According to the Kommersant newspaper, the list of Western firms that have left Russia will soon be added to the jeanswear manufacturer Levi’s. Sources of the publication said that the company is looking for buyers for a network of branded stores. It is not excluded that parallel import will be established.
Levi’s stores appeared in Russia 29 years ago. In March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company suspended operations in the Russian market. Shortly thereafter, Levi’s chief executive Chip Berg said that Russian stores would not reopen this year.
Levi Strauss & Co was founded in 1853 in the United States by a Jewish immigrant from Germany, Levi Strauss, but it took up the production of jeans only in 1871. At first, trousers made of durable fabric were considered work clothes. After World War II, there was a surge in the popularity of denim, and Levi’s became almost synonymous with jeans.