MONTGOMERY – Dec. 28, 2015 –Michael Gee, president and co-owner of the Pants Store, was recently elected to the Alabama Retail Association’s board of directors. Gee’s term begins Jan. 1. The Pants Store first joined the Alabama Retail Association in 1992.

Gee, along with his brother John, own and operate the company started by their grandfather and nurtured by their father. The Pants Store has grown from its flagship in Leeds to a total of five stores. The other stores are in Mountain Brook, Trussville, Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, the newest location.

Their grandfather, Taylor Gee, opened the original Pants Store in 1950 as a pants wholesaler. Wholesale gave way to retail, and the store’s inventory grew to include all types of apparel for the entire family. Despite its diverse inventory, the Pants Store name stuck.

The brothers get their love for retailing from their father, the late Morris “Mickey” Gee, who handed over the business to them in 2008. The “Gee Emerging Retailer of the Year” Award, given annually at the Alabama Retailer of the Year awards presentation, is named for Mickey Gee, who even before retiring from the business taught the next generation of entrepreneurs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Collat School of Business.

In 2013, the Birmingham Business Journal named Michael Gee as one of the Top 40 under 40. The Gee brothers and the Pants Store earned the Silver Alabama Retailer of the Year Award in the Annual Sales $5 Million to $20 Million category in 2012, while they and their dad were the  Silver Retailer of the Year in the Annual Sales $1 Million to $5 Million category in 2007.

Michael Gee has a long association with the Arthritis Foundation, founding the state chapter of the junior board and establishing a fund-raising event that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the cause.

Gee graduated from the University of Alabama in 2001 with a marketing degree. He and his wife, Melanie, have two children, Morris and Mae Grace.

Full list of 2016 officers and board of directors

The Alabama Retail Association represents retailers, the largest private employer in the state of Alabama, before the Alabama Legislature and the U.S. Congress. Through sales of food, clothing, furniture, medicine and more, our 4,100 independent merchant and national company members touch almost every aspect of daily living. Since 1943, we’ve worked to promote what’s best for the retail industry in Alabama. Whether voicing the retail view when public policy is made, educating members about issues that impact them, negotiating rates for benefits and services or communicating the retail story, the Alabama Retail Association and its members are better together!

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