Inventor: Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria (Germany) on February 26, 1829 to Hirsch Strauss and his second wife Rebecca Haas Strauss. He did not receive much schooling and when he was 16 years old, he decided to join his five brothers and sisters in the United States. In 1845 Levi sailed to New York. He spent some years learning the language and then he joined his family’s clothing business. In 1850 he moved to San Francisco when gold was discovered in California. The gold miners wanted clothes that were strong and did not tear easily. So he started selling clothes and opened a store. It was called “Levi Strauss & Co.” When miners wanted a pair of trousers, he tried to make them using a material called canvas, which he dyed indigo blue to cover up dirt and stains and added metal rivets to hold the pockets and the fly together. The famous blue Levi jeans had been invented. In 1886 Levi sewed a leather label onto the jeans. The label showed a picture of a pair of jeans that were pulled by two horses. He wanted to show how strong Levi jeans were; two horses could not tear them in half. Levi jeans then spread throughout the USA and the world. Levi Strauss died in 1902 at the age of 73 and his nephews took over his business. Today, over 38,000 people are employed in Levis factories and the annual sales are over $7 billion. Trousers that were once only worn by cowboys and miners are today worn by millions of people, rich and poor, at work and play.