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 Levi
501 Jeans
Posted 2009 The 501 jeans are one of the original designs developed by Levi Strauss. In and around 1972, Levi Strauss began to sell jeans to working men, and specifically miners who traveled to California during the gold rush. He assigned the number 501 to these jeans, and patented his riveting process in 1891 to combat imitators. As history has shown, this was not successful. The patent was actually a joint application by Strauss and a tailor from Nevada named Jacob Davis. Davis appears to be the first man to apply copper rivets to garments, he sold his percentage of the patent to the Levi Strauss company in 1907. Orginally, Levi Strauss was a dry goods merchant and a successful businessman. Rumour suggests that Davis did not have the $68 needed to file for a patent, this was the only reason Strauss entered into the garment business. Only by the 1950's did jeans become a casual clothing item, and Levi jeans were exported outside of the USA. By the 1980's - as a fighback against the likes of Pepe London who launched acid wash 'drainpipe' styles - Levi decided to reinstate the original 501 style. Other model numbers have been launched by Levi.
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