cooper cricketer . for the american blues musician see lee cooper guitarist . lee cooper type subsidiary industry clothing founded 1908 as m. cooper overalls founder morris cooper headquarters london england great britain key people andy dunkley ceo parent iconix brand group inc. website www.leecooper.com lee cooper brand is an english clothing company operating worldwide that licenses the sale of many lee cooper branded items including denim jeans . the head office is located in london england . the company originally produced workwear for export and began to specialise in denim jackets and trousers in the 1930s . in 2013 iconix brand group acquired lee cooper from sun capital partners . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 post war 2 references 3 external links history edit early years edit the brand that eventually became lee cooper was established in 1908 by morris cooper and a friend louis maister after they arrived in london from their hometown in lithuania having previously spent some time in south africa . operating under the name m.cooper overalls ltd. from premises on middlesex street in london s east end they began production of workwear having identified a market for it in south africa . 2 during the years of the first world war m.cooper overalls which by then employed over 600 people halted production of workwear and began making uniforms kit bags and rucksacks for the british army . in 1937 a new factory dedicated to the manufacture of denim was opened in stratford with the business reporting a profit of 1 000 by year end . 3 the outbreak of the second world war in 1939 led morris cooper to split the business into two one arm continued making workwear while the other concentrated on producing military uniforms battle fatigues and flight overalls . m.cooper overalls eventually became one of the armed forces biggest suppliers . 4 post war edit morris cooper died in 1940 and his son harold cooper took over the business upon his return from active service in the raf . he set about modernising the company and building on its wartime success switching focus to casual wear and denim production and taking advantage of the introduction of clothes rationing to increase competitiveness . 5 as part of a re branding strategy the company was rechristened with harold adding a version of his wife s family name leigh to his own to create lee cooper . 6 lee cooper jeans were adopted by the youth counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s and harold capitalised on this association by sponsoring a rolling stones tour and working with serge gainsbourg and jane birkin . the company caused a degree of moral outrage in 1953 by introducing the zip front to women s jeans 7 and commissioned a series of bold publicity campaigns some of them incorporating fictitious designers such as the italian alfredo angelous in order to appeal to subcultures such as the mods who favoured continental style . 8 the late 1970s saw expansion of production with the company opening factories in ireland france and tunisia and by the mid 1980s these facilities were producing between 40 000 and 45 000 garments per week . during this time annual turnover grew to more than 100 million . lee cooper was also one of the main pitchside sponsors at the 1984 european championships in france . in 1989 the cooper family sold their majority stake in the business and since then lee cooper has become a lifestyle brand operating in more than seventy markets across the world . in 2008 the company celebrated its centenary . 9 references edit sun european partners sells lee cooper for 72m lee cooper . leecooper.com . retrieved 2010 08 18 . times harold cooper obituary . london timesonline.com . 2008 11 12 . retrieved 2010 08 18 . lee cooper . leecooper.com . retrieved 2010 08 18 . times harold cooper obituary . london timesonline.com . 2008 11 12 . retrieved 2010 08 18 . lee cooper . leecooper.com . retrieved 2010 08 18 . liverpool daily post harold cooper obituary . liverpooldailypost.co.uk . retrieved 2010 08 18 . times harold cooper obituary . london timesonline.com . 2008 11 12 . retrieved 2010 08 18 . times harold cooper obituary . london timesonline.com . 2008 11 12 . retrieved 2010 08 18 . external links edit uk lee cooper homepage retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lee cooper & oldid 738141330 categories companies established in 1908jeansclothing companies of englandcompanies based in london1908 establishments in englandenglish brandshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran aisrom n suomi edit links this page was last modified on 7 september 2016 at 04 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view