Levi’s and Discovery Education Launch Wear Longer Project Teaching Teen Clothing Repair

Levi Strauss & Co. and Discovery Education unveiled the Levi’s® Wear Longer Project on Jan 14, 2026, a free education initiative that teaches students in grades 9 through 12 how to repair, refresh and reimagine clothing. The program launches in Levi’s hometown of San Francisco with an initial high school workshop at Levi’s Eureka Lab and will run additional trainings and community activations across 2026, including planned events during Super Bowl weekend in San Francisco.

The Wear Longer Project delivers a cross-curricular curriculum created with Discovery Education and aligned to national K-12 education standards, with year-round self-directed online facilitator and student guides, in-classroom lessons and community workshops. Schools that subscribe to the Discovery Education Experience can integrate the Levi’s curriculum directly into instruction, while Levi’s employee ambassadors will bring hands-on lessons into classrooms and select in-store workshops.

The initiative responds to a skills gap flagged by Levi’s own research. TrendWatching reports that Levi’s 2025 study found 41 percent of Gen Z lack basic clothing repair skills such as hemming or patching, compared with fewer than 25 percent of older generations, and that 35 percent of Gen Z said they would keep garments longer if they knew how to fix them. The Wear Longer Project’s materials emphasize life skills—sewing on a button, patching a hole, tailoring a hem and sewing custom patches—framing repair as a way to reduce waste as “millions of wearable garments end up in landfills” each year.

Program messaging is explicit: the project mission states, "Our mission is to empower the next generation to take fashion into their own hands." Discovery Education imagery and Levi’s press assets carry the tagline "Repair, refresh and reimagine your clothes." A visual asset from Levi’s shows a person wearing a Levi’s denim jacket sewing a denim patch, reinforcing the tactile, hands-on nature of the lessons.

Local education partners are already backing the approach. Ginny Fang, President of Spark, San Francisco Schools, said, "Programs like Levi’s Wear Longer Project resonate because they meet students where they are - hands-on, creative and rooted in real life. When students can learn practical skills like repairing and caring for their clothes, they’re not only embracing sustainability, they’re gaining confidence, independence and a sense of pride in what they can create and maintain themselves."

Levi’s frames the effort as part of its heritage and corporate strategy. Michelle Gass, President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., noted, "At Levi Strauss & Co., we’ve spent more than 170 years designing clothes to be worn and loved for as long as possible. The Levi’s® Wear Longer Project builds on that legacy by giving young people the confidence and tools to extend the life of what they already own." Investor-facing materials add that the curriculum will scale through community-based partners and select retail initiatives to create more entry points for students and employees.

Teachers, community organizers and parents can explore the Wear Longer Project curriculum and facilitator guides via the project’s online hub. Free digital resources, in-class lessons and community workshops are available year-round as Levi’s rolls the program out across 2026, aiming to turn basic sewing skills into a practical tool for durability, creativity and waste reduction.