Blue jeans are fun. The once entirely functional pants evolved to represent a lifestyle. When sold as functional work pants, Levi’s did OK. When sold on emotion sales mushroomed.
Background
Levi Loeb immigrated from Germany to the US and changed his name to Strauss, which sounded more American.
In Germany, Jews were forbidden from owning land so were forced to act as peddlers, as merchants.
In 1872, tailor Jacob Davis (born Jacob Youphes in Riga) created a new type of work pants using heavy cotton and rivets. They became especially popular with miners.
He asked his cloth supplier, San Francisco based Levi Strauss, to fund him and offered to file a joint patent. The riveted jeans continued to grow in popularity. David worked for Strauss, supervising their factory, until his retirement.
Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss & Co. remained a small family-owned business, with 15 salesmen and US-based factories, until after WWII. Then the denim pants caught on and Levi’s grew quickly.
Levi’s descendants took the company public in 1971, retaining 40 percent of the shares, purchased it back in a leveraged buyout in 1985 for $1.1 billion, then took it public again in 2019. As of 2019, Levi Strauss recognized $5.8B of worldwide revenue.
“My happiness lies in my routine work… I do not think large fortunes cause happiness to their owners, for immediately those who possess them become slaves to their wealth. They must devote their lives to caring for their possessions. I don’t think money brings friends to its owner. In fact, often the result is quite contrary.”
Levi Strauss
The 1875 Montgomery Ward catalog contained five entries for blue and brown denim, based on quality, with prices from 10.5 cents to 23 cents per yard.