To all of our customers, supporters, and friends in the pirating community- we see you, we hear you, and it’s time for us to talk.
This letter intends to explain the circumstances surrounding the closure of Pirate Fashions, what the Pirate Collective is and who we are, address what happened with the auction pieces, and let you all know what’s coming up in the near future for us.
There have been quite a few rumors swirling around that the owner of Pirate Fashions was abandoned with the announcement of the closure, and that there was a ‘mutiny’ of sorts. This is not the entire truth, and it’s time for us to clear the air once and for all.
Two years ago Tiger Lee made an agreement with the store manager, Devin, and the CFO, Laurana, that the employees of Pirate Fashions would enter a 10 year contract to buy the business from Tiger as he settled on his new venture in the Azores. The intention was to grow the business and to have the employees have equal say and input into the products that Pirate Fashions offered. Tiger would continue to hold an advisory role, and would come back to the US to help the store during some of the bigger events.
With Gasparilla at the end of the month, January has always been the busiest time of the year for us. We spend months beforehand preparing for Gasparilla and restocking inventory to the best of our ability. Some of Pirate Fashion’s products were shipped in from overseas manufacturers, mainly Ecuador and India. With the implementation of EO 14257 on April 25, 2025, we were hit with a 54% tariff on some of our biggest selling items. This did eat into a large chunk of our profits and, if they continued, would have impacted our ability to continue as a business. Tiger returned from the Azores to assist with Gasparilla, and against the urging of both of his business partners and a multitude of alternative suggestions, decided that the business would no longer be viable, and refused to consider any other options. As the owner of the business, he was within his right to close if he wanted to. However, he did not finalize this decision until after Gasparilla, and did not inform his employees that this was going to happen. After an arduous and surprisingly strong season, he laid all 13 employees off the day after the parade.
Tiger did offer to his ex-employees the opportunity to buy parts of the business to continue on their own after much pushback from all of us on the decision to close. A company-wide meeting was held where he made a spoken agreement that if the employees were able and willing to stay until the end of the month to help with the closure, they would be entitled to a share of the profit once everything was wrapped up. Several of us expressed the desire to purchase lines and assist with the closure, to which he agreed to and told us he would be willing to work out. The following day after our announced closure, tariffs were reduced greatly, and Tiger saw this as an opportunity to meet with a broker to sell the business as-is without informing any of the employees he had just assured would have the opportunity to buy parts of the business. Employees found out about this decision via a public Facebook announcement on our business page, implying the store was already in the process of being bought out. That understandably upset all of us, especially those hoping to keep the brand alive and stay onboard with their own companies. If Tiger decided to sell the business, that would take away the opportunity for any of us to purchase lines from him, use his vendors as he had previously offered, or continue being associated with the Pirate Fashions brand at all.
Several employees decided to walk away after this information came to light, though several stayed and helped- continuing to work under Tiger a month after being laid off.
Those of us that stayed behind to help with the auction were largely uninformed with regards to most everything to do with it. The auction was Tiger’s idea and execution, and there was very little communication between Tiger and the crew at this time.
He did not discuss how the bidding process was going to work.
He did not communicate with us that he would leave bidding open during the live auction.
He did not tell anyone what his plan was for people to come to the store to receive their items. We did not even know if people had already pre-paid for the auction items before the live auction.
We were scrambling during the live auction to figure out who won online and who won in-store, since the bidding was kept live despite Tiger stating otherwise.
We were NOT informed of any plan of how to ensure those that purchased received their items after the event wrapped up.
Tiger was to handle that before returning to the Azores, and with his short time frame, he was unable to see through to orders in a manner that ensured each customer received items as expected. This is deeply regrettable, and a failure to meet the expectations of our customers.
There were so many things that needed to be discussed with the employees who stayed and helped despite being laid off that were unfortunately not addressed. This, along with the initial lack of clarity and communication during the business’ very wishy-washy, public month long closure, has led to very reasonable distrust from you all, our loyal customers. We completely understand your frustrations and sincerely apologize to anyone who has not received their purchases and refunds. This is not the standard of customer service we have upheld for the last several years, and it is unacceptable that things were left this way.
We want to make this right, now that the Pirate Collective has finally come to fruition. Now that we have a handle on the social media, emails, and other accounts associated with Pirate Fashions, we are finally ready to address this issue. If you have purchased anything from the auction that you have not received, or an order that was placed after the closure announcement please email us at piratefashionsacct@gmail.com. This will be where we will handle all issues related to this matter, and we will be hard at work ensuring nobody has been left behind.
Although there have been some unfortunate fumbles on our part trying to rebuild something new out of the ashes of Pirate Fashions, we do want to clarify and discuss what the Pirate Collective is, and why it has come about.
Tiger did not receive an offer for the business in time for his departure back to the Azores. He, instead, rectified some of the issues between himself and the employees after some time surrounding the potential buyout a week before the auction. Some of us did purchase lines from him under contract, and over the last month or so have slowly been working on getting our businesses registered and ready to operate. Before the auction, we were all given dates to collect what we’d purchased once the live auction wrapped up. There was no further discussion about the live auction and we, the collective, were never made aware that there were people who had yet to receive what they paid for. There was an incorrect assumption made that Tiger handled all loose ends before breaking up and selling the different branches of the business.
Pirate Fashions is officially closed. The Pirate Collective is what we chose to represent us as a group, but each section of the business is individually run by the ex-employee who owns it. As agreed through our contracts, we are all operating our storefronts under the same domain - piratefashions.com, so that you all can still easily find us. The website still effectively functions the same as it did before; you are able to freely browse products through all of the lines that are available and purchase from each at the same time, in the same transaction. Our e-commerce platform allows us to divide products by location, so that each order will be received by the correct business so that they can fulfill the order and ensure it gets to you. We wanted to keep things as easy as possible for our dedicated, long-time customers.
The division of businesses goes as follows:
Molly Roger LLC - Women’s Clothing and Accessories; Replica Guns
Fathom Atelier - Leather Goods and Hats
Dead Siren Trading Co - Jewelry
Windlass Boutique - Custom Coats, Sashes, and Bandanas
Dead Red’s Locker LLC - Men’s Clothing and Accessories; Replica Blades and Swords
The idea of the collective is to continue to offer the beloved items from Pirate Fashions while also allowing each of us to come up with new and improved garments and accessories. In this way, we can all continue to contribute to the wonderful community most of us have been a part of for many years. Our artisans are hard at work setting up their new workspaces so they can get back to their craft in the near future.
We hope that we will be able to prove to you all that we are worthy of your trust and support. It is with the most sincerest of apologies that this has transpired in a way that has directly impacted you as a customer.
As we make sure everything is ship-shape, please pardon our dust, and be on the lookout on our socials for more announcements as we rebuild and become sea-worthy again.
Thank you for your continued support,