Business helps people stay true to their schools

Mel Pennington and his business partner, Tygh Bailes, detected a new clothing market when the former had some University of Virginia insignias sewn on khaki pants and gave them to Bailes at a University of South Carolina-UVA game.

“People just went nuts over it,” Pennington said during an interview Tuesday at Butler’s Men’s Wear in Florence. “We immediately thought about the collegiate market.”

And the business has mushroomed since the partners have added color to the khakis.

“We have factories all over the world,” Pennington said. “Our central office is in Shanghai and we’re getting ready to open another office in Peru.

“My job is production, so I get up in the middle of the night and talk all over the world with our production managers. We spec it out from how heavy the twill is going to be to the type of cotton we use to the finished product.”

Pennington said their pants are 7½-ounce twill cotton, which is combed, washed and “as soft as pajamas.” The fabric is made by the bulk, 1,000 yards at a time.

“The fabric is cut into pants’ panels and patterns,” he said. “It’s then embroidered, sewn together and sent to us. We are licensed to sell to around 60 colleges and universities now.”

And although they sell their wares up and down the East Coast, their flagship store is Dumas in Charleston. Their reputation even spread to Texas after the president of Texas Christian University saw some of the pants with Carolina and Clemson insignias on them while vacationing in Charleston.

“The TCU president told the owner to call us because he wanted to have some made for TCU,” Pennington said. “We started making pants for them. We do a lot of custom work.”

Pennington readily admits the stadium pants aren’t cheap. They sell for $135.

“They’re an upper-end specialty good, but the justification is they’re a higher-end khaki,” Pennington said. “The embroidery is the expensive part. There are 96 insignias on a pair of pants. This triples your cost.

“We’ve made a commitment every year to improve our product in some way. Although some might think we charge a premium price, we think it’s a fair price because we sell you a product that is going to last forever.”

Pennington said the business is moving into skirts for ladies and eyeing the children’s market. He eventually plans to sell blazers.

And the online business also is booming. It’s stadiumpants.com, or e-mail .

“It’s been a fun experience, the best business class I’ve ever had,” Pennington, a 1999 graduate of USC, said.

But there been a few mistakes along the way.

“I remember the first 50 pair of Duke (University) pants came back in University of North Carolina blue instead of Duke blue,” Pennington said with a laugh. “It’s been fun. Carolina and Clemson pants probably sell the best.”

Among other stores where the pants are sold are Alexander’s in Hartsville; Britton’s and Granger-Owens in Columbia; and Smith and James in Greer.

“Butler’s does a huge business for us,” said Pennington, a bow-tie afficionado who also is associated with Brown-Pennington-Atkins Funeral Home in Hartsville.

“Jim Gasque, a teacher at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, taught me how to tie (a) bow tie,” he added. “He said tying a bow tie is 10 percent knot and 90 percent straightening it.”