The inventor of the “quintessential American garment” was born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria, in 1829. His father was a dry goods peddler. By 1848, he had arrived in Kentucky and was learning the dry goods trade himself. He moved to San Francisco on the heels of the gold rush in 1853.
Straus opened his first store with his brother-in-law in a small building on California Street. By 1866, his headquarters occupied both 14-16 Battery St. The man who insisted that all his employees call him Levi was active in the business and cultural life of San Francisco. He supported the Jewish Community and belonged to Temple Emanu-el, which remains the largest synagogue in the city.
Like many Jewish immigrants who arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, Levi Strauss sought opportunity in commerce rather than mining. Working with his brothers’ New York business, Strauss relied on East Coast supply networks and family ties that helped many immigrant merchants establish themselves in California.
By 1872, Levi was a prosperous merchant. In that year, he got a letter from a customer of his, a Nevada tailor named Jacob Davis, who regularly purchased bolts of cloth from Levi Strauss & Co. Davis had come up with a novel way of strengthening the pants he was making for his customers: he put metal rivets in pocket corners and at the base of the button fly. He wanted to patent the idea, but didn’t have the money to get the paperwork through, so he suggested that he and Levi patent the process together. Strauss knew a good opportunity when he saw it, and in 1873, both gentlemen were named in the patent. Levi opened the first San Francisco manufacturing facility on Fremont Street that same year.
Shortly after securing their patent, they began making the “copper riveted clothing” that would make them famous.
The pants quickly became popular as he took jeans on the road peddling them throughout small gold country towns. One version of the jeans’ brainchild recalls Levi pushing a cart of denim for tents through the muddy streets of San Francisco. According to the story, a miner informed Levi that it was not tents, but sturdy pants that were in demand. In a flash, Levi brought the miner and a swath of denim to a local tailor and … the rest is history.
In 1890, the lot number 501 first appeared on the denim overalls, and Levi and his nephews incorporated the company.
Today, the “Levi’s” name is on a variety of clothing for men, women and children.
Levi was a charter member and treasurer of the San Francisco Board of Trade since 1877. He contributed to the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home, the Eureka Benevolent Society and the Hebrew Board of Relief. In 1897, he provided for 28 scholarships to UC-Berkeley.
Strauss died in 1902. His final resting place is the Jewish Cemetery “Home of Peace” in Colma, CA.
Everything else is just history
