Latest / Dirt Nap City - History's Most Interesting Dead People / Riveted - How Levi Strauss and Blue Jeans Stitched American Culture

Transcript

Riveted - How Levi Strauss and Blue Jeans Stitched American Culture · Dirt Nap City - History's Most Interesting Dead People

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everybody.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Alex, good to see you, man.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you're looking really there's something, I don't know, something special about the way you look.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you're in a new interface or something.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we're using a new uh platform here.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_04: Hopefully the listeners uh um detect uh little we class this place up a little.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, just a little, just a little.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh it's it's um, you know, I know you hate it when I talk about the weather, because you know, this will be played back at times that may or may not be relevant, but I will say it's been nice lately.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's been nice outside, don't you think?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not today.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: A little hot today.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've been inside all day.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it doesn't matter, does it?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We recently took a trip to the Alamo City to see uh one of our favorite Canadian rock bands, the Power Trio of Rush, with the new drummer, Annika.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: What did you think?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_04: She was um brilliant, she was outstanding, band was fun.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was a good good time.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was a good time.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: San Antonio is a nice town, especially for a rock concert.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like they're they're sort of the heart of rock and roll down there.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: And we've talked about Neil Peart on the show before.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_04: We have check out the drumming episode.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, yeah.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: You learn that uh it's not called a stool, it's called a throne.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The power hitters.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, this is episode 100 and something.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're we're getting up there.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're closing in on that 200 mark.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like we're just getting better, don't you think?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_04: Although, didn't you say you listened to episode one the other day and it wasn't any worse?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, I I said the opposite.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I listened to I listened to episode one and it was better than I expected.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: So maybe we're not getting better.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe we're not getting better then.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and we've just always been at the same level of mediocrity.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're sufficient.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a sufficient podcast.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_04: Well, hopefully anybody who's listening enjoys this.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um you think this is anyone's first one?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: If it's your first time listening to DirtNep City, please send us a quick note.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not at DirtNep City.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And first of all, if it is really your first time and you send us a note, we may very well shout you out in the next show.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: But if you live in the U.S., um, we will probably send you a sticker.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So just send us an email with your mail-in address.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not your first time and you want a sticker, send us an email, not at DirtNep City, with your mailing address, and we'll send you a sticker for the back of your laptop, the back of your car.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can put it on your TV, anything you need to.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_04: No, even if you're not from the U.S., you know, Kelly hates foreigners famously, but if uh if you are not from the U.S., we'll still, you know, we'll we'll I'll I'll step up and pay the shipping.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate I was gonna say, I it's it has nothing to do with what you just characterize this as, it has to do with the shipping costs.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and I suppose a sticker overseas is gonna be a buck or two, so yes.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_04: I hate the band foreigner, but Kelly actually hates people not from the U.S.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: He hates foreigner, I hate foreigners.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just to be clear.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_04: I hate Lou Graham.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's no jukebox hero to me.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_04: I got a good one today, Kelly I've got it.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna talk about um uh 19th century American icon.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh this is a surprise.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're usually a 20th century guy.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, he made it right into the he died in 1902, so he did make it into the 20th century.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, um and I don't know, I mean, I think you know American businesses enough to maybe even get this just by where he was born and where he died, and just kind of the time frame that I'm talking about.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: But maybe not, maybe not.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: He was born in 1829, he was an immigrant, he's at 1829 in Buttenheim in the Kingdom of Bavaria, okay, in the German Confederation, 1829 in Bavaria, and died in 1902 in San Francisco, California, and was um probably um one of the most famous San Francisco business people in history.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Benioff.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, uh yeah, yeah.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Does he have stuff named after him?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like there's probably parks and bridges and um no, yes, his company is named after him.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll give you his company is named after his uh known most, his product is known most by his first name.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Ah uh give me an idea of what the company does.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Clothing.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, San Francisco clothing Louis Vuitton.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I think he's French.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: No, that is.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_04: And if you know your football, the 49ers play in a stadium named for this company.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: They have the naming rights for this.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know my football, so that's not fair.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Candlestick Park.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um no, that's baseball, right?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that was football too, but they they tore that place down.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh okay.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_04: San Francisco, it's it's uh German, German immigrant, San Francisco company, um, the 1860s, uh right after the gold rush made.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And still exists today?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, a popular product, and I would bet you you have uh numerous items of from this company.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_04: Is it blue jeans?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Levi's?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_04: You got it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: Levi Strauss.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Levi Strauss.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: Whose actual real name was not Levi.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: His name was Loeb.
