-
Dying to know what's going on at Mertailor! Well, here's a quick look inside the NEW Mertailor world! Well, some of it anyway!
As many of you know, Mertailor has moved into a new location. As the mermaid swims, it's only about 3 miles downstream from our previous location.
This relocation is VERY exciting for so many reasons. Our production departments now have the extra space needed to operate and grow so we can continue to bring you new and amazing mermaid merchandise. But most excitingly, we are preparing to launch Mertailor's new "Mermaid Aquarium Encounter" which we hope to open in Fall, 2020! Not only will you be able to browse our new gift shop, but you also will have the opportunity to explore the underwater world in a a way as never before. As you cross the threshold into the Encounter you will enter a tropical rain forest and visit our rescued macaws and parrots. As you continue your journey towards the Bay you will be have the opportunity to interact with some of natures most amazing sea creatures such as the Atlantic Stingray, sea stars, horseshoe crabs and more. You will finish your journey in front of our 13,000 gallon Caribbean Saltwater Aquarium where you might even see a mermaid or two! If you want to go deeper, you can put on a snorkel and some fins to enjoy a cool dip and swim among the many tropical reef fish in this featured exhibit.
Mertailor was founded in 2003 by Eric Ducharme, who was mesmerized and inspired by mermaids and the underwater world since he was 3 years old. Not only was it his dream to become a mermaid tail maker, his first ambition was to become an underwater performer. That dream came true back in the early 2000's when Eric donned a set of fins and became an underwater performer at the world famous, Weeki Wachee Springs. Because Eric decided to move onto other adventures and pursue his career in tail-making, his ambitions in underwater performance were put on hold. However that never stopped him from planning on living that dream again--one day, this day!
So without further ado, we are excited to introduce to you, a look into Eric's vision. It is our hope that you, your friends, family, and loved ones will also enjoy visiting with us and participating with Mertailor in Eric's continuing journey for many years to come. With the world being turned upside down, we are trying to make the best of it and bring some joy to our community!
We had the honor of working with Paola Alvarez Roque, Founder of Dimensions Studio, who did an over the top job turning our vision into a virtual reality, which assisted us tremendously in the creation of Mertailor's "Mermaid Aquarium Encounter". You can visit them at www.dimstudiopr.com or check out their Instagram @Dimstudiopr
We can't wait for you to immerse yourself in Mertailor's new world! -
Are you excited yet!?!?! Here’s the big news! We are MOVING (Soon - More details to come)--but there is a lot MORE!
This afternoon we closed on our very own (new to us) building and it’s mighty big! Not only big enough for lots and lots of fun Mertailor stuff---but so much more! Before end of year we look forward to inviting you to experience our "Mermaid Aquarium Encounter".
Come and enjoy Mertailor’s whimsical world of Mermaid performances and underwater ballet shows. That’s right! Get ready for some awesome underwater productions! Immerse yourself in a magical world of mermaids and marine life.
Visitors will have the opportunity to observe aquatic life through the 25’ viewing window of our 30’ featured aquarium. Enjoy the soothing movement of rays and sharks and other colorful fish as they glide through the water. Maybe even dive into the main reef tank for your own personal underwater encounter. Yes, I said "DIVE" into the tank. Many "tail" swimming experiences will be available for you to become the mermaid or merman you always dreamed of for the day.
There will also be other exhibits and interactive tanks filled with seastars, snails, friendly crabs, and other shallow water marine species. Our goal is to educate our guests about these fabulous animals, share their beauty and make known the importance of their existence in the world.
We can't wait for you to immerse yourself in our new Mertailor world.
-
That's right! We said "Tails" of the Month!
The time has come to announce the TWO NEW Tails of the Month! That is right, we are giving you TWO tails for the month of November. Welcome Moon Kelp & Ocean Spray to the Whimsy Tail Skin Collection. Which one will you be choosing? Swim on over to https://bit.ly/2OSQY6L and get yours now! -
Receive 20% Off Mens Swimwear
From November 2nd-November 4th, use coupon code: MEN20 in your Shopping Cart to receive 20% Off your next swimwear purchase. This is the perfect time to add to your collection. -
Receive 25% Off Select Whimsy Tail Skins
We want to say thank you this weekend by giving you the chance to receive 25% Off Select Whimsy Tail Skins! Use Code WHIMSY25 in your Cart. Offer Valid November 2nd-4th 11:59 PM EST.
