Jeans are a universal garment which can be worn for working, relaxing, and even going out with. While the bottoms have gone from resembling bells to becoming very skinny, overall the classic blue jean has definitely stood the test of time and is one of the most common forms of clothing worn to this day.

Many times when we think of jeans, we think Levi’s, and thus often attribute Levi Strauss & Co. as the one’s who invented the blue jean. While the denim itself was not invented by Levi, the style of the jean pant was. Levi Strauss and a tailor named Jacob Davis created the riveted jeans featuring the the copper rivets that reinforced the stress points on a piece of denim clothing.

Note the “Original Riveted” on the label.

Denim fabric and blue jeans actually date back much further. They originally came out of Genoa, Italy and Nimes, France around the 17th century. The weavers in Genoa made a fabric that is similar to today’s fabric.

How did the actual name “jeans” come about? Well, seeing as the French name for Genoa is Gênes, this likely is the origin of the modern name. As for the word “denim”, this likely came from the French version of the Genoan fabric called “de Nimes”.

The working class loved denim for it’s durabiltiy. Then in the 1950’s jeans exploded into popular culture with help from the Greaser subculture which was inspired by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.

While the jeans of today come in all shapes and sizes, there’s one thing they all have in common.

… This little extra pocket that usually seems too small to hold anything useful.

There may be a few designer exceptions, but the vast majority of jeans have them. Even mom jeans!

So what’s up with this tiny pocket? Well, there were not any wrist watches back then. Only pocket watches.

The small extra pocket in the jeans were for cowboys and other rugged types to safely store a pocket watch.

Okay fine, but why do jeans today still have that tiny pocket. Hardly anyone does pocket watches anymore. Have you seen a guy like this lately?

It did once have purpose, but now it is still there, seeminly purposeless. Kind of like an appendix.

Well, we’ve all stuffed a thing or two in them at least once right? Like a piece of candy…

It seems the pocket remains simply as fashion for the blue jean. Though it does have purpose like storing some change. Who knows, maybe our cell phones will become tiny again and we will have the perfect place to store them!