Levis Strauss is famous because of Levis's jeans. However, before Levis was famous, he was poor. He moved to America from Germany. When he came to America, he was only seventeen. His English was not very good. Like most immigrants, he was looking for a better life. After he arrived in America, gold was discovered in California in 1849. There was so much gold that people could pick it out of rivers. Thousands of people, including Levis, rushed to California.

Many people went to California to find gold. But many others went to open stores, start schools, and run businesses. Levis also wanted to open a store in San Francisco. He took many goods with him, including a lot of canvas. Canvas was used back then to make tents or wagon covers. Levis Strauss was going to open a store selling canvas for this reason. Business, however, was not good. So one day, he had an idea. He was sitting at a cafe where he saw a man. The man's pants has a hole in one of the legs. He realized what California needed for their hard work was good, strong pants. After that, he made pants out of canvas. And the rest is history.