• 6:27
  unknown: Oh.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_04: Loeb.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: Loeb Strauss.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_04: Spelled with that really cool German letter that looks like a B.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: That's the double the S S S S S S.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: Strauss.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: Loeb Strauss.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: So he was born, it was uh born in Germany, um, 1829.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_04: And his dad was a dry goods peddler.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know what dry goods are?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is that stuff like flour and and uh wheat?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I always thought that too, but it really is anything that's not wet.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: It could be blank, it's really it's blankets and everything.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually a pretty good description of it, right?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: So if you needed something wet, he's not your guy.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_04: If you need milk or water or whiskey, right, beer, he's not your guy.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Germans, right?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: Anything that's dry, you he'd hook you up.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: So his dad was a traveling salesman, and he was a part of a large family.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_04: It was all him and his siblings, and then plus his siblings from his dad's previous marriage, and he was the youngest.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: And he was born into a Jewish family in a part of Germany where even we're a hundred years before Hitler, but even a hundred years before Hitler, they didn't have a lot of rights in some parts of Germany, and we're talking the 1830s.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: There was a thing in in uh in Bavaria in 1813, called the Bavaria 1813 Jewish Edict.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: What that did was that would it did a lot of things, but it it limited the number of Jewish families that could even be in a community.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: So like you could live in a particular village, and then when you grow up, you couldn't stay there because you would exceed the quota.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: You'd have to move away from your family.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you especially couldn't have kids because that would exceed it even further.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: You'd have to move as soon as you turn an adult.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: And it this edict would also restrict where people would live and the jobs that they had.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: It was pretty awful.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and a lot of people were going to America where there was still anti-Semitism, but it was nothing like, you know, any of those kind of um not blatant um laws telling you how many people could live in a village or something.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty extreme.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in the 1860s, 1870s?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: 1830s.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: 1830s, wow.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, isn't that crazy?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And anything called an edict is never good, right?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it always says we're gonna come up with an edict for this.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_04: I learned that from the uh Santa Claus claimations back in those those those Santa Claus uh shows where they would have a proclamation that no kids could play with toys anymore.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like Heat Miser and uh Yeah, that was the edict, yeah.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Cold miser.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_04: So when um when he was in 1846, when Loeb was 17 years old, um his uh dad died, and his mom had all kinds of money trouble.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: They weren't real wealthy, they get by with the you know, the traveling salesman money, but two of his older brothers had already moved to New York, so his mom decided to join them at that time.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_04: And there was probably a smart move.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there was a lot of promise in America, these 1840s, um, and like I mentioned, all the anti-Semitism.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_04: So they went to America in like 1847 or 1848.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: What's cool is that the place where he grew up in Germany, as bad as they, you know, as those edicts were, his birthplace is now a museum.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because of him?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's the Levi Strauss Museum.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he's a famous guy, and they're yeah, now they're proud of where he grew up and and all that, but it's I always think it's kind of ironic.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Even though they kicked him out, even though he was like one too many for this.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: It was so awful that they had to leave, but now they, you know, right.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: But I think it's it's uh the ultimate kind of uh told you so isn't it re revisionist history?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, to to be fair though, I think if um well you've been to Germany a lot, they they um they don't sugarcoat things.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, they probably talk about the edicts and how awful it was um growing up uh if you went to that museum.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_04: But that museum hadn't been around um too long.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're if you're ever in the area of Buttenheim, um check that place out and let us let us know.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_04: You ever been to there?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_04: No Bavaria?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have been to Bavaria, yeah, yeah.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Munich's in Bavaria.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I have not been to Butenheim, but I like the name.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_04: So he gets to New York, and his brothers have a business called J.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: Strauss Brother and Company.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not loving that name.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not brothers, it's Jay Strauss one was a Jay Strauss Brother and Company, but there's two brothers, and now three, a third's on his way, but whatever.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they also sold dry goods, which was fabrics, blankets, clothing, household goods.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, they were actually wholesalers, supplying retailers, so they were like the middleman, right?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_04: They weren't making anything, they weren't manufacturing anything, they were just buying um buying from people that made the stuff and selling to wholesalers who would then go and sell it to market.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of traders, like traders, right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like trader Joe, trader Levi, trader, trader low.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Loeb.