When Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Michelle Gass joined the company in January 2023, her strategy was clear: to reach $10 billion in revenues by 2030, by expanding the women’s business, elevating the brand to capture a more premium consumer, and creating cost efficiencies to improve margins.
Three years on, the world looks a little different to what it did in 2023. With the continued impact of US tariffs, and growing competition in the denim space, Gass still has her work cut out. Levi’s is, of course, the most recognizable and largest denim brand in the world. But when Gass arrived at the label, the business had experienced several quarters of sluggish growth and soft demand. But the turnaround is slowly taking hold. For fiscal 2025, Levi Strauss & Co. reported net revenues of $6.3 billion, up 4% on 2024. While Levi’s is the group’s biggest brand, it also operates women’s activewear label Beyond Yoga. In its most recent earnings, Levi’s revenues were up 8.9% year-on-year to $1.7 billion in Q1, while Beyond Yoga was up 23% to $43.3 million.
“Clearly, Levi’s and its strategies have momentum. Two years ago, I was talking about pivoting to become a best-in-class direct-to-consumer [DTC] retailer, and importantly becoming a head-to-toe denim lifestyle brand,” Gass says. “There’s nothing more rewarding when you see the strategies come to life, drive results, and see our consumers really respond.”
The US company is bringing its Haus of Strauss concept to Paris as it seeks to broaden its appeal beyond the denim jeans consumer. Gass explains how it fits into the wider strategy.
I met with Gass in Paris, where she was visiting to check out the refurbished Champs Élysées flagship store, which was completed in April 2024 and features a mural by artist Quentin DMR, a neon blue color scheme, and a tailor's shop.
When she arrived, women represented under a third of Levi’s customers, which Gass saw as an opportunity. Building a full Levi’s wardrobe, beyond jeans, is key to her strategy for capturing the female shopper. “It’s a pivot from being known as a denim bottoms company,” Gass says. “Jeans are our heritage and our foundation, but denim lifestyle is our future. We’ve seen that play out the last couple of years.” Levi’s tops business was up double digits for fiscal 2025, she notes. “It’s tops, it’s outerwear, it’s sweaters, it’s dresses, it’s non-denim. So the opportunity for us is so much larger than it was a decade ago, or even five years ago, and we’re proving that it’s working — the consumer is giving us permission to go there.”
The women’s denim category has heated up over time, with luxury players and mass-market labels entering the space, from Agolde to Good American. “Competition is healthy because it creates more energy in the denim category,” Gass says. “But if you go into our store, on our site, you will see a much broader array than a couple years ago. People will ask, ‘What are the latest trends?’ Baggy is still relevant, but we also are seeing skinny jeans. I think it is creating that versatility in a woman’s closet.” Women now represent 40% of the business, according to Gass, who is aiming for 50% looking ahead.
Winning in turbulent times
Wholesale has been challenged considerably post-pandemic, as the collapse of core retailers like Saks and Ssense weigh on brands. So far, Levi’s is weathering the storm: wholesale revenues grew 4% for Levi’s in fiscal 2025, as the brand homes in on key retail partners.
“I’ve had the unique experience where I’ve been on that side of the table, because I was with a wholesaler before taking this role,” says Gass, who was CEO of US retailer Kohl’s from 2018 to 2022. “I understand the nuances there. We want to win with the winners in wholesale.” One such winner, she notes, is Zalando, which has invested heavily in the e-commerce experience and fit-tech, and has become a “tremendous partner” for Levi’s.
The DTC channel grew 11% in fiscal 2025, with Gass making monobrand retail expansion a big focus. “Our wholesale business is important to amplify the brand and to reach consumers all over the world. We expect both to grow. But we do see DTC growing at a faster rate, so it’ll likely be our primary growth engine,” she adds. DTC also allows Levi’s to show off Gass’s creative vision for the brand through lifestyle merchandising across its store network, as seen at the Champs Élysées flagship.
Since the executive arrived at Levi’s, which counts the US among its biggest markets, tariffs have rocked the business. The brand is having to remain agile. “We’re really rewiring the business to be faster, more responsive,” Gass says. “Over the last couple of years, we have been operating much more like a best-in-class retailer in terms of speed and responsiveness. There’s a lot of volatility in the world, so you have to be ready to respond to anything.”
