Good Thursday morning. This week is rushing by, which is nice because each passing day brings us closer to the March 20 vernal equinox and the technical first day of spring.
I’ve been thinking since yesterday’s post on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on the power of branding and brand loyalty.
The American consumer can be fiercely devoted, going out of their way to obtain the brands they like. But, the converse is equally true. One perceived false move and the consumer can turn on a dime – just ask Coca Cola how the so-called “new Coke” experiment went in the 1980s. (For the post-Millennials among us who don’t feel like going down that historical rabbit hole, in short, it was a flop of epic proportions).
There are brands that, miraculously, have not only stood the test of time but continue to thrive even as tastes and habits change. One of these is Levi’s – the original, and world’s most recognized, blue jean company.
The company was named for its founder, a Bavarian immigrant named Levi Strauss, who came to the U.S. to escape anti-Jewish laws and seek religious freedom. He invented the first blue jean in 1873 – about 20 years after he first opened his doors in San Francisco, CA, as a wholesale dry goods operation that specialized in clothing, blankets, and fabric.
Strauss opened his business right around the peak of the California Gold Rush, which started in 1848 and lasted through 1855, however large-scale hydraulic mining continued until around the 1880s. The rush spurred a massive population boom and helped accelerate California’s statehood in September 1850.
All this to say that Strauss was in the business of providing goods to people who did hard physical labor and worked outside. He saw a need for durable workwear to clothe this particular population. And that is how, working with a tailor named Jacob Davis, Strauss came to invent the denim pants (called “waist overalls” at the time) reinforced with cooper rivets that were the forerunner of Levi’s jeans.
The iconic 501® jeans, which are still around to this day, launched in the 1890s. They quickly became a favorite of people who toiled out-of-doors – miners, farmers, cowboys, lumberjacks, etc. – but didn’t really go mainstream until the 1930s when people who wanted to emulate that cowboy coolness without actually, you know, wrangling cows and such, adopted their style.
Sadly, Levi Strauss didn’t live to see what a worldwide sensation his jeans would become. He died in 1902 at the age of 73 and passed the company off to his four nephews – Jacob, Sigmund, Louis, and Abraham Stern – who were the sons of his sister, Fanny. The company remains to this day largely owned and controlled by Strauss’ descendants.
Blue jeans are big business. Somewhere between 1.2 and 2.3 BILLION pairs of jeans are sold around the globe every year. (Some estimates place that figure even higher, closer to 4 billion or even 6 billion, which I first thought was nutty, but then reconsidered after I remembered how many pairs of jeans I personally own). A pretty significant share of that market belongs to Levi’s.
These days, the denim resale market is extremely strong, with select vintage pairs going for a significant sum. This is encouraging, considering the massive toll that manufacturing jeans takes on the environment. These days, even Levi’s is urging consumers to “buy better, wear longer” – a sign of the times, for sure.
Today is Levi Strauss Day in honor of the denim founder’s birthday (Feb. 26, 1829).
There’s nothing much to report in the weather department for a change. Skies will be mostly cloudy with highs in the low 30s. We’re in for a warm-up over the next several days, with temperatures flirting with 50 degrees (!). So break out the shorts and t-shirts!
In the headlines…
The trove of documents released by the DOJ from its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed to include some key materials related to a woman who made an accusation against Trump, according to a review by The New York Times.
Some files haven’t been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews and notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates issued an apology for his ties to Epstein during a town hall for the Gates Foundation, during which he also confessed to having two affairs while married to his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.
“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender, Gates said. “I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.”
The Epstein files mention Harvard more than 12,000 times, laying bare the stronghold that he built within the country’s most revered academic institution. A host of university employees, from researchers to the former president, were in his thrall.
Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his University Professorship — Harvard’s highest faculty distinction — and remaining on leave until that time.
Hillary Clinton, a former first lady, senator and secretary of state, had no dealings with Epstein but is once again under pressure to answer for the actions and relationships of her husband.
About 10 F.B.I. employees, some veteran agents, were dismissed this week for their work on the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida, according to five people with knowledge of the move.
As the political environment darkens for his party, Trump is again warning Republicans that Democrats are going to rig the results. At the same time, he is taking actions that make Democrats fear that Republicans are actually going to subvert the election.
Over 1,500 people marched to the state Capitol yesterday, pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires in the upcoming budget.
Organizers hoped the event, billed as an “Albany takeover,” would show broad popular support for increasing taxes as part of the state budget. But NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other bold-faced names didn’t show, and the governor was unmoved.
In all, about 1,500 people from across the state filled the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, where a succession of union organizers, democratic socialist elected officials and Mamdani fans fired up the crowd before a march to the Capitol.
The Empire State’s most powerful unions — including the United Federation of Teachers — are backing a “tax the rich” campaign that includes a proposal taking a bigger bite out of New Yorkers who are not millionaires.
