WELL STITCHED: Star athletes help a Charlotte apparel designer reach the winner's circle after a slow start.

• Author: Cool, Jennings
• Position: NC TREND: Fashion

While earning a bachelor's degree at Appalachian State University, Mitch Purgason, 29, started a clothing design business for an entrepreneurship class with two fellow students. His friends moved on to other pursuits, but the Greensboro native's itch for design never wavered.

His Charlotte-based Mitch Purgason custom clothing brand has produced more than 1,500 suits for a clientele that includes celebrities such as Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and social-media influencer Gary Vaynerchuk.

The brand, which goes by Stitched by Mitch on social media, contracts with apparel makers in New York, Los Angeles, India, Italy and Mexico to produce the threads. He works with eight tailors and two operations staffers, specializing in men's suits that range from $2,500 to $20,000 depending on fabric, amount of work involved and other factors. He also makes shirts and bespoke leather jackets for women and men.

His suits feature a tricolor Milanese buttonhole, which conventional suit makers cannot duplicate, he says. For himself, Purgason prefers a wide peak lapel with a soft shoulder, as little construction as possible and a cashmere, silk blend. "It feels like a cloud and drapes wonderfully."

Comments are edited for clarity and brevity.

My parents did a great job encouraging all my siblings to pursue creative stuff. My mom was an actress. She did set design, and she now does interior design and real estate. Our house was just ridiculous. My mom would find antiques at old spots. Our house looked like a set design. I grew up in a really creative home --a really colorful home.

In college, I took a design class, which combined creativity, personal business and fun. My whole life, I figured I had to do banking or marketing. The art of design reframes your mind on how you think about products. But it reframed how I think about my life, by me saying, "Hey, I really could do something creative, and if I got good at it, I could...