Old Jeans Levi'S Filed For Bankruptcy Protection

The "popular fashion" of cowboys is coming back strong in the spring and summer. On the T stage, from the traditional American brand of Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lauren) cowboy gown, jacket and newspaper caps to the hot rookie New York Chinese designer Wu Jigang's denim dress trousers and Western shirt collar shirt, a familiar Indigo is once again proving the cowboy's "myth" in the fashion world.

But for the diligent operators in this market, the return of cowboys is a double-edged sword. The result of fierce competition has already begun to emerge: the jeans brand LeeCooper, famous for its British rock style, filed for bankruptcy protection in France recently. The 100 years old brand that was founded in London in 1908 has not been able to recover its decline in the economic crisis. Its sales volume in recent 5 years has been decreasing year by year and its total debt has reached 18 million euros.

Since 1980s, on the one hand, luxury brands such as Calvin Klein (CalvinKlein) and Versace have begun to "lower their positions" to embrace cowboys. On the other hand, new generation cowboy brands such as AbleJeans and Mark Ed Faye, which are characterized by local creativity and parity, are also emerging. When dyeing, polishing, making old, splicing, nail rusting and other kinds of ideas that once belonged to cowboys have become the general skills of fashion industry, the former global "cowboy experts" are in the face of being besieged everywhere.

However, Levi's (LeviStrauss&Co). President and CEO John Anderson (JohnAnderson) firmly believes in the competitive edge of traditional brands. The Americans who have worked in Levi's for 31 years and are tall have the audacity of adventurers. And he wore the classic Levi's 501 Jeans, which has been popular for many years. "Other brands have their own cowboy series just to cater for fashion trends." Anderson said to Global Entrepreneur, "and we are a professional company to make jeans -- no matter what the trend is now and in the future, Levi's will always focus on jeans. We are not only making cowboys, but also constantly refurbishing the cowboy as the theme. Innovation is very important to us.

Indeed, like Lee, Wrangler and many other cowboys, Levi's, who has 155 years of history and has been doing business in 110 countries, needs to demonstrate the brand charm of its "American adventurer" and the innovative strength of its "professional maker".

Regression and innovation

Among the legendary versions of the origin of cowboy culture, Levy Strauss, founder of Levi's, is usually regarded as the inventor of jeans. LeviStrauss It was Strauss who creatively sewed the canvas into the overalls, which was originally used for tent and caravan, so that the strong and wearable material was combined with the vigorous and wild temperament of the west of the United States. Then, after the interpretation of Hollywood stars such as Marlon Barndo and James Dean in 50s and 60s twentieth Century, the trend of jeans became popular all over the world.

However, since 1970s, Levi's has begun to take the local strategy of extreme concern for local culture in the process of global expansion. Take Asia's Japan and South Korea market as an example, the image of a rugged radical Western adventurer has been abandoned for a while, instead of the endorsement of the beautiful actress and sponsorship of street cultural activities such as skateboarding and hip-hop music. This attempt to transform has attracted a lot of skepticism and has been criticized for wavering in brand management and image positioning.

This fact reveals a common puzzle of old brand innovation: how to maintain the brand's consistent image and shine new vitality? Today, in line with the new "forward" advertising, the image of adventurer and hot blooded youth spokesperson has become the prototype of Levi's jeans to stick to and strive to return. "We find that young consumers loyal to Levi's have a rebellious attitude and" cool "vigor. Loyalty to themselves and innovation is a common inner quality and external demand. Anderson said, "this is not only a young age, but also a psychological age or a young mind." This clear repositioning made Levi's bid farewell to the adulation of popular culture which did not conform to the original brand.

The image of "adventurer" in the new era also puts forward new requirements for Levi's's innovation and marketing system. At present, Levi's's innovation strategy has been transformed into a global focus rather than a concentrated study of regional markets. For example, in March this year, the "dazzle color founder series" was introduced on the basis of the European "founder" series of 2004/5, that is, the straight-line tailoring of the top of trousers, and the details were renewed. The other colors were highlighted on the indigo of the denim main material, and the pink, yellow, blue and red four colors were applied to the details of leather labels, sutures, copper buckles, rivets and trouser legs to create a new style which is different from the traditional jeans. Undoubtedly, this fashion orientation caters to the taste of all young people all over the world.

"A Levi's jeans from the very beginning of the idea, design until the final listing, about six months." Anderson introduced, "we need to collect information from 110 countries' sales networks, not only consulting designers who study fashion trends, but also interpreting and identifying future trends with global suppliers of raw materials." He himself sought advice from all walks of life every day, including the cosmetics industry and shoe manufacturers, and consulted what kind of fashion makeup the cowboy costume was in, or what type of jeans the new boots need to match. "Fabric, shape, color and collocation are the four major design elements of Levi's for a pair of jeans." Anderson said. This also seems to indicate that Levi's is going to build a company that goes beyond the pure jeans business. "In the next 20 years, I hope that when people mention Levi's, they will think that this brand not only produces very good jeans, but also good-looking accessories and T-shirts." He said.

One of the changes that has led to this is that Levi's has begun to tap more potential in female consumers. Anderson's experience is: "women's" emotional consumption "makes them shop more frequently than" functional consumption ", and is more sensitive to fashion and change. This has already been shown in the "dazzle color founder" series, and its female section has also added 7 pairs of trousers, printed blouse and skirt. Starting in September this year, there are more women's cowboy series on Levi's brand.

And Levi's has begun to take risks in China at the moment. This year, Levi's, which already has 500 stores in China, will open more stores. At the same time, it may introduce its more mature sub brand Dockers in the future. More importantly, it will also launch a brand new brand with a more affordable price for the Chinese market for the first time.

Yang Guoquan, Levi's's new president of Greater China and East Asia, dubbed the relationship between the new brand and its parent brand "brother". "Our survey in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil shows that the younger generation of other ethnic groups is rising: hard work, pursuit of dreams and pragmatism. Levi's brand's cool, independent and popular front end may not be their demand, but the new brand that came into being is a supplement." Yang Guoquan said to Global Entrepreneur.

Levi's's move, on the one hand, is to make more precise positioning of customers' quality requirements, consumer attitudes and price positioning, so as to give full play to the advantages of the industry's "experts". On the other hand, it can also be regarded as a reverse innovative application of Zara's fast fashion integrated clothing brand, which originally stopped at market segmentation. As Anderson said, "we can operate Jeans (jeans) at the pace of Zara."