The jeans -- found in an abandoned mine by a "denim archaeologist" -- were bought by 23-year-old Kyle Hautner and Zip Stevenson, a veteran of the vintage denim market."We didn't have any plans to buy the jeans together until the auction started, which is kind of insane looking back on it," Stevenson told CNN.Stevenson first heard about the jeans "about five years ago when they were first discovered" in the American West by Michael Harris, who "has looked in at least 50 abandoned mines for five years and has not found a pair of equal quality," according to Stevenson.The four-day festival is put on by vintage denim expert Brit Eaton -- who described finding items like this as "a total addiction."The Wall Street Journal cited a Levi's spokesperson who explained that the company used this slogan after the introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which barred Chinese laborers from entering the US."