Season 1, Ep. 5: Levi Strauss and the Real Inventor of Blue Jeans

In this episode, Layla and I are learning about denim! How's it's made, who invented blue jeans, and how it became so wildly popular worldwide.

Show Notes:

References and Links:

Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World by Lynn Downey

The Levi Strauss & Co. Unzipped Blog

See the accompanying photos for this episode on Instagram: @makinghistorypodcast

Levi Strauss

Jacob Davis’s Patent for Riveted Pantaloons

Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco, California

One of the more famous advertisement illustrations for Levi’s

Previous Episodes:

 Episode Trans

Hello and welcome to the Making History Podcast. I'm here today again with my daughter, Layla. Hello. Layla is my permanent guest, no longer a guest. She's a resident in more ways than one. I pay rent. No, she doesn't. Does not. Anyway, this is the podcast where we discuss history from the perspective of crafting, sewing, quilting, and those kinds of things, the people who brought our favorite crafts to life.

And today we're going to be discussing Levi Strauss and the history of blue jeans. Yay. Very exciting. But first, let me just address a question that we've had specifically in the podcast, comments on YouTube. So, YouTube has only recently added. The podcast tab so that current YouTuber creators can easily start a podcast.

It separates it out from your regular channel. And I already being a YouTuber, I have a large following on YouTube and many of those people are over 65. So. A lot of my regular YouTube viewers have said they appreciate having the podcast right there on YouTube. However, it's also attracted some new people who don't know what else I'm doing at Pin Cut, so on YouTube and people are confused why there's no video.

I. On the podcast. So this is for now an audio only podcast. And even though it's on YouTube, it's also an audio podcast on like Spotify. apple, apple. Uh, prime. Oh, iHeart. Yeah. Yeah, iHeartRadio. So, the reason some of the comments last time were, it'd be so easy for you to just pop some photos into this video so that it can be more like video, but it's actually not that simple.

Layla is my editor for both the podcast and my YouTube channel. She can edit the podcast in an hour or two. She takes much, much longer than that to edit videos. Yeah. And especially if I'm not actually giving her like video to edit, she would have to track down a lot of things anyway. It would definitely add a lot of time to the podcast, and since this is not yet an endeavor that makes.

Income yet. We hope that it will in the future, but, and it actually is making a little bit to everyone who has gone to buy me a coffee.com/pin cut sew and contributed in that way to this effort. We so appreciate you. Thank you. Layla does, especially it literally. Buys us a coffee. Mm-hmm. We both have coffee right now.

If you do wanna support the podcast, you want to see it keep going and maybe get better and maybe add video to those, or some photos to those YouTube versions. that's a good way that you can support us so that we can spend more of our efforts on that. But that's just a quick explanation. If you're watching this on UI mean, listening to this on YouTube, this is an audio only podcast.

It is a podcast, not a video. So let's get into it. my name is Nikki. I, like I said, I'm here with my daughter Layla, and I already have a YouTube channel called Pin Cut. So you can also shop for my patterns at pin Cut. So on Etsy or my website, pin cut. So studio.com where I can teach you how to sew and quilt and things like that.

Layla, do you wanna tell them where they can find you on the internet? You can find me on Instagram at Layla Jane Studio, or my website, layla jane.com. Layla is an amazing artist. Thank you. She also edits video and runs social media pages for me. So if that's something you're in the market for.

Contact Layla. I do a lot of stuff. She is multi-talented, So today we're gonna talk about Levi Strauss. Layla, let me tell you what I've learned. first, first things first. Um, I, the book I read to prepare for this episode is called Levi Strauss, the man who gave Blue jeans to the world by Lynn Downey, who is the official historian for the Levi Strauss Company.

Wow. So this is official word. I feel like there's a lot of rumors out there about the history of blue jeans that are not true. So I'm gonna give you the real truth from the historian herself. Okay. The gospel truth, And also if you do want to see some of the accompanying photos for this episode, you can go to our Instagram page making history podcast and see, get some visuals.

And also to remedy the, um, YouTube situation because people said, well, I don't use Instagram. I will start putting those photos also in the accompanying webpage on my website, which I will link to. Okay, let's get into it. So the Levi brand has made a huge resurgence in the last few years. Do you agree, Layla?

Yes. Among not just young people like Layla, but older people like me right now, I'm wearing a Levi's cardigan. Cute. But Levi Strauss did not actually invent the blue jeans preposterous. Did you think that he did? Uh, yes, I did. I did too. He was heavily influential. Hmm. Obviously he pretty much bankrolled the whole thing.

