By Madoline Markham Koonce
Customers of The Pants Store in the 1950s might recall taking a bus from Birmingham to Leeds for founder Taylor Gee’s three-for-$10 pants sales. A few decades later, they likely would remember his son Mickey’s crazy sales and his TV commercials with the “Zip on down to the Pants Store” jingle.
Today, customers might know the apparel retailer from its tent sales and from trending on #bamarush on TikTok — a sensation that blew up its online sales by more than 600% in one week and continues to drive traffic each year.
“We have been around for so long that you find generations of people will have different memories (of) what The Pants Store was and is,” said Michael Gee, Taylor Gee’s grandson who now co-owns the retail company with his brother, John.
When Michael and John took over ownership of The Pants Store in 2008, it had two locations – in Leeds and downtown Birmingham – and 22 employees. Today, as it approaches its 75th anniversary in 2025, it employees 154 people at six locations and its online store.
To get there, the brothers have taken new approaches to retail, but they also have built on a strong foundation laid by their father and grandfather.
Taylor was born one of 18 children and left Mississippi during the Great Depression before starting the store in Leeds in 1950, originally as a business selling his pants out of his car.
“He came from nowhere and made something of himself,” Michael said.
Mickey, who taught entrepreneurship and retail at UAB, was known for his sales at The Pants Store – sometimes at midnight – and his magnetic charisma.
“Everyone thought they were best friends with my dad because that’s how he made you feel,” Michael said. “He was a great promoter and marketer and a great buyer. He knew how to spread the dollar and make money.”
As its name connotes, The Pants Store started off selling pants and then dressier menswear, but over time, it has evolved to focus on women’s clothing and shoes and to be more casual in the era of athleisure and more casual workplaces, all while growing to additional locations. Women shoppers make up about 70% of the business today, with men shoppers making up about 30%.
After John and Michael took over the business from their dad in 2008, they decided to open a Crestline store since they’d grown up in the village, and that location has since expanded from three to five retail bays. Both brothers are University of Alabama fans and Michael studied marketing there, so Tuscaloosa was a natural next location to open a store.
From there, the college town of Auburn became an attractive retail location, and most recently they opened a Huntsville store and moved their Trussville one to Alabama 150 in Hoover. All the stores carry a similar selection of items, except the Tuscaloosa store carries only UA paraphernalia and the Auburn store only Auburn paraphernalia.
Speaking of, one of the biggest changes to the company since the brothers took over is what Michael calls the “Nick Saban effect,” which took hold when Saban came to Alabama in 2007. At that time, The Pants Store saw a large increase in the sales of game day clothing at all its locations.
In a similar time frame, it also started selling more clothing for women going through sorority rush at Alabama and Auburn – and now students all over the country access its online store. The store starts prepping for rush in January, and the main buying season for customers is April to June each year.
Pivot During Pandemic
The biggest growth for The Pants Store in recent years has come in online sales — which were kick-started in spring 2020.
“When COVID hit and we were closed down, it was detrimental and I thought things were over with,” Michael recalled. “But it in a way it was a blessing because we focused on pantsstore.com and our Facebook VIP page and put a lot of time and energy into that to try to generate revenue while we were closed. Pantsstore.com took off.”
Today, the Gees consider pantsstore.com their seventh location. Originally a one-worker operation, it is now a six-worker one, with a whole building in Leeds dedicated to its merchandise and shipping items to all 50 states.
“It’s our third best location, and we feel like in the next few years it will be our number one location,” Michael said.
The Pants Store also has a store on Amazon and is constantly adapting to how it sees consumers shopping.
“I really feel like (online sales are) the future,” Gee said. “People love to come in our stores and touch and feel, but some people just don’t have time to come and shop. Hoka is a huge brand for us right now, and once a woman knows she’s a size 8, she can just go online and see the new colors and styles and order size 8.”
Day to day, you can find the brothers engaged in all parts of the business from the Leeds office and warehouse. Sometimes they are at a desk doing accounting, and others they are unloading UPS trucks and hanging and tagging clothes or going to shows to buy men’s clothing for future seasons.
“It’s a blessing to work with my brother,” Michael said. “We get along well and have each other’s back.”
Each of the brothers has two children in junior high and high school who have worked in The Pants Store’s retail stores or warehouse – making it a fourth-generation business. Time will tell whether they make their careers there as well, but they certainly would have a strong family foundation to build their business upon.
