[HN Gopher] Cache of 19th-Century Blue Jeans Discovered in Aband...
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Cache of 19th-Century Blue Jeans Discovered in Abandoned Arizona
Mineshaft
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 93 points
Date : 2022-10-27 15:34 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| There's an important lesson here for the young and ambitious.
| Countless people came to California for the Gold Rush. A
| vanishingly tiny percentage of them got rich: most lost their
| shirts. Others with good business sense didn't go anywhere near
| the gold fields, but instead hung back in San Francisco selling
| supplies to the would-be gold tycoons. Levi Strauss was one of
| those. Most likely you can't name a single 49er who got rich
| digging gold, but I bet you knew who Levi Strauss was before you
| read this article, and odds are pretty good that you're wearing a
| pair of his pants right now.
| DeathArrow wrote:
| >odds are pretty good that you're wearing a pair of his pants
| right now
|
| Nope, I wear Lee and Wrangler.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| I will note that in the data store I use to record the jeans
| preferences of HN commenters.
| technothrasher wrote:
| > Most likely you can't name a single 49er
|
| I know one of them had a daughter named Clementine who drowned
| while tending to the ducks. Does that count?
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| Wait, I think I knew her...is she the one who always wore
| sandals made of herring boxes without topses, even though she
| had several perfectly good pairs of regular shoes?
| JasonFruit wrote:
| Size 9, as I recall.
| yasp wrote:
| > most lost their shirts
|
| or in this case, their pants :)
| bitwize wrote:
| And this is why we sometimes say B2B tech companies are
| "selling pickaxes in the Gold Rush".
| dixie_land wrote:
| or sell 3090 to crypto miners :)
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| Anecdotally, the biggest winners of the first dotcom boom
| were South Bay used furniture dealers who could sell a
| startup all the furniture they'd need to fit out an office,
| then buy it back cheaper when the startup folded in eight
| months, and sell it yet again to the next startup to, uh,
| start up.
| User23 wrote:
| John Nordstrom was another.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| TIL
| vulcan01 wrote:
| Just to clarify: John Nordstrom's shoes were for the Klondike
| gold rush, not the Californian one.
| bdcravens wrote:
| eBay sellers about to start the gold rush looking for old mines
| [deleted]
| tomcam wrote:
| > Schlichting mentions other risk factors, too, like hibernating
| rattlesnakes
|
| Yeah so I'm out
| tomcam wrote:
| Did anyone get why the jeans were there to begin with? I've had a
| lot of jobs, including manual labor, and in all cases I ended my
| workday with the same number of pants I started it with.
| fooblaster wrote:
| you get very, very dirty doing manual labor in a mine?
| neogodless wrote:
| I would like if some of my 21st-century jeans would hold together
| for more than a year or two.
| [deleted]
| Bayart wrote:
| I've got a few selvedge pairs with proper stitching going on
| for more than a decade after being worn a few days a weak. But
| they've got a few patches. I mostly buy Edwin.
| soperj wrote:
| Any jeans I've had that are actually made the same way they
| were in the early 20th century last. Levis on the other hand.
| dekhn wrote:
| Huh? I buy 505s every decade or so. I think they are 100%
| cotton (and it's a robust weave) the only problem I ever see
| with them is the knees eventually wear out, which iis a
| simple patch-job.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| Looked for but couldn't find prices for, say, 1920s Levis.
| Wouldn't be surprised if they're not too far off from what
| you have to pay for actually-good jeans today, adjusted for
| inflation or as a fraction of median income.
| dillutedfixer wrote:
| Look for Levi's with 100% cotton (well really like 60/40
| cotton/hemp), or 99% cotton. These last far longer. All this
| stupid stretchy synthetic fabric wears out differently than
| natural fibers and then jeans start to fall apart. The all
| natural ones feel more stiff at first, but they break in and
| are super comfortable.
|
| I just shopped at the Levi's store at the mall in San Jose,
| and the jeans I mentioned were hidden on bottom shelves under
| all of the horrible synthetic crap. The good stuff is there,
| you just have to look for it.
| munificent wrote:
| _> All this stupid stretchy synthetic fabric wears out
| differently than natural fibers and then jeans start to
| fall apart._
|
| For what it's worth, I wear mostly pretty cheap American
| Eagle jeans with stretch and they have lasted years on me.
| And that's despite basically wearing only four pairs of
| them in heavy rotation.
|
| A big part of it is that I don't wash them every time I
| wear them. If I don't do anything to get them actively
| dirty or sweaty, I'll wear them a few times before they go
| in the wash. My understanding is that washing machines are,
| by a very large margin, the largest source of wear in
| clothing.