Okay, sir. But did not invent them. Mm. But let's go back and start at the beginning. Layla just sed. I'm sorry, I just burped. Okay. Let's start at the beginning. Levi Strauss was born in 1829. That was not his name at the time. His name was Loeb, LOEB. Oh, LOEB. Yeah. Oh, so I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. No, but he was born in Bavaria.

So he had a Bavarian family. He was the youngest of seven children. Oh my gosh. Only him and his older sister had the same father. Mm. So his mom, his her first husband passed away. Mm. She remarried, had two more kids, and then that husband passed away also. Oh gosh. And then the entire family, because they were a Jewish family in Bavaria under mm-hmm.

The Russian regime, which we have learned in almost every episode now. Yeah. That Europe was not a friendly place for Jewish people, and this caused a huge immigration of. Jewish people to America, to New York City specifically. Mm. So their family slowly, one at a time started saving money and going through the whole rigmarole of moving to the us.

Yeah. Uh, back then you had to sort of prove that you had a reason to go. Oh yeah. And this family having no headship of the husband anymore, they made a pretty good case for themselves. Yeah. We gotta get outta here. We gotta go. So when the family, obviously his older brothers were much older than him, so when the family got to New York City, they started a dry goods business.

Do you know what a dry goods business is? No, but there's a store in the mall called Dry Goods. There is, yeah. Is it clothes? like drop shipped. It's just close. Yeah, but they're all from like different brands. It's like, you know, like, I don't know how to explain it.

Interesting. Back then it was more like you would think of just a general store. Oh, like a general supplies for all kinds of things. Oh, like cans. Like the Bloody Benders. They had a dry good store. They did? Yeah. That's how they got their victims. Why does every topic come back to the bloody beers for you?

Their cabin. The front half of it was a dry, good store. was like a general store. That's fascinating. Okay. Sorry. So yes, general store fabrics, everything that you need for everyday life. Cute dry goods. They were pretty successful at it. They had good work ethic. One by one, they started bringing the rest of the family over to work in the family business, and that included Levi and his mom.

I'm gonna call him Levi, even though he didn't have his name officially changed till later, but. Almost all the family members changed their names just to Americanize them, I guess. Okay. So, um, there is a weird rumor that he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where we live. Mm-hmm. If you've missed that, we've talked about Louisville a lot, but I.

Um, that was not mentioned in this book, and I think that's one of those myths that's just perpatentuated. Oh, interesting. I think it might be because he did get his US citizenship in 1853, and that little factoid is somehow connected with Louisville, so I don't know if he was here when he got his citizenship.

Oh, but the official historian Yeah. Does not mention Louisville at all. That's weird. And. She also talks about talks at length about his journey from New York City to San Francisco because Levi's is a California brand through and through. Oh yeah. So I was, I was confused about that little thing about Louisville I had heard before, but it might be true.

It might not be. Hmm. But this book did not mention that at all. Okay. So adult Levi, he migrated to San Francisco at age 24. Okay. Yeah, because of the Gold Rush. What do you know about the Gold Rush? Um, wasn't there? I know like wasn't Okay. It's okay if you don't know very much. Well, I mean, there was a Veggie Tales episode where they goldmine it wasn't there. I don't remember that episode. Maybe I think of something else, but the gold Rush, Layla, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like Gold was discovered in the West. Love people rushed there to find it.

Oh, okay. Cute. Yeah. Oh no. Maybe it was Scooby-Doo. I feel like there's like a, there's like a cartoon with gold mining somewhere. I don't remember. Okay, so. The, the family, the dry goods biz family said we are gonna rush too, but we're not rushing to look for gold. We are rushing to get our dry goods business Oh, on the other side of the country.

Wait, they're so smart. Yeah, I know. You know what? There are two kinds of people in this world. Some of them are the get rich, quick kind. Mm-hmm. And the others think more deeply about long lasting wealth. Yeah. They were the second. Yeah. These were really, really smart, smart business people. Not only were they smart, they were extremely ethical and kind.

Oh. Which I'll talk more about in a little bit. Yeah. They're like very, very inspiring that way. Yeah. Okay. So they send Levi, he's the youngest. He's unattached. He's still single. He can make a go of it. And back then. Like when I got married at 19, I moved to Georgia. Mm-hmm. But I still could go back and forth really easily.

Yeah. And so nowadays when we move away from our family, we don't think of it as like a permanent change. Yeah. But at the time, mm. This was before the Panama Canal had been built, which is, you know, the little isus connecting North and South America. It was connected. Mm-hmm. It was land. so he got on a boat first.

He got on a steamer boat from New York City and went all the way down to Panama. Then he got off the boat and you had to walk or ride a donkey for 18 miles. Oh my gosh. So he got a donkey. So that implies that he was one of the wealthier ones. Yeah. And then he got on a train to Texas, I think, or Mexico, I can't remember.

