Levi Strauss History

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The Company Description of Its Time

This page files a life, not a product line: the short biography of Levi Strauss by Lynn Downey, Levi Strauss & Co. historian, dated 2008 and sourced from the company on January 20, 2009. Levi Strauss, the inventor of the quintessential American garment - the blue jean - was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria on February 26, 1829, to Hirsch Strauss and his second wife, Rebecca Haas Strauss. Levi, named 'Loeb' at birth, had three older brothers and three older sisters. Hirsch succumbed to tuberculosis in 1845, and two years later Rebecca, Levi, Fanny and the next oldest sister, Maila, emigrated to New York, where they were met by Jonas and Louis, two older brothers who had already made the journey and started a wholesale dry goods business called 'J. Strauss Brother & Co.' Young Loeb soon began to learn the trade himself, and by 1850 he was known among family and customers as 'Levi.'

Sacramento Street, and a Letter from Reno

The biography tracks the business by its addresses, which is how a dry goods firm's growth was measured. The first known address was 90 Sacramento Street, close to the 1850s waterfront and handy for goods arriving by ship from brother Jonas in New York; the firm moved to 62 Sacramento Street in 1856, then to 63 and 65 Sacramento as trade expanded, with David Stern - married to Levi's sister Fanny - associated with the firm. In 1861 the business relocated to 317 Sacramento Street, in 1863 it was renamed Levi Strauss & Co., and in 1866 Levi moved the headquarters to larger quarters at 14-16 Battery Street, where it remained for forty years. By his mid-thirties Levi was a well-known figure in the city, active in its business and cultural life and a supporter of Temple Emanu-El, the city's first synagogue - and despite his stature, he insisted his employees call him Levi, not Mr. Strauss.

In 1872 Levi received a letter from Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor and a regular customer who bought bolts of cloth from the company. Davis told the merchant about the way he made pants for his customers: he placed metal rivets at the points of strain - pocket corners and the base of the button fly - to make the pants stronger for the labouring men who were his customers. He wanted to patent the idea but needed a business partner, and suggested the two men take out the patent together, sharing the costs. Levi was enthusiastic, the patent was granted to both men on May 20, 1873, and the blue jean was born. Levi brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first West Coast manufacturing facility, and the famous 501 jean, known at the time simply as 'XX,' was soon a best seller.

Civic Life, Philanthropy, and 1902

The biography's later chapters are civic as much as commercial. Levi became a charter member and treasurer of the San Francisco Board of Trade in 1877, and a director of the Nevada Bank, the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company and the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company. In 1875 he and two associates purchased the Mission and Pacific Woolen Mills, whose fabric was used for the company's blanket-lined pants and coats. He was a contributor to the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home, the Eureka Benevolent Society and the Hebrew Board of Relief; in 1895 he joined other prominent San Franciscans funding a railroad to the San Joaquin Valley, a project that failed; and in 1897 he provided funds for twenty-eight scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley.

David Stern had died in 1874, and his four sons - Jacob, Sigmund, Louis and Abraham - worked with their uncle as the century closed. In 1890, the year the XX waist overall was given the lot number '501,' Levi and his nephews officially incorporated the company. During the week of September 22, 1902, Levi began to complain of ill health; on Friday evening, September 26, after a family dinner at the Leavenworth Street home he shared with Jacob Stern's family, he died peacefully in the night. His death was headline news in the Sunday, September 28 San Francisco Call; businesses closed temporarily for the funeral, and his estate of nearly $6 million went mostly to his nephews and family, with bequests to orphan asylums and benevolent societies. The biography closes in 1906, when earthquake and fire destroyed the Battery Street headquarters and factory - and the Stern brothers rebuilt, paid salaries and extended credit, on the foundation the biography credits to Levi's foresight, business sense and devotion to quality.

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