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Denim’s Comeback Gives Levi Strauss Its IPO Opening
Jeans are back, baby, after years of declines at the hands of yogawear.
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Levi Strauss & Co. is trying to go public as jeans fend off their most resilient and pliable rival yet: yoga pants.
The denim category has been battling a fashion shift in the U.S. toward more sporty looks like leggings, which the industry has dubbed “athleisure.” It’s been tough, with imports of elastic knit pants surpassing those of denim for the first time in 2017. But the one-time staple of American closets has recently staged the beginning of a comeback: The jeans category in the U.S. grew 2.2 percent to $16.7 billion in 2018 after four straight years of declines, according to data from Euromonitor.