And then the another boat took him all the way up to San Francisco. That's insane. Yeah, it was lengthy. Yeah. Which is funny because like several years later, it wasn't even that long before the railroad, the transcontinental railway could take you all the way there. Oh, that's so funny. so, yeah.

Yeah. So he got there. Okay. And he started their dry goods business. And do you wanna guess if he was successful or not? He was successful. He was so successful. Yeah. I know. An icon so successful. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like he had a mind for business, as did all of his family. not only was the gold rush happening, but this was the era that we call now, the second industrial revolution.

So much invention, the light bulb, the train, all of these things were totally changing. Mm-hmm. So it was just a good time to be in a new land. Yeah. Look around. Look around. How lucky we are to be alive. Right. Okay. Hamilton. Okay. It's funny you bring this up because I was thinking of the movie Hamilton. I mean the show.

Yeah. Because this was not long after the Civil War or the war between the states, depending on your perspective. And like what were they wearing in Hamilton? Wait, what year? Wait. Oh, in Hamilton, like at the end of Hamilton Empire. waists the Girls at least. I don't know what the guys, well, no, no, no.

That was the Revolutionary War. Okay. I was, go back, go back, go back. I was thinking about the movie, um, the Scarlet O'Hara movie. What is it? Oh, um, gone With Wind. Gone With The Wind. Mm. Have you seen Gone With the Wind? I have not seen Gone With the Wind, so. The Civil War era dresses were huge. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They were gigantic and ornate. Mm-hmm. But you think about that, what they were wearing in the West, in the, what we would say the Wild, wild West mm-hmm. Was so much different. Oh yeah. So much different. Smaller, which really comes into play here in a minute. Yes. Smaller, more rugged, more utilitarian for sure.

Even the men's fashions like totally different from coast to coast. So he sets up shop. He became more and more successful by the time he was 40 total millionaire. Okay, sir. Um, and some others, his sister and her husband came out to help run the business and, continued for the rest of their lives. And he was a seriously standup dude.

He was very involved in the community. He was a philanthropist. He raised money, donated money. Involved in his church community. He was helpful to others. He got involved in politics. How did he like governor? Like how did he get involved in politics? No, he just, he lobbied for political causes. Oh, okay. Put money towards causes, of course.

Support and like, okay. Yes, he served on a grand jury. Whoa. Okay. Multitude of times. I don't know, like I was kind of like, I meant to look this up, but like back then. Do they still do that? You serve on a grand jury? Wait, a grand jury,

like now we have like a jury of your peers. It, was it different then Isn't grand jury or you still jury Remember in, um, the show with the really funny black detective in the, in the house with the president? Oh yeah. What was that called? And they, the, the residents. The residents. And they had like the big, was that a grand jury?

When at that very end when she's like telling them what's happened? What happened? No, that was just a detective show trope. Oh, with the judge in the middle and the girl in the pink suit? Yeah. Oh, okay. So the detective has to say what happened in front of everybody there? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. at the time you had to be pretty influential to serve on a grand jury, so Yes, sir. And he did it lots of times. Okay, but let's get to the real person who invented the blue jeans. Okay. There's another guy, Jacob Davis, also a Jewish immigrant. He was a tailor. He had a wife and kids struggling his way to make a living.

Have you ever known somebody, Layla, who has so many good ideas, but just doesn't have either the skills, knowledge, or follow through to actually see them all the way through? Yes. Yeah. People I, I have known some people, they're brilliant. They have so many good ideas. If they would just stick to something Yeah.

Or learn the marketing part of it. Mm-hmm. Or sometimes it's not their fault, sometimes they don't have the money. Yeah. To get it off the ground. So it usually either comes down to patience or money And that was the case. It seems like with Jacob Davis, he was a very skilled tailor, so he did eventually make a decent living as a tailor, but he could not stop inventing things.

He was one of those. I think you and me have this gene too, Layla. Okay. We're always wanting to try something new and different and make something cool. Yeah. Right. Yep. So he wasn't necessarily a very content tailor, although he was really good at it. Oh yeah. And he finally had this idea, he lived in Reno, finally.

He did. They did bounce around to several towns he was sort of chasing. Yeah. You know, and he finally had this idea because the gold rush men and the other industrial workers mm-hmm. Were wearing pants in the pants, always ripped in the same places, mainly around the pockets. Yeah. And you know, at the time they didn't have like zippers and closures.

