Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss (February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-American dry goods merchant and entrepreneur best known for founding Levi Strauss & Co. and co-inventing the riveted blue jeans that revolutionized workwear and casual fashion worldwide. Born Löb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria, to Jewish parents Hirsch Strauss, a cattle trader, and Rebecca Haas Strauss, he was the youngest of seven children in a family facing economic hardship and anti-Semitic restrictions under Bavarian law.

In 1848, at age 18, Strauss immigrated to the United States with his mother and two sisters, arriving in New York City between April and October amid the European revolutions and family business opportunities; his two older brothers, Jonas and Louis, had already settled there and operated a dry goods wholesale business. He worked in the family enterprise while becoming a U.S. citizen on January 31, 1853, and soon after, in March 1853, traveled by ship around Cape Horn to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush to establish his own dry goods business, initially named "Levi Strauss," catering to miners and merchants with supplies like canvas, denim, and clothing. The company, renamed Levi Strauss & Co. in 1863 and headquartered at 14-16 Battery Street from 1866, expanded rapidly as a West Coast distributor.