Reno, Nevada, was home to Jacob W. Davis when he developed riveted trousers.
Davis operated as a tailor in Reno and made sturdy work trousers for customers who needed durable clothing. His reinforcement of pocket corners and other stress points with copper rivets led to the invention later associated with Levi’s jeans.
Because Davis lacked the money to pursue a patent alone, he contacted Levi Strauss in San Francisco. Strauss supplied the fabric and business support, and the two men jointly patented the improvement in 1873. Their partnership connected a Nevada tailoring shop with a California dry-goods company.
Reno is sometimes omitted from simplified accounts of blue-jeans history, which often focus only on San Francisco. The invention, however, began with Davis’s practical work as a tailor in Nevada before commercial production expanded through Strauss’s business.