The death of jeans was greatly exaggerated.

Shares in Levi Strauss are up ~4% this morning after beating expectations for the second quarter, as the retailer notched its eighth straight quarter of positive net income, exactly 2 years after the company saw sales collapse during the start of the pandemic.‍

Stretchy demand

‍As maybe the biggest name in the denim game, Levi's recent results suggest consumers never really had plans to break up with their jeans on a permanent basis. The competition from more casual options like sweatpants could have been a permanent problem for Levi's, but the rise of casual actually seems to have benefited the jeans maker as more people are wearing jeans to the office according to Levi's management. Google search data backs this trend up, with searches for "jeans" getting back to normal at the end of last year, after falling during early 2020.