10 Denim Facts You Must Know
As denim has such a long history there’re also so many facts about this topic. Some of these facts refer to the origin when jeans was still a miner workwear pants, while others are about the production, details, or features of a pair of blue jeans. Of course, there’re way more facts than just 10, but let’s start highlighting just 10 of them. 10 fun facts that a true denim head must know, just for fun, or just because you want to learn a bit more about denim. So, here you go!
The Top 10 Facts
1 – Cotton: Each pair of blue jeans is made of around 150 cotton balls. One cotton ball is good for around 150 meters of thread, so each pair of rigid jeans contains around 7 to 8 kilometers of cotton thread. Extra fun fact, from one bale of cotton, around 225 pairs of jeans can be made.
2 – Waist Overalls: Before we used the word jeans, they were called waist overalls. Around the 1930s, the term jeans were used by many brands.
3 – Blue Jeans: After World War 2 in the 1950s, blue jeans were banned at several places like schools, theaters, and restaurants as they were seen as a form of rebellion against society. Most parents also banned their kids from wearing them. Extra fun fact, in 1951, Bing Crosby was not allowed to enter any Canadian hotel because he was wearing jeans, so Levi’s decided to make him a denim suit. That’s how the term Canadian Tuxedo (double denim) was born.
4 – Five-Pocket: The fifth pocket on a pair of jeans is the left back pocket. This pocket was added in 1901 by Levi’s for the first time. Most people think it’s the coin/watch pocket, but this pocket was on each waist overall (jeans) since the beginning. The nowadays popular term five-pocket refers of course to the five pockets on a jeans.
5 – Water Consumption: Around 7,000 to 8,000 liters of water are needed throughout the entire production to produce one single pair of blue jeans.
6 – Zipper Fly: Lee was the first garment manufacturer in 1927 to use a hookless fastener in Cowboy jeans, overalls, coveralls, and playsuits. Nowadays, most women jeans feature a zipper, but it’s also part of many men’s jeans too.
7 – Popularity Of Jeans: In The Netherlands, most people are wearing a pair of jeans. Dutch people have an average of 5.4 pairs of jeans in their wardrobes, which is more than the inhabitants of any other Western country own.
8 – Belt Loops: Belt loops were introduced first by Levi’s in 1922 as an alternative to suspender buttons. An average pair of blue jeans nowadays feature 5 belt loops. When Wrangler introduced their first jeans in 1947, they came with 7 belt loops, which are still there today on their jeans.
9 – Fabric: For an average pair of non-selvedge jeans, so made with denim fabric woven on a modern projectile loom, you need around 1.6 meters of denim fabric. To produce a pair of selvedge jeans, jeans made a denim fabric woven on an authentic shuttle loom, you need around 2.5 meters of fabric (One of the reasons why these jeans are more expensive).
10 – Production: To produce a pair of blue jeans, it will take about 15 minutes and 12 steps in a an average denim factory.
Learn More About Denim
In case you want to learn more about denim, this to train yourself, store or brand staff more or better, send me an e-mail to: wouter@long-john.nl to discuss the opportunities how we can achieve this. I’m happy to learn you more (fun) facts about denim!
In the early 90s I worked as a fabric cutter for a company called Bairdwear based in Telford, Shropshire.
90% of the garments we manufactured were for Marks and Spencer.
They were the only company who were permitted to use denim from Levi’s. We would purchase rolls of denim from Levi UK, use what we needed and the remnants we had to return.
So effectively Marks and Spencer jeans were Levi’s made in Telford!