{"id":31456,"date":"2023-09-29T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-levis-collector-to-auction-off-oldest-pair-of-jeans\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:40:32","slug":"durango-levis-collector-to-auction-off-oldest-pair-of-jeans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-levis-collector-to-auction-off-oldest-pair-of-jeans\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango Levi\u2019s collector to auction off \u2018oldest\u2019 pair of jeans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Brit
Brit Eaton of Durango holds the oldest known pair of Levi\u2019s denim 501 jeans made in 1873 as he prepares for the Durango Vintage Festivus, which began Thursday and goes through Saturday. The jeans will be auctioned off Saturday night at Tico Time just south of the Colorado-New Mexico line. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango resident Brit Eaton is obsessed with vintage jeans.<\/p>\n

He searches high and low for the rarest of relics, including mine shafts, storage sheds, yard sales and clothing auctions. He has warehouses full of jeans and other vintage clothing. He keeps the pairs he really likes and sells the rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single pair of jeans that\u2019s ever been made \u2026 is unique,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not unique because they have one pocket or two pockets \u2013 that just determines the rarity. They\u2019re unique because when they\u2019re worn, no two pairs are ever worn exactly the same. \u2026 Denim is an art canvas that gets painted through time by its own experiences. So that\u2019s really what I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, he will auction off a pair of jeans that he says are the oldest known Levi\u2019s denim 501 jeans in the world, made in 1873.<\/p>\n

\"Brit
Brit Eaton holds the oldest known pair of Levi denim 501 jeans made in 1873. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He estimates the jeans will fetch $150,000 to $300,000.<\/p>\n

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but it\u2019s not outside the realm of possibilities. He sold a pair of jeans last year<\/a> for $76,000, or $87,000 after the 15% auction fee.<\/p>\n

The jeans will be auctioned as part of the Durango Vintage Festivus, which began Thursday and extends through Saturday at Tico Time River Resort just south of the Colorado-New Mexico line.<\/p>\n

Other vintage clothing items will also be auctioned, including hats, bags, boots, shirts and jackets, but the focus is on jeans.<\/p>\n

Eaton will have a bulk sale featuring a pile of vintage jeans, weighing 10,000 pounds. People will pay for the right to sift through the pile and buy as many pairs as they like within a 10-minute period.<\/p>\n

Eaton tries to be humble about his background and expertise in vintage jeans, but his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

Three television shows have featured his scavenger-hunting lifestyle. He\u2019s also been featured in a Playboy <\/em>magazine article, and he\u2019s had numerous other articles written about him. He even had a store in Durango called Carpe Denim, which operated from 1997 to 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sort of commonly regarded as one of the worldwide leaders on denim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eaton goes on \u201cdenim safaris,\u201d in which he drives for two weeks in search of denim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve driven an average of 60,000 miles a year for 25 years, just going around knocking on doors all across the West, basically, and asking people if I can go look in their barn or their attic or whatever,\u201d he said. \u201c \u2026 There\u2019s nothing I want to do more in my life than dig through somebody else\u2019s crap that they don\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n

A trendy thing<\/div>\n

Vintage jeans became stylish among youths in the late 1960s during the Summer of Love and anti-Vietnam War protests. They are experiencing a resurgence among today\u2019s youth and overseas in places like Japan.<\/p>\n

Eaton says he is partly responsible for the revival.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the collectibles world is now educated about denim, and part of that is my own fault for being the No. 1 person in the world promoting the denim market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eaton said he began collecting denim 25 years ago. Since then, his financial position has improved and he can now afford to buy denim as an investment. He said he paid close to $125,000 for the 1873 pair of jeans that will be auctioned off Saturday night, but that is an estimate because other clothing items were involved as part of a larger deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like investing in what you already love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Levi\u2019s
Levi\u2019s denim 501 jeans made in 1873, left, Levi\u2019s made in 1930s, center, and J.C. Penney denim jeans made in 1930. The jeans will be auctioned during the Durango Vintage Festivus that began Thursday and extends through Saturday at Tico Time just south of the Colorado-New Mexico line. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He compared it to collecting art.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it goes down in value, who cares? You\u2019ve still got something beautiful hanging on your wall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eaton said the denim market is so strong that if someone bought a pair of 1950s Levi\u2019s jeans in mint condition for $5,000 back in 2010, that pair would have increased in value by 50% every year since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been a better investment than anything you could find, literally, anywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cEven better than real estate in Durango, Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

