Levi Strauss
Born	February 26, 1829 Buttenheim, Bavaria, German Confederation
Died	September 26, 1902 (aged 73) San Francisco, California, United States
Occupation	Tailor
Parents	Hirsch Strauss Rebecca Haas Strauss

This article is about the clothing manufacturer. For the anthropologist, see Claude Lévi-Strauss and for the company of the same name, see: Levi Strauss & Co..

Levi Strauss, born Löb Strauß (February 26, 1829 - September 26, 1902) was the German-born American^[1] creator of the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His namesake firm, Levi Strauss & Company, was founded in 1853 in San Francisco. Image File history File links Levi_Strauss. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Buttenheim is a town in the district of Bamberg in Bavaria in Germany. ... Anthem Königsstrophe Kingdom of Bavaria within the German Empire. ... The German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund) was the association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to organize the surviving states of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been abolished in 1806. ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... San Francisco redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... A tailor attending to a customer in Hong Kong. ... This article is about the anthropologist. ... Levi Strauss & Co. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1829 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Blue Jeans Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics including cotton and corduroy. ... Levi Strauss & Co. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

Background

Levi Strauss was born in February 26,1829 to Hirsch Strauss and Rebecca Haas Strauss, both Jewish. He was born in Buttenheim in Bavaria^[2], Germany. In 1843, young Levi sailed from Bremerhaven to New York where his two older brothers, Jonas and Louis, had already established a successful wholesale textile and tailoring business. After a stay of two days in New York, he continued on to the ranch of his uncle, Daniel Goldman in Louisville, Kentucky. There he spent the next five years learning the language and the ways of his new homeland in order that he might someday take over his uncle's ranch. But Levi had dreams of becoming an independent businessman, and for several years he walked the roads of Kentucky, selling cloth and notions from the pack on his back. ... Buttenheim is a town in the district of Bamberg in Bavaria in Germany. ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... Bremerhaven is a city in the federal state of Bremen, Germany. ... This article is about the state. ... Louisville redirects here. ...

In 1847, Strauss, his mother and two sisters moved to New York City to join his brothers Jonas and Louis Löb in their dry goods business. By 1850 he had adopted the name "Levi Strauss". New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

In 1853, Strauss became an American citizen^[3]and moved to bustling San Francisco, California, where the California Gold Rush was still in high gear. Levi expected that the mining camps would welcome his buttons, scissors, thread and bolts of fabric; additionally, he had yards of canvas sailcloth intended for tent-making and as covers for the Conestoga wagons that dotted the landscape next to every stream and river in the area. San Francisco redirects here. ... The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began shortly after January 24, 1848 (when gold was discovered at Sutters Mill in Coloma). ... Look up Canvas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, and other functions where sturdiness is required. ... A covered wagon replica at the High Desert Museum The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered freight carrier used extensively during the United States Westward Expansion in the late 1700s and 1800s. ...

Strauss and his brother-in-law David Stern opened a dry goods wholesale business called Levi Strauss & Co. Levi, estimated at about 5' 11" and 185 pounds, was often found leading a pack-horse, heavily laden with merchandise, directly into the mining camps found throughout the region. The story goes that both prospectors and miners, often complaining about the easily torn cotton "britches" and pockets that "split right out" gave Levi the idea to make a rugged overall trouser for the miners to wear. These were fashioned from bolts of brown canvas sailcloth, with gold ore storage pockets that were nearly impossible to split. Levi exhausted his original supply of canvas as the demand grew for his hard-wearing overalls, and so he switched to a sturdy fabric called serge, made in Nimes, France by the Andre family. Originally called serge de Nimes, the name was soon shortened to denim. Wholesaling consists of the sale of goods/merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services. ... Levi Strauss & Co. ... Two pairs of Shire horses and a pair of Suffolk Punches A draft horse, draught horse, or harness horse is a large, strong horse bred for heavy work rather than speed. ... Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking. ... This article is about mineral extractions. ... Look up overall in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Serge is a type of twill fabric that has diagonal lines or ridges on both sides, made with a two-up, two-down weave. ... Nîmes is a city and commune of southern France, préfecture (capital) of the Gard département. ... Part of a pair of denim blue jeans Denim closeup Denim, in American usage since the late 18th century, denotes a rugged cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two (twi- double) or more warp fibers, producing the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse of the fabric... This article is about the material denim. ...

Business

In 1872, Levi received a letter from Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor. Jacob W. Davis (born as Jacob Youphes) was a Jewish tailor from Latvia. Davis was one of Levi Strauss' regular customers, who purchased bolts of cloth from the company to use for his own business. In this letter, Davis told Levi about the interesting way in which he made pants for his customers: he placed metal rivets at the points of strain—pocket corners and on the base of the fly. As he did not have the money to patent his process he suggested that Levi pay for the paperwork and that they take out the patent together. This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Reno redirects here. ... Solid rivets Metal wheel with riveted spokes and tyre. ...

On May 20, 1873, Strauss and Davis received United States patent #139121 for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing the first of the famous Levi's brand of jeans in San Francisco, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire. is the 140th day of the year (141st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... PTO headquarters in Alexandria The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent and trademark protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions and corporate and product identification. ... For other uses, see Copper (disambiguation). ... Levis is a brand of riveted denim jeans manufactured by Levi Strauss & Co. ... Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics not including corduroy. ... Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, looking upriver. ... Nickname: Location in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Coordinates: Country United States State New Hampshire County Hillsborough County Incorporated 1751 Government  - Mayor Frank Guinta (R) Area  - City  34. ...

Levi Strauss died on September 26, 1902 and was buried in Colma. He left his thriving manufacturing and dry goods business to his four nephews—Jacob, Louis, Abraham and Sigmund Stern—who helped rebuild the company after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The following year, Jacob Davis sold back his share of the company. is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Colma is a small town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula next to Daly City and South San Francisco. ... San Francisco Earthquake redirects here. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...

The late Peter Haas and his family are the primary heirs to the Levi Strauss fortune. The four nephews were to share the company equally because Levi had no offspring whom to bequeath the company.

External links

• Levi Strauss & Company
• Levi Strauss - Biography
• Levi's
• Levi Strauss Museum in Buttenheim, Germany

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ Downey, L. "Levi Strauss: A Short Biography", 2005 (accessed at [3] on April 6, 2007)