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Loeb.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like like Lisa Loeb.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: But he wasn't, yeah, exactly.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: It spelled the same.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: He wasn't sitting in a well, it was spelled L-O-B with the um uh umlaut over the so you could spell L-O-E-B, I guess, too, like Lisa.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_04: But he wasn't just sitting in a desk.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_04: Uh he was actually a traveling salesman, just like his dad.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_04: And there's actually some ports, reports that he we even spent some time in Kentucky um traveling around.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_04: But your records aren't great, so nobody really those are the the Kentucky years that people people talk about, but anyways, he kind of learned how to be a salesperson there.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: And um by 1951, um, you know, he uh he files to be a U.S.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: citizen, and by 1853, he becomes a U.S.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_04: citizen.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, wait, you said 1951.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: You mean 1851?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_04: 1851.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: 1853 he becomes a U.S.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: citizen, and he's also starts going by the name Levi at this point, you know, and kind of Americanize him himself.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um so in 1853, he goes west to open the West Coast branch of uh Jay Strauss, brother, and company.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_04: And uh you don't have to be a huge football fan to know what year the gold rush really peaked in uh San Francisco.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the 49ers.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_04: So that was 1849, was when everybody showed up.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and uh it became a state, I believe, in California became a state, I believe, in 1850.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_04: So this is a brand new brand uh must have been pretty exciting uh to be in this this part of the country.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_04: Everything is pretty new.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_04: He sold dry goods as well, he wasn't branching out too much, he was stayed in his lane.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um he was felling fabric and clothes and handkerchiefs were big back then.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um he didn't go there to sell jeans, and you know, I think there's I don't know about you, but I don't I didn't know anything about Levi Strauss before this, and I always thought that there was this kind of I always thought of him as like this um you know guy with a big beard that was kind of a prospector, and then he was maybe sold some, you know, made made jeans out of canvas, you know, or and I think there's stories like that, but none of that stuff is true.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_04: He was uh, you know, he was uh a dry goods peddler um from Germany that uh went out to to you know he wasn't gonna strike his his wealth in gold, but he was gonna be around the people that were striking it rich in gold and supply them with dry goods.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: So so did Denham exist at that time?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: So Denham, um yes, yes.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um Denham actually comes the full name of Denim is called Serge Denim.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_04: And Nîmes is a town in France where they would make this stuff, and Denim would mean it's from Nîmes.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: And Denim is this durable technically it's a durable fabric that has it's twill woven with a diagonal pattern.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_04: Is that what makes it work?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_04: Denim, yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: Now jeans are some were something completely different.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_04: Jeans were another sturdy fabric, but that was from Genoa, Italy.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: That's how it gets its name jeans, like from Genoa.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_04: It didn't refer to the uh it just referred to the pants, not the not the fabric.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so it was it was jeans from Genoa, denim from uh from Neem, and then there was another fabric called cotton duck.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: Have you ever heard of duck as a fabric?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: D-U-C-K.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's another kind of sturdy fabric.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_04: With all of these things, when you dye them with indigo, they turn blue.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's what I was gonna ask.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was gonna be my next question.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Where does the blue come from?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so so there was there was these different sturdy fabrics going around, but he wasn't really selling that stuff too much yet.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: He was mostly selling like handkerchiefs and and other kind of uh dry goods.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but not tent canvas, as as I think some of the stories had had talked about.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_04: So by the 1860s, he was a successful wholesaler uh in the west part of the United States.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um San Francisco is just coming out of the gold rush and kind of growing as a sophisticated city with restaurants and hotels and being a proper city, you know.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, we know that 1849 was the gold rush, just to give you a sense of how how much that grew.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_04: Then 1848, there were a thousand people that lived in San Francisco.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: And in 1850, there were 35,000 people that lived in San Francisco.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: This this is a recurring theme, though, right?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times these people get famous in cities that grow quickly.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, right place, right time, right?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, imagine that you go from a thousand people in 1849 to 35,000 in 1850 just because of the gold rush.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, you can think of like the internet boom, but this is like people moving to a single place.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: And then by 1870, so 20 years later, there were 150,000 people that live in San Francisco.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's one of those very exponential curves.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: I think you see that a lot in the last 20 years with cities in China.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_04: There'll be places that were just like uh rural outposts 10 years ago that now have 10 million people that live in them, and they become like uh industrial cities.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's pretty fascinating um when in all the infrastructure that it takes to have these big cities, you know, that you know, you need dry goods salesmen and yeah, hotels and restaurants.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's opportunity, chocolatiers.