The life of Levi Strauss is a powerful example of the American dream. His chances for success in his native Germany were limited, but he immigrated to the United States as a young man and became a prominent businessman. A century after his death, he is famous as the inventor of blue jeans, which are worn worldwide. He could not have done it alone, however. His commitment to family, community, and hard work enabled Levi Strauss to succeed.
Levi was not always called Levi. He was born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Germany, on February 26, 1829. He had three older brothers and three older sisters. His father, Hirsch, worked hard to support the large family. But Hirsch was Jewish, and in nineteenth-century Germany, his choices were restricted. The government legislated where Jewish people could live, what jobs they could do, and even how many could marry each year. Hirsch worked in an approved job; he was a peddler of dry goods. The Strauss family might have stayed in Germany forever, but in 1845 Hirsch died from tuberculosis, and everything changed.
First, the two oldest brothers immigrated to New York. In 1847 Levi also left Germany with his mother and two of his sisters. They began the difficult journey to America with very few things from their past; they couldn't take much luggage in steerage class, where the poor traveled. After a ten-day coach ride to a port, they sailed from Germany to New York City. The family spent six weeks below deck, cramped among many other passengers—with no fresh air, little food or water, and no toilets.
Levi Strauss was eighteen years old when he finally saw America. His older brothers had already started a dry-goods business there, and Strauss began to peddle around the New York area. He lugged around a hundred pounds of goods and came home once a week to restock and see his family. Strauss was a good salesman, and the business prospered. He changed his first name to Levi and taught himself to speak English. In January 1853 he became an American citizen. With a new name and a new country, Levi Strauss was ready to take on a new adventure.
Gold had been discovered in California in 1848, and thousands of people moved there to find their fortunes. Strauss was sure that the miners would need supplies, so he decided to move to San Francisco and sell his goods there. However, the trip from New York to California was not easy. Strauss chose the fastest route, across the Isthmus of Panama. He left New York in February 1853 on a steamship that took him down America’s east coast to Panama. He rode on the Panama Railway until the train tracks stopped, and then he traveled upriver in a canoe. After that he and his supplies transferred onto mules for the final twenty miles to the Pacific Ocean. The harsh climate made the journey even more difficult. Strauss endured sweltering heat and torrential rains and spent many nights in bug-infested tents. He must have been thrilled to finally board the ship to San Francisco.
There are many legends describing how Strauss went from selling dry goods to making pants. One is that when his ship arrived in San Francisco, people rowed out and bought nearly everything he had brought before he even came ashore. When a customer told him, "You should have brought pants," Strauss made pants with the only thing he had left, canvas. Another story is that several weeks after his arrival, a miner complained to Strauss that the pockets of his pants wore out too quickly, and he lost his gold through the holes. So Strauss sewed sturdy canvas pants for him.
The truth is that Strauss did not begin by selling pants. He opened a dry-goods store in San Francisco and traveled through gold miners’ camps peddling his wares. His family helped in this new undertaking. His brothers in New York shipped the goods out west, and Strauss’ brother-in-law moved to San Francisco to help run the store. Strauss had been correct thinking miners would be eager customers; between 1853 and 1866, business increased so much that Levi Strauss & Co. had to move to bigger locations four times. But a tailor named Jacob Davis had an idea that led to even greater success. Davis bought durable fabric from Strauss and used it to make pants. The tailor found that the seams of the pockets ripped, causing miners to lose the gold they were carrying. So he put small metal rivets at these weaker spots. His customers loved the new pants so much that Davis could not make enough of them by himself.
Davis wrote to Strauss, suggesting that they take out a patent on the riveted pants together. Strauss agreed, and he and Davis received a patent for these "waist overalls" on May 20, 1873, and soon opened a factory to manufacture them. The denim waist overalls were intended to be worn over miners’ clothes. They were sewn with bright orange thread to match the copper rivets, and the pockets were embellished with a unique V design. Within a year, Strauss and Davis had sold over twenty thousand pairs of the distinctive pants. Levi Strauss & Co. became famous for the design and continued to grow. Soon, miners weren’t the only ones wearing them. Others valued the practical, durable pants, and people began to wear the waist overalls instead of pants, not over them. Jeans, as we now know them, were born—and they were called "Levi’s."
As more people arrived in San Francisco, Strauss’ business grew even faster, and he became a pillar of the San Francisco community. He donated to both Jewish and Christian charities. He took good care of his employees, and to maintain a friendly workplace, he insisted they call him Levi, not Mr. Strauss. Strauss treated the residents of San Francisco as part of his family, and they embraced him in return.
Strauss devoted his life to his work; he never married or had kids. However, he treated his sister’s children as if they were his own, and when they were old enough, he turned Levi Strauss & Co. over to his nephews. But Strauss never retired. Each morning he donned a dark suit, put on his stovepipe hat, and walked to his office. "I don’t believe that a man who once forms the habit of being busy can retire and be contented," he said. He worked until his death at age 73, on September 26, 1902.
Levi Strauss started out poor in Germany, worked hard, and found his fortune in America with the world's most beloved article of clothing—blue jeans. Although "Levi's" jeans bear the name of only one man, the business succeeded because of the support Strauss received from family and community along the way. More than a century after his waist overalls first appeared, jeans are worn by nearly everyone—rich and poor, young and old, everywhere. Levi Strauss, a man who valued family as much as work, would be proud that his descendants still run the company he founded.