2026-10-28
Levi’s 501 Jeans: How a Two-Cent Copper Rivet Kept Miner Workwear Alive for 150 Years — and Turned It into the Uniform of Youth
Ranked #33 on the 100 Products That Changed the World: Levi’s 501 jeans (1873), OVR 88.85 (Durability 95, Originality 92, Scale 92, Impact 85, Business 85, Experience 82). In 1872, Reno tailor Jacob Davis hammered saddle-blanket copper rivets onto the pocket corners of duck trousers to stop miners' ore samples from ripping the seams. Backed by dry-goods wholesaler Levi Strauss for a $68 patent fee (U.S. Patent #139,121), Lot 501 evolved from Gold Rush workwear into the rebel armor of Marlon Brando and the keynote uniform of Steve Jobs.
