Who could have guessed that the most versatile and functional garment was the brainchild of a man born in 1928 in Buttenheim, Bavaria, Germany?

Levi was born on February 26, 1829 to Hirsch and Rebecca Haas Straus. The seventh of seven children, Levi and his three older sisters emigrated with New York in 1848 to join two of their older brothers. At the time, Levi’s brothers ran a dry-goods business called J. Strauss Brother & Co., where Levi worked and learned the trade until he moved across the country in 1853. Levi tried his hand at panning for gold in the California Gold Rush, but soon found he was considerably better at selling dry goods, so he opened a shop as the west coast representative of this family business, calling it Levi Strauss & Co.

The idea for rivets at the points of strain on pants came from tailor Jacob Davis of Reno, Nevada. The metal rivets placed at the pocket corners and base of the button fly initially came to Jacob when the wife of a local laborer asked him to make a pair of pants for her husband that wouldn’t fall apart. Jacob regularly purchased cloth from Levi Strauss & Co., so when it came time to find a business partner, he approached Levi. Levi was enthusiastic about the idea and the design, and the men were granted a patent in May 1873. The addition of rivets to men’s work pants—later famously known as blue jeans—was an instant success. Although denim had been used for work pants, it was the addition of the rivets that made them last and made them a hit.

In 1934, Levi Strauss & Co. pushed the envelope with the design and production of jeans for women. Women had long worn men’s work pants, making the invention of Lady Levi’s a necessity. Though it was deemed socially unacceptable for women to wear pants at the time, no one could argue that women were working on farms. As a result of the functional design, Levi Strauss & Co. became an early champion of women and gender equality.

In addition to his dry goods business, Levi pursued other avenues of business. He became a charter member and treasurer of the San Francisco Board of Trade in 1877; served as a director of the Nevada Bank; the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company; and the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company. His purchase of the Mission and Pacific Woolen Mills in 1875 propelled him into textile manufacturing beyond blue jeans.