Levi Strauss & Co.Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO) is a privately held clothing company known worldwide for the Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Bavaria, Germany to San Francisco, California to open a West Coast branch of his brothers' dry goods business in New York. Although the company began producing denim overalls in the 1870s, modern jeans were not produced until the 1920s. The company briefly experimented (in the 1970s) with employee ownership and public stock listing, but remains owned and controlled by the descendants and relatives of Levi Strauss' four grandchildren. Organization Levi Strauss & Co. is a global company organized into three geographic divisions: Levi Strauss, North America (LSNA), headquartered in San Francisco; Levi Strauss Europe (LSE), based in Brussels; and the Asia Pacific Division (APD), based in Singapore. The company employs a staff of approximately 8,850 people worldwide and owns and develops certain brands. Levi's, the parent brand, was founded in 1873 in San Francisco, specializing in riveted denim jeans and several casual and street fashion lines. From the early 1960s through the mid-1970s, Levi Strauss saw explosive growth in its business as a more casual look. of the '60s and '70s ushered in the "blue jeans craze" and served as a catalyst for the brand. Levis, under the leadership of Jay Walter Haas Sr., Peter Haas Sr., Paul Glasco and George P. Simpkins Sr., expanded the company's clothing line by adding new fashions and styles, including stonewashed jeans through acquisition of Great Western Garment Co., (GWG), a Canadian clothing manufacturer, acquired by Levis. GWG was responsible for the introduction of the modern "stone washing" technique, still in use by Levi Strauss.Mr. Simpkins is credited with the record expansion of the company's manufacturing capacity from fewer than 16 plants to more than 63 plants nationwide from 1964 to 1974. Perhaps most impressive, however, is that Levis' expansion under Simpkins is was accomplished without a single unionized employee as a result of Levis and the Hass families' strong stance on human rights and Simpkins' use of "pay for performance" manufacturing at the upper level of the sewing machine operator. As a result, the Levis mills were perhaps the highest performing, best organized, and cleanest textile plants of their time. Levis has even installed massive amounts of air conditioning in its press plants, known in the industry for being notoriously hot, for the comfort of Levis workers..