Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co.is a privately held clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans,founded in 1853 by Levi Strauss.Although the company began producing denim overalls in the 1870s, modern jeans were not produced until the 1920s. The company briefly experimented with employee ownership and a public stock listing, but remains owned and controlled by descendants and relatives of Levi Strauss' four nephews.

From the early 1960s through the mid 1970s, Levi Strauss experienced explosive growth in its business as the more casual look of the 1960s and 1970s ushered in the "blue jeans craze" and served as a catalyst for the brand.Perhaps most impressive, however, was Levi's expansion under Simpkins was accomplished without a single unionized employee as a result of Levi's' and the Hass families' strong stance on human rights and Simpkins' use of "pay for performance" manufacturing at the sewing machine operator level up. As a result, Levi's' plants were perhaps the highest performing, best organized and cleanest textile facilities of their time. Levi's even piped in massive amounts of air conditioning into its press plants, which were known in the industry to be notoriously hot, for the comfort of Levi's workers.

By the 1990s, the brand was facing competition from other brands and cheaper products from overseas, and began accelerating the pace of its US factory closures and its use of offshore subcontracting agreements.

In November 2007, Levi's released a mobile phone in co-operation with ModeLabs. Many of the phone's cosmetic attributes are customisable at the point of purchase.