No. They're pretty much like strapped on. Yeah. And they kept ripping. Mm-hmm. Do you wanna guess where they ripped in the crotch? Yes. The crotch, the butt butt. The pockets. Pockets, yeah. Knees. Yes. The knees and shoulders, knees, toes. They solve that problem later too. Oh, okay. But for now, he's. Working with this client and he says, you know, I also make these, um, wagon covers and horse blankets and things, and I use rivets on there, and it makes 'em stronger.

Ooh, I'm gonna try putting these metal rivets on the intersections of like the pocket and the jeans. And stuff like that and see if they last longer and they did. Ah, client comes back extremely happy once rivets put on all of his pants from now on. And Jacob Davis is like, Bing, bing B light bulb moment.

But he says, I need a patent for this or people are gonna steal it. Yeah. So he was a smart guy, but his wife Oh, uh oh. Was like, dude, no, we don't have money for more patents. You just gotta just chill. Make your living chill, basically. Girl, not to crush your dreams, but we can't afford another patent process.

Mm-hmm. Which, you know, I'm sure she didn't say it mainly. No, but I'm, I'm also sure that he understood that they actually just need to, yeah. So this is where Levi Straus comes in. He already had a relationship with Jacob Davis because he was providing fabric to him already. Oh. And they were friends, liked each other.

Business associates love, he approaches Levi Strauss and says. If you pay for this patent, you can have a share in the company. Ooh, Levi Straus immediately said yes. Yeah. Which sort of speaks to the rapport of Jacob Davis too. Mm-hmm. But also Levi Straus had tons of money, so Yeah, he was good. It's like he was a millionaire.

He was your patent. Right. Here you go. It was actually pretty hard to get a patent. Because you know, people could argue that rivets are not new in clothing. Oh, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So they had to rewrite it several times to prove that nobody was using the rivets right here like this. Oh, in pants.

Yeah. Yeah. And so finally they did get it. Mm-hmm. They did get the patent. And the first, and, and in the meantime, Jacob Davis, it took kinda a long time. So Jacob Davis kept making the pants, but he made himself like little labels that said patent applied for Oh, cute. You know they still do that. Cute. Yeah. The patent pending.

Patent pending, yeah. But he was like just very nervous. Yeah. That someone would steal his ideas. before I go on and tell you about exactly how jeans were and are made, okay, let's take a quick 📍 break.

📍

Okay, let's get back into it. Oh gosh, you didn't warn. So the original, I didn't warn her. I surprised her. The original blue jeans. Had, okay. So like I said, they were not like our pants now that we have. Mm-hmm. They were kind of a primitive design. They were made from either denim or duck cloth. Okay. Which are both cotton.

Yeah, I know what a duck cloth is. Yeah. They make it at Hobby Lobby. It's that purple fabric. Yeah. Yeah. Also like the vest I just made with the two to, oh, okay. Yeah, that's duck. It's kind of a looser weave than denim.

I looked up like, what's the history of denim? Did they like invent denim fabric? No, they did not. Denim has been around for like literally eons. It's one of the very first.

Dyes people were using in clothing. Yeah, but I'll get to that in just a second. But these work pants, at the time, I didn't call them pants or jeans, they called them um, overalls, which is funny, like now overalls are really different, but overalls, or they called 'em sometimes pantaloons. They weren't supposed to be like your regular pants.

They were the pants that go over your pants to protect your pants. Like an, like an apron for your pants. Right. Okay. That's why they're called overalls that go over everything. Oh, that. That's so cute. And they protected the workers' actual clothes. Okay. Just that's so stupid. Just don't wear your actual clothes.

Well, in some climates they needed layers. Other things also. Oh, layers. Oh, okay. Gotcha. So you would imagine they would, they were pretty loose, I would think. And they had a waistband called a cinch, or it was like a two piece strap of the same fabric, and it had a simple two-pronged metal piece sewn onto the left one.

And then by pulling the straps together, the prongs hooked onto the other strap. So you could adjust the tightness. I am not tracking, it's basically like now, you know, like a ball cap has the, the ones with the cloth. Oh, like a D-ring and a, but this had like kind of a claw hook that like Okay. Hooked into the fabric.

Yeah. So, and then they were held up by six suspender buttons. Placed six around the waistband. So I don't know how these men were wearing these suspenders, but um, yeah, I would imagine that they were just highly adjustable for various sized people. Oh, okay. Yeah. So they were like loose, oversized, probably.

Okay. And folded and pleaded to fit. And then usually they were made pretty long, so they had to be cuffed. So if you look at old pictures of men, like on the railway or whatever. Mm-hmm. They were often wearing these pants and they had those big old cuffs or those famous like suspension bridge photos where they're dangling off the bridges.

