Oldest pair of Levi's jeans sold at auction for $100,000 but everyone is asking the same thing

An old pair of Levi's jeans caught people's attention when they sold for $100,000 at auction, and everyone has been left asking the same question.

No, it's not 'how do I sell my jeans for that much?', although that would be valid.

It turns out old Levis can be sold for a lot of money. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The thing is, these weren't any old used pair of jeans - they're actually believed to be the oldest pair of Levis to be sold at auction, thought to have been made as early as 1873.

It's worth noting that Levi Strauss & Co did not authenticate the jeans ahead of the sale, but the buyer was obviously confident enough in authenticity of the jeans to spend thousands of dollars on them.

Before being sold at auction, the jeans were owned by vintage fashion collector Brit Eaton - the same man who runs Durango Vintage Festivus; the annual vintage fashion festival where the auction was held.

Eaton had been involved in brokering the sale of the jeans to a customer in Japan about 10 years earlier, and following the success of his inaugural festival in 2022, he decided to fly overseas and buy them for himself.

He then put the jeans up for auction, where they were purchased by an anonymous online bidder based in Thailand.

Considering they're thought to be decades old, you won't be surprised to hear that the jeans weren't in the best condition when they were sold.

The jeans were stained and torn. (X/@historyinmemes)

The bottom section of one of the legs is ripped and ragged; they appear dirty in some areas and faded in others - all in all making them much worse quality than the new Levis you can buy for much smaller amounts of money nowadays.

Still, the seller obviously wanted to have the jeans for themselves, leaving many people online wondering: why?

"What would the buyer use it for?," one curious X user wrote after hearing of the sale, while another echoed: "What’s the buyer going to do with it?"

"What would the buyer do with it?," asked a third.

People were baffled at the decision to buy the jeans. (X)

Unfortunately, we can only guess at what the buyer is going to do with the jeans. Maybe frame them and hang them on the wall? Keep them on the coffee table as a conversation piece? Or, more simply, wear them?

Since the buyer chose to remain anonymous, we'll unfortunately probably never know for sure. But after paying $100,000 for them, all we can hope is that the jeans aren't gathering dust in a closet somewhere.

Topics: Fashion, US News, Money

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.