Good morning! Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes's conviction is upheld, TIAA president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett talks retirement insecurity, and women are key to growth at Levi Strauss.
- A 'denim lifestyle.' CEO Michelle Gass is months into her new strategy at Levi Strauss—but don't call it a turnaround. "It’s not a turnaround, we have an incredibly strong foundation," she tells my colleague Phil Wahba in his new feature story for Fortune.
Gass became CEO of Levi Strauss just over a year ago after a much-lauded handoff from her predecessor, Chip Bergh. Bergh is known for revitalizing the Levi's brand, while Gass, the former CEO of Kohl's, was tapped to turn it into a major retailer in its own right, not just a brand sold in others' stores.
A key piece of that strategy? Women's clothes. For most of its 172-year history, jeans for men were Levi's "bread and butter," Phil writes. In 2018, women accounted for 29% of Levi's sales; now that stat is up to 36% and Gass has her eye on reaching 50%. To grow Levi's from its current $6.4 billion business, Gass wants to tap women, who shop more often than men do. “We should be at least a $10 billion company,” Gass says. “That’s going to come through a few ways, but women’s [clothing] is going to be a key means to do that.”
Levi's is expanding its assortment to include more tops, which shoppers also refresh more often than they do jeans. Levi’s very recently used to sell seven bottoms for every top; now that stat is two bottoms for each top sold. Its focus is still denim—but that includes clothes that pair well with denim, from western-inspired trends to Beyoncé and her hit "Levii's Jeans."
“We’re no longer just selling jeans, we’re selling a denim lifestyle,” Gass says often. Read Phil's full story here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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