How blue jeans were invented | Moments of Vision 10 - Jessica Oreck

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-blue-jeans-were-invented-moments-of-vision-10-jessica-oreck

Today, 96% of American consumers own at least one pair of jeans. But where did these durable duds come from? And how did they get so popular? Jessica Oreck shares the humble origins of blue jeans.

Lesson and animation by Jessica Oreck.

In a Moment of Vision...

It's the height of the Gold Rush,
1850s California.

A young tailor named Jacob Davis notices
that his gold-mining customers

are wearing through pants faster
than they can patch them.

In a moment of vision,

Davis adds reinforcing metal rivets
to his pant design,

strategically placing them
at points of strain,

like the corners of pockets
and the base of the fly.

The enhanced trousers are soon
in high demand.

In order to take out a patent on
the highly successful riveted pant,

Davis needs a business partner.

He approaches the supplier
of his cloth,

a dry goods merchant
by the name of Levi Strauss.

Strauss and Davis begin manufacturing
pants out of denim,

and continue to modify the design
to accommodate their customers.

It is rumored that the removal
of the crotch rivet

was due to a complaint from the miners

that squatting too near a campfire
in their typical underwear-free fashion

could be painful.

Jeans continued to be modified
and diversified over the years,

eventually becoming
an everyday fashion item

for both work and play by the 1960s.

Today, 96% of American consumers own
at least one, if not many, pairs of jeans.