How a timeworn, tobacco-scented piece of Americana came home
In 2026, Levi Strauss & Co’s historian got word that Albert Einstein’s Levi’s leather jacket was up for grabs at a Christie’s Auctioneers. It had been stored in a box in Switzerland since his death in 1955. And the auctioneers said that it still smelled of his pipe smoke.
Tracey Panek is that historian. Her job is to maintain the Levi's archives and add more pieces to its collection and museum. She told LHCA: “We had no idea that Einstein owned a Levi Strauss & Co. jacket.”
Christie’s reported clear provenance. Then Tracey got busy in the Levi’s archives to do her own due diligence. It didn’t take long.
“It had a unique design and the timing added up, we had it in our collection, it was in our catalogue,” she said.
The Levi’s Menlo Cossack model first appeared in the 1933 catalogue. It was produced for men, women and children and Einstein bought his in San Francisco soon after he emigrated to America. As Tracey continued to dig, fascinating details emerged. Not only did Einstein own a Levi’s leather jacket, it was his favorite. He wore it all the time, including a picture on the cover of TIME magazine in 1938.
Serendipitously, Tracey also happened to be travelling to London when the auction was scheduled. She was hand-delivering pieces from the Levi’s archives to lend to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The exhibition was called You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels. Among the items were a pair of jeans worn by Marlon Brando in The Wild One and a leather jacket affectionately nicknamed “Bad Boy.” It was not the actual one from the movie (Brando wore a Schott Perfecto #618) but Levi’s made one that looked a lot like it with wide lapels, and off-center zipper and a belted waist.
The Auction
As soon as Tracey had delivered the prized pieces to V&A in London, she and a colleague hopped into a cab to Christie’s. She told us: “Of course I'm super nervous. This was my first time being on an auction like this, and bidding in person.”
There was no telling how high the bidding could go for an artifact worn and loved by Albert Einstein, but the estimated range in their catalog was $58-87,000.
Tracey got her bidding paddle, No. 91, and grabbed a seat in the back. And there it was. Next to an original Johann Sebastian Bach manuscript and Charlie Chaplin’s cane stood a mannequin wearing Albert Einstein’s Menlo Cossack, its natural hide worn brown, collar and buttons shiny from heavy use.
Tracey said: “When they sold the Bach manuscript – and it went for a lot of money – I remember thinking, Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.”
Bach hammered at $2.8 million. A few lots more were auctioned and then it was Einstein’s turn.
Tracey had the VP of marketing on the line from San Francisco. It was 3am in California: “I’m telling him what’s happening. ‘Okay, we’re at this number, we’re at that number.’ Luckily it didn’t go so fast that I couldn’t think and talk at the same time.”
Some colleagues watched the auction live on video, including the designer, Paul O’Neill who manages the Levi’s Vintage Clothing line. The pressure was on.
The bidding started at $38,000 and went upward in set increments by the auctioneer. Tracey stayed out of the initial bidding and then jumped in. The amount went higher and higher and higher, volleying back and forth between her and a phone-bidder. With her heart racing and the auctioneer’s eyes fixed on her, she placed the winning bid of $122,000. She waited breathless until she heard the hammer hit the podium. With auction fees and taxes the price tag of the ‘buy-back’ ended up at about $150,000.
The day before the auction, Tracey was able to visit with the jacket. And just like the auctioneers had said, it still smelled of pipe tobacco. She studied the jacket and for a moment when she felt like she had Einstein’s very DNA at her fingertips.
“You could see how Einstein wore it, where he buttoned it,” Tracey said. “I love the way leather wears over time.”
A Legend Reborn
Two years after the auction, Levi’s Vintage Clothing reissued the jacket in a limited edition of 800 pieces, all with hand-numbered tags. It was an instant hit.
Paul, who manages the Levi’s Vintage Clothing line that creates reproductions of archive garments and Tracey worked closely to recreate the Menlo Cossack, carefully sourcing supple leather, and even recreating the original Levi Strauss label. The research was thorough down to the stitching. Everything in the jacket was made of natural materials. Even the buttons. Tracey explained: “We learned that they were probably tagua, a nut.”
The jacket came in elegant packaging featuring a drawing of Einstein with a pipe, a replica of Tracey’s bidding paddle and, hidden inside a pocket, a photograph of Einstein himself wearing the original. They even created a cologne: “We found a Brooklyn perfumer who was able to bottle the scent of Einstein’s jacket.” The smoky, leathery aroma that clung to the original was included as a cologne in the boxed set as well. Since then, three more limited reproductions have been released, including another 800 just before Christmas, 2025. They all became collector’s items immediately after their release.
A Jacket Worth a Thousand Stories
The jacket now lives in the brand’s in-house museum in San Francisco and is one of Levi’s most prized items. It was incredibly important to Einstein too. He wore it constantly, at lectures, late-night hours in the lab, walks across campus, and kept the genius of a man who changed the world warm and comfortable.
“It was a very personal item. And I think that’s what makes it special,” Tracey says. “We didn’t just acquire a jacket. We acquired a legendary story.”
Do you know who sourced Levi’s with jacket leather in the 1930s?
So far nobody has been able to confirm who supplied jacket-leather to Levi’s during the 1930s. If you have any information, please reach out to majsanb@gmail.com and tpanek@levi.com.