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: And it was also right, exactly.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: It was also brand new state, though, you know, so there was a little lawlessness though.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: There was uh not only were there nice hotels and restaurants, but there were also, you know, gambling houses and brothels, yeah, and uh opium dens and violent criminals.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: There's a crazy story, just to give you a little color from this.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_04: 1856.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_04: So that's around the time that we're talking about, just three years after Levi gets there, six years after it's a state, a newspaper editor named James King um publicly accused a local politician named James Casey.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_04: So you got King is the newspaper writer, and Casey is the politician.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: He accused him of corruption and being like having a criminal background.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um Casey responded by shooting King in the street.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: And then so he died, and then thousands of angry residents organized a vigilance committee, like a vigilante group.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_04: And they went they went to the jail, they got Casey out of the jail, conducted their own like kangaroo court, and publicly hanged him.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Dang.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this is in downtown San Francisco.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: It is a full-fledged United State at this point, but new.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, vigilantes espe uh kind of took control of the city, they had their own armed police and their own headquarters.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, that's how it was done back then, man.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and and especially in the West, right?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like the further west you went in the U.S., the more wild it got.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_04: Even I always thought though that was before they became a state.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: I always had this vision that once they became part of the United States, they got their act together and had like it was just like everybody else.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: But no, one like it didn't happen instantly, right?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing this everything, I think, back then, whenever something happened, you know, a a major change in law, new president, uh, you know, abolition of slavery, the women's right to vote.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think any of those things happened overnight, even though they were officially supposed to, it it trickled down and it took time and it took adjustment, it took enforcement to make those things happen.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I think too that um what you you you think of them happening so neat and tidy so they can fit into a history book, but a lot of times these things are really violent.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, really violent.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh not pretty.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: So our our man Levi has become a pretty prominent business local businessman at this time, and 1861, the Civil War breaks out, and San Francisco has a pro-union demonstration where 20,000 people show up, and I mean there's only 150,000 people that live there, and they had a a committee of 34 prominent San Francisco citizens formed to protect the cause of of the union, and he was he was one of them.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_04: He was he's only 32 years old, and he's considered one of the prominent citizens, like to keep people uh you know in in line and be like a role model for these people.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I w I wonder if he spoke, like I wonder how long it took um uh it it took him to um learn the language, you know, like to to um become like like that sort of respected person because Yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I feel like if you had a thick accent, although maybe many people because they were immigrants did back then, right?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it was or they might are they uh you know, I'm thinking too that a lot of the people in his trade, other other clothing salespeople, a lot of them were were German Jews also.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: True.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: And they might he might not have had to speak a lot of English, really.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: It's funny, it's funny you say that because uh there was a movie, I think it was like from 2025, a German movie about him called, I think it was called like they call me Levi or something like that.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_04: And uh uh the movie's in German and it takes place, you know, in California, and everybody's speaking German, but we kind of do that here, like we would have the movie be in English.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: But it made me wonder when I was watching the trailer for I didn't watch the movie, but I was thinking, oh, maybe that was how it was.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe just him and his circle of friends pretty much just spoke German, and you could probably get away with that back then, you know.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and in certain areas, I mean, especially San Francisco, right?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: The the Chinatown area there, I think you know, a lot of people go there, immigrate there, and speak their native language, and and maybe never have to interact outside of that, you know.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: Although as he's as he's employing more and more people, he's probably taking on the language, but it might have been a long time before he was like fluent.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know, that's a good question.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_04: In 1863, his company becomes Levi Strauss and Company, which is what it's still called today.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, he kind of took over the the family name.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_04: Nice.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he was business partners with his brother-in-law, uh David Stern.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_04: And the only reason I mentioned this is because it's his brother-in-law, he is married to Levi's sister named Fanny.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: I think this is I think this is three three episodes in a row with a fanny.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was trying to keep that streak alive.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Powerful name back then, and again, a very unfortunate name today, but back then maybe it was like really uh, you know, it it was it meant you were gonna do great things.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: In 1866, they move into a swanky building downtown San Francisco, and that the reason I mentioned this is because this is a really nice modern building, and they they are there for the next 40 years, his company is, but destroyed 40 years later in the earthquake of 1906, and the reason we don't know a lot about this company in its early days is because that's where all the records were and they were all destroyed.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot of information like sales information from I couldn't tell you exactly how many you know blue jeans were sold in in these different years, which is what I like to do usually on these business ones, is tell you kind of the trajectory.