It seems like I've seen them on those men too. So that's just to give you a visual,

Okay, so the first of these overalls had 11 rivets. Okay.

Two holding down the cinch waist. Okay. Two on the corners of the back pocket. Two each on the front pockets, two on the watch pocket. Have you ever wondered what that tiny pocket in jeans? No way. It was a watch pocket. Why did I so make? It's not for your joint, it's for your watch. It's not for your joint.

Not for my chapstick. Yeah. That's crazy. I think they just make them because now it's iconic. Yeah. It's cute. Yeah. Huh. But I think it's adorable that it was for a watch. There's no rivets on my jeans. And didn't, those aren't Levi's. Oh. And another at the base of the button fly. So they did have buttons apparently.

I thought I just read. They didn't have that. What? Okay. Anyway, these have buttons for like ages. Yeah, but like why do you need the whole cinch anyway? Okay. And then the rivets were stamped with the company's initials followed by SF for San Francisco. Cute. And the name of the company was Levi Strauss And Co.

Cute. To like adjust the waistband like buttons. Wouldn't work. Okay. So they had a fly and the two straps. Yeah. After lunch you gotta let that DD ring out, you know? So the two straps were, yeah, were mostly just for adjustability. Yeah. Don't you wish they still made clothes with more adjustability? Uh, that's the freaking, well, Levi's has some out at target with a little adjuster thing in the back.

Do they really? Yeah. Or maybe it's like, is it for looks button cinch on the side or something? But it works. Yes. We need more things like that. Yes. More things like that. They used to make women's dresses. Like they could last through pregnancy and everything. No way. Yeah, you could just let 'em out and let 'em back in.

That's so cool. Okay, so the company was growing by leaps and bounds. These were wildly popular. Okay. Obviously. Mm-hmm. Like men needed more function. This was a very working class society now in the west at least. So the company was growing. They expanded to other articles of clothing like, um, jackets, and then they also started adding like a double layer to the front knees and things like that to make them more durable.

So you can still buy Carhartts with those like front, yeah. And they hired seamstresses. There's actually this fun ad in this book. The ad says, wanted 51st class female sewing machine operators who can bring their own machines with them. Either singers, number two, or Grover and Bakers number one for sewing, heavy work steady and remunerative employment at four 15 Market Street upstairs.

That's cute. Yeah, so I think it's cute that they, um. Hi that they were looking for 51st class female first class sewing operators. Yes. Who could bring their own machines though? Yeah. That if it were me, I'd like aunt. No thank you. I'm good. But with your feather weight. Yeah, my feather weight could do it.

Yeah. Also, jeans are hard to sew. So what kind of machines were these women bringing? They were like powerhouse machines. They must have been those like huge table machines. Like they must have been. Yeah. I also wonder if denim has gotten like thicker over the years. Really? Because I think it's gotten thinner.

Well, we'll talk about why there's so much different denim. Oh, in just a sec. So yeah, this would be a good time to actually talk about how denim is made. Because now jeans are like denim, no longer duck. Yeah, they're denim. And I looked into the process and the reason that they're blue, do you know why they're blue?

Because they dye them with ul A cobalt Ultra Indigo. Indigo, yes. And indigo is a plant-based dye from a wild growing plant in the tropics. Oh, okay. Yeah. But when you, I know there's like craft projects with indigo dye. I never understood really why it worked, but I'm sure you've seen them before. Like people do like leaf reliefs outside and stuff with indigo dye.

I'll, I'll try to show you some later. Wait, like you put you, like, you put the die down, then you put a leaf on the sun, like. it that thing? Something like that? Yes. Okay. It's a very like chemical process. A lot of dyes. You just put the dye in the water, put the fabric in the water, and then it dyes it.

Yeah. Indigo dye is not water soluble though. Hmm. So if you put indigo dye in water, it just remains powdery. Oh, interesting. You have to change the pH of the water for it to become soluble, and then you put the fabric in and it turns it like yellow. But then, okay. When you take the fabric back out and the oxygen hits it, it turns blue again.

Oh, that's so cool. It's really cool. And because of this process, it's like a really long lasting dye. That's why jeans like they, I, I know they fade a little bit over time, but they don't fade like other dyes do. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? That's cool. It's like the Statue of Liberty. Yeah. No, it's not.

Nevermind. Keep going. I don't know why I said, yeah. So they make the denim or they, oh, and then you were talking about the different weight of jeans. Yeah. Like I know raw denim has been like, everybody wants raw denim now. Yes. And I'm like, which is like thick and stiff and like $200. I'm like, I did not look up the difference between Rod andum.

