The Levi's "Renaissance" Is Even Bigger Than Beyoncé
To say that Beyoncé cosign is a big deal is like saying that, as the most awarded artist in Grammys history, she is a fairly popular performer. A Beyoncé partnership is so momentous that it typically heralds the foundation of an all-new epoch, like Tiffany's Alexandre Arnault era and Pharrell's Louis Vuitton tenure.
Here's where Levi's did good. The century-old American denim label was overtly thrilled, as any company would be, when it wasn't just namedropped but title-dropped on Beyonce's Renaissance follow-up, Cowboy Carter, with the song "LEVII'S JEANS."
So Levi's capitalized on the hype by changing its name on social media to match. And then it smartly took things a step further by actually partnering with Beyoncé on a corresponding campaign, "REIIMAGINE," which launched in late September.
This was such a tremendous deal for Levi's that it issued a corporate press release to announce the team-up, a move typically reserved for investor news and executive shifts.
This Beyoncé thing clearly goes beyond selling product. Levi's is angling this as an opportunity to convert consumers and build market share. This isn't a push prompted solely by the Beyoncé line, though it does neatly dovetail with the denim giant's overarching indigo aspirations.
Indeed, Levi's is looking to make moves.
It recently told the Financial Times that it planned to open upwards of 600 new stores across the world, half the number of direct-to-consumer stores that it already operates, part of Levi's greater bid to reach $10 billion in revenues before 2030 or so (it took in just over $6b for fiscal year 2023).
And, despite occasionally shaky share prices, Levi's has charmed industry analysts. Financial outlet Barron's, for instance, cites six sources positioning Levi's as a stock to "buy" and six more saying to "hold." Zero said "sell."
Levi's needs momentum to expand. To do that it needs help from huge names like Beyoncé, yes. But it also needs something arguably even more important: It needs cool.
Denim is enjoying a retail boom engendered by affordable fast-ish fashion outlets and TikTok-driven trends like barrel-leg jeans. With that heightened interest comes more appreciation for the biggest names in the biz, like Levi's. But name-brand recognition only gets people in the door — if you want to keep them there, you have to present something of substance.
As Disney CEO Bob Iger (or, more likely, a ghostwriter) memorably quipped in his memoir, "if you don’t innovate, you die."
And the crux of Levi's winning streak is in how it's cannily angled collaborations to its advantage. The in-house collections have been strong, impressively so, but you can typically judge youth culture-courting brands of this scale by the company they keep — and Levi's keeps great company.
You don't get to be a brand as big as Levi's without racking up a handful of heavy-hitter collabs each year, to be sure, but 2024 was a particularly great example of what it does so well.
The Beyoncé partnership is a collaboration, for one, but Levi's also wisely aligned itself with a savvy spread of influential imprints. On their own, these collabs were a tad niche at most but, as a whole, they amass some serious cred for Levi's, subconsciously granting it an association with cultural disruptors, tastemakers, movers and shakers.
Over the past 12 months or so, Levi's has partnered with influential young talent like Eli Russell Linnetz' ERL, Kiko Kostadinov, AWAKE NY, and ADSB Andersson Bell. It helped reboot (kinda) cultish French streetwear label Pigalle. It debuted an all-new line of band merch to kickstart the Oasis reunion. It's cool enough for Stüssy and open-minded enough to create Gundam merch. Levi's even sold out of the racewear it created with luxury car company McLaren. And that's to say nothing about next year's sacai reunion.
And that's one year, a year that ain't even over yet. What a wild, wonderful way to match the collaborative heat that came off of Levi's 2023 collaborations.
None of this stuff moves the needle for Levi's share price, of course. You make your bones on the mass market, not these niche activations.
But they are nonetheless important in creating a halo effect around the Levi's name, authentically building atop the foundation set by its respectable heritage and omnipresence.
Levi's and Beyoncé partnership is the rare collaboration that does it all, widening Levi's aura as it engenders a sense of cultural cool. But it's only a piece in the bigger puzzle.
