Levi's 1950 and beyond

The 1950s brought a whole new representation of Levis into the popular consciousness. Characters like James Dean and Marlon Brando wore jeans in movies like ‘A Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘The Wild Ones’. Now Levis were the apparel of the young postwar generation called the Baby Boomers. Levi Strauss Company focused exclusively on the jeans business and abandoned the dry goods business in order to keep up with demand. By 1959 Levis sales volume was $46 million dollars with no sign of stopping for the societal changes of the 1960s.


Levis jeans became the symbol of change, freedom, adventure and independence for those coming of age in the 1960s. They were seen as a form of self expression and in home movies of the time you can see that it was the uniform of the day at Woodstock and on university campuses. In 1968, new divisions were started for youth wear, sportswear, women and children. Television became a primary medium of advertising and much of the advertising was aimed a young people and at children.

At the same time Levi Strauss formed an international subsidiary. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Levis doubled in sales every three to four years until it reached $251 million in 1969. This unprecedented expansion required new funds so the company was taken public in 1971 at an initial public offering price of $47.50 per share. By 1975, the company had reached one billion dollars in sales but it did not stop there and reached two billion by 1979. One in every three pairs of jeans sold in North America was Levis.