It's just like, it hasn't like it, you know how. Like they, okay. Restart. Hang on. like, you know how you can get like a light wash of denim? It's like they do the Indi the Indigo stuff and they leave it like it's raw. Oh, so they don't treat it at all? I think I just know that it's like super dark and really sturdy.

Interesting. Like they, yeah, well when they make the denim. Maybe this is why. Okay. When they make the denim, they use cotton, obviously. Mm-hmm. And, you know, cotton comes in all different strengths and lengths. The longer the strands of cotton, the stronger that it is. Mm. And in order to get a more consistent product, they mix it all together.

Yeah. So they'll mix the different crops so that it's all very similar. Oh, okay. And then they weave it into yarn, et cetera. Then they dye the yarn. And denim is made by weaving the warp in the left, the warp or the left? I don't remember which is the blue and the other is white, but there's three more of the blue than there is the white.

so when you turn that raw denim over, the underside is more white? Yeah. And the front is blue. And then obviously to make it all different colors and stuff. They treat it and distress it and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. So I guess raw denim would be, maybe it's just not untreated. Yeah. It's just normal or plain.

Yeah. Why are people, is this like a young person thing? Yeah. I don't, I think because it's like, you know, like JCOs, how they're kind of like you put them on and they look the same as they do laying down. Like they're like flat. Yes. Yes. I think they're, they're like st. Sturdier or something. I don't know.

That's so funny because I was reading. Um, on Reddit about denim, like when it became more popularized for women and people had memories of their moms saying that, yeah, you would put them on and then you would go sit in a hot bath. That's so funny. Let 'em dry and then repeat to soften them up because they were like cardboard.

They were so stiff. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's among like the. Carhartt work wear guys that just wear it out to get a matcha and not, you know, like they want like a sturdy denim. I have no idea. So it's fashion. Yeah. Fashion. I know you can buy yardage of raw denim. Oh, that'd probably be cheaper.

Because people make jeans and then they wanna just stress them themselves, you know? Yeah. Okay. So, um, duck kind of went by the wayside in order, I mean, in people were more in favor of denim over time. Mm. It's unclear why. Yeah, but my experience of Duck Duck is a much looser weave than denim, so, oh, I wouldn't think that it would last as long.

Yeah. so let's go back to Levi and Jacob. They actually worked together for the rest of. Jacob Davis's life. Oh, he, um, Levi paid Jacob well enough to move to a nice town in San Francisco. Aw. And then, but first he bought Davis's Reno house and Taylor shop so that they could move. So he bought their house in Taylor Shop for a thousand dollars so that they could afford to move.

But he kept that house in Tailor Shop. Two years later, he sold them back to Jacob for $1. Oh my gosh. So that then Jacob sold it for $12,000 to make a profit. Wow. He was like, really, really an amazing guy. Yeah. Really stand up guy. And then as the company grew, people did start to make dupes and knockoffs.

Yeah. And Levi being a nice guy mm-hmm. Also was business minded and he thought, I can't let this happen. Yeah. So there was one specific copy, um, copycat that he sued. Good. And, but the, they were friends. Like he knew this guy. Oh, they were business acquaintances already. And he did win. Mm-hmm. But he paid his opponent's court costs.

Oh. And they remained friends for the rest of their lives. Okay, good. He. It was just because the patent was important Yeah. To win. He had, he needed to win that in order to prevent other copycats. Yeah. But he also wasn't just trying to go after this one person. This guy. Yeah. He was just trying to get his patent.

Mm-hmm. In place. And they did kind of have to amend and change the patent over time. Yeah. And then. You know how Disney is releasing, follow me here. Okay, follow me. Disney is releasing live action versions of their old cartoons. Yes, I read that. That might be because the, the copyrights are expiring. Yeah.

At least for Snow White for sure. 'cause Snow White was supposed to go on in like a few years, I think. Right. By remaking them, they can renew the copyright. Yeah. Yeah. So that could be the case here too. Mm-hmm. By adding more products they could renew. Renew the ribbons, the patent. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. But eventually all good things come to an end.

Patents don't last forever. Yeah. And it did eventually run out, but by this time, like Sales Rose, they had, they had the market on denim and jeans in Colorado, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico. Cowboys the wild, wild West was full of Levi's. Yeah. How do you think Arizona Jeans came. Oh, that's funny.

know, but I don't know. What do all these states have in common? They're in the, the west. Oh, the west. So it was like, they're all rectangular. These were still really considered Western work wear. Oh, interesting. They weren't being worn in the east. Yeah. Um, so eventually we'll discuss like just theories we can, we can spitball about.

Okay. How they became more popular, but. The patent did expire in 1886. They started putting those famous leather patches onto the Levi's. Yeah. And Levi's has this famous logo with two horses trying to pull apart a, a pair of Levi's. Mm-hmm. Because they were like, they're indestructible. You can't ruin 'em, even if you try.