Includes: Caribbean Dream, Key Largo, Condy Anemone, Red Sea, Black Pearl, Splish Splash, Aqua Fairy, and Parrot Bay.
Don't Miss Out on This One Time Offer! -
Tantalize King Triton at your next Mermaid Gala with our alluring Mermaid Dress. Enjoy a sophisticated look or sass it up in this in this luxuriously comfortable dress contoured to follow you shapely curves. Enjoy the soft silky feel of the spandex blend fabric that allows complete freedom of moment as your enjoy your land legs hidden by the vibrant hand designed scales reminiscent of the scales of the sea tail. Halter style top with wide comfortable straps and finished on the bottom with chiffon "seaweed" in complimentary colors. Available in three colors, choose your cup and dress size for the perfect fit.
Get Yours Today! Shop Now!
-
Just something I'd like to mention to all of you if you didn't know already!
Our products are made in the USA (With the exception of our $5 closeout Abyss Collection of men's swimsuits from 2016). The Abyss Collection was our first and last line of product(s) purchased overseas. I decided that I wanted Mertailor to be "American Made" and support my community.
Our product lines are made in our studio, right here in Crystal River, FL, not a factory in any other state or country.
We operate and manufacture in-house.
Many of our products have a 5-7 day production time as we normally make to order and not trying to "overstock" our product lines like other companies do when they order in quanities over seas. Our motto is QOQ, "Quality Over Quantity".
Our entire team of talented individuals are creating everything from start to finish. This includes the beginning design of the product lines, pattern making and the graduation of patterns, printing and transferring of all the various fabrics we use including spandex, neoprene, and minky fabrics, cutting and sewing of the garments, quality control, and packaging and fullfillment. However, that's just the half of it! Let's not forget the customer service and management side of things! It takes a TON of energy to make Mertailor operate on the daily basis.
While this may not mean much to some of you, this takes time, money, and a lot of energy. Not to mention, we truly care about all of our customers and the quality and service we can deliver to them.
Many of the the raw materials that we purchase to make our products are also manufactured in the United States, which also increases the bottom line of our products. However, there's much more control of quality this way.
When a company purchases from overseas factories, you can run into "fishy" situations such as improper sizing, coloring, wrong materials, unsafe materials, etc. And guess what the best part is? The company can be OUT THOUSANDS of HUNDREDS of dollars without any recourse to the factory that they purchased from. It's unfortunate that overseas factories have abused their labor forces to make a "quick buck" and spoiled so many individuals all over the world due to cheap labor and cheap "knock-off" products.
Sure, we could manufacture our products overseas and shutdown our manufacturing facilities to transform them into large stock warehouses, but that is not how we roll.
In a nutshell, we aren't a factory in China paying $0.50-$1.00 per hour (Average Chinese factory workers make $285 per month) to our employees or making them work in unfair or unrealistic conditions. There's plenty of other companies that you can purchase from who support this clause, if that's what you're looking for. There's a few that come to mind right away.... If you're looking for a cheap product, you might as well look elsewhere, because we aren't serving that.
While we understand budgets and circumstantial situations, if you truly want something badly enough, you can save up for it. However, we live in a "got-to-have-it-now" world, which we are all guilty of.
We are thankful that we are able to purchase American made and employ hard-working individuals right here in the Sunshine State. We hope you can appreciate that as well. -
I’ve gotten several requests and suggestions that Mertailor should produce a sequin tail or a tail with individual sequin type scales. My answer is simply “NO”.
In my professional opinion, there’s nothing “eco” friendly about sequin or plastic scaled mermaid tails whatsoever.
While these mermaid tails might look pretty, they aren’t practical for underwater use in natural environments.
Mermaid tails, tops, and accessories with individual sequins “shed their scales”, will fall straight to the bottom of the ocean, lake, or freshwater spring.
Regardless, if the sequin or plastic pieces are made from recycled plastics, the “scales” will still fall off, not solving the "eco-friendly" part. Even if you were about to create a biodegradable sequin scale (Let's not even suggest sugar. Goodness knows Florida is having its own politics about sugar), would you want to see them laying around all over the ocean floor for years before it disintegrated?
