Levi's to sell Dockers to Authentic Brands for $311 million
Dockers — once the ultimate symbol of office cool — is being sold off by Levi Strauss as Americans continue to swap dress codes for stretchy pants and comfort wear. The denim giant announced Tuesday it has struck a deal to sell Dockers to New York-based Authentic Brands Group in a deal worth up to $391 million. The sale arrives as San Francisco-based Levi Strauss boosts its focus on the chain´s core Levi´s brand — as well as Beyond Yoga, which the company acquired in 2021, as more and more consumers continue to cozy up to athleisure wear.
But bosses at Authentic — known for buying up storied brands but struggling labels and revitalizing them — has big plans for Dockers. Levi Strauss launched Dockers back in 1986, and the brand soon became a 'Casual Friday' staple. Many office workers turned to Dockers' khakis and looser button-downs in the place of more traditional business attire. While it was not the sole — or very first — creator of dressed-down office looks, Dockers has been widely-credited as an integral part to 'Casual Friday's' rise, particularly in the 90s.
Levi's CEO Michelle Gass thanked the Dockers team for building what she called 'the authority on khaki,' but said it was time to focus on Levi's core denim business and Beyond Yoga, the athleisure brand it bought in 2021. The focus on denim was highlighted in Levi's recent adverts with Beyonce, where she recreated scenes from famous ads for the 501-makers. Authentic Brands CEO Jamie Salter said Dockers is 'a natural fit' and promised to breathe new life into the label.
'Dockers played a key role in shaping casual workwear as we know it today,' he said. 'We see significant potential to build on that legacy.' The company has already turned around the ikes of Reebok, Nautica and Brooks Brothers and runs the estates of Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali. Founded in 2010, Authentic doesn't run stores or make products itself. Instead, it owns brand names and licenses them out to retailers, manufacturers, and marketers who pay to use the branding on everything from clothes to fragrances to restaurants.
The sale is expected to close by July 31 in the US and Canada, with international operations wrapping by early 2026. Levi Strauss, which reported $210.6 million in profit last year on $6.36 billion in revenue, first hinted at the sale last October, citing Dockers' underperformance. While Dockers may no longer dominate workplace fashion, for a generation of American office workers, its legacy lives on — in every business-casual Friday that replaced a stiff suit with a laid-back pair of khakis.
Beyonce has appeared in two Levi's adverts in the past year, one in September and another in February In the most recent one she recreated another one of the brand's iconic ads. The Texas Hold 'Em hitmaker, 43, had glamorous denim on denim look while playing a game of pool in a dive bar.
It was her take on Levi's 1991 Pool Hall ad , in which a young man bets his jeans on a pool game. Beyonce walks into the dive bar rocking a bedazzled denim jacket, matching Levi's jeans, and statement earrings. Her short platinum blonde hair is styled into voluminous curls, with her glam looking flawless. The ad, titled 'Chapter 2: Pool Hall', was set to her Cowboy Carter hit 'Levii's Jeans' featuring Post Malone.
In her first ad for the brand, released in September, Beyonce paid homage to a legendary Eighties advert as she flashed her underwear. The singer stripped off in the 30-second advert, entitled Chapter 1: Launderette, which was a modern replica of Nick Kamen's 1985 Levis 501 advert. Beyonce's version saw her head inside a laundry mat while carrying a bucket of diamonds and clad in a $98 pair of Levi's Premium 501 90S Women's Jeans.
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