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of that information was just lost to rubble.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_04: The first 40 years of the company, basically, uh the the history is just lost, other than what we can see like in newspapers.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: So if he was gonna do any uh cooking of the books or any corruption or anything, that would have been the time to do it.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: That would have been the time to do it for sure.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_04: Well, by 1840, he's not only a regional guy, but he's serving British Columbia, Mexico, and even Japan.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_04: Not um not jeans yet, not not blue jeans.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: We're not there yet.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: Dry goods, still dry goods.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: So still blankets and towels.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_04: We don't know a ton about like how his personality was or anything, but we do know that he insisted that his employees call him Levi.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: He didn't want him calling him Mr.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_04: Strauss.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_04: That that tells a lot about I know that you insist your employees call you boss or big man, sir.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: FA.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, now he meets this is where our story turns.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_04: In uh 1870, he meets a guy named Jacob Davis, who runs a tailoring business in Reno, and actually Jacob's the one who invented the jeans.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um he is Levi's customer, um, and he makes he makes pants, and he's buying fabric, um, he's buying fabric from Levi and making work pants.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_04: And the thing about work pants back then is that they would have pockets, but the pockets would be like kind of like if you were making a pocket on a on an apron or something like that.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, big and floppy and kind of well, and just sewed onto it, you know.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: The problem with you got people that are like working on railroads and in coal mines, they have these little cheap little uh pockets that are sewed on, they're gonna rip.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: They're gonna rip.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: And in fact, all the different parts where the seams come together of the jeans would rip when these people doing these blue-collar jobs.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: So our boy Jacob Davis had a solution of that.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_04: Was it rivets?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_04: Rivets.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think that much.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So have you ever read Have you ever uh burned yourself on a rivet like after it's been in the dryer and you pull it out and it's super hot?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's the danger of the rivet.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: Right, and we'll get to that.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: There's actually a story about that too here.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um so he um he writes to Levi and he proposes a patent partnership and says, Hey, I'm thinking about I've got these these jeans that are that I'm gonna put rivets on.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so they got the patent and started making these things in 1873.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: And the and he was using duck, cotton duck family.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, he wasn't using uh denim or jeans.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: Uh he was using duck, and the duck, oh yeah, and then the duck was more like a khaki kind of color, and then he started using denim, which was the blue, that was the one that you would uh dye indigo.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: That ended up being the most popular one, so that's the one they kind of ran with.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, but the potent patent wasn't the pants, it was the rivets, and what the rivets did was the rivets prevented them from tearing at their weak points, they would put rivets wherever the weak points were.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, once you start putting things in those pockets, the stitching would rip.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so what the rivets would do is it reinforce wherever the stitching was.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: They use first part, you know, it's usually like that first thing comes unraveled and then the rest of it goes.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: The rivets at that weak point.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: And they use copper because copper was cheap and it wouldn't rust.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: And it looks like you couldn't have people rust could rusting, yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: And there was original the original version had another rivet at the remember, these were buttonflies, they didn't have zippers yet.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_04: True, and so they were all buttonfly jeans.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: Buttonflies came out, you know, like 20 years ago, made a resurgence, but those were the original.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: The OG pants were buttonflies.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_04: There was another rivet at the bottom of the buttonfly, um, like maybe like just below, like like at the crotch.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_04: But they removed that, but they didn't remove it until 1941.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_04: But the reason is because of what you just said, if you're sitting by a campfire and you get really hot.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: The rivet in the crotch, it was burning people's junk.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: So we had to get rid of it, but it took like 40-50 years to get rid of that stuff, and there is no worse smell around a campfire and burn junk, burn burning junk.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Mine was my finger, like pulling it out of the dryer and just touching it.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: Now, there used to have the original ones also had a rivet in the back pockets.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um there was um, but they removed it because what happens when you have rivets in the back pocket?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you scratch everything.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you scratch your saddle, scratch your furniture.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, it's a mess.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you're ripping and you come home and you're ripping the couch.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_04: So they got rid of those.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but other than those two things, the ones that are sold today are the same as the patent in 1873, other than those two changes, the rivet in the back and the one at the crotch.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_04: The patents, the the ones sold today are the same ones that they applied for.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: And if you look at a picture of a pair of Levi's jeans from 1873, they pretty much look like the ones you buy today.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's pretty cool.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Except except maybe I think the one thing that always seems to change is the uh the the how wide the legs are, right?