Posted by Kevin Neilson on 2/6/2012

In 1897, a Tennessee man named C.C. Hudson moved to North Carolina to take a job making overalls in a factory. Seven years later, when the factory closed, Hudson and some of the people he worked with bought many of the sewing machines and leased a space above a grocery store. They called the business the Hudson Overall Company.

As the fledgling company grew, the need for a real factory led the owners to build a new one. An old story explains why the company then changed its name. The legend tells that some railroad workers gave Hudson a bell when they bought some overalls at the Hudson store.

The bell, after a while inside the factory, became covered with blue denim dust, thus becoming a “blue bell.” When the Hudson Company moved to the new factory, they changed the name to Blue Bell Overall Company, inspired by the bell.

In 1943, Blue Bell bought out a competitor called Casey Jones. This gave Blue Bell the rights to Casey Jones’ brand name “Wrangler.” The owners of Blue Bell wanted to make some jeans specifically for rodeo use and hired Bernard Lichtenstein, also known as “Rodeo Ben,” to develop these jeans. Bernard was a Polish tailor who took on the task with flair, working with cowboys to find out what they needed and wanted in their jeans.

The Wrangler jeans, known and loved today, were the result of this project. In 1947, the 11MWZ style (shortly thereafter renamed 13MWZ) became available for sale and has not stopped selling since. Wrangler has since developed several other lines for specific demographics. Among these other lines are Riggs, Aura, and 20X. Wrangler is now sold in 22 European countries and continues to be popular in the U.S., as Wrangler keeps up with the latest trends, while still holding true to its heritage.