Cary Mitchell, legendary designer who created the Charlotte Bobcats’ uniforms, dies at 62
Last Saturday, a Charlotte legend many have never heard of died at the age of 62. But Cary Mitchell was most certainly a legend, his friends will tell you.
Mitchell, or “Cup,” as he was known, died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. His funeral will be Friday, April 15 at Charlotte’s Victory Christian Center, and there probably won’t be too many empty seats.
“You just don’t find too many people like Cary,” said Johnson C. Smith men’s basketball coach Steve Joyner, a longtime friend and mentor. “He’s not looking for credit, not looking for pats on the back. He was the type of young man that if there was a problem, he was trying to think of a solution.”
Mitchell was a celebrity tailor who at one time had more than 60 NBA clients. He made clothes for Vince Carter, Yao Ming, Charles Barkley and the late ESPN analyst Stuart Scott. Once, before a fight with Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson placed a $26,000 order with Mitchell for 23 canary-yellow linen outfits — for his entourage. And Tyson wanted the suits in three days.
“That was work, man,” Mitchell told the Observer in a 2002 interview.
Tiger Woods once gave Mitchell one of the signature golf club head covers that his mother would make for him every year, and Woods also once gifted Mitchell a silver Rolex watch with a green band.
And if there was one thing that constantly came up then, and still comes up now when you talk to people about “Cup,” it was just so down-to-earth he was.
“I mean, Cary knew everybody,” said Carmel Christian boys basketball coach Joe Badgett, a former basketball player at UNC Charlotte. “Man, he was just the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. So calm and cool and when we were younger, we looked up to him so much because — like I said — he just knew everybody; everybody in Charlotte, and everybody you would see on TV. But you get around him and he just makes you feel so comfortable.”
On humble beginnings, Chapel Hill and the Queen City
Mitchell was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. His father, John, was known as “Tiger Tom,” one of the first Black radio DJs in the city. John Mitchell started his career at the Richmond Planet, a Black newspaper owned by his uncle and later traveled with Negro League baseball teams and promoted Black concerts on his radio show.
Hanging around his father brought Mitchell in contact with national music stars like the Temptations, Curtis Mayfield and James Brown. One thing that caught his eye about them?
“Their clothes were always flashy,” he told the Observer in 2002. “I guess I liked that.”
Mitchell was in seventh grade when he met now-J.C. Smith coach Joyer, who had recently graduated from the Charlotte HBCU. At the time, Joyner was working as an assistant coach at Virginia Union and took a part-time job at a local learning academy in Richmond. Mitchell and two of his young buddies who frequented the academy became like little brothers to Joyner, who would bring them to Virginia Union’s campus and introduce them to the possibilities of going to college.
Mitchell later played high school basketball and became the ball boy for the Virginia Union team. When Mitchell was a senior, Joyner got a job as an assistant coach at J.C. Smith. Before he left Richmond, Joyner said he took Mitchell to North Carolina, stopping by Chapel Hill — a town that had always fascinated the teen — and eventually stopped in Charlotte.
“He fell in love with (J.C. Smith),” Joyner said.
Mitchell later enrolled at Smith and became a student assistant on the basketball team. When he graduated from college in 1983, Joyner introduced him to a former Smith player, Efram McDaniel, who was running a sporting goods store in Paris.
Mitchell went overseas and started drawing clothing designs influenced by French fashions. He designed warm-up suits for players on McDaniel’s sales list. When he came home two years later, he knew he wanted to become a clothier.
His first job stateside was with a major airline, and using discounted flight rates, Mitchell went to Korea, brought fabric and made suits. In the late ‘80s, Miami Heat player Billy Thompson saw one of the suits, loved the feel of them, and wanted one. He told his teammates.
Word of mouth spread among NBA players, and pretty soon Mitchell needed help to keep up with the demand.
But he was only getting started.
Business booming and becoming an entrepreneur
Mitchell never advertised, instead depending on word of mouth for his business. And it worked.
Former Maryland and NBA player Jerrod Mustaf, now 52, met Mitchell in 1991, for example. One of Mustaf’s good friends was a flight attendant, who worked with Mitchell’s wife, Vanessa.
