The blueprint

From humble cuts to haute couture, denim jeans have become an American and global fashion mainstay unlike any other.

While it’s difficult to pin-point exactly when the first pair of jeans was made, many — not least of all the Levi’s marketing department — trace the origins of the pants as we know them today back more than 150 years. 

Despite denim workwear originating in the mid-19th century, it was a patent for “riveted” jeans in 1873 from German-born businessman Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, a tailor in San Francisco, that is often hailed as the true blue jean birthday, with the durable denim quickly becoming a go-to for farmers and factory workers.

A lot has changed in the intervening century-and-a-half, but the humble garment has been a near constant in American wardrobes throughout. Jeans were worn by sailors, they became a symbol of the rugged American Wild West in the early 1900s, broke into the mainstream as leisure wear, became a motif for an entire generation of young rebels in the 1950s, thanks in no small part to James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause, and have played their part in just about every cultural revolution — from hippies to hip hop — ever since. 

And, even today, in an industry defined by its fast-changing trends, the 150+ year-old denim jean remains near the peak of its powers.

Daily denim

With a rich seam of history behind them, jeans have stretched into whatever shape the public wanted. According to a YouGov poll from March, 25% of American adults slip into the pants “daily”, while a further 35% wear them “a few times a week”. In fact, jeans are arguably the great cross-generational sartorial leveler — 78% of the 18-29 year-old age bracket and a still substantial 67% of Americans over 65, wear them once a week or more. A whopping 90% of Americans wear jeans at least occasionally.

How have jeans survived — indeed thrived — through all of these cultural eras?

The most obvious answer is that America’s national denim love-in comes down to the sheer versatility of the pants, with a range of cuts to coincide with the ever-changing trends and fads of fashion. From 90s throwbacks and Y2K favorites, to classics-turned-cringe-turned-classics-again, jeans are seemingly always in. 

Wider appeals

In 2024, for instance, it seems that everything old is new again: Google Search data suggests that the baggier the better mantra which prevailed in the 1990s has made a real comeback in recent years, with searches for “wide leg” and “baggy” jeans peaking this year. Meanwhile, early 2000s mainstays like skinny and high-waisted jeans have tapered off a little, as Americans seek more relaxed fits.

With a style for everyone, perhaps it’s little wonder that jeans have been a mainstay in fashion for so long. But, what is perhaps surprising is that Levi’s, the jeans giant where it all began, is also still around — shipping billions of dollars of blue, black, gray, wide, skinny, bootcut, and baggy jeans every year and taking an estimated 11% share of the US market.

Levi’s is having a good year thus far, with shares that have risen 35% in the YTD after a welcome boost in sales thanks to a namecheck in a song from Beyonce’s new country album Cowboy Carter. But, despite the brand’s renown and longevity, it operates in a fiercely competitive industry, which has squeezed its sales and margins.

In the late 1990s, the company was teetering. Profits had collapsed, and revenues were falling. In fact, as competition in the jeans market has intensified over the last 25 years, Levi’s has found it tough to grow. From 1996 to 2023, sales were down more than 10%. Had they just kept up with inflation, they would have grown 94%.

The Levi’s slogan, “quality never goes out of style” goes some way in explaining the company’s longevity. But the rise of competitors, at both premium and value price points, is why — like the now-neglected pair of jeans that are tucked away deep in your wardrobe — margins in the denim business are so tight.

Indeed, for every $100 of Levi’s sales, which is admittedly spread across more than just denim jeans, only $43 goes in the actual cost of the clothes delivered. That leaves a pretty healthy 57% gross profit margin, but by the time selling costs, promotional expenses, and other overheads are taken into account, Levi’s is looking at a slimline 5-6% operating profit margin.

After coming in as CEO, in 2011, and after more than a decade of stagnating sales at the company, Chip Bergh tried to implement changes to hoist Levi’s above the growing competition. His increased emphasis on selling straight to customers, for instance, saw DTC sales rise significantly, to more than 40% of the company’s total. Bergh's attempts to improve innovation at the company, and keep an eye on inventory that wasn’t selling, also helped the company meet the shifting demands of younger consumers, a demographic where the brand’s popularity has continued to grow. Bergh handed off the challenge of minding this younger demographic to Levi’s new CEO, Michelle Gass, who took the reins in January as Bergh shifted to an adviser role.

Despite these efforts, Levi’s, and the jeans industry as a whole, has a lot of work cut out to address the elephant in the room that just might threaten the future of jeans: that producing denim jeans is seriously resource-intensive.

No denim on a dead planet

The impacts that jeans have on the planet itself are coming into focus more than ever, as emphasis on sustainability in the fashion industry increases. The headline news? While denim is great for jackets and jeans, the production processes involved — from growing the cotton to washing and dyeing it — are amongst the most resource-intensive across the entire industry. 

Wet look

The amount of water used to make a single pair of jeans, for example, far outweighs the volume that’s pumped into producing other garments. Studies vary in their estimates, but one from fashion retailer GAP, via Sustainability Magazine, found that manufacturing a single pair of jeans took some 7,250 liters of water on average, or just over 1,900 gallons. For perspective, if you’re someone who is good at keeping hydrated, drinking 3 liters of water a day, you’ll only drink ~1,100 liters in a year.

Although bigger names like Uniqlo and Levi’s are making attempts to reduce the volume of water they use in some of their ranges, efforts in the sector “aren’t widespread enough at this point to mitigate the industry’s overall impact”, Kate Nishimura, senior news and features editor at Sourcing Journal with expertise on sustainability within the fashion industry, told Chartr. 

And, just like our collective love affair with jeans, the environmental issues associated with their production don’t really look like shifting anytime soon. Indeed, Nishimura explained that the denim industry “has been doing things the same way for a long, long time”, adding that the persisting influence of fast fashion is slowing progress in the space.

Correction (May 6, 2024): In an earlier version of this article, we incorrectly implied that Levi’s current CEO was Chip Bergh. Levi's appointed a new CEO, Michelle Gass, in January 2024. This article has been updated.