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How it started
How it started
The company Levi Strauss & Co, or what is now known as Levi's was founded by a man born as “Loeb” Strauss in Bavaria in 1829. He, his mother, and two sisters left Germany in 1848 and sailed to New York, where Loeb’s half-brothers were in business selling wholesale dry goods (bolts of cloth, linens, clothing, etc.). For a few years, young Loeb Strauss worked for his brothers, and in 1853 obtained his American citizenship. In that same year, he decided to make a new start and undertake the hazardous journey to San Francisco, a city enjoying the benefits of the recent Gold Rush. At age 23, Loeb either decided to go into the dry goods business for himself (perhaps thinking that the easiest way to make money during a Gold Rush was to sell supplies to miners), or he was sent there by his brothers, to open the West Coast branch of the family business.
For some reason, Loeb changed his name to “Levi” sometime around 1850.
When Levi Strauss arrived in San Francisco, he noticed that miners needed strong, sturdy pants. So he took some brown canvas from the stock of dry goods supplies he brought with him from New York, and had a tailor make a pair of pants. Later, he dyed the fabric blue, then switched to denim, which he imported from Nimes. He got the idea of adding metal rivets to the pants from a tailor in Reno, Nevada, and patented this process in 1873.
Innovation
Innovation
In this new shop, he met one of his customers from Nevada named Jacob Davis, a tailor who discovered a new technique for making sturdy and long-lasting trousers. The idea of this new technique is to use rivets on the parts of the trousers that often tear. This technique is very effective for product durability and quality. Jacob Davis wanted to patent this technique, but the problem was that he didn't have enough money to register it. This is what led him to write a piece of paper to Levi Strauss in 1872, to invite him to join in patenting this new technique together. Levi agreed and one year later, on May 20, 1873, they succeeded in obtaining the patent, and from then on they began to work together.
They started producing trousers with copper rivets. Their first product was known as XX which stands for Extra, Extra Strong. Apart from using the copper rivet technique, these trousers are also equipped with a Button Fly, one back pocket, and a watch pocket. Meanwhile, for the fabric used, they chose a sturdy fabric originating from France known as Serge De Nimes or shortened to Denim. However, the first denim used to make Levi's products did not come from France, but 9oz denim which came from the original textile factory. Manchester, named Amoskeag Mills. This product sold well and became very popular among hard workers, such as miners, farmers, and railroad workers, most of whom do not have good reading skills or are illiterate. Because of this, in 1886 Levi created a logo depicting two horses pulling each other's trousers which would be printed on a small piece of leather to be sewn on the top back of the pocket of each Levi's trousers, apart from showing how strong Levi's trousers are, this was hoped to make things easier. customers, to find their products when shopping in clothing stores. This logo was also created to create awareness among customers, so that they always remember that the original Levi's trousers are the ones with two horses, considering that 4 years later their patent on trousers with rivets will expire. At that time the name Jeans had not yet been invented, at that time they called trousers "Waist Overalls" or "overalls".
Production
Production
In 1890, the validity of Levi's patent on the technique of making trousers with rivets expired and this technique became "public domain". This year Levi's also introduced several new trouser models, one of which will become an icon of this brand, namely Levi's 501. Trousers 501 The first wave was made with a design that was almost the same as its predecessor, which only had 1 back pocket. The 2 back pockets on Levi's 501 trousers were only introduced in 1901, one year before the death of Levi's founder, Levi Strauss. Because he did not have a wife and children, this company was finally taken over by his nephew's husband, Walter A. Haas. Under this new leadership, Levi's experienced problems in 1906, when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 rocked San Francisco and destroyed Levi's headquarters and factory. But this didn't last long, in the same year they succeeded in building their factory again, followed by the construction of the head office which was completed in 1908.
