About company
Teksapoiss OÜ is the international company, and it has been an official representative of the Levi Strauss & CO in Estonia and Latvia since the year of 2001.
The firm operates in the sphere of distribution and retail sales and wholesale of the Levi's branded clothes.
Birth of jeans
In 1847 a young Baierish man, named Loeb Strauss, emigrated to America from Germany. Together with his mother and two sisters the 24-year-old man settled in New York, where he got a job at his cousin's wholesale firm, which traded fabrics, bed linen, clothes, etc. In 1850, Loeb adopted a name Levi, and in 1853 he received the American citizenship, decided to move to San Francisco and start his own business. California was overtaken by gold rush, and San Francisco was swarming with gold miners, in whom Levi Strauss saw the potential clientele.
He opened there a department of his cousin's firm, selling pillows, rolls of fabric, blankets, underwear and clothes, and within 20 years he became a successful entrepreneur. Among his clientele, there was a tailor Jacob Davis, who emigrated to America from Latvia. In 1872 Davis sent Strauss a letter, inviting the latter to join his business as a partner. Davis invented a way to strengthen the tear-prone spots on clothes using copper rivets. He wanted to patent the invention, but lacked the required amount of 68 dollars. Later he wrote that when Strauss paid that sum, they could "start manufacture of the riveted clothes and thus earn a lot of money".
On May 20 1873, the two men got a patent and that date is now remembered as the birth of jeans. Davis also moved to San Francisco to organise manufacture of pants. The partners decided that the most reasonable way was to manufacture the riveted work pants from the strong denim, they were called "waist overalls". Such waist overalls, manufactured 130 years ago, looked pretty similar to today's pants, and they were also decorated with eagle wings.
At the end of 19 century Levi Strauss & Co made pants of different design. In 1890s one of the models was named Levi's 501, and it became the most selling jeans ever. It seems amazing that in the time when the first jeans were invented, women still wore сorset, and men - bowler hat. While other fashion crazes of that time consigned to the ash heap of history, we cannot imagine our life without jeans any more.
Levi's pants were mainly sold to California workmen, though the demand for the quality work clothes existed elsewhere too. So, in 1889 the production also started in Kansas by another jeans manufacturer - Lee. In 1904 the Blue Bell / Wrangler was founded in North Carolina.
Since a patent of riveting was given to Levi Strauss for 20 years only, everyone could use the trick when making their own pants.
Levi's 501
The oldest and the best-selling jeans model, which appeared in 1890s. Levi's 501 are manufactured from special strong xx denim, and design of the model has since remained unchanged. The red label, that locates on the left of the back pocket, was first attached in 1936 to make pants recognizable.
Until 1971 the capital E letter was written on the red label. In 1971 the letter was modernised to e. Levi's 501 has always button fastening, pockets with two rivets and leather strap with red printing on the back. Levis jeans get their proper shape after three washings, when they take after the body shape of their owner.
