Why Your Jeans Have That Teeny, Tiny Pocket

What have you used that small pocket on the front of your jeans for?

I've used it to fold up a couple of  $20 bills before back in college. It's a perfect, little hiding place without worrying about carrying a handbag. Even a key fits perfectly. Some of those teeny, tiny pockets even fit a driver's license or credit card.

Alas, that's not what those petite pockets on the front of jeans are for, at least not originally.

At this point jeans without those pockets would look a bit odd. Those pockets are part of the style of most jean brands. However, according to the Art of Manliness website, this standard design feature that's a staple of American fashion goes all the way back to the late 1800s.

It's there for men to place their pocket watches. Whether you were a cowboy or blue collar in your workmen's jeans, you had a pocket watch way back then.

According to The Mirror U.S. website, this little pocket sewn inside the bigger pocket on the right side of blues jeans was patented by Strauss and J.W Davis in May of 1873. The jeans then first hit the market nearly 20 years later in 1890 with Levi's 501 jeans.

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Of course today it's tradition even if you didn't realize it. While Levi Strauss and J.W. Davis started the now trend, but originally for an actual use, most brands making jeans have kept the that petite pocket a fashion mainstay.

In some cases you can't even use the teeny, tiny pocket because it's sewn shut and purely there for looks.