Levi's Opens Its Chicago Flagship on Michigan Avenue, and Chance the Rapper Gives It a Hometown Welcome

Levi's opened its Chicago flagship on Friday, November 6, on Michigan Avenue at Erie Street, and on Saturday afternoon the brand posted a video of Chance the Rapper on stage with a microphone under red lights, in a denim jacket, white tee and grey work pants, captioned "A new home on Michigan Ave, a hometown welcome from chancetherapper". Levi's doesn't say which day it was filmed. Levi Strauss & Co. had announced the store on October 29 and built a city-wide campaign, Where Originals Meet, around it; the Chicago Tribune reported the opening on Friday and Complex ran photos of the store the same day.

Levi's

What's in the store

It's a two-storey store, women's on the first floor and men's on the second, according to the Tribune, in a space Chris Jackman, Levi's vice president of marketing, told the paper lends itself to the 1920s art deco period, and which the brand built its fit-out around rather than covering in its own branding; large plaster walls running between the floors are etched with jean designs and Levi's buttons. The feature is the tailor shop, a nook off the women's floor where staff stand behind a selection of patches and multicoloured buttons, with spools of thread in rainbow order on the wall: simple hems and waist adjustments, or custom designs, which Jackman described to the Tribune as a way to make a one-of-one pair of jeans. Levi's says local partners added custom patches to the tailor shop, and that The Goody Vault's Emanuel "Manny" Edwards was to curate 90 vintage Levi's pieces from the 1950s through the 1990s for sale at the flagship.

Above the store, Chicago artist Hebru Brantley's Flyboy, his signature character, has been redrawn in Levi's denim and stays on the Michigan Avenue and Erie Street corner through December 31. The Tribune puts the mural at 60 feet, the boy in a denim jacket, jeans, red high-top Converse and aviator goggles against the city's architecture and grid, and quotes Brantley calling it a reflection of the city, its landscape, architecture and people. Brantley was born and raised in Bronzeville on the South Side.

The takeover

Levi Strauss & Co. built a takeover of the city around the opening, starting the week of October 26 and running past it. Six "Chicago Originals", business owners, artists and residents, were photographed in their 501s for billboards, bus stations and busy corners. The Wiener's Circle, the Lincoln Park hot dog stand open since 1983, handed Levi's its north-facing marquee through November 8; its staff were to wear Levi's denim aprons with custom patches, with a limited menu item bundled with Local Style Chips in the lead-up to the opening. Reckless Records was to host a 20-minute set by Mike Kinsella of American Football during the week of November 2, with a Levi's vinyl section and a co-branded tote as a gift with purchase, and The Goody Vault a mending night at Levi's Wicker Park on November 2. Chicago designer Ron Louis, known for his Blue Tag custom denim, designed a capsule for the opening weekend only, and was to be in store for live customisation and to lead a Wear Longer Project repair workshop on November 7 with Chicago Youth Programs; Complex notes a free workshop for Chicago high school students that Saturday. JC Rivera, the artist behind The Bear Champ, brings a live screen-printing activation of his artwork on November 14 and 15.

"Chicago has been part of our story for over a hundred years, and this flagship is our commitment to deepening that relationship," Gianluca Flore, LS&Co.'s chief commercial officer, said in the company's announcement, calling the store a demonstration of its direct-to-consumer-first strategy: "Not just owning more of the transaction, but owning more of the relationship with the fans and communities that have always made this brand what it is." Jackman told the Tribune the company's first sales office in the city dates to 1920 and that Levi's sponsored rodeos there in the 1950s. The store replaces an earlier Levi's on Michigan Avenue, and the brand keeps its Wicker Park store.

Our read

Levi's has opened this flagship as an event rather than a shop: the mural, the vintage pieces, the tailor shop and a welcome from Chance are all there to give people a reason to come downtown, which matters on a Magnificent Mile where, the Tribune reports, available space is down about 13% from 2022 but a revival is still a maybe. For a brand whose strategy is to sell more of its own jeans directly, a store locals have a reason to visit is worth more than another box of 501s. What Levi's hasn't said: the Ron Louis capsule's pieces and prices, whether the vintage pieces are in, or what Chance did there; the brand's video shows him on stage with a microphone, and nothing more is confirmed.