Ever wondered why there are mini-buttons on the pockets of your jeans? Well, wonder no more.
They’re not actually buttons at all, even though they look like them. They are known as ‘rivets’, and their purpose is to keep your jeans from falling apart.
The rivets are strategically placed in areas that will be put under the most strain, or where the fabric is more likely to be pulled apart, like the pockets.
Pockets are likely to endure the most wear and tear by virtue of reaching into them to retrieve the likes of wallets, phones or keys.
Obviously, there is the seam too, but once you’re wearing the correct size and not trying any risqué dance moves, you probably won’t rip through them anytime soon.
We have a lot to be thankful for those little guys. But how did they come about in the first place?
Interestingly, the original use of denim dates back to the 1870s when workers chose to wear them over other materials, as they didn’t wear through them as quickly.
The reason for the rivets in jeans is actually due to one woman’s quest for stronger trousers for her husband. She went to a tailor called Jacob Davis and asked him to create a pair of trousers, made from denim, that wouldn’t disintegrate as easily.
Cue the creation of the little rivet, which made the pants a lot more durable.
Mr Davis’s new technique became really popular and he was inundated with requests for the new style of trousers. He needed a business partner – and so he went to Levi Strauss.
Together with Levi they got a patent for the design of denim trousers with rivets that we all know now as jeans.
