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| death_date = {{dda|1902|09|26|1829|02|26}}
| death_date = {{dda|1902|09|26|1829|02|26}}
| death_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| death_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| known_for = Founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans, known as Levi Strauss & Co.
| known_for = invented the tre flip
}}


'''Levi Strauss''' ({{IPAc-en|icon|ˌ|l|iː|v|aɪ|_|ˈ|s|t|r|ɔː|s|}}, born '''Löb Strauß''', {{IPA-de|løːb ˈʃtʁaʊs}}; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a [[German American|German-born American]] businessman who founded the first company to manufacture [[jeans|blue jeans]]. His firm, [[Levi Strauss & Co.]], began in 1853 in [[San Francisco]], [[California]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.levistrauss.com/sites/default/files/librarydocument/2010/4/History_Levi_Strauss_Biography.pdf |title=Levi Strauss Company History |first=Lynn |last=Downey |title=Levi Strauss: a short biography |publisher=Levi Strauss & Co. |year=2008 |accessdate=1 January 2011}}</ref>
'''Levi Strauss''' ({{IPAc-en|icon|ˌ|l|iː|v|aɪ|_|ˈ|s|t|r|ɔː|s|}}, born '''Löb Strauß''', {{IPA-de|løːb ˈʃtʁaʊs}}; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a [[German American|German-born American]] businessman who founded the first company to manufacture [[jeans|blue jeans]]. His firm, [[Levi Strauss & Co.]], began in 1853 in [[San Francisco]], [[California]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.levistrauss.com/sites/default/files/librarydocument/2010/4/History_Levi_Strauss_Biography.pdf |title=Levi Strauss Company History |first=Lynn |last=Downey |title=Levi Strauss: a short biography |publisher=Levi Strauss & Co. |year=2008 |accessdate=1 January 2011}}</ref>

Revision as of 13:33, 19 October 2012

This article is about the clothing manufacturer. For the anthropologist, see Claude Lévi-Strauss.

{{Infobox person | name = Levi Stubbs

| image = Levi Strauss 1.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Löb Strauß | birth_date = February 26, 1829 | birth_place = Buttenheim, Bavaria, German Confederation | death_date = September 26, 1902(1902-09-26) (aged 73) | death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | known_for = invented the tre flip

Levi Strauss (/[invalid input: 'icon']ˌliːvaɪ ˈstrɔːs/, born Löb Strauß, Template:IPA-de; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm, Levi Strauss & Co., began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.[1]

Origins

Birthplace of Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, in the Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family.[2] He was the son of Hirsch Strauss and his wife Rebecca (Haass) Strauss. At the age of 18, Strauss, his mother and two sisters sailed for the United States to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co.[3]

Business career

The family decided to open a West Coast branch of the family dry goods business in San Francisco, which was the commercial hub of the California Gold Rush. Levi was chosen to represent the family, and after becoming an American citizen in January 1853, he then caught another steamship for San Francisco, arriving in early March 1853.

Strauss opened his dry goods wholesale business as Levi Strauss & Co. and imported fine dry goods—clothing, bedding, combs, purses, handkerchiefs—from his brothers in New York. He sold the goods to the small general stores and men's mercantiles of California and the West. Around 1856 Levi's sister Franny, her husband David Stern and their infant son Jacob moved from New York to San Francisco to join the business.

Levi's jeans

Levi's 506 back pocket with Arcuate stitching

In late 1872 Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor, born in Riga, Latvia, started making men's work pants with metal points of strain for greater strength. He wanted to patent the process but needed a business helper, so he turned to Levi Strauss, from whom he purchased some of his fabric.[4] On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Davis received United States patent[5] for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The "Arcuate", the double arch stitching on the back pocket, is a Levi's trademark, which the company has repeatedly defended in court. During World War II it was deemed by the US Government to be decorative only, and prohibited from being stitched into the pockets because items needed for the war effort, including thread, were being rationed. Rather than lose its trademark, the company had the Arcuate hand-painted onto the pockets.[6]

Death

Levi Strauss died on September 26, 1902 in San Francisco at the age of 73. He never married, so he left the business to his four nephews, Jacob, Sigmund, Louis, and Abraham Stern, the sons of his sister Fanny and her husband David Stern. He also left bequests to a number of charities such as the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. Levi's fortune was estimated to be around 6 million dollars,[7], i.e., about $158 million in 2012 dollars[8] He was buried in Colma, California.

Legacy

A Levi Strauss museum is maintained in Buttenheim, Germany, located in the 1687 house where Strauss was born. There is also a Visitors Center at Levi Strauss & Co. world headquarters in San Francisco, which features a number of historical exhibits. There is a Levi Strauss Foundation starting with a 1897 donation to the University of California, Berkeley.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ Downey, Lynn (2008). "Levi Strauss: a short biography" (PDF). Levi Strauss & Co. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  2. ^ Dinkelspiel, Frances (2010). Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California. St. Martin's Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-312-35527-2. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  3. ^ Carey, Charles W. (2002). American inventors, entrepreneurs and business visionaries. Facts on File. pp. 331–332. ISBN 978-0-8160-4559-4. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  4. ^ Transcript, Levi Strauss vs. H.B. Elfelt, District of California Circuit Court of the United States Ninth Judicial Circuit, 1874. National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region.
  5. ^ Improvement in fastening pocket-openings, 9 August 1892, retrieved 1 January 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |country-code= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor-last= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor2-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor2-last= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |issue-date= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |patent-number= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Downey, Lynn (2007). Levi Strauss & Co. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishers. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-7385-5553-9. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  7. ^ Associated Press (28 September 1902). "Levi Strauss Dead". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 May 2012. Levi Strauss, one of the last of the oldtime merchants of San Francisco. and one of the best-known men from the most southerly limit of California to Puget Sound.
  8. ^ http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php
  9. ^ http://www.levistrauss.com/about/foundations/
  10. ^ Thomas, Grace Powers (1898). Where to educate, 1898-1899. A guide to the best private schools, higher institutions of learning, etc., in the United States. Boston: Brown and Company. p. 10. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
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