Levi Strauss Biography - Fashion Company Profile
Levi Strauss (1829-1902) was the Bavarian-born San Francisco dry-goods merchant who founded Levi Strauss & Co. in 1853 and, with Jacob Davis's rivet patent, gave the world its first blue jeans.
Company Snapshot
- Subject
- Levi Strauss (1829-1902), founder of Levi Strauss & Co.
- Born
- February 26, 1829, in Buttenheim, Bavaria
- Founded
- 1853 - arrived in San Francisco and opened the dry-goods business that became Levi Strauss & Co.
- Died
- September 26, 1902, in San Francisco; the company passed to his four nephews
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Company Profile
Strauss built the company as a family business, never married, and left it to his nephews; the firm he founded is today a public company (NYSE: LEVI) still headquartered in San Francisco. The full biography - Sacramento Street, the 1872 letter from Reno that led to the rivet patent, and his civic and philanthropic life - is kept on the history page.
When news of the California Gold Rush reached the East, Levi emigrated to San Francisco to make his fortune - though he knew he would not make it panning gold. At the end of January 1853 he became an American citizen, and in February he headed for the West Coast via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in bustling, noisy San Francisco in early March. There he established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name, also serving as West Coast representative of the family's New York firm, importing clothing, underwear, umbrellas, handkerchiefs and bolts of fabric, and selling them to the small stores springing up all over California and the West - the stores that outfitted the miners of the Gold Rush and then the new families populating the western regions.
Levi Strauss History
The earlier record for this company - its history, past brand line-ups, figures and photographs from the periods described - is kept on a separate page for historical reference.
Levi Strauss History & Historical Profile →Common Questions
When and where was Levi Strauss born?
In Buttenheim, Bavaria, on February 26, 1829, named Loeb at birth; he emigrated to New York in 1847 and arrived in San Francisco in early March 1853, per the Downey biography as recorded.
How did the rivet patent come about?
In 1872 Reno tailor Jacob Davis wrote to Levi describing metal rivets at pocket corners and the fly base to strengthen labourers' pants, and proposed sharing a patent; it was granted to both men on May 20, 1873, as recorded.
What philanthropy does the biography record?
Support for the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Eureka Benevolent Society and Temple Emanu-El, and funds in 1897 for twenty-eight scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley, among other bequests in his nearly $6 million estate.
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