Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass says women are its next frontier

Levi’s has a potential source of untapped growth: sales to women, who barely make up 40% of company receipts, CEO Michelle Gass said.

From the gold miners of the 1840s to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Levi Strauss has been the denim brand of choice for iconic American entrepreneurs for nearly two centuries — most of them male.

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The company is now trying to tilt that demographic mix in the opposite direction. If there is one major gap in Levi’s sales portfolio — and thus a potential source of untapped growth — it is sales to women, who barely make up 40% of company receipts, CEO Michelle Gass said.

That’s despite more than half the company’s employees being female. Gass, the company’s first female chief executive, said Levi’s is seeking to evolve beyond jeans to become a major force in women’s apparel with items such as denim skirts and blouses.