People in China and Japan are investing heavily in denim, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m surprised at is that the only people collecting this stuff are denim nerds like me \u2013 like people that are really, really into the love of denim \u2013 like we hang it on our wall like you hang artwork on our wall,\u201d Eaton said.<\/p>\n

The denim trend is on par with a T-shirt fad, in which people in their 20s are paying thousands of dollars for vintage shirts that feature Aladdin or Snoop Dogg.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s flippin\u2019 insane,\u201d he said. \u201c \u2026 Some people look at it and think, \u2018Oh, look what people do for money. It\u2019s so greedy.\u2019 I don\u2019t. I look at it like, \u2018Look at these young people that aren\u2019t working a freaking job at an office.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the appeal for regular collectors \u2013 as in those who pay a few hundred dollars for personal-wear vintage \u2013 is that they don\u2019t want to keep buying factory-produced goods, Eaton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s such a massive movement where people don\u2019t want to be buying (expletive) from a sweatshop in China,\u201d he said. \u201cYoung people want to be conscious of where their items are found, and finding something used is recycling. It makes people feel good about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair of jeans that sold last year for $76,000 were bought by a 22-year-old man who also invests in T-shirts, Eaton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a shame that the Wall Street guys aren\u2019t collecting denim as a viable investment opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eaton has 12 warehouses full of vintage wares. With real estate costs going up during the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided it was time to start selling it. So, he started the Durango Vintage Festivus last year.<\/p>\n

The event drew collectors from across the United States as well as China, Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, England and Sweden, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we\u2019re hoping that it\u2019ll be the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Brit
Brit Eaton will offer a VIP tour at his warehouse where patrons can purchase items that are part of Durango Vintage Festivus that began Thursday and extends through Saturday at Tico Time just south of the Colorado-New Mexico line. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Story behind the jeans<\/div>\n

Eaton said he bought his 1873 pair of jeans in October 2022 from Akira Tsuchida, a Japanese collector.<\/p>\n

They are in rough condition. Part of the lower left leg is missing, and there is at least one patch on the front right leg where they have been repaired. They measure about 34 inches in the waist and 31 inches in length. It is unknown who owned the jeans or what that person\u2019s life story may have been.<\/p>\n

Common to the jeans made before 1900, the 1873 pair have a buckle back and single back pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not in wearable condition,\u201d Eaton said. \u201cThey\u2019re definitely not in as good of condition as the pair we sold last year, but that\u2019s to be expected because they\u2019re almost 20 years older.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They have spent the last 10 years in Japan. More recently, they were in New York City where a Japanese tailor trained on old denim machines made a few reproduction pairs.<\/p>\n

The jeans were unearthed 20 years ago in a Nevada mine by Michael Allen Harris, who also spends his time searching for early denim and has written a book titled \u201cJeans of the Old West: A History<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the good denim we find is in Nevada and North California, (but) mostly Nevada just because there were so many more mines in Nevada than any other state, and it\u2019s a super-duper dry state,\u201d Eaton said.<\/p>\n

He said he has explored mines in the La Plata Mountains and around Silverton in San Juan County in search of jeans. But he hasn\u2019t found any and doesn\u2019t expect he ever will because of how much water flows through the mines in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

He said the material itself can be used in multiple ways, including covering car seats, making quilts and crafting scabbards to hold a gun or knife blade.<\/p>\n

Denim wasn\u2019t considered \u201cfrivolous purchasing\u201d or \u201cconspicuous consumption\u201d in the late 1800s, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like you had Walmart back then producing massive tons of fast fashion that nobody wants,\u201d Eaton said.<\/p>\n

When a pair of jeans wore out, people tended to find other uses for the material.<\/p>\n

Miners likely would have taken an extra pair of jeans or overalls into the mine in case the pair they were wearing became wet or badly torn, he said. He has also heard of cases where old jean material could be used to hold blasting charges in place.<\/p>\n

Eaton hopes his 1873 pair of jeans will be a hit among investors. The reserve, or minimum amount he will accept for a winning bid, is $150,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s got to be somebody out there in the world crazier than me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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