A pair of vintage Levi’s jeans dating back to the 1880s sold at an auction in New Mexico for nearly $90,000.
The jeans were found in an abandoned mine around five years ago, but were recently bought by 23-year-old Kyle Hautner and Zip Stevenson, a vintage denim market veteran with nearly three decades of experience.
Hautner and Stevenson bought the jeans for $87,400 — one of the highest prices ever paid for a pair of jeans, according to CNN. The price included a 15% buyer’s premium at the Durango Vintage Festivus in Aztec, New Mexico.
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“We didn’t have any plans to buy the jeans together until the auction started, which is kind of insane looking back on it,” said Stevenson, who is the owner of Denim Doctors in Los Angeles.
Hautner paid 90% of the sales price, while Stevenson pitched in the remaining 10%. Stevenson said only a couple of similar pairs of jeans exist.
“These jeans are extremely rare — especially in this fantastic worn condition and size,” Stevenson said. “There’s a couple of soft spots on the jeans that could use a bit of reinforcement but otherwise they’re super-duper solid jeans.”
“We would consider offering them for sale to an extremely interested private buyer,” Stevenson added, but noted that he and Hautner would prefer them to be sold for display in a museum “such as the Smithsonian or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
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Adding to the pair’s unique character, the phrase “The only kind made by White Labor” is printed on an inside pocket. The phrase was reportedly used by Levi’s following the introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which prohibited Chinese workers from entering the United States. The company included the slogan up until the 1890s. The act was repealed in 1943.
The jeans are being kept in a safety deposit box near Stevenson’s store in Los Angeles and can be viewed by appointment.
