Jacob William Davis (born Jākobs Jufess; Russian: Якоб Яковлевич Юфес, May 14, 1831 – January 20, 1908) was a Latvian-American tailor who is credited with inventing modern jeans.

[4] After traveling around America believed to be working as a journeyman tailor, in 1858 Davis left California and moved to Western Canada in search of better opportunities.

[3] In his tailor shop, Davis made functional items such as tents, horse blankets and wagon covers for the railway workers on the Central Pacific Railroad.

[7] To create suitably robust pants for working, he used duck cloth and reinforced the weak points in the seams and pockets with the copper rivets.

[4] Realizing the potential value in his reinforced jeans concept, in 1872, he approached Levi Strauss, who was still his supplier of fabric, and asked for his financial backing in the filing of a patent application.

[8] That same year, Davis started sewing a double orange threaded stitched design onto the back pocket of the jeans to distinguish them from those made by his competitors.

In 2006 a plaque was erected in Reno, Nevada, outside the premises where Davis's tailor shop was located, to commemorate the fact jeans were invented there.