Hochul’s top budget official elevated concerns about the cost of the state’s climate law that the governor once championed, saying she wants to change the law to ensure New Yorkers don’t have to pay excessive costs to achieve required emissions reductions.
Blake Washington called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act “well-intentioned,” but said circumstances had changed since former Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the law in 2019.
New data show New York gained 499 millionaires in 2023 and 12,694 millionaires in 2024 – the second-highest increase in millionaires recorded in New York since 2016 and more than double the third-highest, a gain of 6,226 millionaires in 2017.
State Assembly Republicans unveiled a legislative package this week designed to create immediate relief for New Yorkers struggling with crushing energy costs.
Mamdani doubled down on his belief that the snowball fight in Washington Square Park that left two cops hospitalized should not result in criminal charges, drawing a deeper line in the snow between himself and NYPD officials looking to make arrests.
A Columbia University professor who once claimed capitalism causes “mental illness” and downplayed 9/11 made a sick joke about NYPD officers leaving their kids “fatherless” after a mob pelted them with snowballs at Washington Square Park.
Mamdani at one time pledged to be Trump’s “worst nightmare”, but that threatening talk hasn’t been matched by the mayor’s tenor since taking office on Jan. 1. He got a shout-out from Trump during the State of the Union and the two text regularly.
Mamdani is tapping a Pennsylvania administrator, Erin Dalton, who previously led the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in Pittsburgh, to lead his Department of Social Services.
Mamdani wants to drop $70 million on his government-owned grocery store pet project — even as he cries poverty and threatens to raise taxes to fill the city’s coffers.
Mamdani reportedly met last week with Black state senators and assemblymembers at City Hall to discuss property taxes — and apologized for proposing his ultimatum to Hochul about raising them if she won’t tax the rich before reaching out.
Mamdani has been given a bevy of nicknames by New York City’s tabloid newspapers and political class. Which will stick?
Mamdani said 1,400 New Yorkers signed up to join the city’s emergency snow-shoveling program on Tuesday alone, and he thanked Trump and Republicans for making it a popular talking point at the State of the Union address.
Council Speaker Julie Menin urged lawmakers and religious leaders to back her proposal regarding protests around houses of worship and schools, after amending her original bill to remove references to a “security perimeter” up to 100 feet from entrances.
The NYPD now backs proposed legislation to create buffer zones around houses of worship and schools, after the City Council modified the bill to give cops the ability to decide the location and size of the perimeters.
College faculty unions and NYCLU are turning up the heat in their opposition to a bill they say would greatly restrict the ability to protest or rally at schools and college campuses. Menin says it’s is necessary to help combat hate and antisemitism.
The 75,000-plus families that have signed up for New York City’s free 3-K and pre-K programs are still thousands short of last year’s final count with only two days to go until the deadline.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority threatened to sue the federal government if it did not release tens of millions of dollars in overdue funding for New York City’s Second Avenue subway expansion by next week.
“If we don’t have the resumption of reimbursements … We’re going to have to actually follow our friends in the Gateway program and pursue a solution through the federal court, through the court process,” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said.
The MTA is rolling out a new “Station Audio Advertisements” pilot in June, which will turn select subway and commuter rail stations into test labs for paid 30‑second ads that can play as often as once every 10 minutes, according to an agency memo.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it will test several models of zero-emissions autonomous vehicles at Newark Liberty International Airport this spring.
Maurene Comey joined a law firm in New York City as a partner this week, months after the Trump administration abruptly ended her career as a federal prosecutor overseeing high-profile cases.
Dozens of beloved trees across the city fell victim to this week’s blizzard, which dumped more than 20 inches of snow across the five boroughs.
Hunter College professor Allyson Friedman, who made racist remarks caught on a hot mic at an Upper West Side school board meeting, has been placed on leave, Hunter President Nancy Cantor said.
The announcement came one day after City University of New York Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez revealed Friedman remained in the classroom while Hunter, the public university system’s campus on the Upper East Side, conducts an investigation.
An analysis from the policy group New York Housing Conference shows owners of government-subsidized “affordable” housing filed more than a third of New York City’s roughly 120,000 eviction lawsuits in 2024.
Bard College this week postponed a major fundraising gala as it manages the fallout from the release of files showing the college’s president, Leon Botstein, maintained a relationship with Epstein for years after he was convicted of child prostitution charges.
To the dismay of Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler, city councilors have opted to sit on legislation requiring property owners to pay the city for having unoccupied storefronts.
The legal fight between Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy and City Council members over Justin Chaires’ appointment to the governing body is over.
Posters promoting a Skidmore College talk by an American-Israeli journalist and former Israeli military spokesman Gil Hoffman were vandalized on campus with antisemitic tropes, including horns and other animal depictions, the college said.
A Hoosick Falls justice has recused himself from a case involving former Police Chief Robert Ashe after a special prosecutor identified a potential conflict of interest.
A light dusting of snow left Capital Region roads slick and numerous crashes occurred during yesterday’s morning commute.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