| dekhn wrote:
| It me quite some time to recognize just how much wear
| washing machines were causing to my artisinal collection
| of nerd shirts. It pokes holes in them!
| ksherlock wrote:
| Serious denim folks stick them in a freezer to get rid of
| odor and if washing is absolutely necessary, hand-wash in
| the bath tub.
| rekabis wrote:
| > Look for Levi's with 100% cotton (well really like 60/40
| cotton/hemp), or 99% cotton. These last far longer.
|
| This. I get only the natural, non-stretch fabrics
| (Leviticus 19:19, FTW!) and mine typically last up to a
| decade or more with decent care (turning them inside out
| before washing, washing only when visibly soiled, etc.).
|
| Now granted, this is also a problem now that I'm losing
| weight, as they're too loose to use without a strong belt,
| but too good of a condition to justify replacing.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| The non-stonewashed fabrics will also last longer.
| giantg2 wrote:
| I tried Duluth fire hose cool max a couple years back. They are
| so much better than jeans if you live in a humid region - they
| won't stick to you and they breath more when you're doing
| sweaty work (like checking bees in the summer). They seem to be
| generally more comfortable too. They are a bit on whe expensive
| side, but so are most jeans these days.
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| And they have a gusseted crotch, which combined with the 3%
| lycra makes them easy to climb and crouch in them (I bike in
| mine, and climb at the gym).
| richiebful1 wrote:
| I wore my heavy weight Carhartt carpenter jeans about every
| other day for a few years until I started using them for house
| work. I would've thought the knees would have holes by now (5
| years in) with the recent crawlspace work I've been doing.
| prionassembly wrote:
| Are they comfortable in warmer weather though.
| simlevesque wrote:
| No good quality jeans is really comfortable in warm weather
| in my experience.
| dekhn wrote:
| well, except for daisy dukes
| the-printer wrote:
| Great taste. I was formally introduced to Carhartt deep in
| the aisles of an Ace Hardware store by a man who explained
| how he could fit his firearms in a pair of coveralls.
| somedude895 wrote:
| Get a pair of Iron Heart 777s
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| For $300-400 they better walk for me.
| pessimizer wrote:
| It's easy to find $400 jeans that last a very long time,
| they're just normally marketed under the description "10
| pairs of $40 jeans."
| toast0 wrote:
| I've had good luck with LL Bean's Double L jeans. I do wear
| them out, but I wash after every wear and with that the service
| life seems pretty good, much happier than the last several
| pairs of Levi's 505 I bought. I've got one pair of a higher
| line which will hold together for a long time, because I don't
| like the cut of the pockets so I only rarely wear them.
| mtalantikite wrote:
| For years I used to buy the Levi's Vintage Clothing jeans
| (specifically the black wash 606s), which were made in the US,
| felt sturdy and would last. They discontinued them a while back
| and I bought dead stock for years until I just couldn't find
| them anymore.
|
| Lately I've been wearing the Oni "secret denim" collection
| [1][2] and they're amazing. It's only been a couple of years,
| but they break in beautifully and feel like they'll last years.
| It's worth spending the extra money for something high quality
| that will last.
|
| [1] https://www.denimio.com/brand/oni_denim
|
| [2] https://denimhunters.com/oni-secret-denim-review/
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Can't bring myself to pay full freight, but I covet an Oni
| type 3 with handwarmer pockets.
| claudiulodro wrote:
| Wranglers have been the way to go in my experience. They're an
| extra-thick denim that really holds up through years of hard
| use. Affordable too! (Just the classic ones; the "fashionable"
| ones are made of worse material)
| bluedino wrote:
| Project Farm did a jeans test
|
| https://youtu.be/sU6Y1FH6Ssk
| tomcam wrote:
| But of course
| alar44 wrote:
| Stop washing them every time after you wear them.
| neogodless wrote:
| You made an incorrect assumption! I wash them after about 2
| weeks of wear, or when they get pretty visibly dirty. (The
| drool from my mastiff doesn't count, or they'd be washed
| every 15 minutes.)
|
| I will say, "a year or two" is an exaggeration for some of my
| jeans. But I usually only have 2-4 pair with no holes that I
| rotate between, and most develop wear in the knees if not
| outright holes by the end of 2 years.
| speed_spread wrote:
| And when you wash them, hang them dry afterwards. That fuzz
| in the dryer lint trap is your clothes disintegrating slowly.
| Finnucane wrote:
| I have to agree with this--a few years ago I started
| getting into the habit of putting more of my clothes on a
| rack (esp. anything cotton) and less through the dryer, and
| no question clothes last longer that way.
