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Freedom, comfort and rebellion are words easily associated with a piece of clothing: a pair of jeans. The most democratic item of our wardrobe is always seen as an integral part of a journey – be it real or imaginary. A teenager discovering life wears jeans, so as the adventurer who has no strings attached. They both only need to feel comfortable whilst exploring all possibilities.
Summing up, a pair of jeans embodies the Explorer archetype and one brand that knew how to be associated with it was Levi’s. It’s obvious in the history of the company, founded in San Francisco, in 1873, by a German immigrant who, along the tailor Jacob Davis, patented his pants with rivets. The denim piece became a staple for the working class and a few decades later turned into an icon of youth revolution.
The classic model 501 was created in the late nineteenth century, displaying the back label of the company and the patent illustration with the cowboys. In the 1950s and 60s, it became the favourite of counterculture tribes – from rockers to hippies. By that time, the company had grown worldwide, diversified product offering and invested in campaigns highlighting the Explorer archetype.
Everything was going fine until the 1990s and early 2000s, when a new batch of competitors entered the market introducing ‘premium’ jeans. Levi’s tried to beat them by moving away from its original identity, adopting a ‘trend-setter’ position. From Explorer, they turned into Jester then Lover, then Everyperson… The result, everyone knows: sharp drop in sales. For over a decade the company is trying to regain relevance, but has been lost in a new reality that favours premium denim, tailored cuts, customized models and inflated prices.
The light at the end of the tunnel only appeared when they invested in the rescue of the original Explorer values. The strategy brought the Go Forth line, in 2009, that celebrated the individuality of real workers and had a strong social appeal, largely because of the US economic crisis. Soon after, the Curve ID line was the answer to luxury jeans, allowing women to choose a pair according to their body type, without paying stratospheric prices. Efforts to a more sustainable production, which uses less water and less chemicals, and the Commuter line, targeted to urban cyclists, are other examples of investments to reassess market share. Even though, after years of confused messages, Levi’s may have lost its place in the heart of consumers for good.
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