Levi's CEO Mainstreams What Denimheads Already Knew -Don't Wash Your Jeans
image courtesy of Levi's Strauss Unzipped
Levi's CEO Chip Bergh has caused quite a stir this week hasn't he? Just the very idea of not laundering a pair of jeans has spawned articles from The Huffington Post to CNN. Granted Mr Bergh claimed to have not washed the very jeans he wore for a year while speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm Green Conference. That would make anyone do a double-take, especially when coming from a CEO, but clickbait headlines aside that's not exactly what he said.
The care technique that Mr. Bergh has now made mainstream is something those of us who live in our jeans have been doing forever. When friends or readers ask me how to make their jeans last longer, I always tell them to wear them till they smell. Then have them dry cleaned. When you wear them over and over the natural oils in your body will enter the fabric of the jean making them age nicely as well as keep their color longer. Others will recommend freezing your jeans to kill bacteria and still others will say handwash or spot treat. Although my prefered method is the former, there are many techniques denim aficionados use to maintain and/or age their jeans.
While we have been doing this out of vanity, Mr. Bergh, with his comments about sustainability have made us feel quite good about ourselves. Jeans are often derided for their excessive water usage. Mr. Bergh puts this in perspective by claiming 50% of the water waste comes from at home laundering. While he doesn't claim that the industry has any control over this, he does state that educating the consumer on proper care of jeans would allow them to actively and consciously impact sustainability.
What Mr. Bergh didn't say, but what I will, is that even though jeans use a lot of water they are the one item in anyone's wardrobe that doesn't require water to maintain it. It also can last decades and is easily recycled. So if you didn't feel good about owning a pair of jeans before, you should now.
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