What sets our workmanship apart
In this post we would like to share a little bit about the slightly more technical aspects of our tails.
One important feature that sets our tails apart from many others on the market is our open-fluke design. Many fabric mermaid tails use a zipper at the side of the fluke, which can jam if the tail is tight, and limits the size of the opening available to squeeze a monofin through. The closed space of a zippered fluke also creates drag as water that flows in from the waist cannot easily escape the tail when you swim. At Nereid Studios, user-friendliness is important to us, so we’ve decided to have the opening along the bottom of the fluke instead, with cute little colour-matched snaps/buttons to prevent any accidental ‘flashing’ of the interior without obstructing water flow. This drastically reduces the amount of drag without the need for bulky fillers inside the fluke, and also provides a much wider, more intuitive opening for you to insert your monofins. You can even put the tail skin on first, then pull the fluke up over your feet and put on your monofin while having an unobstructed view of it, as well as full access with your hands to pull on any required straps or fastenings. Just flip the fluke back down over your monofin after you’re done, secure the snaps, and you’ll be good to go!
As a result, you can use our tail skins with almost any monofin that you prefer, giving you a wide variety of options to suit what makes you most comfortable. Our resident designer has personally tried it out with the Mahina Merfin, Mertailor’s Fantasea Three fin (this is a tiny bit of a squeeze and the tips of the monofin have to be curled in slightly, but it still swims wonderfully in the water), and even the Waterway Fishtail Glide competitive freediving monofin. Other popular mermaid monofins such as the Linden, Finis Wave/Shooter/Trainer etc., should all fit without any problems as well. More conventionally-shaped competitive monofins that do not have the concave curved edge of the Fishtail Glide may peek out at the ‘forked’ part of the fluke just a little, and you may have to leave the innermost pair of snaps undone, but you will still be able to easily insert the fin into the tail and swim with absolutely no functional problems.
Our mermaid tails are made from stretchy and durable SCR fabric, which is lightweight while still being thick and sturdy. It also helps to keep your legs warm in the water so you’ll be even more comfortable during your swim. Our fabric is treated with a special coating to make sure the print stays bright and vibrant even with repeated use. All production is done professionally in China by our parent company Yunfantex, and our designer Tiffany (based in Singapore) receives regular updates and provides her input and feedback to them for quality control purposes.