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workpants for his customers using Levi Strauss LEE
denim and believed he had the perfect solution.
The pants he was making for miners weren’t
tough enough to stand up to the conditions in
local mines; among other issues, the pockets
and button fly were constantly being torn. “A
miner’s wife came up to Davis and asked him
to come up with pants that could withstand
some abuse,” says Nancy Davis (no relation),
curator of the American History Museum.
Davis looked at the metal fasteners he used on
harnesses and other objects. “At that time, he came
up with the riveted trousers.”
In 1871, Reno tailor
Jacob Davis thought to As local miners snapped up the overalls he made
use metal rivets to with rivet-strengthened stress points and durable
strengthen pants, leading “duck cloth,” a type of canvas, Davis realized he
to Levi’s blue jeans. needed to protect his idea. Lacking the money to Henry David Lee 1928 photograph of the H. D. Lee
file for a patent on his own, Davis wrote to Levi (December 9, 1849 – March 15, 1928) Company in Kansas City, MO
Strauss in 1872 about his method of
strengthening work pants by using metal In 1889, Henry David Lee, born in Vermont, founded the
rivets on the stress points: the corners of the H. D. Lee Mercantile Company in Salina, Kansas, producing blue
pockets and the base of the button fly and jeans, overalls, and jackets. The growth of Lee was prompted by the
Strauss agreed to support Davis’ idea. On introduction of the Union-All work jumpsuit in 1913, and in 1927, the
May 20, 1873, the pair was issued a patent Company became the first garment manufacturer to use a “hookless
for “Improvement in Fastening Pocket- fastener”— or zipper—in cowboy pants, overalls, coveralls, and
Openings.” According to Levi’s company’s playsuits, replacing buttons. This was a game-changer for the Lee brand
timeline, the original design had “one back and broadened the appeal of denim work clothes.
pocket with the Arcuate stitching design Lee focused on the durability of its clothes in its marketing. In 1925,
(the same design they have today), a watch the Company teamed up with Canton Mills of Canton, Georgia, to
pocket, a cinch, suspender buttons and a develop the strongest and bluest denim in the market for durable work
rivet in the crotch. The rivets on the back and western wear. In a 1939 publicity stunt, Lee’s “Jelt” Lee j denim
pockets were exposed.” survived Ripley’s Believe It or Not! 26-mile crawl across untreated concrete.
Davis soon moved to San Francisco,
and wide-scale production of riveted pants
started for the first time under the brand
name Levi Strauss & Co. with a label that
Illustration from the 1873 patent clearly proclaimed: “Patent Riveted Duck
application for riveted blue jeans. & Denim Clothing … Every Pair
Guaranteed. None Genuine Unless
Bearing This Label.” By the time their
patent expired in 1890, Levi Strauss & Co. was an established brand
among American workers; however, it was Levi’s 501 style, issued in
1890, that moved Levi’s blue jeans outside of the working-class demo-
graphic and into the embrace of everyday casual fashion as people,
other than blue-collar workers, began wearing jeans, according to the
Smithsonian’s Davis.
Levi Strauss passed away in 1902, and by 1911 the company was
owned and operated by Strauss’s nephews, Jacob, Louis, Abraham, and An original 13” x 10” photo
selling on eBay for $8 was
Sigmund Stern. Due to customer demand, they stopped making blue from a photo shoot for a Lee Riders
jeans out of cotton duck and stuck strictly to denim, considering it a ad that ran in Life magazine
superior fabric that was strong, comfortable, and became more com- in the 1960s.
fortable with each wash – ideal for manual labor workers in the mines
and on the railroad. By the 1930s, it wasn’t just manual laborers that
needed a pair of blue jeans — the growing fascination with cowboys, Lee jeans were also known for their small, rounded back pockets
dude ranches, and John Wayne in Western movies had everyone want- that had a wide placement. It is said that the reason for this was to make
ing the western look. It did not take long before new companies entered the jeans more comfortable to wear when seated in the saddle and they
the market with their own versions of blue jean western wear.
could also be reached without the need to stand up in the saddle.
Lee’s iconic Ryders and jean jackets became the brand’s most
popular and defining style. Lady Lee Riders were introduced to the
market in 1947. From that point on, Lee’s workwear clothing was
silhouetted into fashion wear for men and women, from bell bottom
jeans and painter’s jackets to “Leisure” suits and dressed-up western cut
and styled denim outfits.
When it comes to desirable vintage Lees, look in particular for the
tags to identify styles from the 1950s and ‘60s (the tags remained
similar in design to the 1950s in the 1960s). During this era, Lee start-
ed to include information about the materials used (100% cotton) and
added Made in the USA on some of its tags. In demand from this fash-
ion era are bib-overalls, coveralls, the Loco jacket, cowboy jeans,
101z jeans, the Rider jacket, and the Storm Rider jacket.

The Two-Horse Brand 1915 Levi Strauss & Co. advertisement
16 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles