Since 1948, Mincer's University of Virginia Imprinted Sportswear has been a family-owned, family-operated Charlottesville enterprise. We do whatever we can to accommodate our customers. Mincer's success is directly linked to our customers' satisfaction.

Our Story

As told to Mincer’s historian Whitelaw Reid, May 2022.

Mincer’s origins can be traced back to one unexpected, seemingly inconsequential moment in time. It occurred just after World War II when a massive supply of military-issued smoking pipes returned to the United States.
The influx of pipes was great for consumers, as it lowered both cost and demand, but not so good for Robert W. Mincer, who was laid off from his job as a foreman at a pipe factory on Long Island, New York.

Mincer had a plan, though.

Believing there would be a strong market for pipes in college towns, Mincer set out to open his own smoke shop.
But which college town?

Mincer considered doing so in Hanover, New Hampshire and Lexington, Virginia before deciding that Charlottesville, the home to Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia, would be the perfect spot. On July 19, 1948, Mincer came to Charlottesville and opened “Mincer's Humidor,” which sold tobacco, cigars, pipes, cigarettes and smoking accessories. Mincer leased a roughly 100-square-foot, ground-floor space, living in an upstairs expanse that would later become Corner mainstay Michael’s Bistro.

To make extra money while the store was getting off the ground, Mincer and his wife, Clara, rented out spare bedrooms to students. Clara was well-known in the community because of her wide range of skills. She frequently mended clothing for students, repaired lighters for customers, and embossed cards and labels by hand for the store. The affable couple was often asked to chaperone fraternity parties, where the night would end with an invite to the Mincer's apartment for coffee and waffles.

In the summer of 1954, the Mincer's moved their store to its current location on The Corner – at the corner of University and Elliewood avenues.

The Second Generation

As the years started to pass, Mincer’s gradually transitioned to selling non-smoking-related products, including magazines, newspapers, school supplies, books and records. At one juncture, Mincer’s was the biggest record dealer between Washington, D.C. and Raleigh.

Serving as the City of Charlottesville’s Western Union agent, Mincer’s even used to deliver telegrams, often serving as a vital link between UVA Hospital patients and concerned relatives. In 1970, Robert W. Mincer purchased the store’s building, which also included the University Sport Shop and the Virginian restaurant.

Two years later, Mincer retired and turned control of the store over to his son, Robert H. Mincer, who had grown up in Charlottesville and attended UVA, studying at the McIntire School of Commerce. Following graduation in 1958, he served in the Army for two years before returning to Charlottesville to work at the store.

From the get-go, Robert H. Mincer – known as “Bobby” – enjoyed the social aspect of the business. Frequently, he would walk down to the White Spot to get a coffee and fraternize with other Corner merchants and community members. Inside the store, he would chat with customers about everything – from politics to the Cavaliers’ most recent game.

“He liked to be on the counter and see people come in,” recalled Mark Mincer, Robert H. Mincer’s son. “Back then we would literally have the same people come in the store every day. They would get the morning paper, an afternoon paper, a pack of cigarettes or a magazine. Or you’d see the same kids coming in all the time to cash a check. You would see the same people multiple times in a day or in a week.” The evolution of Mincer’s from a smoke shop to an apparel store began to take shape in the mid 1970s. The legendary Easters Weekend Parties gave visitors and students alike the desire to commemorate the festive weekends with a T-shirt – and Mincer’s was glad to oblige.

As a 10-year-old, Mark Mincer would receive all kinds of tips from both his father and grandfather about how to run the business. Many of their sayings are still ingrained:

“You can’t sell apples from an empty apple cart.”
“We’re not running a museum here. Don’t fall in love with your merchandise. Move it in, move it out.”

A huge turning point in Mincer’s history came in 1976, when the UVA men’s basketball team won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship in Landover, Maryland. “It was a big deal,” Mark Mincer said. “It was the only time we’d ever won.

“We sold just one little orange T-shirt – $3.95 for adults and $2.95 for kids. It said ‘1976 ACC Champs’ and had a basketball and sort of like a Burger King crown on the basketball.” Former UVA Athletic Director Craig Littlepage, who had just arrived in town that summer to join the men’s basketball team’s coaching staff, remembered the hoopla.

