Why Levi's CEO says stop washing your jeans

Thursday, May 22, 2014
In this Feb. 4, 2011 photo, salesman Jesus Ibarra straightens out Levis jeans on display at a store in Hayward, Calif.
In this Feb. 4, 2011 photo, salesman Jesus Ibarra straightens out Levis jeans on display at a store in Hayward, Calif.
Paul Sakurma-AP

If you feel the need to throw your jeans into the washing machine after every wear, you may be doing it all wrong.

According to the man behind the jeans Americans have been wearing for the past 141 years - Levi's 501s - you do not need to wash your jeans as often as you think you do, if ever.

"These jeans are maybe a year old and these have yet to see a washing machine," the CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., Chip Bergh, said Tuesday, referring to the jeans he was wearing during an interview at Fortune magazine's Brainstorm Green conference in California.

"I know that sounds totally disgusting," Bergh said. "I know it does."

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