Web site.

(Thanks for the tip to Vilnis Blūms, Webmaster for the Latvian National Youth Association in Canada.)

— Andris Straumanis