In 1915 Levi's 501 trousers received the highest award at the world's exhibition called the Panam Pacific International Exposition, many believe this was a sign of San Francisco's economic revival after the great earthquake 9 years ago, and since then Levi's has become widely known throughout the state. United States, but again this popularity was only limited to hardworking circles. Levi's introduction to the world of pop culture began in the 1930s when "dude ranch" themed holidays began to boom in the United States. At that time, many farms offered tour packages for city people, especially people from the "east coast" who wanted to experience the sensation of being a Cowboy in the real world. Of course, to make it more soulful, city people who came would be treated to some work clothes. which is usually worn by cowboys and one of these clothes is Levi's pants. Meanwhile, during the Second World War, Levi's was asked to supply basic work clothes for United States troops, because of this, Levi's is under state control. All prices for clothes and trousers are regulated by the State, which of course wants prices to be as low as possible. This made Levi's have to be more creative, of course they didn't want to lose money, so the trousers that Levi's distributed in that era underwent significant changes in order to reduce manufacturing costs. Some of the changes made during the second world war were the removal of the rivets on the crotch and watch pocket buttons, they were also replaced with standard buttons without the Levi's brand and finally, Levi's also removed the Arcuate stitching design on the back pocket, instead they adding a "pocket flasher" so that customers are sure that these are pants from the Levi's brand. This is the history of how pocket flashers were used on jeans during the Second World War era.
Levi's was also asked to send trousers and overalls to US navy soldiers who were in various war zone countries, such as Germany and Japan. Levi's took advantage of this situation to export its goods to these countries, apart from sending trousers to US troops, they also began circulating their products on the global trade market, and this was the beginning of Levi's introduction to the global market.
Changes
Changes
After the second world war ended, Levi's returned to producing the original version of the 501 pants in 1947 and became a pop culture phenomenon after its products were worn by celebrities in the United States. Celebrities, such as James Dean, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe, were often seen wearing Levi's pants. This makes teenagers start to follow the style of celebrities. Uniquely, teenagers at that time did not call these denim trousers "waist overalls" but rather "Jeans", and because of this in 1960 Levi's officially changed the term "waist overalls" to "Jeans" to make it more relevant to these teenagers. In the 50s.
American films and music began to explore other countries, such as England, other European countries and even Japan, so that the American clothing culture shown in films such as jeans began to be known and spread throughout the world. In the 60s, Levi's became increasingly popular after several subcultures led by teenagers around the world began to emerge, almost all of these subcultures adopted jeans as their mandatory uniform, from Hippies, Greasers, Rockers, Mods, Punks to skinheads who were seen adopting jeans. And the best jeans available at that time were of course jeans from Levi's. The popularity of jeans continues to grow in the following years, interestingly, even though fashion trends continue to change, jeans remain a choice that is never abandoned. Because of this, Levi's, which is a brand with the most mature experience for more than 170 years, has become the most popular jeans brand in the world. Even now, this brand is still the largest jeans manufacturer in the world. Their products can be found in 100 different countries in the world, even in Indonesia they can be found easily because their products are spread in more than a hundred locations.
Expand
Expand
For the Indonesian market, the first Levi's product to enter was jeans. These products are sold through retail stores, where retail stores are resold to several outlets so they mix with brands other. Unexpectedly, this brand became the main choice of Indonesian consumers. Along with high sales and demand, finally in 1996 Levi's officially opens official stores in Indonesia. Levi's enters the market Indonesia with 3 categories; women, men, and accessories.
The brand growth in Indonesia is very good, so it often exceeds the target market than specified. In Indonesia Levi's became famous around 1980, though
selling prices can only be achieved by middle to upper level economies and their sales regulated by Indonesian retailers. This situation causes a lot of accumulation to occur the remaining sales in warehouses are due to the limited number of retail outlets in Indonesia. To overcoming this, the company of Levi Strauss Indonesia is trying to create partnerships to solve problems. By selling globally to customers entrepreneurs or you could say franchises in Indonesia. But with conditions opened a factory outlet to get Levi's products. In 2012 Levi's had 31 original stores in Indonesia, and will add 5-6 stores again in Indonesia. Apart from the original store, Levi's is also available in departments stores include Sogo, Matahari, Seibu, and Debenhams. The majority of this product's users are males, as seen by Indonesia's highest sales figures in the five men's categories or men's jeans.
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