Denim giant Levi Strauss has designed jeans compatible with the iPod music player, featuring a joystick in the watch pocket to operate the device.

The Levi’s RedWire DLX Jeans for men and women, which will be available later this year will also have a built-in docking cradle for the iPod and retractable headphones. Pricing was not immediately available. Apple Computer’s iPod is the No. 1 digital music player. The company recently attributed a 63 percent jump in holiday quarter sales in part to the iPod’s popularity and said 42 million of the devices have been sold to date.

Levi’s is not the first company to feature iPod-friendly apparel, although it may be the first to make iPod-compatible jeans. Haute couture fashion houses began featuring pricey iPod carrying cases after the device’s 2001 launch, while outdoor company Burton Snowboards unveiled what it called the first iPod-compatible waterproof snowboarding jacket in partnership with Motorola.