welcome to the
summit in San Francisco with me is
presence of levi-strauss
James Kelly James business and luxury
jeans
really yeah well as the president Levi's
brand when I got invited to speak of the
luxury summer I said I think you got the
wrong number but actually when I started
to think about it it's shaping the lens
of luxury through Levi's when I started
thinking wait a minute there's something
here in terms of craftsmanship in terms
of our iconic heritage past in terms of
what's happening with the vintage market
our innovations that we're announcing
even recently with Google there are all
dimensions of luxury maybe not as we
knew it yesterday but as we might know
it tomorrow and you've talked often
about the importance of lifestyle brand
right and Levi's it's really
representing that and how does the big
220 million dollar stadium sponsorship
deal work in San Francisco the 49ers
football team how's that fitting yeah
well it's interesting because
essentially every brand is a lifestyle
brand it's the style of someone's life
but we were one of the original
lifestyle brands we set the authentic
dough I mean all throughout the ages
from gold miners to Cowboys to Hollywood
marlon brando rebels with or without a
cause rock and roll right through to the
entrepreneurs who are now global leaders
of companies choose to wear Levi's to
work so with that we started thinking
well that is lifestyle but we're seeing
the different forces of sports we're
different seeing the different forces of
fashion come together and we're in
thatif entick center point and we
thought authentic center point deserves
to be in the center of culture and we
believe that through the Levi's stadium
deal it puts us in the center of culture
often whether it's Super Bowl Beyonce
Taylor Swift Grateful Dead Manchester
Barcelona football or future events
we're in the center of culture often and
you've had a you say a hundred billion
eight yeah on YouTube Google and search
well I think if you if you understand
now that that notion of luxury also
comes through not just the products that
you covet but through the experience you
have and I think luxury is defined by an
experience and if you look at the ticket
price of some concerts today or the
Superbowl you could argue that's clearly
in the luxury realm
but the experience of innovation and
technology today that says I'm in an
experience but I'm gonna tell the world
and it's synonymous where you are which
is Levi's Stadium we can actually
accelerate and drive awareness of Levi's
Stadium way beyond just the stadium
itself now in the 90s and around the
turn of the century
Levi's sales you beginning to see a
little bit of fall of that the rise of
premium yep France how do you how did
you persuade colleagues to balance this
the need to pay attention expect the
pile up but go for the energy future
well I think that the the starting point
is always you know let's just let's just
look at what we have today we're the
worldwide leader in denim we always have
been since since we invented the 501 in
1873 but we can't take that leadership
for granted and as I mentioned in the in
the conference we are the worldwide
leader and there is no clear number two
but there's about a hundred number two's
around the world so we have to
understand how to look at our iconic
past and if we don't make our heritage
matter who will so we make that matter
but at the same time we put a lens of
innovation through performance
sustainability craftsmanship so that
we're bringing solutions around comfort
casualisation and contemporary style so
opened the Eureka innovation we did in
San Francisco in 2013 yeah what are your
plans for that well if you think about
the the startup culture they always
start somehow in a garage or somewhere
where they're innovating and they're
doing things and we said let's recreate
the conditions for success for
innovation right here in San Francisco
California proprietary knowledge
materials proprietary partnerships that
lead to better solutions so the vision
there is really continually invent the
future of denim and beyond on a daily
basis under our control and menswear
accounts for around 75 percent of your
overall sales you are the world's
biggest belt producer but what how you
can win
the ladies round well I think I mean
women by definition it's a faster-moving
world picking out a pair of jeans isn't
that easy
but we are the worldwide leader in
women's denim it just happens to be a
much more fragmented competitive market
last year we embarked on a journey to
relaunch our entire denim collection the
700 series the 710 711 712 and it's
rapidly becoming the the fastest-growing
of our women's collection and we also
brought in Alicia Keys to give us a
little help on the music front James
you've played in various rock bands
including in London I have a little song
for us at the end well you have to end
on you can't always get what you want
but if you try sometimes you just might
find you get what you need
James Currie thank you so much free
thank you Lionel