“Folks were still reveling with memories of that championship, and everybody wanted to get something with UVA basketball on it,” Littlepage said. “Mincer’s was the place to go.” When Harrisonburg High School basketball star Ralph Sampson arrived on Grounds in 1979, a change in the focus of the business became even more obvious.

“Even though we didn’t win the ACC or NCAA, we still won a lot of games and had a lot of national TV appearances and magazine appearances, and there was just a lot of media attention focused on UVA, which helped demand in general for clothing and gifts,” Mark Mincer said.

In the fall of 1980, Mincer’s sold, “The Official Preppy Handbook,” that, to this day, remains its highest-selling book of all time. “Between the time it came out and Christmas, we sold 2,977 copies, and the author came to the store for a book signing,” said Mincer, with a laugh. “It was selling so fast. We were placing orders from my house – I can’t remember any other product we had to order from my kitchen table.

“Back then, a big book for us may have sold 50 or 100 copies. That one sold almost 3,000. It was a big deal.”

But UVA apparel would become the store’s bread and butter.

During the 1980s, competitors would come along, but Mincer’s was always the last one standing.

“I think it was because we were locally owned and one of us was in there pretty much seven days a week,” Mark Mincer said. “The places that have someone on site with a vested interest have a better chance of success than places that are run from other cities.”

Having a successful football team also proved extremely beneficial to Mincer’s success. New coach George Welsh arrived from the Naval Academy in 1982 and quickly turned UVA into a force. One of Mark Mincer’s fondest memories from his time as a UVA student was attending the football team’s 1984 Peach Bowl game in Atlanta, the program’s first bowl appearance.

“I remember in the fourth quarter when Purdue had to punt for the last time and we got the ball back to run out the clock,” Mincer said. “Our whole side of the stadium stood up and started cheering – and I started crying …

“Rooting for a team all your life, and then they finally get to a bowl game, which you didn’t think they could do. And to win …” Memories like those made Mark Mincer’s decision to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps relatively easy.

The Third Generation In 1985, just as Mark Mincer was graduating from UVA’s McIntire School, his grandfather and father elected not to extend the lease of the University Sport Shop. And a short time later, Mincer’s expanded into the University Sport Shop space.

For Mark, joining the family business just seemed like the natural thing to do.

“I don’t know that it was always my plan, but having lived here all my life … I liked living in Charlottesville,” Mincer said. “When it came time to make a choice, it seemed like the best decision.” Especially after the football team beat Clemson for the first time ever on their way to becoming the No. 1-ranked team in the country in 1990.

“That was the biggest year we ever had,” Mincer said. “We couldn’t believe we sold so much. We didn’t think we’d ever reach that level again, and we didn’t for a long time.”

Tara Mincer’s first day on the job was the day before the Clemson game. That day, on the sidewalk just outside the store, she gave fans “Beat Clemson” tattoos.

A UVA student, Mincer – who then went by Tara Speakman – had only started working at the store due to a strange set of circumstances. A banker in Rhode Island had embezzled $12 million, wreaking havoc on the state’s banking system and tying up her parents’ money for 18 months.

“I was feeling really guilty about it, because here I was in Charlottesville having a good time at school,” Tara Mincer said. “I needed to do something to try and contribute.”

In the days before the game, she walked up and down the streets on the Corner filling out job applications. Mincer’s just happened to be the place that hired her.

After UVA beat Clemson to snap a 29-game losing streak to the Tigers, Tara watched Mark’s “Just Did It” shirts – a play on the Nike “Just Do It!” ad campaign – sell like hotcakes. Five years later, she married him. A year after that, their oldest child, Cal, was born.

Tara, who has worked on and off for the store while raising their four children, said Mark’s knack for retail has always amazed her.

She can’t help but laugh when recalling a season-long promotion from 2009, “Scoreboard Special,” in which every item in the store was discounted based on how many points the football team scored in its game that week. Of course, nobody was counting on UVA going off for 47 points in a homecoming weekend win over Indiana University.

“Everything was 47% off and the whole store was an absolute zoo. … I was there for the collateral damage,” Tara said, smiling. “The whole place was just wiped out.

“At the end, a couple neckties hanging from pegs was about all that was left.”

