Strauss, Levi

Strauss, Levi (?1830–1902) clothing manufacturer; born in Bavaria, Germany. He came to New York City in 1847 and worked as a peddlar before moving to San Francisco in 1850 when gold was discovered in California. He began to sell cloth and soon opened a dry goods store with supplies shipped in by his brothers in New York. When miners wanted a sturdy pair of pants, he tried making them out of tent canvas; he then shifted to a cotton imported from France, serge de Nimes, which was known in America as "denim." Dyed indigo blue and with copper rivets at the stress points, these pants soon became known as "Levi's" and were soon adopted as the work pants for many in the West; from there they spread throughout the U.S.A. and eventually throughout the world. A bachelor, Strauss turned the business over to two nephews; one passed it on to his son-in-law Walter Haas Sr., in whose family it largely remained throughout the 20th century.