EVER asked yourself what the tiny pocket on your jeans is for? You know, the little pocket inside the main pocket that can just about fit a few coins in it. If you've wondered, you're not the only one. Nowadays the pocket has no use, but it was a purposeful design addition back in the late 1800s.
The tiny-weeny pockets date back to 1890 when they were stitched into Levi's 'waist overalls' jeans. They were originally designed to hold pocket watches, but as we don't use pocket watches anymore, what purpose do they serve now? The now commonly seen blue jeans made by Levi Strauss & Co invented it two centuries ago and has kept it ever since. The tiny pockets are on the design in the patent Strauss and J.
W. Davis made for "Improvement in Fastening Pocket Openings," on May 20, 1873. However, they were first put into mass use in 1890 with the "Lot 501" jeans, which became the model for the Levis 501 jeans we are familiar with today.
Levi Strauss & Co's very own historian, Tracey Panek speaking to Insider said: "The oldest pair of waist overalls in the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives (from 1879) includes the watch pocket." "The watch pocket was a feature of our first waist overalls.
" Levi's explained. The tiny pocket is never found on suit trousers because a pocket watch would be kept in the jacket of formal wear. Suit jackets were designed to already have a pocket specifically for pocket watches, so a pocket on the trousers wasn't needed.
Panek explains that the man Levi Strauss kept a .