Ben Davis (clothing)


Ben Davis is an American workwear brand, founded in 1935 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. The brand's signature product is its heavyweight cotton/polyester blended twill fabric, which it uses for most of its bespoke work clothing; it also offers a small selection of street clothes.

History

Ben Davis black jeans were popular with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for their sturdy, rugged high quality. The longshoremen wore black Ben Davis jeans and white hats in the annual Labor Day parade from the Ferry Building to City Hall in San Francisco. The brand was later was worn by Chicano, African-American and Filipino youth. The original store was on Valencia street in the Mission district. Later the clothing would catch on in Los Angeles and other parts of the U.S.
Ben Davis is popular in some music-related subcultures, especially West Coast rappers. The clothing is popular among Chicano and "cholo" youth culture. Ben Davis shirts have been shown in the 1992 "Let Me Ride" video from rapper Dr. Dre, the Beastie Boys have mentioned the brand in their music, and Eazy-E used a Ben Davis shirt in his music video for the song "Real Muthaphuckkin G's". Chicano rapper Lil Rob has mentioned Ben Davis clothing in his songs. Also the Mexican rapper made an entire song about the Ben Davis clothing, called "Ben Davis mi marca". Ice Cube mentions Ben Davis in his song "Ghetto Vet" on his War and Peace Vol. 1 album and also wears a Ben Davis shirt on his "Friday" music video. On Bangin' on Wax, the 1993 album by Bloods & Crips, Crip rapper AWOL refers to Ben Davis clothing on the song "K's Up". Kid Rock mentions Ben Davis slacks in his song "American Bad Ass" from the 2000 album The History of Rock. Havokk and Prodeje from the legendary South Central Cartel mention wearing Ben Davis in their music.
Ben Davis is run by his son Frank, who was interviewed in a 1995 Grand Royal magazine article.
Initially, tags on Ben Davis clothing read "Union Made Plenty Tough"; this was changed to "USA Made Plenty Tough" after a union dispute, and then to "Est. 1935 Plenty Tough" after certain products began to be sourced from outside the U.S.
Company founder, Benjamin Franklin Davis' grandfather, Jacob Davis was the inventor of the original Levi's jeans, partnering with the namesake fabric merchant to mass produce them.