June 15, 2005
well, i always thought that i knew the story of levi’s jeans, how the bavarian levi strauss showed up in gold rush san francisco with a ton of heavy canvas for tent-making, met a miner who needed a pair of pants strong enough to withstand the rigors of gold mining, and the rest was history. most san franciscans “know” the same story.
wrong!
turns out that we owe that international fashion trend not to mr. strauss, but to a nevada tailor named jacob davis, who first had the idea of using copper rivets to reinforce seams. mr. davis approached his fabric supplier in san francisco, mr. strauss, asking for his help in establishing a patent, and they formed a partnership. that’s the real story! whatever their provenance, levi’s jeans are an essential part of san francisco’s gold mining past.
the german roots of levi strauss are honored in his hometown, at the levi strauss museum in buttenheim, germany, and jacob davis’ descendants are still living in the san francisco bay area, running a company which bears his surname: ben davis.
Sparkletack is the blog and podcast of a guy who's obsessed with diggin' up San Francisco history. 
June 15, 2005 at 6:58 pm
Super broadcast today-when is the one on Alcatraz due?
I -thanks to your influence-am now well on the way to getting my own going now.
Thanks for the inspiration
June 15, 2005 at 6:58 pm
hey colin, really glad you enjoyed it! i hate to admit it, but even after living here all these years i STILL haven’t visited alcatraz…. maybe this will be the year i get around to it. :) send me a link to your rss feed when you’re up and running….
June 16, 2005 at 6:59 pm
hey, i’ve eaten at that pizza place that you mentioned, “paulines” — it is great! the bathroom is really cool, too… my friends from SF took me there especially to see it. sounds weird, but it’s like a little shrine!
June 20, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Hi Richard,
I love your podcast and have to admit that I also heard the false Levi’s story here in Germany… And believed it! But I still think it sounds better than the real one, don’t you?
All the best from Munich,
your biggest fan ;-)
June 20, 2005 at 6:59 pm
hey annik, thanks for the nice comment! i completely agree, i liked the first story much better. somehow much less complicated and more romantic: “young immigrant seeks his fortune in the wild west and accidentally strikes it rich!” ah well — reality is always a little bit messy, right? (i still haven’t told my nephew the real story. :)
December 12, 2005 at 7:00 pm
I was catching up on old sparkletacks and loved this one. I do have to make one comment. Denim — serge de nimes — it actually quite old. My memory fades and I can’t remember if it’s the 14th century or the 1400s, but nonetheless, it is old.
When I was young and a medievalist, one of the things that entertained me and my fellows was that a “poet’s shirt” and pair of Levi’s was actually far more historically accurate than nearly anything else you’d see at a renn faire. And of course, telling someone would send them into apoplexy.