Levi's Information
According to Levis.com, the history of jeans dates back to the 15th century. The first jeans were created for the sailors in the Genoese Navy. Levi Strauss came from Germany and migrated to San Francisco, California, in 1850. He opened a West Coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business. The company began producing overall denim in 1870, and in the 1920s modern Levis jeans came into production. Does this Spark an idea?
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Early Years
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Initially, Strauss used cotton in his jeans, but he changed to brown canvas sailcloth in an effort to make the pants more durable for his customers, who were mostly members of the working class. Levis.com states that “in the early 1870s, one of Levi Strauss’ customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno, Nevada, who bought the cloth from Levi Strauss and made it into pants.” Davis had the idea that resulted in putting metal rivets at the point of strain in the pants; the rivets went on to become the jeans' signature feature.
Levi's Patent
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On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Davis were awarded the patent on the idea of putting metal rivets on pants. The date is today widely considered as the official “birthday” of blue jeans. For a period of almost 20 years, the company was the only one allowed to manufacture riveted clothing until the patent expired and became public domain.
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Conformity and Popularity
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In the middle of the 20th century, Levi’s blue jeans rose in popularity and were also worn by anti-conformists. During the 1950s, Donald Freeland—an employee of the Great Western Garment Company, invented "stone-washing" denim. The 1960s brought a boom in the popularity of blue jeans.
Sales Growth
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Levi Strauss & Co.’s phenomenal growth is well-known. According to Reuters, “The San Francisco-based private company, which discloses quarterly results due to its publicly held debt, sees sales growth in 2010, but anticipates lower operating margins due to recent investments.” The influx of new outlet stores and the strength of the U.S. dollar have propelled the firm’s fourth quarter income in 2009 to $67 million.
Levi's Archives
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Owing to its long history, Levi Strauss & Co. has collected a treasure trove of garments, posters and photographs. One of the most prized is a pair of jeans found in a mining town in Nevada that turned out to be more than a hundred years old. The company purchased the jeans on eBay for $46,532.
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