Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Fashion & Style

These iconic Levi’s jeans are getting a plant-based makeover

Levi's makes a significant investment in sustainable fashion

Sarah Veldman
By
pio3/Shutterstock

For over 150 years, Levi’s has remained a symbol of timeless style and quality. The brand is as much a symbol of American culture as The Statue of Liberty or The White House. Now, as the iconic Levi’s 501 jean reaches its sesquicentennial milestone, the renowned brand celebrates with an initiative that aims to redefine sustainable fashion. In a bold move toward a more environmentally friendly future, Levi’s introduces a variety of new styles, including the Plant-Based 501, the hemp-cotton blend Selvedge 501, and the Circular 501. These designs showcase the brand’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of sustainability while preserving the essence of the John Wayne classic.

A new era of sustainability

Levi’s has been on a continuous journey toward environmentally friendly development and these latest offerings represent the pinnacle of their efforts. The Plant-Based 501 is constructed from a minimum of 97% plant-based materials, which would have been unheard of a decade ago. The jeans feature certified organic cotton, natural dyestuff, a plant-based patch, and ink derived from wood waste. This eco-conscious creation addresses the urgent need to minimize the use of synthetic materials derived from fossil fuels and underlines the necessity of utilizing renewable inputs in garment manufacturing.

A diagram of the new Levi's plant-based jeans
Levisstrauss.com

Features of the plant-based 501

The attributes of the Plant-Based 501 are nothing short of revolutionary. The fabric is made from 100% OCS-Certified organically grown cotton, which is dyed with plant-based indigo from Stony Creek Colors. The denim color references Levi’s X80 archival shade, paying homage to the brand’s rich history while embracing a more eco-friendly future. Every detail has been thoughtfully curated to ensure the jeans are genuinely sustainable and environmentally conscious.

Recommended Videos

The garment back patch, for example, is crafted from a material known as MIRUM by NFW, fashioned entirely from 100% biobased, plastic-free inputs. Even the internal pocket bag is made from 100% cotton and printed with BioBlack TX, a plant-based black pigment derived from wood waste, showcasing Levi’s dedication to a circular, closed-loop system of manufacturing.

Related

What’s next

Levi’s envisions the Plant-Based 501 not merely as a product but as a stepping stone toward a more eco-conscious future. Paul Dillinger, VP of Design Innovation at Levi Strauss & Co, said, “We want to show what is possible. At the same time, we’re challenging ourselves to get closer to a state where products like this represent more of a product line, and where they’re seen not as the endgame, but a starting point that we want to top next season, and the season after that.”

In addition to the Plant-Based 501, Levi’s has introduced the hemp-cotton blend Selvedge 501, which continues the brand’s commitment to using alternative fibers, such as cottonized hemp, to reduce environmental impact. Available in various shades and finishes for both men and women, these jeans merge premium selvedge fabric with the eco-friendly advancements of the Wellthread line.

The Circular 501, initially launched in 2022, is made with a blend of organic cotton and Renewcell’s Circulose fiber, which incorporates recycled denim and other textile waste. According to the company, these jeans significantly reduce the use of natural resources and chemicals in the production process. By replacing synthetic elements with 100% cotton alternatives, Levi’s ensures that the jeans are fully recyclable.

Levi’s is still the same brand that appeared on the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album Born in The U.S.A. — now, it’s just a little bit greener.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Sarah Veldman
Sarah Veldman
Freelance Writer
Sarah has been a freelance writer for over 7 years now, having started while she was living out of a suitcase and traveling…
How Your Jeans Should Fit Based on Your Body Type
how your jeans should fit man sitting on bed getting dressed

