Levi's

Levi Strauss & Co is the San Francisco-headquartered denim and casual apparel company that invented the blue jeans category when tailor Jacob Davis and founder Levi Strauss received US Patent 139,121 in May 1873 for the process of fastening pocket openings with copper rivets. The Levi Strauss & Co corporate entity was established in 1853 by Bavarian-born merchant Levi Strauss following his emigration to California during the Gold Rush era, making it one of the oldest continuously operating apparel companies in the United States. The company returned to public markets on the New York Stock Exchange under LEVI in March 2019 after a 34-year private period, with the Haas family (descendants of Levi Strauss’s nephews) retaining a controlling voting stake through a dual-class share structure.

Michelle Gass was appointed President and CEO in January 2024, succeeding Chip Bergh, who had led the company since 2011 and launched the strategic pivot toward direct-to-consumer retail distribution. Levi Strauss & Co reported net revenues of approximately $6.1 billion in fiscal year 2024 (ended November 24, 2024). The Levi’s brand represents approximately 90% of group revenue, with the Dockers brand and Beyond Yoga (acquired 2021) as secondary portfolio banners. The DTC strategy has progressively increased the share of company-owned and company-operated retail and e-commerce relative to wholesale, with DTC representing approximately 44% of net revenues in FY2024 versus roughly 30% in 2019. The flagship 501 jean, produced continuously since 1873 in multiple fits and washes, remains the brand’s highest-recognition product and the foundation of the brand-expression strategy. The brand suspended Russian operations in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.

Levi’s operates approximately 1,100 directly operated stores globally, including mainline Levi’s stores, Levi’s outlets, and the company’s shop-in-shop presence across department store accounts. Malls.com tracks 394 active Levi’s store presences across regional and super-regional centers in the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Poland, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, and additional markets. The US market represents the largest single-country concentration with more than 230 tracked locations across Levi’s directly operated and shop-in-shop formats. For mall operators, Levi’s is a Class A and Class B+ specialty denim-and-casual anchor for regional and super-regional centers, typically occupying 1,200 to 2,500 square feet in mainline store format. The brand’s continued DTC investment translates into new directly operated locations progressively replacing wholesale-only department-store presence, with the outlet format remaining a meaningful part of the US and European mall footprint.