The muse for Levi’s® new campaign is Braddock [Pennsylvania; the film location for The Road infact -ed.], a town embodying the demise of the blue collar base that is taking radical steps to reverse its decay. Braddock now faces a new frontier of repurpose and new work in what was once a flourishing industrial mecca. Since 2001, John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, has taken his fight for social justice in Braddock to the masses by enlisting the help of modern pioneers – artists, craftsmen, musicians and business owners – to rebuild and revive the town. As it rebuilds, Braddock has become a model for how any city, in any part of the country, can prevail as a symbol of hope and change.Some powerful stuff in the 2 video updates below and good on them for putting money into these efforts. I am really not a fan of the other side of this campaign though, the slightly poverty-porn To Work video. Watch that here.
To contribute to the real change in Braddock, the Levi’s® brand is committed to funding the refurbishment of Braddock’s community center, a focal point of the town and their youth-based programming. Additionally, Levi’s® is supporting Braddock’s urban farm which supplies produce to local area residents at reduced costs.
New-ish releases from Levi's include some trucker jackets, (none that they could not resist tampering with; the official line can't be "but you can buy it at JCrew" can it?? Major hats off to JCrew btw for resurrecting this stone cold 2 pocket classic), shirts and a ton of selvage-y jeans (very tasty looking and sub-$100, but not seizing the moment to have these made domestically, please correct me if wrong...) Close to a home run.
Might not be fair to them but I have Levi's on a bit of a pedestal as symbolic of America. The image of a pair of jeans... you don't need to tell customs officials in Russia what that means, or Bruce Springsteen (though for some reason Brits love to stock up on Calvin Klein when they come here -maybe it is because of the underwear) anyway, I can't get to the Tailor Shop or LVC pop-up stores... so have to take their public messages at face value. Just don't appreciate the admonishing of slogans like "get to work"... I like seeing THEM get to work, fine. To reiterate, philanthropic giving by Levi's is applauded here. It just feels like this money making enterprise, archived to the hilt, has a chance to ab-so-lutely crush a belt high fastball but keeps popping out on the warning track... kills me.
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14 comments:
James
Liked the Bradock films. The de-industrialization of America Theme plays like a dark drama. Agreed if Levi could launch a plant and churn out a made in America product it would kill. They need to take notes from "American Apparel"
While interesting, I agree that if Levi's truly cared, they would bring their production back home.
They have such a cache of American emotions in their back pocket...it always leaves me bummed when I go in the NYC flagship store, where it is clear that the American integrity idea is just a way to sell clothes. It's a very well costumed mime show.
But so I'm just now dicking around with the lookbook they have there--and the formatting is great. Really really REALLY good costumes.
http://us.levi.com/shop/index.jsp?clickid=header_men&categoryId=3146842
"Might not be fair to them but I have Levi's on a bit of a pedestal as symbolic of America."
Isn't that basically how they make their money?
I agree whole heartedly about them popping out. I would say they don't even get the ball out of the infield.
Though...
I remember reading an article about the Mayor of Braddock a few years ago in, I think the NYT magazine, but might have been Vanity Fair or some other like mag. Very glad to see the city still on someone's radar.
But how 'bout a levi's factory in Braddock, PA. Seems a bit disingenuous to throw money at the town, capitalizing on a nascent nostalgia for a world that in all probability didn't exist the way we wished it did, but not do the one thing that could really make a positive impact on the area. I don't really think zoning is a problem there.
Don't get me wrong, I still pretty much only wear levi's jeans, but the recent (past 5-10 years or so) saturation branding/angling of stuff (any stuff) is getting out of control.
God bless Vermont's no billboard policy.
Poverty porn. I have a friend from braddock who referred to John's TV appearances as that lol.
Brett
Levisgoforth.com
this might be the crux-post. lot of angles here. thx for commenting. j
James,
you should write them a letter and tell them to open a plan in the U.S. of A.
While it's tempting to say "just open a factory" that wouldn't solve the town's problem. The second episode acknowledges that there are a ton of factory towns across the country that collapsed when the factory closed. Hopefully Braddock and other towns like it can attract several smaller industries to their town so that should one or two fail, the whole micro-economy doesn't collapse. Yes, that's a very simplistic view, but it's the best I got.
It's now been proven that their is a marketplace for a pair of $300 "new vintage" jeans. It would be great to see a Levi's project where the product is manufactured and sold from a completely domestic "vertical" environment. Like the other comments that's where I thought these videos where headed to.
@UnitedStyle thx for that note. a lot of issues here (as in many other failed manufacturing town). the comments from interviewees saying that many people left Braddock when they made enough to leave are a twist i hadnt heard before though...
@doane beyond irony that many of the new vintage jeans are designed to recreate levis templates. "couldnt get drunk in a brewery" comes to mind...
this is rewrite of my own comment thus the deletion above. did not delete a public comment.
The guy with the Hat on in the first video, Jeb Feldman, he helped start this artist studio/exhibition space in Braddock called Unsmoke Systems. The Director Jeanine Hall has really turned it into an amazing space.
http://unsmokeartspace.com/home.html
Yes I would like to add my couple o' pennies. It seems as though if they really wanted to resurrect something I wouldn't have to pay to get made in the USA jeans shipped from Germany. I'll still shell out for them till they offer them here though because they aren't crap like the ones they sell here.
@thomas unsmoke ftw. thx.
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