Designed as a practical work jacket for cowboys, the Lee Rider Jacket was the first shorter style Western jacket - the shorter cut making it easier to wear on a horse.

Other clever touches included slanted chest pockets (that made it easier to reach across and into while riding a horse) and the wide waistband ensured the jacket did not fold upward.
Designed with the cowboy and rodeo rider in mind, since 1948 the new jacket was promoted as the “NEW LEE RIDER JACKET.”

Before the patent was granted, Lee began to offer the jacket on a limited basis, first with an exclusive offer for members of the Rodeo Cowboy Association and Cowboy Association of America, in the October 1948 issue of The Buckboard magazine. 

The "New Lee Rider Jacket," illustrated in the simple box advertisement, shows a short, fitted, waist-length jacket with vertical pleating on either side of the center front closure with a distinctive zig-zag top-stitching down the button placket, and breast pockets on both sides.

Jesper Binzer i Lee Rider Jacket