Levi's 9Rivet: The Oldest Pair of Jeans?

If you are familiar with The Clothing Warehouse, then you may be aware that apart from our retail location in Little 5 Points, we operate a warehouse that serves as the store’s processing center. Inside, you will see bins full of clothing for wholesale, inventory being prepared to send to the store, and bales ranging from 100 to 1,000 pounds of unopened clothing waiting to be sorted through.

We have come to find the 1,000-pound bales include some of the most interesting items due to the sheer quantity we are sorting through. Our staff may occasionally come across a Gunne Sax dress, a rare T-shirt, or a pair of Levi’s 501s from 1873.

Oh yes, it was an average day of opening and sorting at the warehouse—until an interesting pair of Levi’s was pulled from the thousand pounds of clothing surrounding it.

The first thing that caught the eye of our highly trained staff member was, of course, the notable patch you find on the back of all Levi’s, usually a tan/brown color. This one, however, was beige with brown lettering. Next came the inner cuff of the jeans: selvedge denim. Selvedge, or self-edge, denim is of higher quality and harder to produce, making it more rare when it comes to vintage Levi’s.

The next identifying factors were the center back cinch, singular back pocket, and nine rivets. Each of these components on their own could have a separate article discussing them, but the rivets are the most interesting.

The rivets were originally added to Levi’s as a way to keep the seams from ripping, especially in the pockets. These were later removed due to complaints of them scratching furniture and saddles. The rivet placed on the crotch was removed because those wearing the jeans would be sitting crouched around a fire. Let’s just say having a piece of metal on your crotch while sitting in front of a fire can be a painful combination. A funny little piece of fashion history.

This pair of jeans having all of those components meant this could be a very rare pair of Levi’s we just came across—potentially the rarest!

Our excitement came to a halt when we took a look at both the amazing quality of these alleged 150-year-old jeans and the inner labels. The jeans were in exceptional condition with no holes, tears, or strange wear. We still had hope—wishful thinking, I suppose. Taking a look inside, we came across a care label with detergent and washing machine instructions, which, you guessed it, did not exist in the 1800s.

Now the question was, what did we have in our possession if not an original pair? After researching reproductions of the 1873 Levi’s, we came to the conclusion that we did indeed have a reproduced pair—but created by Levi’s themselves. According to Levi’s, in honor of their 150th anniversary, they created a stitch-by-stitch reproduction of their first pair of 501s. There were only 800 produced, and it seems like we came into possession of one of them.