Wrangler 13MWZ Cowboy Cut

The 13MWZ is a pair of five-pocket jeans in heavy indigo denim, cut for a man on a horse. The rise is regular, the thigh and knee straight, and the leg opens slightly at the hem so that it falls over a boot. Seven belt loops hold the belt where a saddle would otherwise push it, the rivets are flat so that they will not scratch leather, the seams are felled, and the back pockets carry a stitched W. It fastens with a zip, the Z in its name.

It was made for the rodeo. In 1946 the Blue Bell Overall Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, a maker of bib overalls, hired the tailor Bernard Lichtenstein, known as Rodeo Ben, who had long dressed cowboys. Thirteen prototype pairs were tested before the jean was launched in 1947, with a tack in place of the usual crotch rivet and pockets set where a rider would not sit on them. The rodeo champions Freckles Brown, Bill Linderman and Jim Shoulders wore it and appeared in its advertising.

The lot number is a working label rather than a brand name. According to Wikipedia it began as 11MWZ and became 13MWZ in 1952, after the thirteen-ounce denim it was cut from. Wrangler opened a Belgian factory in 1962, and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association endorsed the jeans in 1974. The company passed to VF Corporation in 1986 and to Kontoor Brands in 2019, and its sewing moved to Mexico from 2001.

Through all of that, Wrangler says, the jean has stayed true to the original. It still sells the 13MWZ Original Cowboy Cut in rigid, non-stretch cotton denim of the same weight, with the seven loops, flat rivets and felled seams, in a range of washes; a Blue Bell edition in Japanese selvedge revives the old company name. A pair bought today does the same job, on the same rider, as the pair worn in the arena in 1947.