Gold Miners’ Tailor

The son of a peddler, Levi Strauss grew up in the beautiful German countryside just north of Nuremberg. As a Jew, however, he was unable to own land. When his father died, the 18-year-old Strauss crossed the Atlantic to New York City, where his two brothers were already working as street peddlers. Soon Strauss, who spoke no English, was also walking the streets, with 100 pounds worth of cloth, yarns, books, shoes, blankets, kettles, and other items. He slept in barns, stables and ditches, and began to pick up some English.

In 1849, when the great California gold rush struck, 80,000 prospectors flocked to the state in hopes of finding fortune. Strauss decided to make the westward journey and, in 1853, arrived in San Francisco. Strauss found that a blanket worth only $5 in New York could command an impressive $40 in San Francisco. There were already 117 dry goods stores, but Strauss, able to order wholesale goods from his brothers, had a leg up on the competition.

When Strauss saw men walking around in torn trousers with worn seats and ripped pockets, he fashioned a pair of pants from canvas originally intended for a Conestoga wagon. Strauss sold them as “waist-high overalls,” and legend has it that the first sale went for six dollars, paid in gold dust. Strauss’ brothers shipped blue denim to him, which Strauss gave to tailors to cut and sew. By February 1861, Strauss sent $59,732.24 in gold to New York.

Jacob Youphes, another Jewish immigrant living in Reno, Nevada, was also making work pants. Knowing that many pants ripped at the pockets from heavy labor, he began using rivets to fasten the pockets to the pants he made. He knew it was a good invention, but a patent cost money, and his hardworking customers usually ran up long lines of credit. He wrote to his supplier, Levi Strauss. If Strauss would pay for the patent, Youphes would share it with him and allow him to sell his pants at $3 a pair. Strauss, who sold his pants for $1 a pair, recognized a golden business opportunity.

A less honest man simply would have stolen the idea, but Strauss had high ethical standards. Strauss accepted Youphes’ terms. In 1873 the patent was approved. Soon after, Youphes sold his half share of the patent to Strauss and moved to San Francisco to become his head tailor and foreman of production. Soon 20,000 men scouring the hills of California for gold were outfitted in Levi Strauss jeans, recognizable by the orange thread Youphes used to match the color of the rivets.

When he died in 1902, Strauss, who had never married or had children, left much of his $6 million – a fortune at the time – to his four nephews. They ran the business for a few years before passing it on to a son-in-law, Walter Haas. Current chairman Robert Haas, who oversaw the creation of the Dockers line of pants, is the fifth generation of Strauss’ extended family to own and run the company. Levi’s jeans are currently sold in 110 countries. Last year the company did over $4 billion in sales. – Lisa Gschwandtner