Mark, who took over as sole owner of the store from his father in 2012, admitted all his ideas haven’t been great ones. However, he said that’s the beauty of retail – you learn from mistakes. He recalled one such mistake his father made in the mid-1970s when they decided to sell UVA spring break T-shirts.

“You don’t get a spring break shirt from where you’re from. You get a spring break shirt from where you went,” Mincer said. “You want a shirt that says, ‘Daytona’ or ‘South Padre’ or ‘New Orleans’ or wherever you went.

“We took a bath on those spring break shirts,” said Mincer, grinning.

But the store has always been about so much more than simply turning a profit.

Since 1971, Mincer’s has been a Virginia Athletics Foundation supporter. The store makes regular donations to UVA student organizations, local schools and other programs in and around Charlottesville. “The impact that they have had on how people view the University of Virginia, and how they have serviced the local community, has just been remarkable,” Littlepage said.

Throughout its history, Mincer’s has employed countless UVA students, providing them not only with extra income, but invaluable business experience.

“I don’t think people realize how much they care for their employees,” said Mincer’s General Manager Chris Hendricks, who has been working at the store since he was a first-year student at UVA in 1989. “The people who work here are like their children.”

The family atmosphere is one of the big reasons why Hendricks and fellow employee Elizabeth Pitts, a 2003 UVA alumna, said they never wanted to work anywhere else.

“Even though we’re not blood-related, it’s like we’re all one big family,” Pitts said.

A wry smile came across Mark Mincer’s face when he was asked about some of the things that have helped him be so successful in carrying on the family business.

“The location has helped a lot – I mean you can’t move the Rotunda,” said Mincer, with a laugh.

“And I think the fact that we’ve been there for so long. There’s that feel-good component of ‘I used to come here when I was a kid’ or ‘My mom and dad used to come here’ – I think those things matter.”

The Fourth Generation Over the last decade, the success of several UVA sports programs has continued to play a role in the store’s success.

In 2014, the men’s basketball team won its first ACC championship since 1976. The baseball team won the College World Series in 2015. There were also NCAA championships in soccer, tennis and lacrosse. And then the Cavalier men’s basketball team won its first NCAA title in 2019.

The day after UVA’s victory over Texas Tech in the championship game, fans began forming a line outside the store several hours before the doors opened.

Cal Mincer remembers having to turn off the ringer on the store’s phone because of the overwhelming demand.

For several weeks, Cal worked 12-to-14 hour days, filling both in-store and online orders, barely having enough time to scarf down his lunch.

“I’ve never been so exhausted,” he said.

Cal, who took over as primary operator after Mark fell ill in 2020, said Mincer’s designs are what separates them from internet competitors, who often use a template to mass-produce merchandise for a large number of universities.

“We live in Charlottesville, we know Charlottesville and have been working with customers who have liked UVA for so long,” he said. “We know a lot better what works for UVA and what doesn’t.

“You don’t sell the same things to UVA fans that you sell to Oregon fans, that you sell to Arizona fans.”

Over the years, Mincer’s has declined opportunities to open stores in other college towns, including in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Blacksburg.

For one, the close-knit family doesn’t want to be apart from each other. For another, well, they pretty much bleed orange and blue.

On his phone, Mark Mincer frequently plays the “Coming Home” basketball celebration video that was played before every home game at John Paul Jones Arena the year after UVA won its NCAA championship.

“It still gives me chills,” Mincer said. “It still brings a tear to my eye. So many of those moments in that video – I was there. I was there for Ralph’s last game. I was there for Sean Singletary’s shot against Duke. I remember watching Bobby Stokes jumping up in the air when we won the ACC in Landover.

“I remember Ralph’s last home game when he was at the line with two free throws to win the game. He missed them both and Craig Robinson tipped it out to him and he makes a jumper to win the game against Maryland.”

Just like his father and grandfather before him, Mark has passed that love for UVA sports, the store and the Charlottesville community on to Cal.

Cal is so very proud to be carrying on the family legacy as a fourth-generation owner.

In reflecting on the store’s humble beginnings as a smoke shop, he smiled.

“I don’t anticipate too much reinvention,” he said. “Nothing on the scale of pipes to T-shirts.” .

If you’re looking to document the history of a business, family or other enterprise, contact Whitelaw Reid at [email protected]