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: And how much well, I don't know.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_04: I think the 501s are the same, though.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_04: I think those were different variations of that, but I think the 501s are the same as the 501s from back then, and those are the buttons, right?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Button.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: What do you like better?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Button or zipper.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of like the buttons.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I do too.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: I do too, actually.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Once you there, there's there is a little bit of a learning curve to doing it quickly.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um but once you and also when they're new, they're harder to button and unbutton.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_04: But after the case, but we weren't kids when the when those button flies came out, we were already adults, I think.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say, I want to say high school or college.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe, yeah.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I remember I remember my shrink to fit.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Da-da-da, I d 501 blues.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: I wouldn't have wanted to teach a six-year-old how to button up his pants, though.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, zippers are best, although every boy uh about to say that's a learning curve, too.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but you know, you only have to mess up once and you learn.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's a mistake you'll never make twice.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't call it a learning curve, I'd call it more like a learning uh a learning snag.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um teaches you to wear underwear, that's for sure.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is true.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: It does, that helps.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um originally they weren't called jeans or they weren't even called pants, they were called waist overalls.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um back then.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, they didn't have belt loops.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_04: That's another change that the ones today have.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_04: They didn't have belt loops until 1922.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: So um Levi didn't he died in 1902, so he never saw his pants with a belt loop.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, he'd be like, Whose pants are these?
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: Also, the red tab didn't come out until 1936.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: So he never saw the the red tab that says Levi's on it, you know, there's on the back pocket.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_04: So those are some other changes, I suppose.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_04: In 1890, the patent expired.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: So all of a sudden they had competition from like Lee and Wrangler, yeah.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wrangler, yeah.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um But the 501 were the denim waist overalls.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_04: They had different um when when they when the patent expired, they had to start naming their you know, giving names to their different um models.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_04: And so the 501s were the denim waist overalls, and then the 201 was a cheap a cheaper version of that.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: It was just made with like worse material.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thinner thinner material.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_04: But the the thing that made the 501 was the button fly, the one back pocket, because remember they didn't add a second back pocket, um, a small watch pocket, you know, that looked oh yep, yep, yep.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: They still have that, or coins, and then it had buttons for suspenders on the inside because they didn't have a belt loop back then.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then a cinch strap on the back, which if you've had like they still do those for toddlers, yeah.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know that you can like adjust the the waist size.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: There's like an a now it's elastic, I don't know what it was back then, but you know what I'm talking about?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so when you're um when if you buy a pair of pants for your child and they're a little too big, you just like pull it up that cinch strap and it gets them tighter.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can loosen it as they grow.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_04: They added a second back pocket in 1901, just before he died, so he did see the second back pocket.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh how much do you think these things?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have a price for five for 501s, but the 201, I have a price for those in what year?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: 1890, I have a price for I'm gonna guess 30 cents.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you bought them for in you bought them by the dozen.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: So you buy cheaper by the cost you cost seven dollars for a dozen, which was about fifty-eight cents.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: So you aren't too far off.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: That's about twenty-two bucks in today's money a piece, which is a little low, actually.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like they've gotten expensive.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_04: How much do you think they cost today?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_04: 49 for the 201s.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: Well, they don't sell 201s anymore.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, then then 60?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_04: I guess the 201s are like the ones that you buy at Ross that aren't Levi's.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right, right.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_04: Tough skins.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they're uh 501s are$85 today.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: But they do last forever.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_04: You can buy a reproduction of the 1922 501s on the Levi's website for$300.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_04: Like an exact reproduction of the 1922 ones.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so so I want to get into the the elephant in the room, the the real the thing that I in my opinion is terrible, but controversial, maybe.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're not a jeans guy, are you?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: I I I'm not anti, like I don't wear them that often, but there's no reason I don't.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's no reason.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_04: Funny, when I was when I was prepping for this, I was trying to picture you in jeans and I couldn't.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like you don't wear a lot of no you wear a lot of well, you wear if you're wearing jeans, they'll be black too, right?
