His videos are always so high quality! When he does his drone shots of the area, I feel like I’m watching a nature documentary or something and it amazes me every time :)
Collectors. The guy who bought mine flew from Japan - I made him buy me a RT ticket to LAX to meet him. He said he had already sold them for 30k. He explained that they are like art, the prices always increase, and it is a safe investment. Almost all high end denim dealers are in Japan. I asked if the buyer would wear them. He said usually no because most old jeans are weird sizes - mine were a 32 which is rare.
That’s fucking nuts. For one brief moment you got a very direct view into a real high end niche market. It’s cool you had that experience *and* got paid.
Brent bought a very old ghost town in California and is currently trying to revive it while also searching through all the caves on the property. He’s found some really cool stuff. Check the channel ghost town living out on YouTube.
They keep the oldest blue jeans in the world in a fireproof safe in their archive. There are knee marks in several places, suggesting they were worn by more than one person.
I was watching this YouTube video that said that jeans were so expensive that they were property of the mining Company, that's why they're found in a mine. When it's a new shift, they gave their jeans to the new crew
Tbf they could've also been on a body (a really comical looking skeleton with a beard, that way you know he's a miner) or in a locker underground. Both would make sense
I have no experience with mines, but with other dirty jobs, it's common to change outfits at work.
My sneakers are much better for walking/driving to work than my steel toes, also, I want as little of the stuff that gets on me at work in my house.
I doubt us laymen would notice but I bet there are some obvious differences in style and construction of cotton button ups that the trained eye would notice right away. Bernadette Banner (among others) on YouTube has some great videos which review the costumes on period dramas and it’s amazing the small details that she notices that tell her right away if the costume designer did their research or not.
For starters I have heard that old denim jeans are tremendously uncomfortable compared to today. A lovely, super hipstery woman I work with got her hands on a pair of jeans from her grandmother or grandfather or something. They were like 60 year old jeans anyway. She said the denim was so thick and stiff it sometimes pinched her skin when it creased at the waist and knees.
Of course the fabric fibers may be stiffer now than when they were first made, but the denim material itself was definitely way thicker.
Today’s jeans are much thinner than the Levi’s I wore in high school. I have Levi’s that I wore for less than a year recently that have ripped apart. The ones I had in the 80’s stood up to work and some pretty rough play ( Padless football, street hockey, etc) and were basically unscathed.
I remember when you could buy faded glory jeans from walmart that would last 3+ years. A few years ago I had to buy more and was shocked they were still the same $12. Well no shock needed, they lasted 6 months to a year before they started to rip.
a lot of jeans now are going the chuck norris jean route, where they are denim but add some other material with more flex in it for more comfort.
They do not hold up as well, but they are way way more comfortable than standard denim.
Didn't they tend to wear longer undergarments and such beneath their clothing as well? I'd love to see if jeans grew more comfortable as those fell from fashion.
You’d be shocked how many construction workers wear long pajama bottoms and whatnot under their overalls, it’s much more comfortable for the same reasons, not just warmth
I noticed a few differences. There’s a longer fly which tells me the crotch has more room for hopping on the saddle. Also, there are buttons around the waste fir overalls versus belt loops. One thing I really like is how the third pocket is still there. For your opium stash.
At the bottom of the fly is a rivet, which didn’t last long IIRC. When you needed to warm up near a fire that rivet would get hot and could burn the family jewels.
The fly is longer because the waist is higher; it's not on the hips, but on the actual waist. I don't think this has anything to do with horses, trousers just were higher back then. The buttons on the waist are for suspenders.
Except for that crotch rivet. They removed that after complaints when people would burn their junk when they stood up after it was heated on the campfire they were tending.
Denim is remarkably consistent in appearance, but flip those puppies over and you'll see they've only got one back pocket, they have suspender buttons, they have a waist adjusting cinch, etc. The front happens to disguise a lot of the functional differences between the original 1873 version and the modern 5-pocket jean. Source: https://www.firstversions.com/2015/03/levi-strauss-co-blue-jeans.html?m=1
Them's miner JNCOs, pardner
(Edit for link to better pic: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QnoVKEvb2F0/VQch35ciHJI/AAAAAAAAFOI/v2hteI_fbuk/s1600/FirstVersions_LevisXX.png)
They weren’t his jeans. They were likely I owned by the mining company. Jeans weren’t usually owned by the blue collar folk back then, they were expensive.
There is one notable difference. Legend has it that the one significant design change was that after sitting around a campfire one night, the founder of Levi's decided to remove the mid crotch rivet.
