Zentai

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Four dancers in zentai

A zentai suit (Template:Etymology) is a skin-tight garment that covers the entire body.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The word is a portmanteau of zenshin taitsu (Template:Langx).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Zentai is most commonly made using nylon/spandex blends.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Use

The costumes are seen at major sporting events in North America and the United Kingdom. They created internationally recognized personalities of The Green Men, two fans of the Vancouver Canucks NHL team.<ref name="Canucks">Template:Cite web</ref> Various professional street dance/hip hop dance groups use the outfits, such as The Body Poets in the United States<ref name=lucrative /><ref>Template:Cite video</ref> and Remix Monkeys in the United Kingdom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

UK-based Remix Monkeys is a dance troupe that uses Morphsuits in their street dance routines

Full-body suits are used for video special effects: their unique colors enable the person wearing the chroma key suit to be digitally removed from a video image.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Other applications have included music videos (Black Eyed Peas' song "Boom Boom Pow", including the live performance at the Super Bowl), breast cancer awareness,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> fashion modeling on an episode of America's Next Top Model, social anxiety workshops, television (Charlie Kelly as Green Man),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a participant in public art project "One & Other",<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> and social experiments.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Legal limitations

Two brand ambassadors for the Toronto Transit Commission, with a sports fan

Since zentai cover one's face, a fine of up to €150 may be imposed upon those who wear them publicly in France. Furthermore, some sports leagues, such as Major League Baseball, ban the use of the costume hoods.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Brands

Red suits used to recolour mannequins to signal the winter sale

Companies have created brands of the suits including RootSuit or Superfan Suit in the United States, Bodysocks<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or Second Skins by Smiffy's<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Morphsuits in the United Kingdom, and Jyhmiskin in Finland. Morphsuits has achieved relative commercial success internationally. Between January and late October 2010, the company shipped 10,000 to Canada alone.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Morphsuits brand has actively tried to disassociate themselves from the existing zentai community.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Superfan Suits acknowledges in interviews that the outfits have existed previously.<ref name="lucrative">Template:Cite news</ref> The term "morphsuit" has become a generic term in the process; one New Zealand-based newspaper refers to competing brand Jaskins as "one of the main online morphsuit brands." Jaskins company founder Josh Gaskin says their origins are unclear, pegging the first usage with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

See also

• Bodystocking
• Black light theatre, which can use all-black zentai attire for its performances
• Catsuit
• Cosplay
• Dancewear
• Kigurumi
• Spandex fetishism
• Morphsuits

Notable users of Zentai

• Pink Guy, musical artist
• Jonathan Bree, musical artist
• The Great Morgani, performance artist
• Pandemonia, performance artist

Further reading

• Will Doig, "Men Who Love Lycra", The Daily Beast, 3 March 2010.