Take it from someone who has seen this first hand. My history of working as a costume designer for the Mermaids of Weeki Wachee, had me creating many garments with sequins on them. I can't tell you how many sequins and beads have fallen behind the stage top over the years that just sit there! If you’ve ever dove Weeki Wachee Springs, you know what I’m talking about.
Years ago I use to train mermaids to swim in aquariums. These venues would not allow sequin mermaid tails, tops, or beaded accessories of any kind. Management and zooologists feared the animals in the aquariums would swallow and choke on the prices.
Did you know that a airline recently banned mermaid tails from traveling with sequins or individual plastic scales on them?
If you wanted to have one of these mermaid tails for “dry” performances or on-land photoshoots, that’s a different story, but I personally wouldn’t be swimming in them. Not in the ocean, lake, river, aquarium or freshwater spring.
I’m sure many individuals will not agree with my point of view, but it’s true and you know it. Please understand I’m not saying not to use these mermaid tails, but to think about where you use them! These mermaid tails should be used in a controlled environment such as a swimming pool or studio photo shoot! Not 30,000 leagues under the sea or your next beach outing!
I’m not perfect and I’m sure I’ve made a few things in my career that I could have constructed better, but we live and we learn.
With that said, our mermaid and merman tails are made from silicone rubber, spandex, and neoprene materials. Our scales will not fall off our our tails! No scale shedding to see here.
Thanks for reading and consider this!
Eric Ducharme, "The Mertailor"
PS: I don't care who you are or how you're going looking at this. If you're swimming with a sequin tail or plastic scaled mermaid tail, you're tail is GOING TO shed. You know, I know, everyone knows it. It's not a secret. It's going to happen. We're already having an issue with State Parks and public swimming pools "banning" mermaid tails. The next excuse they have to banning mermaid tails is going to be caused by the breakdown of these types of tails. Just think about it.... -
Mermaids = half human, half fish (At least this is what I've been taught in most fairytales and what I personally see these seductive creatures as). This means no "stiff" cardboard like flukes or fins. Instead the flukes of mermaid's tail should be flexible and translucent to an extent. This is why I decided to develop the Fantasea Fin and Spellbound Tail lines.
You don't see fish with "hard" flukes, do you? The last time you looked at a painting of a mermaid or mermaid related art, the fluke looked flowy, right? I mean, when's the last time you saw a fish swimming around with a piece of cardboard taped to its fluke! The Fantasea Fins and Spellbound Tails have proven themselves as perfectly realistic mermaid tail options for those who are looking for a realistic appearance and movement underwater. Let's not forget about their comfortably.
99.9% of those who try the Fantasea Fin or Spellbound Tails for the first time fall in love. While some individuals prefer fast speeds underwater, the Fantasea and Spellbound lines provide a beautiful realistic movement and appearance, which has a nice propulsion underwater.
Let's talk about the whole size queen thing... Yes, I know, many of you like "Big Flukes"! It's not the size that could but how you can make it work, right? Realistically, if you study a fish's anatomy, you will notice that the fins and flukes on a fish are generally smaller in size. Perhaps goldfish, butterfly koi, and beta fish have longer flowing fins, but these fish are generally swimming extremely slow, gliding through the water effortlessly. I for one feel that the Fantasea and Spellbound Tails have the best of both worlds!
I almost forgot! For those who like their "Big Flukes", these are the individuals who end up complaining about their feet hurting, stressing about having to drag the heavy brick around (Do you know how many tails I've personally had to carry for mermaids because their flukes are too big for them - LOL), and not being able to travel with it because its so BIG! These tails are perfect for your next mermaid adventure! -
Enjoy the Crème de la Crème and revel in the comfort and beauty of our new wondrous Mertailor Whismy Fantasea Tail skin. You will absolutely fall in love with the soft silky feel of the cushy luxurious Scuba knit material and be mesmerized by the brilliance of colors that practically glow as you glide through the water. A breeze to slip in and out of, this tail skin has a snug 1” wide spandex waistband that will stay in place while swimming. Made from 1mm thick poly spandex nylon knit fabric with a durable water repellant coating, this is the perfect tail solution for any water or posing experience. The dye sublimated print ensures long lasting color. Made to fit the Mertailor Fantasea fin, tail skin has a side zipper at the fluke to allow for ease of insertion of your Fantasea fin. Comfort plus comfort…and beautiful to boot! It doesn’t get much better than this!