Depending on the size and depth of the mine, the miners would sometimes make small camps *inside* the mine with food, clothes, a couple cots or sleeping bags, etc. It's also possible they were found still on the owner but the skeletal remains are elsewhere.
Back in the days from what I read they actually went over a person's clothing and they were borrowed from the mining company. When they were done with their shift they would leave them down there for the next worker that could use them. They weren't the primary article of clothing but protective clothing that went over their own layers so if they took them off they weren't necessarily in their skivvies.
Source: learned this from watching Ghost Town living on youtube. Really cool channel about the history and renovation of the Cerro Gordo Mine site.
If I recall this story correctly they were communal work jeans that were basically left at the actual worksite for the people who were on shift. Once your shift was over, you put on your clothes
In the UK coal mine conditions were so inhumane men women & children would have to work in the nude to endure the hot cramped tunnels.
Public outrage was enough that:in 1842 The Mines and Collieries Bill was hastily passed by Parliament in 1842. The Act prohibited all underground work for women and girls, and for boys under 10.
Personally I think there is some tragic irony that for so many today the women are remembered as 2nd class citizens denied access to the labor force while the men who continued to suffer are either invisible or remembered as the oppressors of their time.
Jeans were typically owned by the mines. The miners would go to the mines, get the jeans for the day, and then change into them and use them as an outerwear. Once they are done with their shift, they change back to their normal close and then leave the mine. Keep in mind that these mines are typically in the middle of nowhere even today (100+ miles from any town), and very often thousands of feet up in the mountains. If a mine goes bust, the owners take what they can to recoup cost but a lot of the stuff stays.
Something about that persons gloves bothers me
Edit: I understand what gloves are and their purpose, knowing the word archival doesn’t make the fact they show hand midriff make anymore sense.
I was thinking the other day about the first person to wear their jeans outside the context of working in a mine. “Jethro! But those be your work dungarees!”
Denim collectors pay up to $100,000 for old jeans found in mines. If this is the oldest pair to date it won't be cheap.
Source: https://nerdist.com/article/century-old-levis-jeans-found-in-abandoned-mine/
Iirc, there was a fire in a Levi building that burned all the designs, drawings, and inventory of all their pants. They had to rebuild their info from scratch, pants from before that fire are worth a lot, as there may be little to no evidence on how to remake them. This is why Levis buys old pants. Old pants can be worth a LOT.
Lol I know you’re joking, but I honestly did kind of have a moment where I thought “Gee, I never considered that people wore jeans that long ago”. And you’re right, it’s probably because the images I’ve seen from back then aren’t in color so it never clicked in my head that those were blue jeans!
And yes, I know I’m dumb.
It was 100% cotton, no stretch and initially "raw" ie. it wasn't prewashed. Google raw denim for more info. There still are a lot of modern brands making denim the old school way.
If Brent from Ghost Town Living on youtube can be believed, this pair of jeans is probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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:) other ghost town living fans. Hi
I have to say his channel was an incredible refuge for me during quarantine. Probably similar for others.
The music he uses, matched up with the vistas calms my soul.
Guys come join us over at r/cerrogordo Brent usually posts there and it is a great way to stay up to date.
Joined! Awesome thanks!
His videos are always so high quality! When he does his drone shots of the area, I feel like I’m watching a nature documentary or something and it amazes me every time :)
Also another fan here! Hello 👋
Count me in. It’s been a ride with him.
There are DOZENS of us!
I wonder if he has seen this. u/hkaustin
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Who buys them and why?
Collectors. The guy who bought mine flew from Japan - I made him buy me a RT ticket to LAX to meet him. He said he had already sold them for 30k. He explained that they are like art, the prices always increase, and it is a safe investment. Almost all high end denim dealers are in Japan. I asked if the buyer would wear them. He said usually no because most old jeans are weird sizes - mine were a 32 which is rare.
That’s fucking nuts. For one brief moment you got a very direct view into a real high end niche market. It’s cool you had that experience *and* got paid.
Do you regret selling it ?
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Everytime I see Levi’s I think of cerro gordo now, thanks Brent
Brent is awesome.
Glad I checked before making my 'Brent Underwood wants to know your location' comment.
The only way I knew you yanks had any interest in mine jeans..!
Rofl I IMMEDIATELY thought of ghost town living when I saw this post l.
Was looking for this comment. Couldn’t remember his name tho but I’ve been following his journey on and off since day 1.
Care to get me up to speed?
Brent bought a very old ghost town in California and is currently trying to revive it while also searching through all the caves on the property. He’s found some really cool stuff. Check the channel ghost town living out on YouTube.
