There’s no sugarcoating it: 2020 didn’t turn out the way any of us thought it would. Yet even through this year’s challenges, people and communities still came together, just as all of us here at Levi Strauss & Co. did, to meet these challenges head on. We had a lot of moments we can be proud of this year — here’s a look back at just some of them.
We Kept Our Employees and Consumers Safe
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the world, ensuring the health and safety of our employees and the communities we serve was our top priority. We temporarily closed our owned-and-operated stores as the world went into lockdown. Then when restrictions eased, we reopened our doors with new sanitization measures and safety protocols in place and expanded our paid sick leave benefit to all U.S. part-time hourly retail employees, no matter how many hours they work. Our employees went above and beyond to make sure our frontline team members stayed safe as they kept our business moving, and applied what they learned in the spring as they navigated a second wave in the fall.
We Took a Stand for Racial Justice
We joined the growing call for racial justice this year. We spoke out against the injustices facing Black and brown communities and our employees gave in numbers to organizations fighting for equity. And then we took a hard look at where we are today as a company, publishing our representation numbers publicly for the first time. The data showed we had work to do, so we made a series of commitments to create a more diverse and equitable company and culture.
We Stayed Connected to Our Fans
Throughout it all, we continued delivering the best denim to our fans around the world. We introduced a new, very 2020 product — reusable masks — and collaborations like LEGO Group x Levi’s® and Levi’s® x Super MarioTM kept us at the center of culture. We opened 128 stores and counting around the world, including our first NextGen store in North America and the first Dockers® U.S. storefront since 2018, and our teams found new ways to give great retail service to our fans in a new normal. And as consumers moved their shopping online, we rolled out new direct-to-consumer capabilities to create a seamless omni-channel experience.
We Gave Back
Stepping up for our communities during challenging times is a longstanding tradition here at LS&Co., and this year our employees brought that legacy of support to life. From COVID-19 relief and racial justice to supporting our own through the Red Tab Foundation, our employees were quick to jump in and help those in need.
We Got Out the Vote in the U.S.
We grew the Time to Vote coalition and got more than 1,900 companies from all 50 states to pledge to give their combined 10+ million employees time to vote on Election Day. The Levi’s® brand created a powerful PSA to drive voter turnout as well as the #UseYourVoice LIVE series, which gave a platform for activists, scholars and many of our grantee partners to educate voters and encourage young people to take action. And our own employees volunteered as poll workers to help ensure that democracy could take place during a pandemic.
We Continued Our Commitment to Sustainability
Guided by our profits through principles approach to business, we launched the most sustainable Levi’s® ever and the Levi’s® SecondHand platform. We spoke out about the burning global emergency of climate change. And while our climate action efforts were recognized, we know there’s much more work to do.
We’re Transforming to Emerge Stronger
We’re laying the foundation now to ensure that we come out the other side of the pandemic a stronger company and positioned for the next 167 years.
We’re taking time off for the holidays! We’ll see you back here in 2021.
