Levi's

Levi's is one of the few fashion companies that still operates like a cultural shorthand. Founded in San Francisco in 1853 and responsible for the first riveted blue jeans in 1873, the brand turned workwear into a global style language, then kept that position by making denim feel permanent instead of seasonal. The 501 remains the reference product, but the larger business is really about keeping heritage commercially alive.

That is where the current music strategy matters. Levi's used the 2026 Behind Every Original campaign to frame itself less as a nostalgia house and more as an active culture brand, casting Rosé and Doechii in a global push that ran through Super Bowl weekend and the broader year-round marketing cycle. Rosé's presence matters because it places BLACKPINK's global fan economy directly inside one of denim's most established names.

The business underneath that campaign is still massive. Levi Strauss & Co. sells in more than 100 countries, operates as a publicly traded company, and has enough category authority that every new ambassador choice reads as a statement about where mainstream fashion attention is moving next. On HITKULTR, Levi's matters because it is not just a heritage logo. It is one of the clearest examples of an old American brand using K-pop star power to stay current at true global scale.