Michelle Gass on Life at Levi Strauss
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Michelle Gass has put on the trucker jacket — and it seems to be wearing in nicely.
The former chief executive officer of Kohl’s Corp. landed at Levi Strauss & Co. as president in January. And now that she’s completed her first leg as CEO-to-be, Gass is ready to step back out into the spotlight, speaking to WWD in her first interview since taking the high-profile post.
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It’s been a whirlwind few months with trips from the Levi’s homebase in San Francisco to Barcelona, Paris and London as she gets to know the company from the inside while also overseeing the flagship brand as well as digital and commercial operations.
Gass has been working closely with Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh, who she described as an “outstanding partner and mentor in this journey,” and expects to keep the company on the course that Bergh has set.
“As I sit here, 90 days in, the strategy seems really right to me,” Gass said. “And if you have a strategy that’s right — being brand led, [direct-to-consumer] first, diversification — that feels right. There are new things that might come along for sure, but to me, the power is how we execute those opportunities and the team’s making progress.”
She pointed to the 18 percent growth at the d-to-c business last year, the fact that the non-denim business is now 40 percent of the portfolio and the continued expansion in the tops and women’s businesses.
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The company’s net revenues rose 7 percent to $6.2 billion last year, an increase of 12 percent in constant currencies. Adjusted earnings inched up $604 million from $601 million in an increasingly tough consumer environment.
“Where I initially can come in is, ‘How do we accelerate?’” Gass said. “To me, in the short order, it’s about execution. How we think about our go-to market, how we think about our innovation pipeline within these areas — there’s so much opportunity, and that’s a lot of upside.”
Gass’ arrival at Levi’s is a culminating moment in her more than 30-year career, which began with a stint at consumer giant Procter & Gamble and included 17 years at Starbucks and a decade at Kohl’s.
Right now — as she runs the business alongside Bergh — Gass has just a little bit of space to take stock of what she’s learned along the way and decide how to push Levi’s forward.
Gradual transitions in corporate power can be awkward with the future and current chiefs angling for legacy and control, respectively.
But Bergh — who turned around what was a stumbling jeans giant, successfully took it public and put it on offense — has made it clear that a solid hand off to a strong leader is a key part of his job.
And Gass appreciates the approach as she preps to become CEO by mid-2024.
“It is working incredibly well and exceeding my expectations,” she said. “Chip and I have known each other for 10 years and…had built a really close relationship. I think we knew coming into this that we could do this together. And it has played out that way.
“Yes, we have an extended transition,” she said. “I believe this is a gift to be with a CEO who I deeply admire and respect and to learn as much as I can from him during this process is amazing because I want to make sure that as he departs and retires off to his next chapter that I’ve benefited from all his knowledge, we’ve benefited from a time together and that we’ve helped set this company up for success. And I believe this process is very much doing that.”
While Gass is traveling around the world with a plan to hit all the company’s major markets by the end of this year, she is on much more than a listening tour. She has what she described as “a real job” that was previously handled by two executives, overseeing Levi’s as well as the more budgeted minded-Signature by Levi Strauss and Denizen brands and running the commercial division.
That has her in charge of 85 percent of the company, overseeing everything from product design to sales.
“I’m actually really excited to have both of what were prior separate teams all under my leadership right now to start going after some of the opportunities that Chip and the team identified before,” Gass said. “But how can I help accelerate those things while strengthening the leadership of these two critical groups? My responsibility in the short order is to drive the Levi’s business to help the teams work more closely together with shared priorities, aligned goals.”
While Levi’s more d-to-c future growth story continues to include plenty of brick-and-mortar stores, Gass is clearly excited about the brand’s e-commerce opportunities.
“There is a lot of upside in that business,” she said. “And whether that is the loyalty program, the app — I mean, in my prior two lives, I’ve seen the power of both of those things.”
That has a little bit of Starbucks and Kohl’s coming to Levi’s.
“Kohl’s is an $18 billion retailer here in the U.S.,” Gass said. “When I joined Kohl’s, the digital business was right around a billion. When I left, it was $6 billion. We built a lot of omnichannel capabilities to do ship from store, buy online, pickup in store, just all kinds of capabilities, curbside, you name it. And so knowing how to leverage each of the channels separately, stores and e-commerce, build both on their own, and then of course harnessing the power of both.”
Levi’s is a business that has a lot of levers as well.
It has its own stores and e-commerce plus a still-substantial wholesale operation and, outside the denim world, Dockers and Beyond Yoga.
But it is the Levi’s brand itself that is the real star — and a big part of that brand’s heritage is its readiness to lean in on issues that go far beyond fashion.
Levi’s, for instance, declared access to abortion “a critical business issue” as the Supreme Court prepared to strike down Roe v. Wade and, in 2016, asked customers to not bring guns into its stores after a shopper accidentally shot himself in the foot in a dressing room.
While accepting the WWD Honor for Corporate Citizenship on behalf of Levi’s in 2021, Bergh acknowledged the consequences for taking such strong positions.
“When we decided to weigh in on the gun violence issue, I had unmarked police cars in front of my house for a couple weeks,” Bergh said. “I had death threats, but it was the right thing to weigh in on.”
He said carrying on that tradition of standing up for important issues was an element of his succession planning. “You need a CEO who has thick skin, who’s not afraid to stick their neck out for the company because it takes thick skin to do it,” Bergh said.
Gass — who’s risen to the top of the still male-dominated retail world and squared off with activist investors at Kohl’s — said she does have the requisite thick skin and is absolutely willing to put herself out there.
“Amongst many reasons why I wanted to join LS&Co. was because how values and purpose-led this company is,” she said. “I have always been driven that way, if I go back to my Starbucks days, surely spending close to 17 years there where culture and values are at the center of that organization.”
Likewise, she said she was proud of her work at Kohl’s to become more vocal on diversity.
“Here at Levi’s, I am just really excited to follow in the footsteps of Chip and other leaders to continue to be very purpose driven, values led,” Gass said. “I love the values of the company around courage, originality, empathy, integrity. Those align with my values. And what does that mean? It does mean that we take a stand and we’re not afraid to publicly talk about the things that matter to our employees and that matter to our customers.”
Gass’ ascent to the C-suite is a statement of its own.
“I think as a woman leader, we don’t have enough of them,” she said of the fashion industry. “I always want to be able to advocate and be a role model for women — well, and men for that matter — of all ages, to help them reach their aspirations. But certainly as a female leader, I feel a great sense of responsibility to be an advocate for more future female leaders.”
So Gass is doing a little bit of everything — serving as role model, pushing the accelerator on the brand already growing and preparing to step up again as CEO, where the spotlight will get even brighter, as she well knows from her time at Kohl’s.
“When you’re a leader of a company, you’re proving it every day,” Gass said. “While this company has been on an amazing run, you have to earn it every day. And that’s what I believe. I work for our shareholders, our stakeholders, our teams and our customers. And my job is to make sure that I can unleash the talent in this incredible organization and that we can achieve the bold goals that we’ve set forth. And I couldn’t be more honored to be able to do that.”
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