「Levi Strauss did not invent jeans, but he is considered the first person to make and sell great numbers of them.」
「He was born in Bavaria, an area that today is part of Germany. In 1847 he and his family immigrated to the United States」
「Levi Strauss opened a small dry goods store, first in New York,」 then in San Francisco, California. 「Among the products he sold were jeans. These pants were especially useful for miners in California.」 They needed clothing made from a strong material. Jeans are usually made from a heavy cotton cloth called denim.
「Levi Strauss partnered with a clothing maker named Jacob Davis. Davis had invented a process for making rivets for jeans. These little metal connectors helped hold the pieces of cloth together to make the jeans stronger. In 1873, the government gave Strauss and Davis a patent for their invention.」 That meant no one else could legally copy it without their permission. They began producing what they called “copper-riveted waist overalls.”
