You've probably owned dozens of them. You may have even put coins in there. That's not why it exists.
Wait... What?
Go find a pair of jeans.
We'll wait.
Actually, don't. There's a pretty good chance you're wearing some right now.
Look at the front right pocket.
Inside that perfectly useful pocket is another ridiculously tiny pocket that seems determined to prove that pockets can, in fact, have pockets.
You've seen it your entire life.
Maybe you've used it for loose change.
Maybe a guitar pick.
Maybe a folded-up twenty-dollar bill you later forgot existed.
Maybe you've attempted to put something in there, realized getting it back out would require surgical instruments, and never used it again.
But somebody went through the trouble of sewing that tiny pocket onto your jeans.
Why?
It turns out you're looking at a little piece of the 1800s that somehow survived into your closet.
And no, it wasn't originally designed for coins.
So, What's the Deal?
That little pocket is traditionally called a watch pocket.
As in:
pocket watch.
When Levi Strauss & Co. and tailor Jacob Davis received their famous patent for rivet-strengthened pants in 1873, the early design already included the small pocket. Levi Strauss & Co.'s own historical archives say it was intended to hold and protect a pocket watch, which was a common possession in the late 1800s.
Suddenly, the size makes a lot more sense.
Nobody was trying to figure out the world's least convenient place to keep three quarters and a dime.
It was a purpose-built compartment for something people actually carried.
Those early pants weren't quite the jeans hanging in your closet today. They were originally known as "waist overalls" and were designed with working people in mind. Jacob Davis had developed the idea of reinforcing stress points with metal rivets after dealing with work pants whose pockets and other areas tore under heavy use. He partnered with dry-goods businessman Levi Strauss, and the pair received U.S. Patent No. 139,121 on May 20, 1873.
And tucked right there in the design was our mysterious little pocket.
More than 150 years later...
it's still here.
Wait, It Gets Weirder
You've probably heard someone call it the "fifth pocket."
Makes sense.
Two pockets in front.
Two pockets in back.
Tiny pocket makes five.
Case closed.
Except...
That's historically backwards.
The tiny pocket was there before jeans even had two back pockets.
According to Levi Strauss & Co.'s archives, the original blue jeans had four pockets:
two regular front pockets,
the small watch pocket,
and only one back pocket.
The second back pocket wasn't added until 1901.
Which means the tiny pocket isn't really the fifth pocket at all.
The left rear pocket is.
Apparently we've been falsely accusing the smallest pocket of being late to the party when it was actually one of the original guests.
Seriously?
Seriously: The tiny pocket is older than the second back pocket on a classic pair of five-pocket jeans.
That insignificant little compartment you've probably ignored for years is one of the oldest surviving features of the basic blue-jeans design.
And it gets better.
Even Levi's once helped spread the "fifth pocket" confusion.
The company says a popular 1996 Levi's 501 advertisement referred to the tiny compartment as "The Fifth Pocket." Their own historical account now points out the problem: it technically wasn't.
So if you've always called it the fifth pocket, you weren't necessarily making things up.
Even the people whose jeans helped make the pocket famous have called it that.
The Rabbit Hole
Once you start looking at the history of jeans, that tiny pocket becomes part of a much bigger story.
The original reason rivets became such an important feature wasn't fashion.
It was durability.
Jacob Davis was a tailor in Reno, Nevada, making clothing for people who put their pants through considerably more abuse than most of us manage during a trip to Walmart.
Pockets and other stress points could tear.
Davis began reinforcing those vulnerable areas with metal rivets, using an idea inspired by fasteners he already worked with. The design proved successful enough that he approached Levi Strauss about partnering to obtain a patent.
The result helped create one of the most recognizable pieces of clothing in the world.
But even the tiny watch pocket wasn't immune to history.
During World War II, Levi Strauss & Co. says the rivets were removed from the watch pocket to conserve metal for the war effort.
Think about that for a second.
We're talking about a pocket so small that many people today aren't even sure what it's for...
...and at one point, its construction was altered as part of wartime material conservation.
That's a surprising amount of history packed into approximately enough space for two guitar picks and a headache.
So Why Is It Still There?
This may actually be the most interesting part.
The thing the pocket was designed to carry largely disappeared from everyday life.
Wristwatches became practical.
Then digital watches arrived.
Then smartphones came along and convinced many of us that apparently even wearing a watch was too much work.
Yet the pocket survived.
Today people use it for whatever tiny object happens to fit: coins, keys, tickets, jewelry, guitar picks and other little items. Levi Strauss & Co. has noted that the pocket has accumulated a long list of nicknames and alternative uses over the years, including coin pocket, match pocket and ticket pocket.
But its continued existence also illustrates something interesting about design.
Sometimes a feature survives long after its original purpose stops being important because it has become part of what people expect the object to look like.
Imagine a classic pair of jeans without that tiny pocket.
Would you immediately notice?
Maybe not.
But once somebody pointed it out...
They'd probably look slightly wrong.
That tiny rectangle has become part of the visual language of jeans.
At this point, removing it might feel stranger than keeping a pocket originally designed for a piece of technology most people stopped carrying generations ago.
Okay, But Why Should I Care?
You probably don't need to.
Knowing the original purpose of your tiny jeans pocket isn't going to fundamentally alter the course of your day.
Unless you've been carrying a pocket watch around loose and desperately waiting for someone to invent somewhere to put it.
In which case:
Good news. We solved your problem in 1873.
But this is exactly the kind of ordinary object that makes everyday history interesting.
We tend to think the things around us were designed for the world we live in now.
Often they weren't.
Sometimes we're carrying around design decisions made for people who lived in a completely different world.
The floppy-disk save icon survived after floppy disks disappeared.
The phone icon still looks like a handset many younger people have barely used.
And your jeans still have a little pocket designed for a watch your great-great-grandparents might have recognized immediately.
Once you start noticing these things, everyday objects become little archaeological sites.
You just happen to be wearing this one.
Wait, Seriously? Verdict
That tiny pocket on your jeans isn't a useless little coin holder dreamed up by somebody with an unusually cruel sense of humor.
It's a watch pocket, descended from the earliest blue-jeans designs of the 1870s and created when carrying a pocket watch was perfectly normal.
It was there before jeans got their second back pocket.
It survived changes in fashion, technology and even wartime manufacturing.
And today, more than 150 years after the birth of riveted blue jeans, we're still sewing a pocket onto our pants for an object almost nobody carries anymore.
Which means the next time you put three quarters in there...
just know you're giving a 19th-century pocket a retirement job.
Your Turn
What do you actually use that tiny pocket for — or have you spent your entire life pretending it doesn't exist?
Wait, Seriously? — The Internet's Most Interesting Five Minutes.
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