Levi Strauss History
Heartwarming History of its Founder
Transcript
being far from the world of fashion this
businessmen managed to enrich style of
both the unemployed and millionaires he
invented jeans the most popular clothes
of our time the German Jew Levi Strauss
founded his company selling denim in
over 69 countries all around the world
the history of the most famous trousers
in all the world began in a small German
city of button high in the north of
avaria there on February 26 1829 leaves
truss was born he was the sixth son of
the street dealer Gersh Strauss when the
young man was only 17
his father died from tuberculosis two
years later the widowed Rebekah together
with the young children moved to America
neebs
senior brothers were already there
selling canvas fabrics and readymade
garments in New York
the young leaps truss also began
studying the trading business and by
1850 he became an expert in the trade
and changed his name to Levon in the
middle of the nineteenth century after
deposits of gold had been found in
California
thousands of people rushed there making
the journey over mountains and wide open
seas levi-strauss also decided to move
to the west for gold but not to dig in
the mines all day long despite the
promise of considerable profits in
January 1853 leave our Straus received
American citizenship and soon became a
represented of the family business in
the bustling and noisy city of San
Francisco he intended to sell clothes
and equipment to the gold diggers in
fact in the heat of the gold fever the
prices for essential goods in California
isolated from the rest of the continent
by huge mountains was simply sky high
on one occasion Levi could not even
manage to sell a piece of canvas for
making tents so he gave the length of
this rough fabric to a tailor who
transformed it into ten pairs of working
trousers the gold diggers bought them
instantly as for a long time they had
needed hard wearing trousers that didn’t
rip or tear these durable trousers which
protected against dust and dirt and
which were easy to clean soon turned out
to be indispensable the original cut
with a yoke behind allowed one to wear
without a waist belt and was possible to
put samples of gold and working tools
into the superimposed Park
later Levi replaced canvas with denim a
dense cotton fabric the choice of the
dark blue color is simple to explain in
the 19th century indigo was the cheapest
dye for fabrics the sale of jeans was
quite profitable and in the mid 1950s
Levi Strauss became a well-known
businessmen in the city in the spite of
being a wealthy man he still asked his
employees to name him Levi’s instead of
mr. Strauss
the new style of working clothes the so
called overall suit to the waist had
great success with the Californian gold
diggers however one problem emerged
after a while the weight of the golden
nuggets carried by the gold diggers
started to tear the pockets in 1872
Levi’s received a letter from Jacob
Davis a tailor of Baltic origin to whom
he delivered denim Davis had a bright
idea he suggested strengthening both
pockets and fasteners of the jeans with
horse harness rivets as Davis did not
have the sixty-eight dollars necessary
to patent his invention he turned to
Levi Strauss for help
on May twenty eighteen 73 the patent
numbered one three nine one two one was
awarded to Strauss and Davis almost at
once the unpretentious innovation
transformed into impressive profit
rivets appeared on all of Levi’s
Strasser’s jeans however once when a
cowboy sitting by a fire was burnt by
the heated groin rivet it was decided
that rivets remained only on pockets but
soon it also became necessary to remove
rivets from the back pockets as they
scratched chairs and saddles at the same
time the firm’s double line of orange
thread appeared on the back pockets in
1886 a leather label representing two
horses tearing apart a pair of Levi’s
was added to the back of all jeans
becoming the brand mark of the firm the
Colt model number 501 appeared on sale
in 1890 it has been produced by the Levi
Strauss company right up until the
present day
levi-strauss in his late years was a
millionaire philanthropist and an
honoured citizen of San Francisco he
sponsored the Jewish shelter for
orphaned children together with other
outstanding citizens of San Francisco he
established a fund for a new railway
branch line he also founded 28 grants at
the University of Berkeley Levi Strauss
died in 1902 and the lion’s share of his
six million fortune strauss left to his
nephews the rest he offered for
charitable needs of both Jewish and
Christian organizations in the beginning
of the 20th century people wore jeans
only in California however during the
Great Depression the company Levi
Strauss developed a wide advertising
campaign and the characters of westerns
wore those strong and convenient
trousers and jeans conquered America
after the Second World War
jeans appeared on the international
scene in the year 2000 in a small German
city in the blue wooden house where Levi
Strauss grew up the museum was opened
for the most famous trousers in the
history of mankind
