Levi Denim Quality by Country of Manufacture?

I was out shopping for some new Levis this weekend. Looking at the tags and where they are made is quite a lesson in geography. It seems the denim material is quite different depending on what county the jeans where made in. Does anyone have any experience with where the best quality Levis are manufactured. From what I saw this weekend it looks like the Levis coming from Mexico are made from the better quality denim. Anyone else have an opinion? I am talking about the regular mall type Levis not any of the repro or high end jeans.

Well I have been buying LVCs for the past 5 years or so. But I've heard that Levis regular STF 501s quality has dropped since being made outside the US. All of the LVCs that I have are all made in USA with the majority being made at the Valencia St factory.
My Favorites are
My 1920s 201s
1933 501s
1937 201s

One from last year and very rare 1886 (the first 501) made at the Tenn factory.

radman, please say what models of Levis are you talking about, because they use different denims or different models. Are you looking at two pairs of the same model or are you comparing between different models or different washes?

radman46 said:

I was out shopping for some new Levis this weekend. Looking at the tags and where they are made is quite a lesson in geography. It seems the denim material is quite different depending on what county the jeans where made in. Does anyone have any experience with where the best quality Levis are manufactured. From what I saw this weekend it looks like the Levis coming from Mexico are made from the better quality denim. Anyone else have an opinion? I am talking about the regular mall type Levis not any of the repro or high end jeans.

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I have a pair of 527's that are about 3 or 4 years old, made in Mexico. I find the denim their made of to be far better than the one's I've seen made in the US. I don't know exactly how it gets determined which denim goes to what manufacturing facility though. But yes, I agree with your opinion.

-Jake

I have a couple of pair of 501s that were raw stf that I bought in the late 90s, 99 I think, I'd have to look at the inside leg tag and the stuff I'm seeing now on the 501s stf is not as nice as those.

Levi Denim

I was looking at the 501's, 505's and 517's all of them prewashed. Either the darker one wash finish or a little bit lighter washed finish. I found some of them made in countries I have never heard of. The ones made in Mexico seemed to be the better quality regardless of finish, at least from what I saw at the stores last weekend.

Interesting to look at this thread now. When it started the moving of all Levi's production overseas was recent. It's interesting to look back.

I got NOS 501s from the early-mid 1990s perhaps six years ago. Of course they were no longer selvedge but quality still seemed as good as it ever was. The fades are great, too. With some patches here and there they look better than ever.

Levi's were never luxury goods. The bulk of high end Japanese denim fundamentally aspires to be what Levi's was. I think most buyers of Japanese denim are less interested in details like selvedge and slub and a leather patch than essential quality of materials and construction. There's also an interest in supporting workers being paid a fair wage.

I have some Japanese jeans in the $200 - $250 range and although they're selvedge and very nicely finished, they're by no means obviously better than the 1990s "made in USA" 501s. Problem is a shortage of 14+ ounce denim jeans that are well cut. The few reasonably priced U.S. companies that are left specialize in work wear. I have Round House work pants that are just fine. They've introduced skinny jeans. Anyone try them? Pointer's prices keep rising and rising. Jeans are nudging $90 now. They've introduced slim tapered selvedge... for $160!

The earliest "artisanal" denim companies (not to be confused with designer denim) started in the 1990s. Their boom correlated exactly with Levi's (and other American manufacturers) flushing quality down the can.

Anyone tried Levi's lately? Has product improved from the early days of outsourcing?

And am I correct in my observation that 1990s Levi's were of the same basic quality of product going back to at least the 1960s?

In terms of the contemporary regular Levi's, I think the American (from Mexico), Japanese and European (from Turkey) are better than the Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino made. Levi's denim jackets that are selling in the US are often made in China but I have yet to see a pair of Chinese made Levi's jeans. Personally, I like the Turkish made the best because some are hemmed with chain stitch (even some of the LVCs are also made in Turkey).