Levi Strauss signature primary lines are Levis jeans and Levis Dockers casual pants.
Levis are the original, authentic jean. They were a hit with baby boomers
decades ago when they were in their teenager years. Levis mens jeans have
fallen out of favour with today's youth. Jeans levis mens and womens are perceived
to be their parent's jeans. For that reason they will wear anything else but a pair of Levis.
Levis was introducing some trendy, low rise styles, Levis Red Tabs ,
and a rack of premium vintage jeans like slim levis 501 jeans. Levis dockers
pants were launched in 1986. This brand and style of pant played a key role
in the creation of levis khaki pants and the shift to casual clothing
in the workplace.
The brand offers a variety of products including tops, jackets and accessories
for a wide range of consumers.
In the casual clothing segment of the market, Original Dockers is a leader.
The Signature Levi Strauss brand was launched in 2003. The Signature brand
includes a collection of denim and non denim pants, shirts, skirts, and
jackets for men, women, and children.
Denim Levi Strauss expert showed us the most popular denim styles of today.
In the fall of 1934, Levi Strauss Co. introduced Lady Levis jeans the
world's first womens levis jeans. Many of today's most
popular styles, including the levis boyfriend jeans and skinny jeans levis trace
back to the early levis womens jeans from decades ago.
In 1986, Strauss levi found that the best way to stay true blue was
to change its colors, while happy on the results of back to basis
operations with its flagship jeans levis 501 brand, levis was enjoying regenerated jeans sales.
Levis customers had adopted womens and mens levis jeans as a symbol of their break with
traditions of their parents. They had helped turn the Levis Blue Jeans into an
international success in the apparel industry. Now, however, customers were
looking for something different. they still wanted clothing that was comfortable
and made from natural fabrics, but fashion had become more important. Many
worked in environments with relaxed dress codes, so they liked clothing that
combined style and versatility something suitable for both professional and leisure activities.
How could levis keep the customers in levis brands when they weren't wearing so
many pairs of levis denim jeans? and the answer was levis pants dockers, something between the
jean that they loved and the dress pants to wear when they got their first job.
Mens pants dockers are new casuals, blue denim and levis blue jeans was out;
cotton pants khaki levis (in brown, green,
black, and navy, but mostly traditional tan) was in. Dockers original positioned as more
formal than jeans yet more casual than dress slacks, docker's satisfied an
unfulfilled need. Levis dockers pants were the right pants for a variety of occasions,
an unpretentious alternative to dressy, tailored slacks. The challenge in
marketing dockers trousers was to support the levis name and legacy while beginning
the sovereignty of the new brand, and to do so without detracting from
levis core jeans focus. So the original theme for jeans dockers was “ levis 100
percent cotton dockers jeans. if you're not wearing dockers, you're just wearing pants.”
Response to dockers mens pants was everything levis hoped for, all the top menswear
placed the new product in their stores, and target consumers had at least one
pair of mens dockers pants in their closets.
Pursuing the Levis customers market, levis in 1996 brought out mens slates levis, an
extensive line of wool, polyester microfiber, and fine gauge cotton dress
pants. “we thought there was room in a man closet for a third brand,”
says jann westfall, president of the slates levis division. “that is why slates mens pants
was produced to fill the gap between levis mens khaki dress pants and suits.” to strauss levi,
it seemed a natural that the guy who wore levis in the 70s and trousers dockers in
the 80s would be ready for levis mens slates pants in the 90s.
Levis slates would be the high end
of casual, neatly in the docker man's wardrobe. A year later, everyone agreed
that levis slates pants was a winner brand. Levis had turned on the dockers trousers customer to
dress slacks just when corporate casual started to dress up. noted one industry
insider that mens slates pants and other labels have pushed the envelope. This has created
a enormous end user perception for slacks in general, some retailers found that
their tailored pants business was up 15 to 20 percent.
The good news about levis slates pants has been followed by bad news plunge market share
in the core denim levis jeans market, although jeans levi strauss had 30.9 percent of the
united states blue jeans business in 1990, it had only 18.7 percent in 1997 and
worse yet, levis sales to teens, the core jeans blue levis buyers, had dropped.
Levis was pumping up the silver tab brand, a jeans line considered more stylish
among young consumers to solve the problems. Levis silver tab has a baggier fit
and uses non denim fabrics. The average age of a silver tab buyer is 18, compared
to 25 for levis other products. Levis expanded the line to include more tops,
more trendy styles, and new khaki pants and also taking action on the retail front.
In 1998, levis was introduced jazzier, more colorful packaging aimed at giving
its products a more exciting, youthful look.
