ByBrian Warneron November 26, 2024inArticles›Entertainment
<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://vz.cnwimg.com/thumb-900x/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/deep-pockets.png" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Introducing “Deep Pockets” - 1”>
For those of you who have no idea who I am, my name is Brian Warner. I created CelebrityNetWorth roughly 15 years ago. I bought the domain in 2008. I really started devoting myself to the site in 2010. There was a time when I was writing 5-10 articles a week for CNW. I had to take a step back from writing articles in 2016 for some personal reasons. Then Google did some shenanigans with our site (this is a story for another day). Then, I actually had a full-time job outside of CNW from 2019 through the middle of this year.
Upon leaving that full-time job, I immediately started writing a few articles per week for CNW. As I got going, I kept feeling pulled in a different direction. After some soul searching, I realized that 15 years’ worth of wealth knowledge was pent up in my brain, desperate to be told. Untold stories of wealth, entrepreneurship, secret billionaires, blown fortunes, and everything in between.
If you ever have any feedback at all or if there’s a story of historical wealth you want to know more about, shoot me an email at: [email protected] .
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ByBrian Warneron November 13, 2024inArticles›Billionaire News
Last week, a philanthropist named Daniel Lurie was elected to serve as the next mayor of San Francisco. Why are we talking about this on CelebrityNetWorth? Good question!
<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://vz.cnwimg.com/thumb-900x/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/daniel-lurie.jpg" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Introducing “Deep Pockets” - 2”>
(Photo by Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Necessity Gives Birth
Daniel Lurie was born on February 4, 1977, in San Francisco. His father, Brian Lurie, is a rabbi. His mother Miriam Lurie (née Ruchwarger), goes by “Mimi.” Unfortunately, Brian and Mimi divorced when Daniel was just two years old. When he was four, Mimi remarried. Daniel’s new stepfather was a guy named Peter E. Haas.
Peter Haas was born in 1918, the son of Walter A. Haas and Elise Haas (née Stern). Walter’s father was a German immigrant who founded a grocery store called Hellman, Haas, and Company. Today, that grocery store is called Smart & Final. But this is not the invention/fortune we’re talking about today.
Peter’s mother, Elise, was the daughter of Sigmund Stern. Sigmund was the son of David and Fanny Stern (née Strauss). In the 1840s, Fanny and David operated a modest clothing and merchandise import company in San Francisco.
In the late 1840s, gold was discovered in Northern California. What we now call the “Gold Rush of 1849” inspired an estimated 300,000 people from all over the world to flock to California to seek their own gold fortunes. Miners became known as “49ers.” They toiled tirelessly for years in grueling conditions.
At the time, most work pants used by the average 49er were made out of canvas. Canvas could rip to shreds after a few days of mining so most 49ers took to laboring in their skivvies because their pants were so bad.
As the gold rush boomed, Fanny Stern’s brother moved out to San Francisco to work in the family business. He was intrigued by the obvious flaw created by canvas pants, so he got to work seeking a better alternative.
This budding entrepreneur’s goal was to create a pair of pants made of extremely durable fabric. Fabric that wouldn’t rip even under the most grueling gold mining conditions. The fabric he landed on was denim.
To make the pants extra reinforced, he added one more innovation: Circular metal rivets at various stress points, like the pocket corners.
The design was patented in 1873.
If you’ll recall from a moment ago, Fanny Stern was born Fanny Strauss. Fanny’s brother was named Levi. His patented invention was Levi Strauss denim jeans.
<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://vz.cnwimg.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/levi-strauss-1-a819e2.jpg.avif" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Introducing “Deep Pockets” - 3”>
Levi Strauss
When Levi died on September 26, 1902, at the age of 73, he left behind an estate valued at $30 million . That’s the same as around $900 million in today’s dollars. He was never married and had no kids. He left the majority of his wealth to various charities and orphanages.
He left his company, plus $6 million in working capital, to his four nephews. One of those nephews was Sigmund Stern. In 1914, Sigmond’s daughter Elise married Walter A. Haas. For the next 100+ years, members of the Haas family have controlled and been enriched by Levi Strauss’s invention.
Walter A. Haas had three children. A daughter named Rhoda and two sons, Walter Jr. and Peter E. Haas . In 1981, Peter married a recently divorced single mom named Mimi Lurie. Peter died in 2005 at the age of 86. He left his entire fortune to Mimi.
The Haas family took Levi Strauss public in 1971. They took it private in 1985. In 2019, they took it public again . When Levi Strauss went public in 2019, roughly 200 Haas family members owned a collective 63% of the company. The largest individual shareholder, with a 17% stake, was… Mimi Haas. The widow of the great-grand-nephew of Levi.
Today, she owns around 11% of the company, which has a current market cap of just under $7 billion. That means today, Mimi Haas has a net worth of $1.5 billion .
The extended Haas family is worth a collective $5.5 billion , all thanks to a single invention patented by a man who, to many of them, would be their great-great-grandfather’s grand-uncle-in-law.
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