The first ever pair of jeans were made for a lumberjack

Built for life in the woods, the first jeans were designed to be exceptionally tough – the strongest pants anywhere in the world at the time. But over the last 150 years, jeans have changed to the point where the original lumberjacks wouldn’t even recognise them. So we’ve gone back to the first days of jeans to build them as they were meant to be built.

The first ever pair of jeans were made for a lumberjack

Built for life in the woods, the first jeans were designed to be exceptionally tough – the strongest pants anywhere in the world at the time. But over the last 150 years, jeans have changed to the point where the original lumberjacks wouldn’t even recognise them. So we’ve gone back to the first days of jeans to build them as they were meant to be built.

The first ever pair of jeans were made for a lumberjack

Built for life in the woods, the first jeans were designed to be exceptionally tough – the strongest pants anywhere in the world at the time. But over the last 150 years, jeans have changed to the point where the original lumberjacks wouldn’t even recognise them. So we’ve gone back to the first days of jeans to build them as they were meant to be built.

The first ever pair of jeans were made for a lumberjack

Built for life in the woods, the first jeans were designed to be exceptionally tough – the strongest pants anywhere in the world at the time. But over the last 150 years, jeans have changed to the point where the original lumberjacks wouldn’t even recognise them. So we’ve gone back to the first days of jeans to build them as they were meant to be built.

A new breed of men emerged from the forest

Out of the forests came a breed of men who worked high, played big and lived hard. Treetop daredevils as great as the great outdoors and some of the hardest men who ever lived. A few passed into folklore. Jigger Johnson, the woodsman from Maine, who could reportedly kick knots off frozen logs using his bare feet. Big Joe Mufferaw, from Montreal, who took out Canada’s reigning boxing champ with a single punch, having slipped into the ring from the audience, aged 16. And the mythical woodsman Paul Bunyan, whose likeness is today displayed in giant statues across North America, usually accompanied by his trusty companion Babe the Blue Ox – who has five states still laying claim to his birthplace.

They were Kings of the Woods

These kings of the woods developed their own language. A “bucker” was someone who cut trees into manageable pieces after they’d been chopped down by the “feller”, while the “whistle punk” relayed information between the worksite and the area where logs were dragged for loading. Some high-climbers developed a flair for performance. When they topped a tree they would ceremoniously take a pinch of snuff, roll a cigarette or stand on their heads.

The men who said goodbye to civilisation built a culture of their own

It was one that celebrated hard labour, bravery, intuition and knowledge of the forest. Admired for their work ethic and physical fitness, they operated like clockwork, extolled the benefits of tackling dangerous tasks, and took pride in the quantity and quality of their work. And they did it all with some axes, saws and shirts.

Woodsmen needed new clothes for dangerous work

Original woodsmen faced the kind of dangers you’d normally only find in nightmares. Falling from 300ft, burning to death, or being crushed by runaway logs. So they needed clothes that were hard-wearing enough to take on life in the forest, but also soft enough to wear sleeping in damp wooden huts for months at a time. Living in isolated camps with little or no access to water, warm meals or fresh clothes, the hours were long, the work itinerant and the accommodation rough. They travelled from camp to camp, working from “can see to can’t see,” risking injury and death on the way.

An iconic shirt was born

In the September 1894 edition of Munsey’s Magazine, one lumberjack explained exactly why a lumberjack’s most important possession was their shirt. “It’s a life fraught with many dangers. Falling trees and rolling logs have caused a long list of deaths; and it is on this account that the woodman’s outer garments are of the brightest colours, blue, green, red, and yellow being the more prominent. The men are thereby able to see one another more distinctly through the thick underbrush, and by a timely warning avert a great many dangers.”