| pwarner wrote:
| Levis has a collection of very old Jeans, the oldest are 1879.
| They have them in their archive.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdTT3sLWnHg
| gerad wrote:
| My jeans wear out in the rear (where my bike seat is). Can
| anybody a brand that doesn't (or lasts pretty long)?
| anotherboffin wrote:
| I had a pair of Levi's Commuter Pro that were 5 years old (with
| a lot of wears and washes) and still going strong before I lost
| them :(
|
| Somehow it seems like they're now discontinued.
| alexose wrote:
| I loved the commuter line. The first run of them were
| absolutely perfect. But, as with many things Levi's, they
| started using cheaper and cheaper materials over time to the
| point where they were just unwearable.
|
| (If anyone at Levi's is reading this, for Pete's sake, stop
| cannibalizing your own brands!)
| [deleted]
| DanCarvajal wrote:
| Could simply be a fit problem. Check out pants with larger room
| in the thighs and maybe even a crotch gusset.
| simlevesque wrote:
| I ride with Diesel's and Naked and Famous. The diesels are so
| comfortable, even tighter ones are good to ride with. And they
| last me a long time.
| victor106 wrote:
| Agreed 100%.
|
| I was recently introduced to Diesel and they are the best in
| terms of fit and comfort. I particularly love their
| JoggJeans.
|
| They are a little pricey but so worth it
| jlarocco wrote:
| Not jeans, but I love Prana shorts for riding. I have several
| pair that have lasted several thousand miles each.
| OJFord wrote:
| Spoke make a pair of chinos-ish specifically reinforced (and
| zip pocketed, and semi-waterproof) for cycling.
|
| I haven't actually tried them, and I no longer commute, but I
| used to burn through the seat (and more one side than the
| other, interestingly - probably says something (bad) about my
| cycling technique) the same way.
| iequery wrote:
| Levi's used to have a Commuter 511 model designed for cycling.
| It had reinforced panels in the crotch where the bike seat
| goes, reflective Scotchlite piping on the seam where selvedge
| would normally go. They discontinued them AFAIK but you might
| be able to find secondhand.
| czinck wrote:
| Not true jeans, and you'll pay for the durability, but Outlier
| comes up occasionally amongst bike commuters. I wore my strong
| dungarees (now replaced with bomb dungarees but different fit
| and material) to bike to dinner dates many times. The new way
| shorts aren't quite as durable but I wore them biking a lot
| too.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| I actually prefer to buy my Outlier pants secondhand (at a
| significant discount, mind you) because I've had such good
| luck with their durability.
| guerrilla wrote:
| Yeah, I remember the YouTube videos. I love abandoned mine
| exploration videos. You should definitely check out his channel
| and the many others. People do this all over the world. Some of
| it's kinda sketchy, real horror movie material at times, kind of
| the inverse of rooftopping. I enjoyed learning the lingo and
| reasoning behind everything. Mining had and has its own language
| just like computers and everything had a purpose and the people
| who do this kind of thing tend to know what they're talking about
| and interview a lot of people who _really_ know what they 're
| talking about.
| TigeriusKirk wrote:
| I love TVR Exploring's mine videos. He doesn't do the youtube
| oversensationalize thing, and he hits all kinds of mines in the
| Sierra region. He's also bringing an old mine back online, and
| his series about that is a lot of nerdy fun for physical
| engineering types. https://www.youtube.com/c/TVRExploring
| smellf wrote:
| Seconding TVR Exploring! His videos are a breath of fresh air
| in today's clickbaity youtube landscape. He's easily the best
| abandoned mine exploration channel - I can hardly even watch
| any of the others any more.
| tverbeure wrote:
| Most off topic:
|
| Back in 1989, we did a week long high school trip from Belgium to
| Leningrad and Moscow. This was during the Gorbachev time, right
| before the fall of the wall.
|
| Jeans and sneakers from the West were a big thing on the Russian
| black market back then. So all the kids brought along their most
| worn down jeans and sneakers, and use them to fund local
| purchases of vodka and other fun stuff. (Belgian teachers are
| much more forgiving than American ones!) To sell them, all you
| had to do was to walk around on the major streets. Your western
| clothes made you stand out like a sore thumb so within minutes
| you'd be swarmed by local wanting to trade.
|
| Good times!
| jamesdwilson wrote:
| did you just carry spare pants also or did they trade their
| pants along with the contraband?
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| I had a professor who said he used to travel to Russia and
| the only thing he would pack were suitcases of jeans to sell.
| [deleted]
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