To Whom It May Benefit To Know:
I am writing to you to convey my feelings towards your 514™ X Slim Straight jean. If finances allow it to be so I will never purchase another piece of denim.
September 2009 found me preparing for a three-month trip to Europe. I had been saving for a few years working meager jobs at restaurants, cafes, and two terms of service with AmeriCorps, and finally the time had come.
I purchased the 514 in Denver, CO where I was living at the time and it survived impeccably well my lifestyle there, which included riding my bicycle everywhere I sent – a feat no other jean had yet been able to accomplish.
So when I was figuring out the contents of my rucksack, I took a risk and didn’t include any pants; thus relying heavily, entirely, in fact, on the Levi’s 514.
Everyday, and often through the night, as well, I wore that pair of jeans – the same pair of jeans I am wearing as I write this missive.
Now, going on 1 year old, they are taking me through life patched only in two places: the front right thigh and the left back pocket. They don’t quite fit the same as they did upon purchase – where, upon advice given to me from an employee of yours, I sat in a bath full of hot water for 1 hour – but they fit nonetheless, showing all of the love and abuse they have been through: a notebook always in the back left pocket, miles of walking a day for 90 consecutive days, the awkward positions unfit for sleep on many a train and plane, and cups and cups of coffee spills.
Included is a photograph of me on the beach in France posing with two friends. I, obviously enough, am the bearded one in the middle.
I believe that jeans are more than just twilled hard-wearing cotton fabric. They will, if you allow them, become a part of the wearer themselves, as much or more than any bill fold or pair of glasses.
All of this to say simply, thank you, and keep it up.
Yours most sincerely,
Luke Dennison
