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| By: Kim Baker · Raleigh Denim | ||||
Good morning. Last week I made you a promise: the story of why denim wasn't made for cowboys. I keep my promises. This week we deliver, and the real origin story is better than the myth. Also: The Fader goes on this morning. Day one of 365. And I have a small update on how that's going to work that I think you'll like.
New this week at the bottom: Fade Court. One question where you get to weigh in every week, and where raw denim opinions are always welcome. Go get a refill. I'll wait.
THE BIG THREAD
Patent No. 139,121. One man got famous. The other made the thing.
On May 20, 1873, two men received United States Patent No. 139,121 for "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings," the invention that gave the world blue jeans as we know them. One of those names you know. The other one you almost certainly don't.
Jacob Davis was a Latvian immigrant working as a tailor in Reno, Nevada, in 1870 when a laborer's wife walked into his shop. She needed pants her husband couldn't destroy. He'd been through enough pairs. Davis looked at the seams (always the first thing to go under hard daily use) and had an idea. He reinforced the stress points with copper rivets. Pocket corners. Button fly base. The places where real work tears fabric apart.
The riveted pants worked immediately. Word spread fast throughout the mining and railroad communities, and Davis was suddenly overwhelmed with orders. He knew he had something worth protecting. But a patent application cost money he didn't have. So in 1872 he wrote a letter to his fabric supplier, a San Francisco businessman named Levi Strauss, and proposed a deal. Strauss would fund the patent paperwork. They'd share it equally. Strauss, who recognized an opportunity when it walked through the door, agreed at once.
Davis invented the thing. Strauss had the capital and the connections. One name became synonymous with jeans for the next 150 years. The other is on a plaque in Reno that most people walk past.
The patent was granted to both men on May 20, 1873. Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee manufacturing at the first factory. Davis ran production there for the rest of his working life — supervising up to 450 employees, refining the process he had invented, watching his idea become an industry. He died in 1908. His name never became a brand.
Why does this matter for Raleigh Denim? Because we are in the business of making things correctly and giving honest credit to the people behind them. The copper rivets on your jeans are Jacob Davis's idea. The selvedge denim they're cut from connects back to mills in this state. Neither of those facts is incidental. They're the whole point. And the next time someone tells you denim is a cowboy thing — it wasn't. A Latvian immigrant in Nevada made it for miners and railroad workers. The cowboys showed up later and took the credit. Sound familiar?
DENIM MYTHBUSTERS
We settle one denim myth. Every week. No exceptions.
“Indigo fades because the color washes out of the fabric.”
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False. And the actual truth is considerably more interesting. Indigo doesn't penetrate the cotton fiber the way most dyes do. It coats the outside of each yarn. This is called ring dyeing. The core stays white. Which means friction is physically wearing the color from the surface, revealing white underneath. The fade isn't the dye washing out. It's being worn off by your life. Your knee bend, your wallet, the way you sit. Each one hits the fabric differently. That's why no two fades are the same. The jeans aren't just recording denim history. They're recording yours.
THE RAW 365.
The Fader is on. A note on how this is going to work.
Quick update before we get into it. In Issue 001 I promised a monthly Fader vote. I'm walking that back (just a bit). The best fades happen because someone put on a pair of jeans and forgot about them. Our wearer works on a farm. Real work. Real weather. Real wear. The fade is going to take care of itself.
But I know you people. You want a vote. Fine. Three reader votes on this year: August, November, February. You’ll send The Fader somewhere specific. Between those, it goes where life goes. And we will be capturing that life on social media. These are the more interesting stories. And I think twelve months from now you’ll agree.
The Fader went on this morning. Here's the dispatch.
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RAW 365 — WEEK 1
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Follow The Fader in action on Instagram and Facebook. We want to hear what you think. Comments are open.
Start your own fade and tag us!
#TheRaw365
THE FADE REPORT - QUICK BITES
HISTORY The original riveted pants weren’t even denim. They were cotton duck. Same stuff as wagon covers and tents. Dense, heavy, practically armor. Davis used the toughest thing in his shop. Denim came later. The rivet came first.
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TIP Want to break in raw denim faster? Move more. Squat. Kneel. Take the stairs. The jeans are taking notes on how you move. Give them something worth writing down.
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FIND A pair of wokpants survived 130 years on the ocean floor. Pulled from an 1857 shipwreck off the Carolina coast. Auction house said, “Oldest jeans ever found.” Levi’s said, “They aren’t even Levi’s.” Nobody cared. Sold for $114,000. Raw denim outlasts everything. Including the argument about who made it.
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NC Wrangler was made in Greensboro, 1897. A man named C.C. Hudson showed up to work in an overall factory, the factory closed, and he started his own. That became Blue Bell. Blue Bell became Wrangler. Two of the biggest denim brands in history started in this state. Nobody put that on a sign. We’re putting it here.
NEXT WEEK
Issue 003
The Fader hits the farm. Week one of real work starts now. No fade will be showing yet, but the dispatch will keep you updated.
Plus: the family that built the world’s largest denim operation, right here in Greensboro. And the day in 2017 when the last loom went silent. A new myth busted, and the Fade Court reveals the verdict from this week’s wedding question.
See you Tuesday.
FADE COURT - One denim opinion. Every issue. Court is in session.
Raw denim to a wedding?
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Raw Cut Raleigh Denim · Raleigh, NC Kim Baker spent 25 years practicing medicine. In January 2026, she traded the exam room for the fitting room and bought one of America's few remaining handmade denim workshops. She writes Raw Cut from Raleigh, NC, where she is building out Raleigh Denim's women's line, raising three daughters, and searching for her perfect pair of jeans. She's making them herself. |