Taking a quick look around the few crowded spaces we do visit these days, it looks like the super-stretch skinny jean is out, replaced by the 1980s-inspired Dad jean, with its wider legs, higher inseam, and geek-cred. As we head back out into the world for work, celebrations, and even the most mundane of tasks, it’s a perfect time to head to an actual store to try on a few new pairs of the best jeans to see what works for you, and freshen up your denim wardrobe. You may want to try those Dad jeans out for yourself, or you might be thinking about grabbing a pair of rugged, blue collar-inspired jeans that look more like they’re made for the corral (and not the Golden one). Or you might be searching for something that replaces your sweats, offering literal and metaphorical flexibility. 
Related Guides

Best Denim Brands
Guide to Men's Jean Styles
Best Men's Jeans Under $100

Read more
With Its New Men’s Line, Rothy’s Lets You Finally Live in Your Shoes
rothys mens shoe line feature 0

Lavion Gibson, director of product design for
Rothy’s
, remembers what it was like in those early days of the sneakerhead boom. “I grew up keeping my sneakers as crisp as possible,” the 34-year-old tells The Manual. Walking without creasing one’s shoes is a learned skill, but even more valuable is the DIY triage it takes to care for a scuff: Pull out your toothbrush, soap, and water. Take the laces out, clean the soles, and then let them air-dry. It was a meticulous process only compounded by his habit of buying a new pair every two weeks.

Gibson, from his office in San Francisco and appearing onscreen with Senior Vice President of Men’s Chris Hull, 45, laughs at the memory. Hull laughs, too, as on Monday, May 20, the pair saw the company’s first two men’s shoes launch. The joke is, in part, the intensity that comes with core shoe culture. But the other part is that with its release, Rothy's has allowed the fashion-forward man to have his cake and eat it, too. Phrased another way, the days of meticulous shoe care are a thing of the past, replaced with a regular washing machine and about an hour or two of time.

Read more
Why United By Blue, An Outdoor Clothing Brand, Wants Your Local Waterway’s Trash
United by Blue cleanup

As you read this, two continent-sized expanses of plastic float placidly in the Pacific Ocean. Trash moves between them on an interstate-like current, and every day 38 million more pounds make its way into the saltwater. Fisheries are nosediving, beaches look more and more like garage sales instead of postcards, and Flipper was harpooned by a Japanese whaler. And yet against this seemingly hopeless situation,
United By Blue
, a Philadelphia-based outdoor clothing brand, is baling water from a figurative sinking ship with a bigger and bigger bucket while simultaneously trying to recruit others to do the same before the whole thing goes down.
Meet The Founders of United Blue

Mike Cangi, with fellow cofounder Brian Linton, uses that far-looking, aspirational rhetoric that usually precedes a sex scandal. But the company’s moves have always been hyper local when examined with a close-enough lens. Linton spent his childhood in Southeast Asia, seeing firsthand the effect of polluted oceans and trash-strewn beaches, and Cangi grew up surfing Philadelphia's nearby Jersey Shore. With their first business, which preceded UBB, the pair donated five percent of the company’s profits to ocean conservancy, which vanished like a drop of water in, well, the ocean. “It was really hard to measure, to feel like we were making a difference,” Cangi says. “We wanted to get our hands dirty, literally and figuratively, and do our own good work.”
“We are all connected by the world’s water,” says cofounder and United By Blue brand director Mike Cangi, sounding very much like an aquatic version of a yoga instructor. “Every body of water is within our scope.”
So in 2010, the pair founded United By Blue. While the company’s desired effect of ocean conservancy may have been similar to the first business's iteration, its model was radically different. Rather than writing a check and adding a blurb to its website, the company instead adopted the cause in-house, internalizing waterway cleanup and preservation by hiring the personnel themselves. Of course, volunteers have been critical to its core mission — over 13,000 have given time in 300 events across the 48 lower States — and the company also funds large-scale cleanups executed by professionals with specialized equipment in remote and sometimes dangerous locations. (To date, its collective efforts have netted more than 3.5 million pounds of trash, and it continues to pledge that for every product sold, one pound of trash will be removed from local waterways.) But UBB’s initiatives start in its Philly office by employees whose job descriptions read more like Greenpeace than green space.
How Does Trash Get Into Our Water?

Read more