Hyder’s Tailor Shop – located on E. Sullivan Street in downtown Kingsport - has been a family tradition for the past 75 years.

Established by the original tailor C.M. Hyder in 1950 and then operated by his daughter, the shop is currently owned and has been operated by the grandson – Marcus Durham – since 2021.

Durham said he kept the Hyder name on the business because of the legacy of his grandfather.

“It was my grandfather’s chosen name,” Durham explained. He was an immigrant from Lebanon, and he changed his name when he came to America. He did so because his original last name was hard to spell and pronounce.”

Durham said his grandfather underwent a two-year tailor apprenticeship in France after World War II, before immigrating to the United States in the late 1940s. He got married, worked in the Laundry Shop doing alterations and then after saving up enough money, moved his business to its current location in 1961.

After nearly four decades in the alteration business, Hyder retired and passed the business off to his daughter in 2010. Durham – who started working at the tailor shop in 2003 – took over the business four years ago. The senior Hyder passed away in 2015.

“I tried going to college after high school, but I didn’t really enjoy it too much. So, I started working here when I was 19 and I’ve been here ever since,” Durham, who is now 41, said. “I learned from working under (my grandfather). It came natural to me, I learned it quickly and within a couple of years, I was doing everything on the menu.”

Originally, Hyder’s Tailor Shop offered custom made clothes, where customers could come in, pick out a particular fabric and get measured, then your garment would be created. Over the years, the industry changed, and people bought more and more clothes from the rack and this service eventually dwindled.

Today, alterations is Durham’s main service, everything from causal khakis to slacks, from dress shirts to suits and sports coats. He also does minor repair work, alterations to first responders’ uniform, patch sewing and fixing stuff animals.

Much of the work is done by hand, but some of the heavy lifting is performed by one serger machine and three sewing machines in the main work area – two being industrial thread stitchers and a blind stitcher, which is one of the original machines purchased in the 1950s and still works well to this day.

“Other places, you don’t see the person doing the alterations half the time. The work is done in the back,” Durham said. “I think it’s important having this open space where customers can see the work being done.”

Durham was born in Kingsport, grew up in a good family and enjoyed skateboarding, music and movies growing up. Overall, he had a good childhood. When you walk into Hyder’s Tailor Shop you can immediately feel Durham’s style.

The walls are covered almost entirely with local art (much of it created by Durham’s friends). Decorated skateboards hang near the ceiling and the outside wall was recently covered in a sci-fi mural of aliens, spaceships and cryptids.

At this time, Durham is the only full-time employee in the shop and he has no plans to change careers. His mother works as needed, his nephew is in training, and a part-time employee helps out as well.

“This place certainly stays busy,” Durham said while cutting apart a dress shirt. “And I love it when clothes come out looking good. When the customer puts it on and it looks good on them and they’re happy, that’s a small pleasure for me.”