Levi Strauss & Co. became a publicly-traded entity for the second time in the company’s history, according to The New York Times, something the stock market celebrated by allowing traders to wear denim on the trading floor. 

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The jeans-filled floor, set against a backdrop that included a sign reading “No Blue Jeans Permitted On Trading Floor,” was an ironic sight in an institution that usually sees financial and business professionals don black, gray and blue suits. The ensuing social media posts, which ran the gamut from amused to strictly informational, lent some perspective into what must have been an interesting sight.

 

“I guess there are exceptions for everything,” read one tweet from Aman Patel, a finance professional who was present for the proceedings Thursday. 

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“Amazing week for the NYSE,” read another tweet from another financier, listed on Twitter only as Mike P. “IPOs are back in 2019 and it started with a bang.”

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Sapna Maheshwari of The New York Times priced Levi’s shares at $17 at the onset of trading Thursday, which rose 32 percent by the end of the day to $22.41 a share. The surge brought the value of the company up to $8.5 billion. 

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The Associated Press traces the denim company’s history back to the 1850s, when Levi Strauss himself started a dry goods business. Two decades later, the AP’s Anne D’Innocenzio writes, Strauss and Jacob Davis, a tailor, received a patent to create jeans with metal rivets to make the pants stronger. 

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The company went public for the first time a century later, but the Haas family, Strauss’s descendents, took the company private in 1985, according to D’Innocenzio. The decision to open up the company to the public again, Levi’s chief executive told The New York Times, was made to take advantage of the brand’s renewed strength and expand in categories like women’s apparel and international markets. 

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“The job is not done,” Charles V. Bergh, Levi Strauss’s chief executive, told The New York Times on Thursday. “But this is a big step forward and an acknowledgment of the progress that we’ve made.”

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The surge in the company’s valuation was met with enthusiasm by those inside the company. Levi’s on Friday posted to Instagram with a photo of the front of the New York Stock Exchange, with the caption “Today, the NYSE lives in Levi’s.” 

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The company also promoted the latest development on Friday on LinkedIn, with a post that read, “See more from yesterday’s first day of public trading for our company!”

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Bibliography

1. Maheshwari, Sapna. “Levi’s Goes Public, With Jeans On The Trading Floor.” The New York Times. March 21, 2019. Web. Accessed March 23, 2019.

2. Patel, Aman. “I guess there are exceptions for everything.” Twitter. March 21, 2019. Web. Accessed March 23, 2019.

3. P., Mike. “Another amazing week for the NYSE.” Twitter. March 23, 2019. Web. Accessed March 23, 2019. 

4. D’Innocenzio, Anne. “Levi’s Soars in Return to Public Markets.” Associated Press. March 21, 2019, Web. Accessed March 23, 2019. 

5. Levi Strauss & Co. “Today the NYSE Lives in Levis.” Instagram. March 22, 2019. Web. Accessed March 23, 2019.

6. Levi Strauss & Co. “See more from yesterday’s first day of public trading for our company.” LinkedIn. March 22, 2019. Web. Accessed March 23, 2019.