Ever wondered what that small pocket-within-the-pocket is that all jeans have?
Well, I have. No matter how much I try and find a practical use for it, though, I simply can’t. Mobile phones don’t fit, it’s awkward when it comes to holding coins and bank notes. Don’t even try and use it to store a key, because you’ll never get it back.
Fear not, though; British paper The Independent claim to have the answer for the eternal question – and it’s probably not what you think.
From time to time you’ve probably wondered. It doesn’t matter if they’re men’s or women’s models; all jeans usually have two front pockets and two back pockets. They also have that little strange pocket inside of one of the front pockets. But why does it exist?
Interestingly, to find the origin we have to go back almost two hundred years. That little thumbnail-sized pocket isn’t a modern addition to jeans; instead, it was a practical solution for something that’s no longer a real problem today.
Behind the invention is none other than legendary jean manufacturer Levi’s.
According to The Independent, the first ‘extra’ pocket came into use in the 1800s. The reason? To facilitate the most common wearers of jeans at that time … cowboys.
Cowboys usually carried their pocket watches on chains or inside their waistcoats, but both of these methods put the watch had great risk of being broken. So, Levi’s introduced a small pocket designed to carry a watch safely. By keeping them in these tiny pockets, cowboys could ride without fear of their watches being smashed on a ride. Clever!
I really didn’t know that myself. Pretty incredible that the design has stuck with jeans all the way up to modern day. Cowboys might no longer be around, but their watch pockets certainly are!
Share this story with your friends, so they, too, can learn the truth. I bet they’ve wondered as well!
