Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss ( /ˌliːvaɪ ˈstrɔːs/, born Löb Strauß, German pronunciation: [løːb ˈʃtʁaʊs]; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-Jewish immigrant to the United States who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm, Levi Strauss & Co., began in 1853 in San Francisco, California. Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, in the Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany, to a Jewish family. He was the son of Hirsch Strauss and his wife Rebecca (Haass) Strauss. At the age of 18, Strauss, his mother and two sisters sailed for the United States to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co. The family decided to open a West Coast branch of the family dry goods business in San Francisco, which was the commercial hub of the California Gold Rush. Levi was chosen to represent the family, and after becoming an American citizen in January 1853, he then caught another steamship for San...