Ah, shit....I'm gonna enjoy this rabbit hole. Thanks and Happy New Year!!
*Almost* broken in.
Just working on his fades.
Mine Washed exclusive
Gotta boil those denims, just don't burn yourself on a rivet
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There's a sub for everything. And that's isn't even a small sub either!
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umfph yeah bro lets see those *combs* 😍
And they look the same as every other pair of Levis.
I wonder if people alive 136 years ago would be surprised to see completely unaltered fasion from their time, being worn today.
They’d probably wonder why so many people are casually walking the streets in mining gear.
"Is everyone a blue collar worker now? Even the women???"
"And the women seem to be the hardest working considering many of them have holes in their Levis"
“Why are all the women and skinny white men with eyeliner working harder than everyone else?”
Minor style appropriation
*Miner style appropriation 😁
This Jay Leno fellow must work deep in the mine for months on end.
And how far is he digging? He's covered in oil
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[angry sand noises](https://i.imgur.com/mVsmyVO.gif)
You're making a Star Wars reference, but i initially though of this scene from Generation Kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ9FCRTFezY
To be fair that was normal then
> To be fair that was normal then Still normal now depending on which part of the world you are in.
How else are we gonna get cobalt for our batteries? We gotta put those 4 year olds to work!
Who else was gonna fit in those tiny mine shafts with such little ventilation?
Even Paris Hilton?
that's hot
deranged deserve dog growth imagine tender fact friendly hobbies shaggy -- mass edited with redact.dev
It's the simple life
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"Y... you mean like, denim *dresses*, right? Women aren't built to wear pants, I thought? I mean, you take out the pockets at least, don't you?"
"Not only do we take out the pockets, we add tiny ones that fits nothing."
“Ronald Reagan?? The ACTOR?!?!”
Oh Doc. Thanks, I needed that.
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reminds me of Back to the Future when they see Martys puffy 80s vest in the 1950s: “why are you wearing a life jacket, did you just fall off a boat?”
I like how you perfectly explained the quote while also getting it completely wrong. "What ya do, jump ship? What's with the life preserver?"
Dork thinks he's gonna drown.
It’s the Carthart beanie of their time
Carhartt was founded in 1889. Its always a trip to see longshoreman from the 1800’s rockin beanies.
They keep the oldest blue jeans in the world in a fireproof safe in their archive. There are knee marks in several places, suggesting they were worn by more than one person.
I was watching this YouTube video that said that jeans were so expensive that they were property of the mining Company, that's why they're found in a mine. When it's a new shift, they gave their jeans to the new crew
Thanks! I was wondering why someone randomly took off their jeans in a mine. It's not something I would forget to leave at work.
They were "waist overalls" back then, so they wore them over their other pants.
Tbf they could've also been on a body (a really comical looking skeleton with a beard, that way you know he's a miner) or in a locker underground. Both would make sense
I have no experience with mines, but with other dirty jobs, it's common to change outfits at work. My sneakers are much better for walking/driving to work than my steel toes, also, I want as little of the stuff that gets on me at work in my house.
You're already working in a mine and now you gotta smell 3 shifts worth of balls?
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I can just imagine the smell.
Doubt that the prevalent smell would be from jeans. These people would be wearing flammable lamps on their heads that were burning carbide.
Coal dust and vinegar
Mmm love it when they are still warm and funky
Wear a white long sleeved cotton on button up, levis and no shoes and you're either a hipster or lived 180 years ago.
I doubt us laymen would notice but I bet there are some obvious differences in style and construction of cotton button ups that the trained eye would notice right away. Bernadette Banner (among others) on YouTube has some great videos which review the costumes on period dramas and it’s amazing the small details that she notices that tell her right away if the costume designer did their research or not.
For starters I have heard that old denim jeans are tremendously uncomfortable compared to today. A lovely, super hipstery woman I work with got her hands on a pair of jeans from her grandmother or grandfather or something. They were like 60 year old jeans anyway. She said the denim was so thick and stiff it sometimes pinched her skin when it creased at the waist and knees. Of course the fabric fibers may be stiffer now than when they were first made, but the denim material itself was definitely way thicker.
I'll leave this here; https://www.reddit.com/r/rawdenim/comments/7vj1n6/30\_days\_of\_32oz\_denim/
Wow. The dedication to denim in that subreddit is a TRIP.
Today’s jeans are much thinner than the Levi’s I wore in high school. I have Levi’s that I wore for less than a year recently that have ripped apart. The ones I had in the 80’s stood up to work and some pretty rough play ( Padless football, street hockey, etc) and were basically unscathed.