To assist, Levi’s created a tariff task force, according to Gass. “They are navigating the uncertainty of it all and making sure that we have all the facts as they exist,” she says. “We are creating scenarios and plans on how we can mitigate the impact and do as much as we can. Number one is to protect our consumer, and then make sure we’re protecting the business.” She adds that the company has strong vendor relationships and a diversified supply base, so it can respond quickly to tariff changes.
Despite the headwind, Gass says Levi’s was able to expand its EBIT margin in 2025, partly owing to price increases on certain products. “We’re elevating the product, and we’re elevating the experience,” she explains. “And what that’s allowing us to do is elevate prices, because consumers are willing to pay. We test all of that through elasticity models.” Levi’s is also prioritizing full-price selling and reducing discounting to protect margins.
This premiumization is another core tenet of Gass’s strategy. “We are the denim leader, so we should be able to play in every segment of the market. And for a long time, we didn’t have a consistent premium offering,” Gass says. “One of the amazing things about Levi’s is we can show up everywhere, from everyday wholesale accounts to premium wholesale. And we have a range of stores, from a flagship like the Champs Élysées to a more neighborhood store and everything in between. I think that makes the Levi’s brand so unique.”
While Red Tab is the core label, ranging from $15 for a tee to $150 for jeans, Gass was keen to play more in the $200 to $350 range. The brand saw great potential in the aspirational shoppers who had been priced out of luxury and now seek high-quality premium goods. In early 2025, Gass and her team launched premium sub-brand Blue Tab.
“If we’re sitting across the table two years from now, you will see [Blue Tab] as a much more significant part of our business,” she says. “We’re just getting started, but it opens up a whole new market for us. Through the moves of denim lifestyle and Blue Tab, we’re increasing our addressable market by at least tenfold.”
Boosting brand heat
Alongside design and merchandizing, the Levi’s marketing engine has helped to boost brand relevance and revenue. When Gass joined the business, Levi’s had just come off its 150th anniversary of the 501 jean, which built “amazing brand equity”, the CEO says. Then came Beyoncé: after the release of her song “Levii’s Jeans” in March 2024, the brand acted fast, tapping the star for a campaign with the song as the soundtrack.
In February, Levi’s was on the global stage once again, when the 60th Super Bowl took place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The show garnered 140 million views, and the brand launched an exclusive campaign to go live during the ad break, featuring mystery bums in their Levi’s, including Rosé from Blackpink, Toy Story’s Woody, and drummer Quest Love. “People say Levi’s makes their bums look good. So the campaign is all about representing that, but with a tremendous sense of diversity,” Gass says. “It performed extremely well.”
Collaborations are another key driver. The recent Jordan collaboration, also released in February through a range of sneakers and streetwear, was a major success. More tie-ups are yet to be announced. “We’re getting a lot of phone calls. It is like a flywheel,” Gass says. “So whether it’s Nike and Jordan, Sacai, Barbour, or even things like Toy Story, we’ll do it in a unique way. So stay tuned on that.”
It’s long been a challenge to sell jeans online, but Levi’s DTC e-commerce business was up double digits in 2025. The brand is investing in AI to drive outfitting, in particular, suggesting tops or knits that complement a pair of jeans. It’s also testing an AI shopping agent, which operates like a style advice chatbot that responds to queries such as, “I’m going to a concert next Friday. What do you recommend for an outfit?” “Over time, it’ll get to know you better. And it will know already what’s in your Levi’s closet,” Gass says. “I’m very excited about that use case for AI. There’s a ton we’re doing with AI. But I’m especially excited for what it’s going to mean for the consumer experience.”
Gass still has four years to hit her $10 billion goal. While it’s tough to predict the challenges ahead, in today’s geopolitical quagmire, she’s confident the foundations are laid. “We’ve got the building blocks to $10 billion on the product side — we’ve got tops, we continue to lead in bottoms, we have women’s while we continue to drive men’s. Channel-wise we’ve got growth, new stores, e-commerce growth, all while keeping that core healthy,” Gass says. “So I think it’s pretty straightforward math to plot out how we’re going to get from here to there. The good news is we’re already showing we can do it.”
