Levi Strauss & Co. , also known as LS&CO or simply Levi’s, is a privately held American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi’s brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers’ New York dry goods business. In 1873, Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent to make the first riveted men’s work pants out of denim: the first blue jeans.