Levi's, founded in 1853, has survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, and other epochal threats, but in the last two years it’s been tormented by an enemy none of its executives saw coming: yoga pants. Inside the effort and business plan to win back the hearts, and butts, of shoppers By Tim Higgins | July 23, 2015 Full article here: http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-levi-strauss-confronts-the-yoga-pant/ Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek

1. Distressed Denim:
Levi’s Tries to Adapt to
the Yoga Pants Era
Levi Strauss may have invented
jeans, but it never saw yoga pants
coming. Inside the effort to win
back the hearts, and butts, of
shoppers
http://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek

2. Sights is Levi Strauss’s senior
director for technical innovation,
and the Telegraph Hill space is the
company’s research and
development lab. There, Levi’s is
overhauling its namesake brand’s
entire women’s line.

3. His new technique, inspired by the makeup
industry, is called contouring.
What is it?
• Use lasers to etch away the top layer of indigo
• Highlighting the center of the leg so the inner
and outer thighs appear to recede into the
background, helping the leg look slimmer.
• Whisker patterns on the thighs are applied to
draw the eye away from the edge of the hips
• Chevrons run along the legs to give an
elongated impression

4. Left: Designers borrowed the cosmetics concept of “contouring” to
make legs look skinnier.
Right: Sights’s desk at the San Francisco lab—and his indigo-stained
fingernails.

5. Two decades ago, Levi’s
was bigger than Nike, with revenue
exceeding $7 billion. Sales have
since sagged to $4.8 billion

7. The introduction of
athleisure AKA ‘Yoga Pants’

8. Levi’s finally introduced the
new women’s line earlier this
month, at an event in
Manhattan’s clubby
Meatpacking District

9. Follow along to learn more about Levi’s new
business moves:
http://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek
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