Innovation

Levi Strauss Got Rich From Blue Jeans, But He Didn’t Invent Them

Here’s the story of how an American institution came about

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

We’ve all heard of Levi Strauss. He’s the German immigrant who made his fortune during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s the old-fashioned way: selling things like clothing and blankets to the dreamers hoping to hit the mother lode. While they were toiling away in the mountains with gold pans, eating plates of $10 beans over an open fire, old Levi was tucking into a nice plate of baked salmon in port wine sauce in the dining room of San Francisco’s Tehama Hotel.

Okay, so it’s photoshopped. Sue me. (Source: newsthump.com)

Without Strauss’s marketing skills, it’s unlikely that blue jeans would still be worn by people from all walks of life who want to rock a chill vibe. It wouldn’t surprise me if Pope Francis has a pair stashed away for vacays at Castel Gandolfo.

Strauss’s talent was for business. He didn’t invent anything, and he didn’t get rich overnight, but when he died in 1902, he left his very lucky nephews a fortune worth more than $177 million in today’s dollars. In 2018, the company that bears his name reported assets of over…