Mustaf was with the New York Knicks then and once he met Mitchell, he loved his clothes and had some made. When Mustaf was traded to Phoenix later that year, he invited Mitchell into the locker room and introduced him to all the Suns, including a future NBA player of the year named Charles Barkley.
“I told the guys, ‘This is the guy making my clothes,’” Mustaf said. “And once you get into the locker room, it’s over. As guys move around the league, it opened up more doors.”
Mitchell’s career took off. He once appeared on Fox Sports national cable channel to critique NBA fashions on draft night. He created the Charlotte Bobcats NBA uniforms. His client list became massive. Vince Carter? Check. Golfer David Duval? Check. Alonzo Mourning? Check. When Yao Ming and former Duke star Jay Williams went Nos. 1-2 in the 2002 NBA draft, they were wearing Mitchell creations.
Mitchell also would use his influence to try to help his school, once having Tiger Woods ask his father, Earl, to speak at a fundraiser at Johnson C. Smith. Later, he helped create and host a basketball tournament for historically Black universities, called the Legacy Classic, and it was held at the old Charlotte Coliseum.
“He’s just a good brother,” said Adonis “Sporty” Jeralds, who was manager of the Charlotte Coliseum for 15 years. “He had a vision to give money back to HBCUs (with the tournament). It wasn’t about him. He had a platform and the wherewithal to host a major tournament That spoke to his willingness to be courageous and visionary.”
Jerald said he misses his friend.
“Philanthropy was one of the things I think about with Cary,” Jeralds said. “Just a tireless community servant, kind of unassuming. I mean, he walked and talked and mingled with the stars, but it never seemed to be about him. ... I think this is such a big loss for our community, man.”
Mustaf had lost touch with Mitchell over the years until his daughter ran into him in Richmond awhile back. Turns out that one of Mustaf’s high school teammates had run into some tough personal times, including a battle with leukemia. Mitchell became, Mustaf said, like a mentor to his friend.
“Cary convened a group of us to get together last year,” Mustaf said. “Cary flew up and we all went out to eat and (my teammate) was like, ‘Thank you so much.’ At his deepest and darkest moment, Cary was there for him.”
And when Mustaf was looking to relocate to Charlotte from the Washington, D.C., area, and find a new basketball home for his son, a top-50 player named Jaeden, Mitchell recommended Badgett and Carmel Christian.
Mustaf’s biggest regret about that was he didn’t catch up with Mitchell when he was in town for a visit. And he never got to tell Mitchell that his son had been accepted and would be attending the Charlotte school this fall.
Always there with a helping hand
Joyner remembers how Mitchell met a young pastor named Robyn Gool, who was running services out of old YMCA on Tryon Street.
“He would tell all of us that you need to come hear Robyn Gool,” Joyner said. “He would say, ‘This guy is going to be good.’ The connection was that he was a young would-be preacher who was interested in youth and wanted to start a school.”
Gool went on to create Victory Christian Center, which now has multiple campuses throughout Charlotte and a K-12 school that has produced state championship-winning athletic teams.
“Cary and Vanessa were very vested in Victory Christian Center,” Joyner said, “especially when it came to youth. They did a lot of great things over there to provide opportunities.”
A big loss for the community
Wednesday morning, Jeff Hood, the CEO of the National Police Athletic Activities League, said he was out running and couldn’t stop thinking about his old friend.
When the Observer contacted him, Hood was wearing a pair of Mitchell’s custom pants. Asked to describe his friend in one word, Hood used the same one that at least 10 others had used earlier in the week.
“Community,” he said. “He was about community, man. He was about trying to bring people together and he was a big supporter of his alma mater. I can’t even put his loss into words. Honestly, Cary’s all I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s so sudden and so tragic and such a loss for this community. Cary wasn’t a braggadocios guy, which was awesome — and that’s what I loved about him. It was about, ‘There’s things we need to get done here. Let’s get the work done.’ It was like, ‘Yo, let’s utilize our relationships to try to make it happen.’
“That was the refreshing thing about him. That it wasn’t about him.
“I’ll really miss that.”