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep, that's true.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh and a lot of like stretchy REI pants.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of my jam, is the button.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but here's here's my question.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: When did they start selling them ripped, pre-ripped?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the worst.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's and they're more expensive, like to get the next ones.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Does Levi's do that?
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_04: So I hope so.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I don't know if they do, and I I think I think um, you know, Levi's tried to resist the remember the designer jeans craze in the 80s, Jordan Ash.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: Right, but you noticed that you're not saying Levi's, like they didn't really jump on that.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_04: Now they kind of had to because jeans were becoming like such a luxury item and people were those were those were a hundred bucks in the 80s, yeah.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: So um they jumped on that train a little bit, if you remember, um they had uh but but they weren't trying to be, they weren't, they didn't change how they looked, they were just trying to make them cooler.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: So if you remember, there was a Bruce Willis commercial called the 501 Blues, yeah, where he like sang with the harmonica.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's 1984, yeah.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: So that was around the time of Jordan Ash and Vanderbilt and all that, and they were trying to like make it where remember us guys were we're cool too, yeah, but they really didn't change, they didn't make their stuff designer jeans, and I don't think I'd be surprised if you can buy rip jeans.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: Now, they probably sell acid wash jeans, that was a thing, right?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of made them thinner in parts where they would rip easier, right?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, they didn't have a branded store until 1983, and that was in Spain.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_04: You bought them you bought them in Sears or you bought them at Kmart or you bought them at the first branded Levi store in the US was 1991 in Columbus, Ohio.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, you know that store called the Gap?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, also a San Francisco um business.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um that was a place where you could actually go, and they sold two things the gap did in nine like 1969 when they opened.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: They sold Levi Jeans, which was a place where you could buy Levi's, and they sold records.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_04: I did not know that.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: So you could go to the gap, and it was like a cool place to hang out.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_04: You go buy records and buy jeans.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_04: You remember what they're attacking.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: In the 60s, no fall into the gap.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, fall into the gap.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do remember that.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but that's in the in 1969.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_04: If you were going to the one gap store in San Francisco, that's what you were buying, either jeans or records.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um so you know, from 1873 to 1890, they were a regional success, they weren't nationally popular, and they were a work, they were like, you know, like a work accessory, they were like work boots are, you know.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they were selling to people and you know, miners and farmers and ranchers.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we don't have sales data from back then because of the earthquake.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they weren't fashionable, and you know, because they were they were probably looked down upon, you know.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and because they were mostly for laborers, there's a chance that Levi Strauss never wore a pair.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's ironic.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_04: Or or uh or Jacob for that matter.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, like neither one of those guys, they were businessmen, yeah.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: They weren't walking around in jeans.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know what made them popular?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know when the jeans, when Levi's got popular though, and what made them popular?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Probably this hit the hippies.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_04: No, before that.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um what was the war?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_04: World War II?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_04: A little bit before that, the 1930s, not because of the depression, but because of what movies were popular in the 1930s.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is this was this gangster movies?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_04: No, westerns.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: Cowboy movies, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: Cowboy movies and western movies, yeah, and they wore jeans.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_04: So people started taking a look at that back then, and then in the 50s, 1950s, it was all the teenage rebellion and James Dean were were jeans and Alvin, probably.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that was in the 70s.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_04: About the 50s, play in the 50s, yeah.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_04: By 1977, it was a billion-dollar company.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: 77 was a billion-dollar company, though.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, that's now there's no looking back now, right?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, when he died in 1902, his estate was worth six million bucks, um, which is a lot of money in 1902.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and he never married, never had any kids.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, that's a that's a good chunk of change, but also really never saw his uh namesake.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_04: Now we're not gonna say invention because he didn't really invent it.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: He he he popularized it.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: But just like Henry Ford, you know, he's credited for the you know, his name's all over it.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, you know, if you say um I gotta bring some Levi's to this, people know what you're talking about.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost replaced the uh the noun of what it actually that what it's doing.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think there'll ever be a time in America where people aren't wearing denim jeans.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_04: Like that seems like something that is fad proof.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: It it yeah, I mean, at least for the next as long as humanity is the way it is, you know.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, you sure, yeah.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that there's gonna be some point where we're all wearing, you know, like we're all dressed the same and uh like Star Trek.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_04: We all have the uniform once we get the uniform.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so one thing, just to close it here, that I was thinking the contribution that jeans gave us are songs about jeans.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, nice.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_04: So let's um let's play some of these.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't uh you don't know what songs these are, but let's um let's play a little and see how quickly you can guess uh what we got here.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_04: There it is.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks, Steven.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_04: He's not talking about ribbons.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_04: He's talking about the blue jeans.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's that's you know, that's part of a I forgot about that one.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure you've heard of all these.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Neo Diamond.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: Great song, actually.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is it?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can sing a mom.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_05: It talks.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_05: But it does sing and dance.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't walk.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_05: As long as I can have you here with me.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_05: I'd travel be forever in blue jeans.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_04: Alright.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_04: What do you think that song means?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's about I don't care about all the fine trappings of life, I just wanna hang out with you.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Real.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping it real.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: Blue jeans are kind of an avatar for keeping it real.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: Do you remember this song?
