What Happened to Levi Strauss & Co.?
Several years ago, I ordered half a dozen pairs of Levi jeans boot cut, unwashed denim. I’ve worn Levi jeans since I was little. When the jeans are relatively new, I wear them along with a sport coat as ordinary apparel, and when the jeans grow faded, I wear them out in the field. In Levi jeans I’ve picked peaches and sweet corn, repaired my Dodge pickup, painted a tractor (that was made in Chicago at the old International plant), taught university courses, and written books. Until the day that I ordered half a dozen pair, it had never occurred to me that such an American standard might not always be around. As you might know, January 8, 2004, marked the last day that the Levi’s corporation made jeans in its own factories in the United States. That’s the day the San Antonio factories the last ones in America to make Levi’s closed for good. Nearly 2,000 workers out of work nothing new about that in the era of Bush II, except for the symbolism of no more American Levi’s jeans. Levi’s pro
