Levi Straus
A German emigrant, Mr. Levi Strauss settled in San Francisco and started Levi Strauss & Co. out of a small wooden shack. A gold rush miner asked Levi Strauss to make a pair of pants. The first jeans were made from a canvas-like material also used to make tents and covered wagons. Lacking suitable thread, Strauss stapled the pants at stress points. In 1873, a tailor from Reno, Nevada named Jacob Davis joins Levi Strauss and brings copper rivets with him. In 1890, Levi’s 501 jeans are born, though at first they are called waist high overalls. Belt loops are integrated into the Levi’s 501 jeans design in 1922, as belts become fashionable. In 1936, as many jean makers try to imitate the success of Levi’s jeans a conscientious employee devises a plan to tell the real thing from impostors by sewing in along side the pocket the little red Tab device.
In 1942, a man in Hawaii attempts the Levi’s Two-Horse trademark test. With some doing, the 501 jeans are ripped in half and the man receives a refund. His wife however, sends it back. It seems that her husband used mules, not horses (mules being stronger than horses). Records show that one of the mules died of fatigue the next day.