In 2011, the Levi's brand released 1.5 million pairs of Water‹Less jeans, which will increase to 29 million by year-end for a savings of 360 million liters of water to date. Now it's taking its sustainability efforts to the proverbial garbage dump, with a new Waste<Less denim collection that will, once again, put the world's largest maker of jeans worldwide (sales of $4.8 billion in 2011) at the forefront of sustainable brands.

Part of the Levi's Spring 2013 collection launching in January, the Waste‹Less denim collection will comprise about 400,000 men’s and women’s jeans and jean jackets made of eight crushed brown and green plastic bottles per pair and composed of at least 20% recycled plastic, in a process that reused about 3.5 million bottles and saved enough water to fill 144 Olympic-size swimming pools.

“This collection proves that you don’t have to sacrifice quality, comfort or style to give an end a new beginning,” stated James Curleigh, global president of the Levi's brand. “We don’t just want to reduce our impact on the environment, we want to leave it better than we found it.”Continue reading...

For too long, JCPenney traffic and sales were boosted by coupons that customers clipped and used in-store. When CEO Ron Johnson took over in November of last year, he promised that he would stop using coupons and make the new "jcp" a place of everyday savings, where customers would come if they knew that prices were low every day. So the company ditched coupons altogether back in February.

It turned out, however, that no coupons took a bite out of the bottom line, so the beleaguered Johnson emailed customers to say they shouldn’t have to wait around for sales, to so please enjoy a $10 “gift” to use before Nov. 4. That gift, to many, smacked of a coupon, but the store positioned it as more of an uncoupon.

A spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that it wasn’t a coupon: "This invitation is in no way a reflection of a departure from our fair and square everyday low price." Call it what you want, but the hope is clearly to get some bodies into the stores and pick up some sales before the holiday season hits.

Another idea put forth by Johnson, who used to work for Apple and helped to conceive their retail stores and Genius Bars, was to create mini-stores with pop-up boutiques for such brands as Levi’s, Sephora, and Liz Claiborne. At least one of them is feeling good about it.Continue reading...

Two years after launching an exclusive denim brand in Asia, dENiZEN, Levi-Stauss has taken the low-cost denim line to China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Singapore and last year to the United States (via an exclusive deal with Target) — but now it's phasing out the brand beyond North America in order to promote its core brands.

According to a statement provided by the company,

"Across our company, we are focused on driving profitable growth. We made the strategic decision to phase out the Denizen® brand from Asia and focus our resources behind growing the Levi’s® brand in this market. We’re working with our franchisee partners for a smooth transition and we’ll phase it out over the next twelve months. We are committed to Asia and will continue to serve consumers in Asia through our Levi’s® and Dockers® brands. We’re continuing Denizen in the North America in Target, where we’re currently in more than 1,700 US stores and expanding to Canada."

Gap isn't the only apparel brand getting its dance on. Check out Levi's latest videos: for Curve ID, above, and featuring dancer Maybelline Wong, below.Continue reading...

The Levi's brand fall campaign suggests getting dressed is an empowering action, continuing its message for the fourth year of “Go Forth,” and adding, “This is a pair of Levi’s.” 

The 2012 fall/winter "Go Forth" campaign pitches 18 to 34 year-olds on donning their daily armor to take on the world every day: “This is a pair of Levi’s, buttons and rivets and pockets and cuffs, and the thread that holds it together.”

The language is a call to action: “You follow your heart, follow the leader, you’re the leader. Are you joking, are you breaking, are you shaking? You’re the next living leader of the world. You’re a kid. Holding onto the thread. That holds it together. This is a pair of Levi’s.” Cue Twitter hashtag, “#GoForth.” And Levi's own call to action, tying a thread to its corporate commitment to take a stance on HIV/AIDS.Continue reading...

For a few years, Levi’s has been telling America and then, the world, to go forth, speak out, raise a ruckus, and, while you’re at it, buy some Levi’s. It’s all part of that idea of the jeans-wearing rebel America that was borne out of the Sixties.

Levi's Go Forth campaign launched in 2009 on the Fourth of July, the celebration of one of America’s greatest speak-truth-to-power moments. But this year, the Fourth came and went without Levi’s going forth and marketing. But just when you were at the tail end of your dismay, the San Francisco-based denim giant is delivering.Continue reading...

For the last three years, Levi’s has been urging Americans, and then last year the world in its first ever global campaign, to “Go Forth” and make a difference. Be a Pioneer! Work Hard! Be Brave!

Since then, the leaders and governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen have all been overthrown and plenty of other countries throughout the globe have experienced change. Levi’s probably isn’t responsible for this, but it did hold back its 2011 commercial in the UK for a bit because it would have originally launched right in the middle of riots in England and that wouldn’t have been the most brilliant PR move.

Maybe because it’s an election year. Maybe it doesn’t want to rabble rouse during the Olympics. Maybe the company is afraid of its own power. Or maybe (more likely) the campaign has run its course and the company just wanted to put its dollars elsewhere. Whatever its reasons, Levi’s has decided to not run its “Go Forth” campaign this year for the first time since it launched in 2009 on Independence Day.Continue reading...

Today is the 20th International World Water Day, established by the United Nations in 1993 to focus attention on sustainable management of fresh water resources. Among the messages being promoted this day is the fact that close to one in eight people worldwide will not be able to find or drink one glass of safe water, and twice as many will not have access to the use of toilet (a very real crisis that gets its own global day of awareness every November).

The global water crisis is so pressing that it made the agenda at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos as a new report ranked water among the top five global factors equal in impact to systemic financial failure and fiscal imbalance reports Forbes, and globally, 2.7 billion people are affected by water shortages, compounded by climate change, and a population nearing 8 billion.

The good news, from major brands and businesses to non-profits, is that increasing attention is being paid.Continue reading...