And so with smart marketing, clever branding, these are the og, these are the best ones. Mm-hmm. They were able to keep the Levi's brand. Front and center and everything else was considered a cheap knockoff love. Which don't you think that's still true? Oh yeah. Like if you're gonna go out and buy a good long lasting pair of jeans, you're gonna buy Levi's.

Yeah. Levi's wranglers. Like the same kind of Yes. The same few brands. You're probably just gonna, yeah. And interestingly, those brands don't use a lot of stretch like the other brands do. No. Which is something I really dislike about jeans. Like I don't stretch, like when they're stretchy. I don't like when they're thin.

You like the rigids? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like in Goodwill, I don't even like look through all the jeans. I just like feel each pair. That's funny. And I know I'm like even No, no, no, no, no. Stretch was put in jeans starting in the late nineties. According to my own memory, I was still alive. I mean, I was alive when jeans started to be stretchy.

Layla. Oh my gosh. You're how? But I remember they went a little bit overboard. Uh, yeah. Like they're too thin. I'm like, guys, we don't need this. I think that now really stretchy jeans are like for older women. I feel like every pair of jeans marketed to my age has like the lots of stretch. Oh yeah. And then like the absolution technology as if I want, my gut sucked in anyway.

I still like the rigid denim too, though. I think it looks classic. Yeah, I think it looks better. That's the thing, like I don't care how it feels, but like. It looks better. Yeah. Yeah. But then back in the eighties and nineties too, like denim, because it didn't have stretch, they would call it, it will stretch to fit.

And so you had to, like, when you first put your jeans on, you pretty much have to squeeze yourself into them and do a bunch of squats because they do stretch out over time. That's crazy. And you, so you would buy them a teeny bit too small? Yeah. Knowing that they're gonna stretch out. They're gonna stretch out.

Yeah. Mm. Okay. Anyway. So Levi also, he just, he was a very clever marketer and he started giving like trading cards with funny cartoony ads on them. And the advertising was really, really brilliant, especially once that patent expired and he knew that he had to keep his brand, as the most desirable one.

Which nothing, not very much has changed in advertising. No brands still do smart things like that. Okay, so after this, Jacob Davis isn't much in the story, but he did. We do know that he kept a managerial role in the production until his death in 1908. Hmm. Okay. So let's try to guess how jeans became so popular.

Why did they finally make their way across not only the US but to the world? I have a good guess, but do you have any guesses? Or you say yours first so that I can think. Okay. So in the 1920s mm-hmm. Um, the cinema came about. Oh. And if you think of those movies, John Wayne was in, in the 1930s, there's famous pictures of him wearing jeans.

Oh. And then I think that cowboys became, The thing in the movies. Oh yeah. And so people were mimicking the cowboys. They made 'em cool. Yeah. I feel like maybe to like with more like women starting to work and just also just more guys doing more like during the war and everything. Like just more work.

Yes. They needed something stronger than like a suit pant, you know? That's true. To work in the East, especially during World War I probably, yeah. Men were working more. Yeah, like more rigorous jobs, more of those kinds of jobs. Yeah. That's a good guess. Yeah. Lots of these things happen and then. When you go through the eras in movies mm-hmm.

From John Wayne in the thirties. Grace Kelly has a famous picture in jeans, Elvis too, in the fifties. Mm-hmm. Audrey in breakfast at Tiffany's was wearing those cigarette pants that were made of denim. Oh yeah. Um, then grease in the seventies, love Greece. But, so Layla had sent me this link when we were researching for this, the.

Of the Texas Cowgirls, which was a women's baseball team from 1944 to 77, and Levi's were the official uniform of the Texas cowgirls. Yeah. Which I think is crazy because Would you play baseball wearing jeans? Was it baseball or basketball? Oh, I put, I put B ball. You're right, it's basketball. But that's even worse.

That's even worse. Yeah, even worse. I don't know, like I'm sure 'cause I did see a picture of them. Their uniforms were very cute. Sure. They were at least the top half of them. I didn't see the bottoms, but I don't know like, ' cause I'm thinking of stranger things here in the scene. Like isn't there a scene where they're playing basketball and like I could see someone rocking a pair of booty shorts?

Do you think they were short shorts? Booty short? Oh, I don't know. Let me just click on this link and we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they'd be Jean, like full length pants. Maybe they're like skirts.

Or maybe they're like off court attire. Is denim the legacy of Lady Levi's is the name of this. Oh, this is on the Levi Strauss website? by written by the unzipped staff. That's really funny. That's funny. They introduced Lady Levi's, the first ever jeans designed for women in 1934.

