Originally named Loeb, Levi Strauss was born into a large family on February 26, 1829, in Buttenheim, Bavaria, Germany. His father Hirsh and his mother Rebecca had two children together, and Hirsh had three children from his first marriage. Living in Bavaria, the Strausses experienced religious discrimination because they were Jewish. There were restrictions on where they could live and special taxes placed on them because of their faith.

When he was around the age of six, Strauss lost his father to tuberculosis. He, his mother, and two sisters made their way to the United States of America two years later. Upon their arrival, the family reunited Jonas and Louis, Strauss's two older brothers, in New York City. Jonas and Louis had established a dry goods business there and Levi went to work for them.

Jacob Davis

In 1873, Jacob Davis, a European immigrant tailor and customer of Levi Strauss, approached Levi with an idea for a patent. Davis had been using rivets to strengthen the pocket corners of Strauss' denim fabric. Davis told Levi that if he put up the money for the patent application, Davis would share the patent with him.

The deal was struck and the patent was granted in to Strauss and Davis 1873. Levi Strauss & Co. brought the new workpants to market, and, in 1890, began using the lot number “501” to identify the product: the birth of the infamous 501 blue jean.

Levi Strauss - Founder of Levi Strauss & Co.

After a brief stint at his uncle's ranch in Kentucky, Levi became an American citizen in 1853 and moved to San Francisco to take advantage of the California Gold Rush. There, he set up a small dry-goods house with brother-in-law David Stern. Levi responded to the miners' needs for a sturdy pant that would survive the rough mining conditions, and started making denim fabric.

The business became known as “Levi Strauss & Co." and by 1870, Levi was a millionaire.

The Jeans That Won the West

Opening a little store on California Street, Strauss with his brother-in-law David Stern, were immediately successful and their reputation and business grew. It is reported that Levi was often found leading a pack-horse, heavily laden with his merchandise, directly into the mining camps 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. They were fashioned from bolts of brown canvas sailcloth with gold ore storing pockets that were nearly impossible to split.

Exhausting his original supply of canvas, as the demand grew for his long-wearing overalls, Levi switched to a sturdy fabric called serge, which was made in Nimes, France. Originally called serge de Nimes, this name was soon shortened to "denim". And, with the development of an indigo dye, the brown color was soon replaced with the now familiar deep blue, the trademark color of most jeans made today.

Another novel trademark, the riveting process, waspatented in 1873and was used to add even more strength to the pocket corners and stress areas of the pants, in addition to another Levi hallmark, using a double stitching or arcuate pattern on the hip pockets, to further increase pocket strength. In 1886, the Two-Horse brand leather patch was first introduced and in 1890, lot numbers were assigned to all products including lot "501", which contained the first watch pocket.

It is interesting to note that Levi Strauss always disliked the term "jeans" to describe his ... well... jeans! The word "jeans" it seems, is derived from the French word genes that was long associated with cotton trousers worn by 7Italian sailors. It is reported that Levi, and everyone working for him, referred to his denim trousers as waist-high overalls until long after his death in 1902. Not until the mid-1930's did the company ever refer to them as jeans.

Originally designed as cinch pants to be worn with suspenders, the firm added belt loops in 1922, the red Levi's tab in 1936 and removed the crotch rivet in 1941. It's widely rumored that the crotch rivet removal was long overdue and attributed to a troublesome problem suffered by many cowhands while crouching near a roaring campfire on chilly nights out on the range.

The story goes that the president of the company, Walter A. Haas, while wearing a new pair of "501's" experienced first-hand what cowboys had been complaining about for years. Crouched down like that, it seems, the rivet at the base of the fly is mostly exposed to the fire and is an excellent conductor of heat. Shortly after his experience, and by executive order, this single offending rivet was removed forever!

Not a company to change its successful line of clothing without good cause, Levi's continued to sell its denim overalls with both suspender buttons and belt loops until 1937 when they discontinued the suspender attachments.

The next flurry of changes (after the removal of the crotch rivet in 1941) occurred in the '50's when the pattern was re-cut for a more tapered leg and pre-shrunk overalls were introduced. 1955 was the year that zippers were introduced to Levi Strauss's famous overalls with other lots like "Lighter Blues" that marked the company's entry into the sportswear business.

The popularity of the Levi's jeans grew to such an extent that during World War II the government declared them an essential commodity, and sales were restricted only to defense workers. Demand and price skyrocketed!

With the popularity of the Western movie and stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, blue jeans were all the rage. What were originally designed as prospectors working britches now gained the irresistible aura of romance and adventure. The bad-boy, devil-may-care image of Marlon Brando and James Dean in the 1950s established blue jeans as the uniform of the day for the baby boomer generation. In 1960, the company dropped the word overalls from all advertising and finally started calling jeans -- "jeans".

From the California 49'ers to cowboys who were home on the range, to Rosie the Riveter, James Dean and Garth Brooks, the pants that young Levi made, especially lot "501", have been with us now for well over 100 years. In over 70 countries throughout the world, everyone knows his first name, and continues to eagerly buy millions of of pairs of his pants that are still guaranteed to shrink, wrinkle and fade.

Strauss died at the age of 73 on September 26, 1902, at his home in San Francisco.

After his death, his nephew Jacob Stern took over as company president. The legendary jeans he helped create, known as Levi's or Levis,

continued to grow in popularity and have remained a fashion staple over the decades.

Today Levi's are sold around the world, with about $5 billion in annual sales.

While Strauss may not have been the "inventor" of the garment known worldwide today as "Levi’s," he was surely responsible for its success.

10: During World War II the U.S. government told the company that it could not stitch its "Arcuate" back pocket design on the 501 jeans, because it was decorative and not a functional use of thread, an essential item for the war effort. So, LS&CO. painted the Arcuate stitching on the pockets of the 501 (men's) and 701 (women's) jeans for the duration" of the war. 9: One out of 10 red Tabs on the back pocket of a pair of Levi's jeans is a blank red Tab and does not include the name Levi's. Check your red Tab and see if your pair is one of them!

8. In 1958 Levi Strauss & Co introduced Spikes, a polished cotton trouser for men and boys, in colors of lemon, lime and orange: the exact colors of what famous gelatin dessert? 7: Levi's receives countless requests from customers asking to help identify if their Levi's are a collector's item. If you want to know how old your Levi's jeans are, send a photo of them to the Levi's historianbit. 6: Levi Strauss himself never wore a pair of jeans in his life. In 1873, by the time they were first created, they were pants for laboring men, not mature, wealthy businessmen. But he insisted that the pants be of the highest quality, even though they were workwear. 5: Inside the walls of the newly remodeled Levi Strauss & Co. headquarters in San Francisco, there are 25,500 pairs of jeans in the form of recycled-denim insulation. 4: Inside Levi's Headquarters in San Francisco is the Vault, the Levi's museum where visitors can find fashion from their favorite movie moments and the iconic clothing from some of Hollywood's biggest stars. The Vault is free and open to the public and a must-visit for all long-standing Levi's fans. 3: The first product Levi Strauss & Co. made for women was called "Freedom-Alls" a one-piece garment made for both work and play, perfect for the women of the American West who had active lives. 2: Among the first people to wear jeans were all types of laborers. The traditional name of the pants were "overalls" until the 60s, when the more modern term "jeans" was first used. 1: The world's oldest pair of jeans still around: dubbed the "XX", these Levi's brand jeans were made in 1879 and are stored in a guarded fire-proof safe at the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives in San Francisco, Calif. Today, they're worth over $150,000.

11.A typical pair of Levi's 501 jeans takes about 1 3/4 yards of denim, 213 yards of thread, five buttons and six rivets.