References: 1. Chicago Tribune;
2. elaine underwood, “levi's new dress code,” brandweek, august 19, 1996;
3. “denim dish: dream jeans for teens,” womens' wear daily, december 11, 1997;
4. becky ebenkamp, “slates speaks directly to men,” adweek, september 8, 1997;
5. stan gellers, “tailored slacks follow the mainfloor
leader: slates boom trickles-up to better makers in casual fabrics and golfwear,” daily news record,
september 24, 1997;
6. linda himelstein, “levi's is hiking up its pants,” business week, december 1,
1997.
HISTORY OF THE LEVI’S? 501? JEANS
1853 Levi Strauss arrives in San Francisco and opens a wholesale dry
goods business, selling clothing, blankets, handkerchiefs, etc. to
small general stores throughout the American West.
1872 Jacob Davis, a Reno Nevada tailor, writes to Levi Strauss, telling him
about the process he invented to rivet the pocket corners on men’s
pants to make them stronger. He suggests the two men take out a
patent on the process together and Levi agrees.
1873 Levi Strauss & Jacob Davis are granted a patent on the process
of riveting pants by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on May 20.
It is patent number 139,121 and this is the invention of the blue jean.
The pants - called “waist overalls” - have one back pocket with the
Arcuate stitching design, a watch pocket, a cinch, suspender buttons
and a rivet in the crotch. We don’t know the origin of the Arcuate
stitching design. Stories about it representing the wingspread of a
bird are myths; the loss of our records in 1906 (see below) makes it
impossible to know why the stitching was first used. There may have
been a tradition of pocket stitching on men’s workwear but this has
not been found in any research done so far. The cinch and
suspender buttons were standard on men’s pants. Keep in mind that
we did not invent the cut or fit of the waist overalls; what we did was
take traditional men’s work pants and rivet them, creating the new
category of workwear which we today call blue jeans.
The pants are made of 9 oz. XX blue denim, which comes from the
Amoskeag Mill in Manchester, New Hampshire.
They are sewn in San Francisco, probably in a combination of factory
production and home sewing. Because of the loss of historical
records
in the 1906 earthquake and fire we don’t yet know when the first
factories were opened. It’s also possible we leased factory space in
the 1870 and then opened our own factories in the 1880s.
1886 The Two Horse? brand leather patch is first used on the waist
overalls. Its purpose was to demonstrate the strength of the pants
and reinforce our status as the originator of patent riveted clothing.
We knew that the patent would go into the public domain around 1890
and decided to reinforce our message of originality and strength
graphically. There may also have been a tradition of some sort of
patch on men’s workwear at this time, but this has been hard to
research. c1890 The rivet patent goes into the public domain, so that Levi Strauss & Co.
is not longer the exclusive manufacturer of riveted clothing.
Lot numbers are first assigned to the products being manufactured. 501?
is used to designate the famous copper-riveted waist overalls. We don’t
know why this number was chosen. We also made a 201 jean, which
was a less expensive version of the pants, as well as other products
using other three-digit numbers. Because of the loss of our records in
1906, the reasons for many of these changes are unknown.
c1901 The pants – now just called “overalls” - now have two back pockets. It’s
likely we added this additional pocket due to consumer requests or
changes in men’s fashions at the time.
1902 Levi Strauss dies at the age of 73. His nephews take over the business;
their descendants still run the company today.
1906 The San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys the headquarters and
factories of Levi Strauss & Co.
A new factory is built at 250 Valencia Street in San Francisco and opens
in November.
1910s Sometime during this decade the jeans are sewn with a felled inseam.
Prior to this time the inseam was “mock” felled.
1915 The overalls win a “Highest Award” at the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition in San Francisco.
LS&CO. begins to buy denim from Cone Mills in Greebsboro, North
Carolina.
1922 Belt loops are added to the overalls, but the suspender buttons are
still retained. The cinch is also still used on the pants, but some men
cut if off in order to wear the overalls with a belt. Again, the addition
of belt loops was in response to changes in men’s fashions and our
understanding of what consumers wanted.
LS&CO. now buys its denim exclusively from Cone Mills.
c1927 Cone Mills develops the 10 oz. red selvage denim exclusively for the
501® jeans. The denim is woven in 29” wide looms.
1936 The red Tab is first placed onto the right back pocket of the overalls. The
word “Levi’s? is stitched in white in all capital letters on one side only.
The Tab is created to differentiate Levi’s® overalls from the many
competitors in the marketplace who were using dark denim and an
Arcuate stitch. We had not yet trademarked the Arcuate so other
companies were using it in direct imitation of us.
