LS&Co. Unzipped

Welcome to our blog. Here’s where you’ll find a “behind-the-seams” look at what’s going on with Levi Strauss & Co. You’ll hear from a variety of voices, from both inside and outside the company. And you have the chance to share your thoughts. So read on — and weigh in!

Mar 01 2011

Buy New...Or Make Do?

How old’s your cell phone? Your home computer? Your car? Your Levi’s® jeans?According to The New York Times, you’re holding on to things longer than in the past.As a company that makes money by selling you new things, how do we feel about that? Actually, we’re okay with it.According to the Times:

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Posted By: Cory Warren, Editor, LS&Co. Unzipped

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Feb 22 2011

Levi Strauss Foundation: Why We Do What We Do

Within the first year of opening his dry goods company in San Francisco, Levi Strauss made a financial contribution to a local orphanage. It was 1854, nearly a decade since he had left a dicey economy and religious persecution in Germany.In 1897, not long after Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing denim overalls, he funded scholarships at the University of California in Berkeley. Half of these were for women, at a time when they were largely excluded from higher education.

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Posted By: Daniel Lee, Executive Director, Levi Strauss Foundation

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Feb 17 2011

Around the World: Doing the Right Thing Matters

The competition between the two neighboring shoe factories reached the point a few years ago where the owners refused to talk to each other.Until last month’s fire.It was about 5 o’clock in the morning when the blaze broke out in the small Brazilian town of Picada Café. It started at the Cooper Shoes factory. If something wasn’t done quickly, both it and the Sugar Shoes factory located next door, would easily be destroyed.Here’s where it gets interesting.

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Posted By: Choke Huckuntod, Levi Strauss & Co. Social & Environmental Sustainability

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Feb 09 2011

Fighting for Change

“If my grandmother, who lived and cleaned houses in Jim Crow South, would’ve ever been told that her granddaughter would get paid to talk about freedom, she wouldn’t have believed it.”

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Posted By: Daniel Lee, Executive Director, Levi Strauss Foundation

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Feb 04 2011

Worn-Out Art

Leave it to art students to turn worn-out blue jeans into works of art.The students are from the San Francisco Art Institute. And they worked with us on a unique case study. The focus? Sculpture and sustainability. The medium? Recycled denim.Over the course of their four-week intensive, Sustainable Sculpture, the students met and talked with Levi Strauss & Co. experts. We shared what we know about sustainability, the life cycle of our products, denim design and production.

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Posted By: Cory Warren, Editor, LS&Co. Unzipped

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Feb 04 2011

Happy Lunar New Year!

Before the newness slips away, we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

The Lunar New Year is now underway, with festivities and parades taking place in the Asia-Pacific region and around the globe.

This is especially noteworthy for us for a couple of reasons. Our hometown of San Francisco has one of the largest Asian communities — outside Asia Pacific — in the world. Plus, Hong Kong is the headquarters of our newest brand, Denizen, which recently launched in China, India, Singapore and Korea.

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Posted By: Cory Warren, Editor, LS&Co. Unzipped

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Jan 27 2011

Ordinary People. Amazing Stories

In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama talked about America being “the story of ordinary people who dare to dream.”Hard-working people are striving to overcome adversity all the time, right in our own backyard. Imagine, for example, purchasing your own home only months after being on the verge of homelessness. That’s exactly what Helena Edwards did -- with some help from EARN, a Bay Area non-profit that helps low-income families build prosperity by matching their savings.

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Posted By: Matt Silva, Levi Strauss Foundation Communications Fellow, EARN

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Jan 05 2011

Cutting Carbon in the World's Workshop

When you buy something made in China, chances are it was made where I live, in the Pearl River Delta, one of the fastest growing regions in the world.The Delta is made up of Hong Kong, Macao and nine municipalities in the Guangdong Province of Mainland China. It’s a major manufacturing base for garments and textiles, electronics, toys, and much more. In fact, there’s so much manufacturing here, the Pearl River Delta is sometimes called “the world’s workshop.”

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Posted By: Karen Ho, WWF-Hong Kong

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Dec 14 2010

In Appreciation - Richard C. Holbrooke

The death, Monday, of Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke was felt around the world, including here at Levi Strauss & Co.Ambassador Holbrooke galvanized the corporate HIV/AIDS movement as president and CEO of the Global Business Coalition. He led the organization from 2001 to 2009, a time of unprecedented global growth of corporate commitment to those in need and at risk from HIV/AIDS.Simply put, Ambassador Holbrooke played a visionary role in bringing HIV/AIDS to the forefront of the global agenda.

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Posted By: Paurvi Bhatt, Senior Director, LS&Co. Strategic Health Initiatives

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Dec 01 2010

Lesotho - Part 2

If you’ve ever spent any time in Lesotho, in the heart of South Africa, you’ll know that in many ways it’s still a developing country . It’s also a place where people work to make some of our products.

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Posted By: Thulani Duma, Regional Senior Specialist, LS&Co. Social & Environmental Sustainability

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