Jacob William Davis ( , May 14, 1831 – January 20, 1908) was a

Latvian-American Latvian Americans () are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2019 American Community Survey, there are 85,723 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent. History The first significant wave of Latvian settlers who immigra ...

tailor of Latvian descent who is credited with inventing modern jeans. Growing up in

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, he emigrated to the United States as a young man and spent some time in Canada as well. He invented jeans by using sturdy cloth and

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...

s to strengthen weak points in the seams, and partnered with

Levi Strauss Levi Strauss ( ; born Löb Strauß, ; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Franci ...

to mass-produce them.

Biography

Jacob Youphes was born to a Latvian Jewish family family in the city of

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, in 1831. During this time, he trained and worked as a tailor. In 1854, at the age of 23, he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, arriving in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

where he changed his name to Jacob Davis. There he ran a tailor's shop before moving to

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

and then, in 1856,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

before moving on to Weaverville. After traveling around America believed to be working as a

journeyman A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee ...

tailor, in 1858 Davis left California and moved to Western Canada in search of better opportunities. There, Davis met a German immigrant, Annie Parksher, whom he married and together, Jacob and Annie had six children. During his time in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, Davis worked at the

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

panning for gold.Jacob Davis and the Copper-riveted Jeans
In January 1867, Davis returned to

with Annie and his family. Later that year, they moved to

Virginia City, Nevada Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, United States, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno, Nevada, Reno–Sparks, Nevada, Sparks Reno, NV Metropolitan ...

, where he sold wholesale tobacco and pork before beginning work once more as a tailor. By 1868, the family had moved, this time to

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

, which at that time was a tiny railroad town and there he helped Frederick Hertlein build a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

. 1869 saw Davis revert to his original trade, opening a tailor shop in the main street of the town. In his tailor shop, Davis made functional items such as

tent A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using g ...

horse blanket A horse blanket or rug is a blanket or animal ''Coat (clothing), coat'' intended for keeping a horse or other equidae, equine warm or otherwise protected from wind or other elements. They are tailored to fit around a horse's body from chest to r ...

s and wagon covers for the railway workers on the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...

. The fabric Davis worked with was heavy-duty

cotton duck Cotton duck (from , meaning "cloth"), also simply duck, sometimes duck cloth or duck canvas, is a heavy, plain weave, plain woven cotton Textile, fabric. Duck canvas is more tightly woven than canvas, plain canvas. There is also linen duck, whi ...

cloth and

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

denim Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more Warp (weaving), warp threads. This twill weave produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. Denim, as it is recognized today, was f ...

which he bought from Levi Strauss & Co., a

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...

company in San Francisco. To strengthen the stress points of the sewn items he was making, Davis used

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

s to reinforce the stitching. Copy of Figure from Patent

In December 1870, Davis was asked by a customer to make a pair of strong working pants for her husband who was a woodcutter. To create suitably robust pants for working, he used

duck cloth Cotton duck (from , meaning "cloth"), also simply duck, sometimes duck cloth or duck canvas, is a heavy, plain woven cotton fabric. Duck canvas is more tightly woven than plain canvas. There is also linen duck, which is less often used. Cott ...

and reinforced the weak points in the seams and pockets with the copper rivets. Such was the success of these pants that word spread throughout the

labourer A laborer ( or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor typed within the construction industry. There is a generic factory laborer which is defined separately as a factory worker. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which ...

s along the railroad. Davis was making these working pants in duck cotton and, as early as 1871, in denim cotton. Before long, he found he could not keep up with demand. Davis had previously applied for patents for other inventions. Realizing the potential value in his reinforced jeans concept, in 1872, he approached

, who was still his supplier of fabric, and asked for his

financial backing An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

in the filing of a

patent application A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claim (patent), claims stated in a formal document, including necessary officia ...

. Strauss agreed, and on May 20, 1873, US Patent No. 139,121 for "Improvements in fastening pocket openings" was issued in the name of Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss and Company. That same year, Davis started sewing a double orange threaded stitched design onto the back pocket of the

jeans Jeans are a type of trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by ...

to distinguish them from those made by his competitors. This trademark feature became Registered U.S. Trade Mark No. 1,139,254.U.S. Trade Mark 1,139,254
/ref> By this time, Strauss had set up a sizeable tailor shop in San Francisco for the production of Davis' working pants and Jacob and his family had moved back to San Francisco for Davis to run this shop. As demand continued to grow, the shop was superseded by a

manufacturing plant A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an Industry (manufacturing), industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with Outline of industrial machinery, machinery, where workers manufacturing, manufac ...

which Davis managed for Strauss. Davis continued to work there for the remainder of his life, overseeing production of the work pants as well as other lines including work shirts and

overalls Overalls or bib-and-brace overalls, also called dungarees in British English, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers ...

. Davis died in San Francisco in 1908. He is buried at

Hills of Eternity Memorial Park Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, also known as Giboth Olam, is a Jewish cemetery founded in 1889, and is located at 1301 El Camino Real, in Colma, California. This cemetery is owned by Congregation Sherith Israel of San Francisco. It is one of f ...

in Colma, California. In 2006 a plaque was erected in

, outside the premises where Davis's tailor shop was located, to commemorate the fact jeans were invented there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Jacob W. 1831 births 1908 deaths 19th-century American inventors Inventors from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Businesspeople from Riga American people of Russian-Jewish descent American tailors People of the California Gold Rush American gold prospectors American Jews American inventors 19th-century American businesspeople Levi Strauss & Co. people Burials at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park Jeans

Biography

See also

References