Levi Strauss

In 1850, during the Gold Rush, a twenty-year-old immigrant from Bavaria named Levi Strauss stepped off the boat in San Francisco. He had with him a special cloth called Serge de Nimes, which would later be called denim in America. Levi Strauss hoped to sell the denim as material to make tents and covers for wagons, to the men who were going to the goldfields to look for gold. “You should have brought pants to sell. In the goldfields we need strong pants that don’t wear out,” one young miner advised Strauss. So Levi Strauss took some of his denim to the nearest tailor and had him make the miner a pair of pants. The miner was so pleased with his pants that he told other miners about the wonderful new Levi’s pants or Levis, and soon Levi Strauss had to open a shop to manufacture enough trousers for the miners. The miners wanted trousers that were comfortable to ride in, that were low-cut so they could bend over easily to pick up the gold from under their feet, and which had big useful pockets. One miner complained that the gold in his pockets kept tearing them. So Levi put metal corners in the pockets to make them stronger. Very soon, miners and cowboys from all over came to get fitted up with Levi’s pants. Today, more than a hundred years later, Levi’s pants walk the world as Levi’s blue jeans.