Wear your Lee jeans in Salina! H.D. Lee founded Salina’s first garment factory, the HD Lee Mercantile Company, in 1911 which eventually led to the invention of the popular denim Lee jeans. While in Salina, the entrepreneur lived with the Flanders family from 1889 to 1916 at the current Flanders-Lee House (NRHP), 200 S. 7th.