Tampa's Pirate Fashions is one of the city's hot spots for all the pirate clothing you could ever ask for.
"We are the largest pirate store in the world," explained Tiger Lee, owner of Pirate Fashions.
You name it, you're going to find it at the store. Skirts, shirts, hats, beads, boots — every single piece of your pirate costume can be found here.
But, much of Lee's success is due to the old traditions of Gasparilla. So, in 2021 his business suffered.
"Well, actually, in 2020, even though we had Gasparilla, the rest of the year just went to nothing. So we lost about 35% of our business in 2020. And then in 2021, because we didn't have Gasparilla, we lost another 35% of our business. But this last year, in 2021, we had a record-breaking month of better than average sales, actually, we made a lot of record sales," said Lee.
While sales are good this year, it doesn't mean that it hasn't been a struggle.
Lee said, "So I mean, it's all good, but it's still not going to overcome all that loss from the last two years. And it's hard to predict the future. So when I had to buy stuff, last summer for Gasparilla, now, I didn't think it was going to be strong, I thought it's going to be maybe 90% of regular Gasparilla. So sort of, that's what I ordered. And then when it became very strong, you know, I'm starting to scramble for stuff plus all the supply chain issues. Even though we make lots of our stuff here, we still get supplies and some product from other places that have been severely impacted."
You can see everything Pirate Fashions has by clicking here.
