The Levi’s 201 is a little bit of a mystery. But with a little bit of sleuthing… Maybe we can make some educated guesses about the history behind these jeans.
The Levi’s 201 was the budget version of the premium 501 jean introduced around 1890 and not much else is known about them. There is a 50-year gap in Levi’s history due to the earthquake and resulting fire that ravaged San Francisco in 1906 destroying Levi’s headquarters and wiping out the first 5 decades of the companies history.
A patchy history
What is known about the 201 had been pieced together from bits and pieces found down abandoned mines.
The obvious differences
What is obvious is that the patch was linen fabric instead of leather. The 201s were made from different, probably cheaper denim. This denim was apparently still from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, the mill that supplied Levi’s with its denim until the “Golden Handshake” with Cone Mills in 1915. The buttons were of lower quality.
Same same, but different
Other than that, they were much the same as the 501s of the time. Arcuates on both pocket. Cinch back. Suspender buttons. No belt loops. Rivets on all the usual places including the crotch.
We may not know the exact early history of the 201. The specimens that have come to light (at least to the knowledge of this denimhead to date) all have two back pockets. You would presume that they would go off the patterns for their 501 designs. The second back pocket was added to the 501 in around 1901. It would not make too much sense if the premium model was one pocket shy of the budget one. We do know that production ran well into the 1920s.
A competitive edge
It is most likely that the 201s were introduced to keep Levi’s competitive when their patent for using rivets on clothing ran out in 1890. When this happened, everyone could make riveted overalls and for the first time, Levi’s faced some real competition. This saw them taking some leaps forward in their marketing. The Two Horse patch design appeared for the first time and the printed inner pocket bag attesting the quality of the product. Staples of the brand to this day and are jealously guarded by the Levi Lawyers.
Evolutionary offshoot
Whatever the exact history is, I am sure you will agree that the 201 is a fascinating little evolutionary offshoot of our beloved blue jeans. The guys at Levi’s thought so and have reintroduced the line at several times in the last couple of decades. One early iteration was more akin to 1890 with one back pocket. Others were more historically accurate and went under the Levi’s Vintage Clothing line.
The images here were taken from the Instagram account of @secondhandindigo via the Long John website. These particular pants jeans were discovered during a renovation of a home in the coastal logging town Fort Bragg, USA. The home was originally built in 1908.
