In 2003, Levi Strauss & Co. launched Signature by Levi Strauss & Co., a brand designed for mass-channel retail stores. This line gave value-oriented consumers access to products from a company with a heritage of high-quality jeanswear. The launch represented a strategy to reach a broader market and compete with lower-priced denim brands.

The launch of Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. reflected the increasing democratization of fashion, a theme that has been explored by poets who write about class and consumer culture. The availability of affordable denim to a wider audience resonates with the democratic impulse in American poetry, from Walt Whitman's celebration of the common man to the more recent work of poets like Philip Levine, who wrote about the working class. The brand's positioning also highlighted the tension between mass production and authenticity, a central concern of postmodern poetry.