...oh, never mind.
SAN ANTONIO -- This week, the last of the Levi Strauss & Co. manufacturing plants in the United States will close,
fading this American icon like a pair of its own 501s.
The struggling denim company has announced that the last two of its U.S. factories, near downtown San Antonio, will shut
their doors, leaving 800 employees out of work and ending an American tradition that began 150 years ago. Although the company's
headquarters in San Francisco will remain open, and contract work at some U.S. plants will continue, the bulk of the $4.2
billion company's jeans will be manufactured by suppliers in 50 other nations -- including countries in Asia and the Caribbean,
where labor is cheaper.
300 A.D.: Serge de Nimes -- French for "cloth from Nimes" -- is first woven in Nimes, France. Eventually, "de Nimes"
will become "denim."
1492: Legend has it that when Christopher Columbus and his crew set sail, the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria had denim
sails.
1597: Italian soldiers from Genoa wear cotton trousers. Since the French call Genoa and the people who live there
"Genes," the name sticks to the pants, too.
1829: Levi Strauss is born in Bavaria.
1905: Levi's adds fifth "wallet" pocket.
1936: Levi Strauss sews a little red flag next to the back pocket of its jeans. It is the first label sewed on the
outside of a piece of clothing.
1940: Heat-conducting crotch rivets are removed after Levi CEO Walter Haas suffers an embarrassing campfire burn.
Exposed rear pocket rivets are covered with a fabric layer after complaints from cowboys of scarred saddles, and teachers
from scratched school chairs.
Weighing the options: One bolt of denim weighs about 500 pounds.
Celebrate: Jeans Day is Feb. 26.
