People lose it as they're just now realizing what the tiny pockets in jeans are for
Maxine Harrison
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
If you have ever wondered why there are so many tiny pockets in jeans, today is the day you find out.
While many people may use the tiny pockets in jeans to hold their loose change or other small items, you may be surprised to learn that's not what they were originally designed for.
The pockets in question are usually found inside the larger main pocket at the front of jeans, and they've been the source of a lot of speculation over the years.
People on Twitter have shared their theories for what this tiny pocket for, with one user writing: “To hide money so you’ll forget about it and remember when you are broke.”
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Another said: “Mom used to say 'A quarter for the phone'.”
But the original design of these tiny pockets spans as far back as the 1870s, when the first ever made pair of jeans was made in 1873. It was made for an item that is rarely used in modern society.
Yet the classic fashion feature of tiny pockets still exists.
Well, these pockets were intended to hold pocket watches, which is a small clock faces set within a metal case commonly used at the time of the jeans’ invention.
Of course, we don’t tend to use pocket watches now because anything with a screen can tell us the time. Although wristwatches existed at the time of these jeans, they only became more common in the 20th century and therefore pocket watches were more of a go-to to tell the time.
Historian Tracey Panek, who works for the original makers of jeans, Levi Strauss & Co's, detailed further the reason behind this as she spoke to Insider.
Panek said: "The oldest pair of waist overalls in the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives (from 1879) include the watch pocket. Our 19th century overalls had a single back pocket on the right side of the pant beneath the leather patch."
Waist overalls are the initial name for the blue jeans made by Levi Strauss & Co in 1873.
But although the pocket watch is not used nowadays, there is a notable reason why jeans still include the tiny pockets inside them today in Levi jeans.
Panek explained: "One interesting fact about the watch pocket is that during WWII the two corner rivets were removed as a way to conserve metal for the war effort."
The historian added: "The rivets returned to the watch pocket after the war. It was riveted in the top two corners and included our recognizable arch design, called the Arcuate, stitched with a single needle sewing machine."
"The watch pocket was an original element of our blue jeans, like the rivets on our pockets, button fly, arched back pocket stitching and leather patch," Panek continued.
"To preserve the integrity of the early design, Levi Strauss & Co. maintains the watch pocket."
On the Levi's website, she added: "This cinch-free blue jean with the uniform look of the Arcuate, a contrast to previous years when the single-needle application made each Arcuate design unique, was the blue jean of the future and you can still see it in our 501 jeans more than 70 years later.
"Levi’s emerged from World War II as fresh, modern and uniformly manufactured.
"And with a distribution that now spanned oceans, it was well on its way to becoming the world’s ubiquitous global garment that it is today."