As we near the end of the love season, many of us begin to think about the Spring season, and some even begin to prepare for Easter. However, there is one holiday that not many people know about. This holiday is celebrated every year on Feb. 26, which also happens to be the birthday of the very person that this holiday is celebrating. The occasion to be honored on this date is National Levi Strauss Day. We know that many of you are probably wondering what National Levi Strauss Day is. It is a good time that we caught you all then because that is exactly what we are here to discuss.
Levi Strauss was born on Feb. 26, 1829 in Bavaria, Germany to “Hirsch Strauss and his second wife, Rebecca Haas Strauss.” Strauss was one of seven children and was the youngest of all of them. He had three older brothers and three older sisters, breaking the tie and making him the fourth boy and final child. In 1846, after his father unfortunately passed away due to tuberculosis, Strauss and his three sisters came to America. More specifically, New York, which is where they met up with two of their older brothers. His brothers owned an “NYC-based wholesale dry goods business called ‘J. Strauss Brother & Co.’” Eventually, he “began to learn the trade himself.” In 1853, Levi Strauss moved to San Francisco after hearing about the California Gold Rush, in which news about it made its way out East. However, he did not make a living from searching for gold. Instead, he started his own wholesale dry goods company with his own name and worked as his family’s West Coast representative of their New York establishment. After some time, Strauss renamed the company “Levi Strauss & Co.”
To some, this brand may sound familiar by now and with good reason because that name is the same as the business many people love to buy jeans from today and is the very reason why we celebrate Strauss. Levi Strauss is one of the creators of the company, Levi’s. A brand that many have come to love and adore. This is how Levi’s all began. In 1872, 24 years after opening the wholesale company “Levi Strauss & Co.”, Strauss received a letter from a tailor who lived in Reno, Nevada by the name of Jacob Davis. Davis happened to be one of his customers and was telling him the unique way in which he created pants for his customers by using “Rivets at points of strain to make them last longer.” This was an amazing invention as it enhanced the working man’s pants and made them stronger.
Davis even wanted to get a patent on his idea, but told Strauss that he “needed a business partner to get the idea off the ground. Levi was enthusiastic about the idea.” Low and behold, on May 20, 1873,”the patent was granted to Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss & Company.” That is how blue jeans were born and the famous Levi’s came to be. This amazing invention did not come without some competition, however. In 1886, the Two Horse Trademark was created. This trademark depicted two horses pulling apart a pair of Levi’s waist overalls and it “symbolized the strength of the clothing in the face of competition.”
Throughout his career, Strauss continued in his jeans business and even did a few other philanthropic projects and obtained various positions over the years. For example, in 1875, he and “two associates purchased the Mission and Pacific Woolen Mills.” In 1877, Strauss also became the treasurer and a charter member of the San Francisco Board of Trade. “He was a director of the Nevada Bank, the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company and the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company.” As for his philanthropic projects, Strauss contributed to the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home, the Eureka Benevolent Society, and the Hebrew Board of Relief. Finally, he “Provided the funds for twenty-eight scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley, all of which are still in place today” in 1897.
The end of the 19 century was a time in which Strauss was still a part of the “Day-to-day workings of the company.” In 1890, Strauss and his nephews formally incorporated the Levi’s company after the lot number “501” was put on the XX waist overall that year. Levi Strauss would pass away on Friday, Sep. 26 1902. The majority of the six million dollars that his estate amounted to after his death was left to his four nephews and his other family members. Donations were also made to local funds and associations. After his death, 32 years to be exact, Lady Levi’s were created. These were the first blue jeans for women to be introduced. A couple of years later, in 1936, the “Red Tab [was] added to the right back pocket of the 501 jean, where it is still placed today” in order to differentiate between the Levi’s and competitors. By the mid-1960s, Levi’s became so famous that offices and factories had to be set up around Europe and Asia. Over the years, Levi’s have dramatically expanded to have many types of jeans and the brand has supported and created a few establishments, including the AIDs crisis and source pioneering programs.
As mentioned in the beginning, National Levi Strauss Day and all of his accomplishments are celebrated every year on Feb. 26. To celebrate, we recommend putting on your favorite pair of Levi’s jeans, “Get Inspired” and inspire others since Strauss “Is an example of living the American Dream,” and donate to a charity. The charity you donate to can be any charity, but we found that it is best if you donate to orphanages, to the needy, or even Levi Strauss’s foundation, in order to fully honor his legacy and the impact he had on many people. This is the story of Levi Strauss and how Levi jeans came to be.