Levi's CEO: No Need to Wash Your Jeans

How often do you chuck your jeans in the laundry? If it's more than once a year, the CEO of Levi's thinks you're doing it wrong. At a green-themed conference sponsored by Fortune, Chip Bergh said he practices what he preaches. "These jeans have yet to see a washing machine," he said of the pair he had on, which he has owned for a year. "I have yet to get a skin disease." (Bergh didn't say how often he wears them.)

Levi's has actually pushed the idea for years as a way for consumers to cut down on water use, notes Mashable, and the company plans to unveil a line called "Waterless" that professes to use less water on the production end as well. More people than you might think already employ the strategy, and researchers at the University of Alberta gave one pair of jeans a clean bill of health after 15 months of no-wash wear. (More Levi Strauss stories.)