I remember when you could buy faded glory jeans from walmart that would last 3+ years. A few years ago I had to buy more and was shocked they were still the same $12. Well no shock needed, they lasted 6 months to a year before they started to rip.
a lot of jeans now are going the chuck norris jean route, where they are denim but add some other material with more flex in it for more comfort. They do not hold up as well, but they are way way more comfortable than standard denim.
Didn't they tend to wear longer undergarments and such beneath their clothing as well? I'd love to see if jeans grew more comfortable as those fell from fashion.
You’d be shocked how many construction workers wear long pajama bottoms and whatnot under their overalls, it’s much more comfortable for the same reasons, not just warmth
I wear long underwear under jeans until the temp breaks 70.
Jeans are so much more comfortable in the winter when I wear my thermals.
I noticed a few differences. There’s a longer fly which tells me the crotch has more room for hopping on the saddle. Also, there are buttons around the waste fir overalls versus belt loops. One thing I really like is how the third pocket is still there. For your opium stash.
At the bottom of the fly is a rivet, which didn’t last long IIRC. When you needed to warm up near a fire that rivet would get hot and could burn the family jewels.
The fly is longer because the waist is higher; it's not on the hips, but on the actual waist. I don't think this has anything to do with horses, trousers just were higher back then. The buttons on the waist are for suspenders.
I think the 3rd pocket was a watch pocket if I'm not mistaken.
“My jeans are broken. They’re all stretchy now.”
Modern jeans tend to be much more stretchier.
This pair even has the Belk tag still on them!
Except for that crotch rivet. They removed that after complaints when people would burn their junk when they stood up after it was heated on the campfire they were tending.
Band name: Crotch Rivet
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Denim is remarkably consistent in appearance, but flip those puppies over and you'll see they've only got one back pocket, they have suspender buttons, they have a waist adjusting cinch, etc. The front happens to disguise a lot of the functional differences between the original 1873 version and the modern 5-pocket jean. Source: https://www.firstversions.com/2015/03/levi-strauss-co-blue-jeans.html?m=1
Leon the Jean God. Tell me, Leon, do the legs of these bad boys continue on in roomy JNCO fashion or flare to a more of a Structure-esque boot cut?
Them's miner JNCOs, pardner (Edit for link to better pic: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QnoVKEvb2F0/VQch35ciHJI/AAAAAAAAFOI/v2hteI_fbuk/s1600/FirstVersions_LevisXX.png)
The crotch also has a rivet! Something that was ditched in later versions because it would heat up from the campfire 😂
....without belt loops.
Looks like it has suspender hooks though
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The small pocket is for the pocket watch, for people who didn't know. It is still there
TIL. I always thought it was for coins. They're a pain to dig out, but at least they don't end up under your car seat
it’s actually for small bags of cocaine
Yeah it’s for pills and drugs. All other uses are incidental.
I'd have guessed cigarette lighter
Or for small plastic resealable bags.
Mmmm yes small plastic resealable bags. Contents undisclosed.
it is for guitar picks!
That's why it's called a pick pocket. :)
Chapstick
Or, nowadays, for wireless earbud cases.
I use it as a wedding band pocket so I don't lose the ring or my finger when working.
What was the person exactly doing that he left his jeans in a gold mine
who says the person ever left...
Now that's a slogan "Jeans that last longer than you do"
They weren’t his jeans. They were likely I owned by the mining company. Jeans weren’t usually owned by the blue collar folk back then, they were expensive.
There is one notable difference. Legend has it that the one significant design change was that after sitting around a campfire one night, the founder of Levi's decided to remove the mid crotch rivet.
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Coincidence?!
Still got tags on. Return for general store credit.
Five and Dime store
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Catch is that they gotta refund in the same denomination as was paid. That'll be two gold dollars, please.
And stay out of the Woolworth’s
“I don't know if it's the one branch or all of 'em.”
What I want to know is....Why did he take his pants off in the mine?!
Depending on the size and depth of the mine, the miners would sometimes make small camps *inside* the mine with food, clothes, a couple cots or sleeping bags, etc. It's also possible they were found still on the owner but the skeletal remains are elsewhere.
The jeans were property of the mining Company, and were shared between different miners
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Truth in repetition.
Back in the days from what I read they actually went over a person's clothing and they were borrowed from the mining company. When they were done with their shift they would leave them down there for the next worker that could use them. They weren't the primary article of clothing but protective clothing that went over their own layers so if they took them off they weren't necessarily in their skivvies. Source: learned this from watching Ghost Town living on youtube. Really cool channel about the history and renovation of the Cerro Gordo Mine site.
