Blue Jeans: The Golden Solution f this text. *
Digging and panning for gold during the Calfomla Gold Rush was hard work. Gold miners
were rough on their clothes. They spent long days crouching or kneeling in river mud as they
panned for gold. Their pants wore out quickly. Miners carried their tools and rock samples in
their pants' pockets. The weight of these items caused the pockets to rip at the seams. The
miners needed tougher, stronger clothes.
A man named Jacob Davis worked as a tailor in Reno, Nevada. He sewed men's clothes.
He also made horse blankets and tents from a heavy-duty cotton canvas. In 1870, a miner's
wife hired Davis to make a pair of workpants for her husband. She wanted his pants to be
sturdy and last a long time.
Davis made the pants out of the same durable fabric he used for tents. He decided the
pockets needed more than thread to keep them from ripping off. He hammered ittle metal
fasteners called rivets into the edges of the pockets to help them last longer. The rivets were
made of copper.
His riveted pants were a success. Soon, other miners wanted Davis's durable pants, too.
Miners could fill their pockets and squat at the river al day long panning for gold without their
pants ripping. The seams on the pockets didn't come loose.
Davis thought someone might steal his idea of adding copper rivets to clothes. He wanted
to apply for a patent to protect his invention. With a patent, no one could use copper rivets on
ther pants without his permission. However, Davis didn't have the money to pay for a patent.
Also, so many people wanted to buy his pants that he could no longer handle making them al
on his own. Davis noeded a business partner
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Davis contacted the man he bought his cloth from. That man was named Levi Strauss
Davis asked Strauss to help him apply for the patent. He invited Strauss to go into business with
him to make the pants. Strauss agreed.
The cloth was changed from cotton canvas to blue denim. Denim was as strong as canvas.
but more comfortable to wear. Davis and Strauss wanted their pants to stand out from those of
their competitors. So they sewed the seams with orange thood. They also used orange
thread to make a pattern on the back pockets. Levi's jeans are still sewn with orange thread
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