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not so far.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yes.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_04: Now her name was Blue Jean.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: True, true.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it counts.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Bowie had some weird songs.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the funny part is I can't picture David Bowie wearing blue jeans.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_04: And it's funny that he had a song named Blue, but in the I guess the catch is it wasn't about the pants.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's about a girl named Blue Jean.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Actually the hook in that song is pretty good.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: It does say blue jeans, actually.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_04: This is um Dr.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_04: Hook.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know this one.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_04: You'll know this one.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_04: The video to this is perfect.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've ever heard this.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'll send you the video later.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's really, really uh perfect.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_04: So so there is.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_04: She makes her blue jeans talk.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they mostly say you know, there is a there is a country song that has a similar thing.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Baby's got her blue jeans on.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Did you include that one?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Keep keep playing.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see what we got here.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is this it?
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just heard this a few days ago, actually.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_05: Down on the corner by the traffic light.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_05: They turn their heads and they watch her till she's gone.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_05: Lord Mercy got a blue jeans on.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's so it's so funny what um, you know, also the fact that everybody's ogling this woman, and you know, that's okay.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: Well that, yeah.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_04: Now, there's one more, right?
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_04: This is this is um a newer song.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: This is from Beyonce's country record.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_04: Oh King Carter.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_04: King Carter.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, cowboy Carter.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um this is with post-Malone.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_04: This is a little bit risque.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_04: Not that the other ones haven't been, but the other ones have been more um um you know, coy with their yeah.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well just they they weren't out there with this, but play play over this one.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_04: This is the only one that actually says the word V5 cent, though.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: Call me pretty little though to turn them on.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you be my levergies?
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you can look at us all day long.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: Call me a sexy little thing.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: Snap a picture, bring it on.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you wish you were my leave.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: Way is poppin' at your phone, go you down to the bone.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: Baby, you play too much.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: You play too.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: Look you super hot.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: I got the perfect pose.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a fucking animal.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: She says, I'm a fucking xenophobe.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, say where you get the first.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, I think so.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_04: How do you think uh Levi Strauss would feel about that song?
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, he'd be confused.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_04: He'd be like, that is not what I would just made waste overalls.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_04: What happened?
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think he wanted I think he wanted um pong music.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: So it's the the thing about those songs though is they all kind of use the blue jean as kind of a uh avatar or like a a meme for yeah, a metaphor for like uh fun life, easygoing life, but also like beauty sexy, yeah, beauty.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um something that uh should be you know ogled.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_04: Again, not at all the purpose uh when these guys were riveting uh riveting their pockets.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_04: But that's really interesting, isn't it?
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's that's why they survived, right?
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's bigger today than it ever was, because uh they've they've evolved, they've changed, they've changed also people's perception.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I think these guys would be actually just blown away if you told them that women were wearing them at all.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: True, true.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: Especially Beyonce.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_04: What happened?
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Tommy talk.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_04: So that's uh that's Levi's throws.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_04: Uh uh What do you think?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I love it.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I honestly have never given him a second thought.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: But very interesting more the impact than the person, right?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like what what he did to the world.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he was the Henry finger of uh fashion, yeah.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: You ain't got it now like me.