Levi Strauss

When Levi Strauss invented his denim jeans, they became favorites of the working man. They were also a popular choice among the 49'ers as they panned for gold. I'm just curious, though, since these pioneer jeans were subjected to what I consider some grueling labor and abuse, did they end up looking like this after 7 months?




And this is actually a "decent" pair of my son's jeans, as there's still one knee in-tact. Most of his jeans have both knees blown out, and we're not even all the way through the jean-wearing season yet. He's just a 10 year old boy. I know boys can be hard on their clothes, but how much in comparison to someone digging in a mine for gold 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week? Did their jeans get all raggedy looking in such a short time? Is it asking too much for a pair of jeans to make it through one short, 8 month wearing season in-tact?? I think from now on I'm going to start ironing on some patches on the inside of his jeans to see if we can get a little more mileage out of them.