Blue jeans have long been a hallmark of American popular culture, but yesterday a piece of that culture faded like a pair of low-rise 501s as the last Levi Strauss & Co. manufacturing plant in the United States closed.
In September 2003, the struggling denim maker announced it would close its last two U.S. factories in San Antonio. Yesterday's plant closing results in the losses of 800 American jobs - jobs that have been sold out to cheap, foreign labor overseas.
The company's headquarters in San Francisco will remain open, but the majority of the production of Levi's jeans will be divided among suppliers in 50 foreign countries. The closing of Levis' last U.S. factory is yet another chapter in American companies' spree of shipping jobs offshore to hold down
production costs.
Not only is America selling out its jobs to cheap labor markets, it is now selling out its own culture. The Levi Strauss company was born in America 150 years ago. Levi's is an American classic, an icon, a tradition. And in this melting pot of a nation, there aren't many things that are purely American. Blue jeans are the quintessential American garment, and Levi's represents the epitome of jeans.
Levi's was conceived as a brand that produced rugged, durable clothing for the working class. Fifty years ago, Levi's relied on the icon of a cowboy to
sell jeans. Today, bare-bellied women and bronzed men are
its spokespeople.
But as denim has woven its way into America's fashion powerhouses - and even gone couture - the Levi's brand has suffered. Other labels like Gap and Calvin Klein have become
synonymous with jeans. And Levi's has felt the wear and tear of the competition.
By last year, sales for Levi Strauss were down six years in a row. The company's earnings lagged $3 billion behind sales in 1996 and dropped 3% in the first half of 2003.
In a last effort to save the brand, Levi's launched its jeans into Wal-Mart stores, the world's largest retailer and largest
clothing retailer.
Wal-Mart's own house brand of jeans, Faded Glory, does an estimated $3 billion in sales each year. One pair of Faded Glory jeans costs less than $20. Levi's has never offered a pair of jeans for less than $30. The line of Levi's that is produced for Wal-Mart is of lesser quality than the brand is known for, of course, due to cost constraints.
So yesterday, as the last of an American classic's operations were seduced overseas, a piece of two things most vital to our well-being have been compromised: jobs and culture.
Send her an e-mail at mc219902@ohio.edu.
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Meghan Crosby
