In 1950, Taylor Gee drove all over the Southeast selling pants to retailers out of the trunk of his Mercury. People digging through the bins for deals on pants at Taylor’s Leeds warehouse dubbed the business “The Pants Store.”

Wholesale quickly gave way to retail, and the store’s selections grew to include all types of apparel for the entire family. Even with a diverse inventory, the Pants Store name stuck, and it will stay stuck, says its current president and third-generation co-owner, Michael Gee.

“Sometimes our name is a bit inhibitive because people don’t understand exactly who we are, but we have had that name for 74 years at this point. We’re proud of who we are. We’re definitely keeping the name,” Gee said.

And so, it will remain the Pants Store come 2025, when it celebrates 75 years in business.

Taylor’s son, Morris “Mickey” Gee, sharpened the focus beyond pants, grew the footprint, added TV advertising and carried forward the Pants Store’s reputation for crazy deals. But it was his sons, Michael and John, who’ve expanded the business to what it is today. The brothers joined the family business full time in 2001 and bought it from their father in 2008.

“My grandfather was a retail legend,” Michael Gee said. “My dad was a hard worker with a big heart. I love working with my brother. It’s nice to know somebody’s got your back all the time.”

The Pants Store has expanded its offerings and gotten a lot more casual over its 74-year history. (Brandon Robbins / Alabama Retailer)

Beside its Leeds store, headquarters and warehouse, the Pants Store operates in Mountain Brook (since 2006), Tuscaloosa (2012), Huntsville (2015), Auburn (2022) and Hoover (2022).

The Pants Store name became a viral sensation in 2021. That is when the #bamarush shared by those taking part in the University of Alabama’s sorority rush included many outfits from the Pants Store’s Tuscaloosa location, sending the chain’s online sales skyrocketing 600% over 2020.

“We consider pantsstore.com a seventh location, and it’s our third-best location right now. In the next five years, it’ll be the No. 1 location,” Michael Gee said. “It just keeps growing and growing.”

“We might expand some, but not much more,” Pants Store President Michael Gee said. “Maybe if my children or my brother’s children want to come into the business, they can make it bigger.” (Brandon Robbins / Alabama Retailer)

Small = big with amplified voice

Gee, who has served on the Alabama Retail Association’s board of directors since 2015 and on its executive committee since 2020, is the board’s 2024-2025 chairman. “Being a small business owner is tough,” he said. “We are the little guys. It’s great to belong to an organization that has a voice loud enough for policymakers to hear.”

Another benefit of being involved with the retail association is getting “to meet other outstanding retailers and compare notes and become better at what we do.  Sometimes you get so focused on what you do, it’s nice to see how others operate.”

For the same reason, the Pants Store belongs to six chambers of commerce. Gee also serves on the board of Leeds Main Street.

The Pants Store opened five additional locations from 2006 through 2022. (Brandon Robbins / Alabama Retailer)

Pants and more

Seventy percent of what the Pants Store sells is women’s apparel, but when the store began in 1950, its focus was “men’s dress pants, because everybody dressed up so much” for church and work, Gee said. The merchandise is much more casual now. “We don’t even carry suits anymore,” he said.

In the early days, the Pants Store also sold industrial clothing for governments and corporations as well as uniforms for schools and businesses. Even though the focus has been retail apparel for decades, “if a customer comes in and says, ‘I own so-and-so company and I need T-shirts and hats and quarter zips. Can you put my logo on these?’ We’re more than happy to do that,” Gee said.

“We do still sell a lot of pants. That’s for sure,” he said. In fact, each store has a wall of pants in addition to its stock of blouses, polos, sweatshirts, shorts, pullovers, shoes, boots, dresses, gameday attire, belts and pajamas. “We sell good-quality merchandise at a good price” for women, men and children, Gee said.

The Pants Store now operates locations in Tuscaloosa and Auburn heavily oriented toward the university student populations in those cities. (Brandon Robbins / Alabama Retailer)

Customer base gives each store subtle differences

“While there are some subtle differences, most of the stores are 95% the same,” he said. “The Tuscaloosa store only sells University of Alabama gear, the Auburn store, only Auburn gear. Sometimes in those college towns, we feel there’s a younger demographic, so we might cater a little bit to those needs, but we try and stay as uniform as possible. In Leeds, the customer is more of an everyday worker. We sell more Carhartt to guys actually on the roof wearing it because it’s durable on the roof, rather than wearing it because it looks cool.”

Online customers beyond and within the state of Alabama create a dynamic of their own.

“We ship all over the country. More than 50% of our business is out of state on pantsstore.com,” Gee said, adding that in-state customers also take advantage of the convenience of ordering online. “We definitely have customers too who live in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville or Auburn and we’re shipping them stuff from pantsstore.com. They try it on (and if it doesn’t fit), bring it back or swap it out in store.”

“We try and give each location its independence, while trying to keep a uniform landscape,” he said.

During an interview in the newest Pants Store location in the Stadium Trace Village development in Hoover, Gee said, “Our target market is 16 and up to the hip mom.” A woman trying on shoes nearby raised her hand and said, “hip Mom here.”

Pants Store starts planning for sorority rush in January. (Pants Store)

Fourth-generation impact already felt

Michael and John Gee both have teenaged children. The fourth-generation Gees “have worked in the stores at one point or the other – over the holidays, gift wrapping, cleaning dressing rooms, cleaning the stores,” Michael Gee said. “They all pitch in, and it’s good for them to get a feel for what it’s like and see if it’s something they want to consider in the future.”

It was Gee’s daughter who suggested the Pants Store have a presence on TikTok.

“We were already big on Instagram and Facebook, so we started a TikTok account to market and advertise. People were talking about Bama rush and the Pants Store on TikTok as we were starting, and then it just blew up. We had magazines and radio and TV stations calling from all over the country,” Gee said.

“Every year is different on how it blows up, but we see a huge influx from (TikTok during sorority rush) still. It’s something we plan on and start talking about in January” each year, he said.

The reputation the Pants Store gained on TikTok paid off when the Auburn store opened in 2022. Auburn University students “already knew who we were and what we did,” Gee said. His daughter’s suggestion “really helped us.”

The Pants Store

Mickey Gee, president and co-owner.

Founded: 1950.

Number of employees: 143.

Mentor: My dad, Mickey Gee. He was always the smartest and most charismatic person in the room.

Smart move: Hire and listen to people smarter than you.

Learning moment: Starting to gain experience and not being afraid to take chances of failure.

Wisdom shared: As my dad always told me, “Don’t be afraid to start small.”

This story originally was published by the Alabama Retailer.