Across the street from the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts, a small apparel retail store catches the eye of the everyday bystander. Since 1945, Pairet's has been screen printing apparel for the community of Farmville and Longwood University students. However, within the past few years Pairet's has been selling shirts with suggestive remarks like, "That's what she said," or, "Keepin' it up since 1839". These shirts have become incredibly popular amongst the student body at the university.
Pairet's became an official licensed vendor for Longwood apparel after the university itself became Division I in athletics. As a licensed vendor, Pairet's agrees to pay Longwood 8 percent in royalties from the money they make off the apparel. When asked how business was recently, Tom Pairet, owner and operator of Pairet's Inc., responded, "Business has been very good. Longwood is a vital part of my business. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a good 80 percent of my business." Ashley Halstead, a freshmen at the university said, "I think Pairet's has a great selection, and it's a good store to get Longwood apparel for a cheaper price."
As a small town, Farmville loses a lot its population during the extended breaks that occur at the end of every semester. Since the majority of its business thrives off of the students of Longwood University, it can be hypothesized that Pairet's loses a lot of business during these extended breaks. However, Pairet has things covered. Pairet said, "It's very interesting, because I'm fortunate in the fact that I serve probably seven surrounding counties, and typically what happens is when the school gets out, it's time for baseball to start, and I do a tremendous amount of Little League baseball stuff." So when one stops, a new cycle of customers develop."
Pairet's, as previously mentioned, is best known for their shirts with catch phrases that could tickle a person pink. These shirts include the sayings, "Our Wood Goes Hard," or, "Where the Hell is Farmville, VA?!" George Werbacher, a sophomore at the university said, "I feel like they're funny and it gives us originality," after being asked what he thought about the sayings on the shirts. Pairet said he gets the inspiration to make these shirts from the Longwood students. He stated, "In the years past we've had contests and actually gave cash prizes for different ideas and stuff."
The process of making a shirt is a drawn out process according to Pairet. When someone places a mass order, they would bring in the design they desired. Pairet would then take it to his graphic designers, one of them whom happens to be a Longwood alumnus, who would then tweak up the picture and make it nice for screen printing. In order for someone to have a special shirt made, they must at least have a quantity of twelve in the order. Once the final quantity is made, no more shirts can be made after that, due to an extensive amount of time that it would take to make just an extra shirt.
Although these shirts have always been a hot commodity at the university, some issues were brought up. Halstead said, "I think that they talk down to Longwood and they make Longwood less credible, but I do think there's humor behind it, and that's why people buy them." Pairet, however, made it clear that the university itself has never approached him, nor stated that they have any issues with any of the material printed on the shirts. He stated that he understood the nature of the slogans, and understood the sensitivity of this material. Werbacher said, "I think the final straw is the shirt that I have now, which is, "Our wood goes hard," I really don't think you can cross that threshold, or else it goes too far." Pairet claimed that many families visiting their students come into the store, and usually it would be with a younger adolescent. The adolescent would want a certain shirt, but due to its nature they would refuse to buy it, and Pairet said that he understood.
Many students prefer Pairet's over the Barnes and Noble for certain items. Werbacher stated, "I think that for t-shirts and sweatpants, [the students] would much prefer going to Pairet's than the bookstore." Pairet himself stated, "I've never set foot in the bookstore." He believes that both establishments are within their own jurisdiction, he said, "I try not to infringe on them, and I think they respect me and I respect them." He claims he has never been confronted by the Barnes and Noble management in the landings about his apparel, "to my knowledge, we don't have any bad blood."
At the end of the interview, Pairet said he was always looking for suggestions to make his establishment thrive. Werbacher decided to throw in his two cents and talked about having the establishment open on the weekends, "Sometimes I want to go get some shirts and like today my parents came down and I wanted to take them to it, and maybe have them pick out a shirt, but it wasn't open."