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The story goes that Levi Strauss, founder of Levi Strauss & Company, insisted on calling his denim work pants "waist-high overalls" rather than "jeans", a word derived from "genes" the French word for the cotton trousers worn by Genovese sailors. It was only in 1960, with the introduction of jeans for women, that the company dropped the word "overalls'  from all its advertising.

The original Levi's were work pants designed to be worn with suspenders. Strauss' rivet reinforced pants were the result of a collaboration with Jacob Youphes, a Lithuanian who changed his name to Jacob W Davis when he emigrated to America in 1868.

Davis tried his hand at prospecting for gold and selling wholesale pork and tobacco before settling on making tents, horse blankets and other outdoor supplies for surveyors and teamsters working on the Central Pacific Railroad.

It was during this time that he created, at the request of a labourer's wife, a pair of sturdy trousers reinforced with rivets to strengthen the seams at all the points of stress on the garment.

When Davis was unable to meet the growing demand for the indestructible work pants, Davis sought a business partner, and asked Strauss to take out a patent in his name. The patent was granted on May 20, 1873.

In the understated application for Patent Number 139121, called Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings, Davis does not claim ownership of using rivets to fasten seams, since this method was already in use on shoes. Davis describes his invention as "a pair of pantaloons having the pocket openings secured at each edge by means of rivets, substantially in the manner described and shown, whereby the semas at the points named are prevented from ripping, as set forth."



Davis' illustration of his reinforced work trousers, indicating where the copper rivets were used to fasten the seams of the garment. The crotch rivet was discontinued in 1942 after complaints from cowboys that it became excessively hot when they were crouching by the fire.

Illustration: US Patent Office, May 20, 1973 (accessed from Google Patent Search)