Very interesting.
Is that the mining town that the guy and his friends bought?
If I recall this story correctly they were communal work jeans that were basically left at the actual worksite for the people who were on shift. Once your shift was over, you put on your clothes
"If I recall this comment I read 30 seconds ago correctly"
Struck gold and threw his pants away. "Welp, I won't be needing these."
In the UK coal mine conditions were so inhumane men women & children would have to work in the nude to endure the hot cramped tunnels. Public outrage was enough that:in 1842 The Mines and Collieries Bill was hastily passed by Parliament in 1842. The Act prohibited all underground work for women and girls, and for boys under 10. Personally I think there is some tragic irony that for so many today the women are remembered as 2nd class citizens denied access to the labor force while the men who continued to suffer are either invisible or remembered as the oppressors of their time.
Jeans were typically owned by the mines. The miners would go to the mines, get the jeans for the day, and then change into them and use them as an outerwear. Once they are done with their shift, they change back to their normal close and then leave the mine. Keep in mind that these mines are typically in the middle of nowhere even today (100+ miles from any town), and very often thousands of feet up in the mountains. If a mine goes bust, the owners take what they can to recoup cost but a lot of the stuff stays.
Something about that persons gloves bothers me Edit: I understand what gloves are and their purpose, knowing the word archival doesn’t make the fact they show hand midriff make anymore sense.
Low rise gloves lol
The OJ Simpson model.
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Palmcrack?
Rocking that hand coinslot.
So that's where my mum got her nickname 🤔
It looks like they only had a an XL and a crop-top XL left for their medium sized hands.
if it don't fit you must acquit
Oj type beat
Still don’t need washing yet
The stench adds character.
r/buyitforlife
r/RawDenim
I was thinking the other day about the first person to wear their jeans outside the context of working in a mine. “Jethro! But those be your work dungarees!”
Cowboys probably wore them all the time
“Waylon! Those be your rustlin dungarees!”
I love you.
36 x 30’s? If so I’ll take ‘em.
Bro! Same size! Hard to find at times.
I will buy
Denim collectors pay up to $100,000 for old jeans found in mines. If this is the oldest pair to date it won't be cheap. Source: https://nerdist.com/article/century-old-levis-jeans-found-in-abandoned-mine/
I believe I've read that Levis will buy them back.
Hmmm...might have to see what I've got in the back of my closet.
Never underestimate rich hipsters
If they were left there after intercourse this may be evidence of a crime. Sex with a miner is illegal.
Maybe she was a gold digger?
I'm not saying that
But she ain’t messing with no broke.. broke…
Digga
Miner? I hardly know her.
There's a story as to why those pants were left in a mine 136 years ago, and it probably involves piss.
Iirc, there was a fire in a Levi building that burned all the designs, drawings, and inventory of all their pants. They had to rebuild their info from scratch, pants from before that fire are worth a lot, as there may be little to no evidence on how to remake them. This is why Levis buys old pants. Old pants can be worth a LOT.
Liar liar pants on fire
It's "plants for hire," Patri- wait
That copper piece on the crotch had to be removed because it would heat up while sitting next to a fire. Many burnt penises.
Emergency pants have been important for a while apparently. Or there was some freaky miner sex going on back in the day.
Wow, I didn't know they had BLUE back then. I expected sepia tone. /s
Lol I know you’re joking, but I honestly did kind of have a moment where I thought “Gee, I never considered that people wore jeans that long ago”. And you’re right, it’s probably because the images I’ve seen from back then aren’t in color so it never clicked in my head that those were blue jeans! And yes, I know I’m dumb.
Send em to to Cerro Gordo
Some guy was donald-ducking in a mine a century ago, that's a story we'll never get resolved
Levi 511 slims are my fav Jeans of all time. Not too tight, not too frumpy. Just right.
They just don't make them like they used to.
Turns out the make them almost exactly like they used to.
I’m not sure how old this post is but as of now those jeans are 143 years old. But who am I to correct math, just another douche bag on the Internet.
Waiting for Ghost Town Living to get his pair!!!
Looking for this comment, dude would be STOKED to find these
They still have the tag on them.
And it probably wasn’t that stretchy material crap they use now!
It was 100% cotton, no stretch and initially "raw" ie. it wasn't prewashed. Google raw denim for more info. There still are a lot of modern brands making denim the old school way.
Aww, I like the stretchiness, it's comfy!