Levi's invented Casual Friday in the late 1980s to sell Dockers. They printed 40,000 pamphlets defining business casual, set up an HR hotline for companies like IBM, and engineered the trend so thoroughly it rewrote workplace dress codes across America.
Up until the late '80s and early '90s, everyone wore suits to work all of the time. Khakis were casual wear, and Levi's creates Dockers because they wanted to get into the khaki business. But still, people are like, this is too casual. We can't wear these any other time except for Saturday and Sunday. So this marketing executive at Levi's has this brilliant idea. They print up 40,000 pamphlets that explains to HR professionals business casual and Casual Friday. And here's the rules. It didn't promote Levi's or Dockers, but in all of the photos you'll see like a picture of someone wearing jeans and it is like a Levi's logo, or you'll see a picture of someone wearing khakis and Dockers. And they even go as far to create an HR hotline. If you work at IBM and you're like, I actually don't know protocol for like, are sandals allowed? I can call this hotline and I can ask the inventors of Casual Friday, are toes allowed to be seen even if like their toenails are polished? Like you can like ask these questions and it takes off and Casual Friday officially becomes a thing. Literally shaped culture.