Women were still expected to wear skirts and dresses, but a shift was underway during World War ii. Oh my gosh. That was kind of right. Women were stepping into roles and spaces that had long been denied to them. Wow. Layla, you hit the nail on the head. We were talking about men, but this is about women.

So they were asserting their right to move work and be seen on ranches outdoors, or simply opting for comfort over convention. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they were, okay. You're on the wrong part. This doesn't talk about the Lady Levi's. Oh, okay. Oh, there they are. Yeah, they're wearing, they're wearing jeans with cuffed bottoms and then they have like a vest with fringe on it and Cowgirl hats.

This is the Harlem Globetrotters visit, Texas Cowgirl training camp. Oh, so they weren't like an actual playing team? They were more like the The Globetrotters. See, I was trying to Hmm. That's really interesting. Maybe someone listening has some history with them and knows. Yeah. Somebody in Texas will know that.

Yeah. Okay. Wait, the pioneering, brainstorming, women's, women's basketball stars. So here's them in like, oh my gosh. Oh, they're wearing shorts. They're wearing shorts in this one. So I wonder if like, the denim is like. They wear that off court. They're like, show uniform.

They're like Class Bs. They're Class Bs. That's so funny. Army wife. That's funny. Okay. Well, At any rate, yeah. I also read that they weren't really making widespread women's styles until the seventies, but women would just buy the men's and alter them. Yeah, girl, you still do that. They still do. Yeah, they still do that.

Except now nobody knows how to alter. So you're just like, why is there's so much fabric in the crotch and like, girl, those are men's jeans. Put them down. Yeah. That's funny. They just tie shoe laces into the back. Yeah. Yeah. Put them down or pick up a, A needle and thread. Mm-hmm. Or by women's now they make women's.

Oh yeah, yeahs. And then of course you have that classic Brooke Shields, Calvin Klein ad in 1986. Yes, she was 15 in that ad. That ad is terrifying. And it was inappropriate. Is weird. Yeah. Okay. Guess what, bill? Guess what dollar amount this is now The blue jeans industry worldwide is a how many billions of dollars?

Industry 17 trillion. No, I said it's billions. Oh, 17 billion? No, $86 billion. Oh my gosh. Industry worldwide. That's insane. Isn't that crazy? And I also watched this, um, there used to be this show on the science channel called How It's Made. Mm-hmm. Do you remember that show? Yeah. I think we used to watch it for homeschool very briefly.

And I found one on jeans. Hmm. And it was amazing how still it's such a process now of both machines and people. Mm. In fact, when I was growing up, my granny had a series of odd jobs and one of her jobs was in a jeans factory and her job was to top stitch the pock, the front pockets, huh? She would do that like all day, all day.

And this factory that, this how it's made episode was in, produces 1500 pairs of jeans a day. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And, but there's machines for everything and so when there was one guy who was cutting almost like a. Like an electric knife cutting stacks of the pattern pieces out. Oh, I've seen those. Yeah. Yeah.

And then there's machines that do so many of the steps, but then they'll hop over to an actual person on a regular sewing machine. I mean an industrial sewing machine. Sewing like certain steps also. That's cool. My favorite machine. After the jeans are done, they're in, they're inside out. And there's this machine with like a super strong vacuum and the guy puts one leg in it.

That's, that's so funny. And it flips it right side out and then another leg in it flips it right side out and then he's done. That's so, so like anything to speed up the process. Right. The machinery is pretty super cool. So yes, obviously Levi's are still being made today. I'm sure that the Strauss family would be so proud of that legacy.

Yeah. I wonder if they ever would have guessed though. How popular. These jeans would be, they would be, yeah. I also feel a little bad for Jacob Davis, the real inventor, that Levi gets all the credit I, or maybe he didn't care. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like he was such an integral part in the company that like, yeah, you know, you're right, you're right.

He did include him. Just because we don't have like documentation of his life. Also, it's like, I'm sure it's like directors aren't. Like an actor gets more credit than a director, but the director's the one making the art. Hey, that's a really good point. Partially, of course, like the actors are doing stuff like, unless you're Ryan Johnson.

Unless you're Ryan Johnson or, um, Tarantino, I dunno. Oh, or, um, Wes Anderson. Oh, yeah. Or David Lynch. Okay. So maybe your theory is Yeah. Okay. I don't know. Listen, listen. Oh, that's funny. Okay. Thank you so much for listening. We're gonna be back with a really interesting topic next time about Bye. Gunny sax.

Yeah. And gunny sacks. So stay tuned for that on the first Monday of next month. Thanks for listening. Bye.