1995
Ben Davis interview.
Appeared in Grand Royal Magazine.
The
King Kong of Work Clothing
Interview by O.D. Wolfson
Ben Davis Co. is working class chic, the Harley Davidson
of coarse clothing. For 60 years, Ben Davis has been inspiring
customer loyalty from ditch diggers and hipsters with a
line of work clothes still cut from patterns drawn in the
30's. Despite zero advertising their popularity has grown
at home and abroad (Ben Davis is big in Japan). It may be,
in part, due to the fact that they have the worlds coolest
logo: a big, tough, hairy yet humble, smiling ape and a
kick ass slogan: Union Made, Plenty Tough.
The man behind the monkey is 80 year old Ben Davis himself,
a depression era survivor who was destined to become the
King of Work Clothes, as Ben's grandfather was instrumental
in the creation of Levi Strauss jeans. Ben Davis never gives
interviews so I consider myself fortunate to have gotten
this one. I spoke with Ben and his son Frank, who now runs
the company, at their sunny Mission Street factory.
O.D.Wolfson: I thought I would
question you and Frank on some things the kids might be
curious about.
Ben Davis: Certainly.
O.D.: What's your full name?
B.D.: Benjamin Franklin Davis.
O.D.: How did you get your start
in the garment industry?
Frank Davis: Well, we could go
into a bunch of historical stuff like my great grandfather's
connection to Levi Strauss.
O.D.: So, Ben, your grandfather
had some involvement with Levi Strauss?
B.D.: Well yes... Jacob Davis,
he patented the pocket rivet.
O.D.:
Wow, really?
B.D.: Yes Jacob Davis was an immigrant
from Latvia; I believe his origin was Russia. He was a tailor
living in Virginia City Nevada. He's the fellow who invented
the copper rivet for jeans to help keep the pockets on.
In those days pockets had a habit of falling off the jeans
because people would put tools and what-not in them, so
he installed a copper rivet and they remained in style ever
since.
O.D.: So Jacob Davis collaborated
with Levi Strauss?
B.D.: He had other inventions
which were not successful... He had a number of children.
He wanted to patent the idea of the pocket rivet. His wife,
my grandmother, protested because it would have cost $75
to make the patent, money that they did not have, they needed
it for food for the children. So he contacted a man by the
name of Levi Strauss on Battery street in San Francisco
and offered half of the patent if he would cover half the
cost. Levi took him up on it. At the time Levi Strauss was
just selling canvas, so Jacob Davis came down from Virginia
city to San Francisco and started the first Levi's factory
making jeans with copper rivets.
O.D.: That launched the whole
Levi's jeans empire.
B.D.: Yes.
O.D.: Your family has a real history
in the garment industry.
Frank Davis: I guess you could
say clothes manufacturing is in the blood.
O.D.: How long did your family
remain associated with Levi Strauss Co.?
B.D.: Well my father became the
plant manager at the famous Valencia street factory. But
he left in the early 1920s.
O.D.: But half the rivet patent
was owned by your family.
B.D.: Well, patents only last,
what, about, I think thirty five years, and Jacob came down
here around the time of the civil war, I think the 1860s.
so the patent was long gone by that time.
O.D.: You started Ben Davis Co.
in 1935 when you were twenty one years old. What inspired
you to start your own line of work clothes?
B.D.: Well in those days we were
in severe depression and you had to work to make a living.
If you didn't make a living you starved to death. I was
playing professional saxophone at the time.
O.D.: What kind of band?
B.D.: We had a three piece combo
: piano, sax, and drums. In those days almost everyone danced,
and the radio was no good and records were no good either
so we got jobs almost every saturday night. We played all
over but you still couldn't make a living. My father knew
some people who had some money in a roughly similar business
(the garment business) and he persuaded them to set up this
business and I ran it. My dad died shortly after that and
I eventually bought out those people and that was the end
of it.
O.D.: What about the monkey logo?
B.D.: In those days there a number
of firms making similar merchandise. There was one that
had a rooster for a logo, one that had a bulldog, one had
the head lamp of a locomotive and so forth. I conceived
the idea of putting in the ape or gorilla. I had a professional
artist draw three of them and I picked the best of the three.
O.D.: Do you recall the artist's
name?
B.D.: No. He's long gone.
O.D.:When I tell people that I've
met you they ask me if you look like the ape logo.
F.D.: I get that question all
the time.
O.D.: Did you design the original
jeans and shirt?
B.D.: The shirts yes. As for the
pants we acquired some patterns from an outfit called Neustadter
Bros. which made the "Boss of The Road" which
was the bulldog. They went out of business. We acquired
their patterns which left a lot to be desired, so I modified
and improved them.
O.D.: Who designs the newer Items.
F.D.: Generally I do. Sometimes
its some form of copy with our special touch on it, but
working clothes are generally not a high style item. Its
more of a basic thing.
O.D.: In some circles it is high
style.
F.D.: Yeah that's true.
O.D.: Do you see a connection
between the popularity of rap music culture and that of
Ben Davis?
F.D.: Yeah, they are related to
some extent I suppose. I'm not sure. The fact that they
wear that particular style is the relationship.
O.D.: There's a video by rapper
Dr. Dre where he looks into his closet to find a shirt.
He's scratching his chin as if he's trying to decide what
to wear. Then we see a camera shot into the closet and there's
nothing but about 20 black Ben Davis shirts.
F.D.: I think I may have seen
Dr. Dre the other day. I'm not sure if it was that one.
I heard something about that Snoop Dog guy getting in trouble..
Yeah, we get some good advertising from rappers wearing
our clothes. One group called up asking us to make them
some XXXXX large shirts.
O.D.: Oh, which group?
F.D.: I don't know, but we're
going to make them. I assume the people requesting these
are not actually that size. They probably want to wear them
really large. some of these guys like to wear this big,
big, big way oversized stuff.
O.D.: My girlfriend says you should
make a line of clothes for women called Benita Davis.
F.D.: Well, the women usually
wear our stuff anyway. They're not so form fitting but actually
the pants always fit the women pretty well because they're
full in the hips.
O.D.: Good point. So how long
have you been working at Ben Davis Co., Frank?
F.D.: About twenty five years
I guess. I started lugging bundles around here as a teenager,
fixing sewing machines and doing that kind of stuff. Well,
I'm 41 and I started at 16 or so...about 25 years. Seems
like long enough eh?
O.D.: Long enough??
F.D.: Getting there. Ha ha.
O.D.: No, your the King!
F.D.: I know.
