Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
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Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
FMBGN-BIZ-Tunaskin-Rising from the Tide: How Tuna Skin Rebuilt After Hurricane Ian
Pull up a beach chair and dive into an inspiring conversation with Ben Duval of Tuna Skin Greetings, a Fort Myers Beach business that embodies the resilience and community spirit of this beloved coastal paradise.
Ben shares the quirky origin story behind the Tuna Skin name, born from a fishing trip in the Florida Keys where the founders noticed tuna's unique skin-like appearance. What started in a garage has blossomed into four retail locations across Florida's most beautiful coastal communities. While many might dismiss them as "just another t-shirt company," Tuna Skin has woven itself into the fabric of Fort Myers Beach through environmental stewardship and community engagement.
When Hurricane Ian brought 14 feet of storm surge crashing through their flagship store, Ben and his team transformed devastation into opportunity by completely redesigning their space. This experience prepared them for future hurricanes, turning what was once a 90-minute hurricane prep meeting into a confident 15-minute checklist. "We've been there, we've done that, we got the t-shirt," Ben reflects with the characteristic resilience of a coastal business owner.
The podcast reveals how Tuna Skin's annual Beach Keepers Club has grown from a modest 80-person cleanup to a community celebration attracting over 400 volunteers, complete with live music, food, and camaraderie that extends long after the official event ends. This initiative now spans all their locations, with Ben emphasizing that these events should inspire year-round environmental consciousness: "The one day should remind you why you should be doing it continually."
As a fourth-generation Floridian who once left paradise only to return with renewed appreciation, Ben brings authentic perspective to his business philosophy. With 80-85% of their merchandise made from recycled plastics and partnerships with organizations like Keep Lee County Beautiful and Mote Marine, Tuna Skin demonstrates how local businesses can align profit with purpose.
Whether you're planning your next beach vacation or simply drawn to stories of community resilience, this episode showcases how one business is preserving paradise while creating products locals wear with pride. Follow Tuna Skin on social media to discover their upcoming events or visit one of their locations in Fort Myers Beach, Siesta Key, Bonita Springs, or Key West to experience this unique blend of fashion and community spirit firsthand.
Tunaskin Aquatic Apparel
Ben Duval
1300 ESTERO BLVD.
FORT MYERS BEACH, FL
(239) 747-2230
tunaskin.co
Ft Myers Beach-Good Neighbor
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Welcome to the Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor podcast, where the sun's always shining and the stories are even brighter. Each episode we bring you closer to the neighbors, local legends and beachside businesses that make Fort Myers Beach the slice of paradise we all love. Pull up a beach chair, grab a drink and let's meet the people who make this island feel like home. We want to send out some island love to Eric Tibbs from Edward Jones State Insurance USA and Home Well Care Services Fort Myers.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbors. Today we have good neighbor Ben Duval from Tuna Skin Greetings, yes, so excited about learning about businesses on Fort Myers Beach and what's going on in the community. You've been there for a long time, right, yeah? And just recently rebuilt and reopened. So let's back for the people that aren't familiar with your story.
Speaker 3:Let's back that up a little bit Tuna Skin. We are a aquatic apparel company brand. We started here on Fort Myers Beach at our first. Our flagship store right here on Fort Myers Beach Started in a garage actually, All the best places to start in a garage, Of course. Of course you know Apple, Microsoft, what is it? Amazon. So we're just the same. Just, we're getting there, right, we're getting there. But rumor has it, legend has it that the name came from the tuna skin name. The owners were off the coast of the Florida Keys fishing and they were fishing for tuna and they looked at the tuna and they said tuna doesn't really look like it has any scales, it looks like it's just skin. We could name it tuna skin. We could name the company tuna skin. So wearing our clothes is kind of like wearing a tuna skin, but without the smell.
Speaker 2:I love it, I love it. See, that's and you. You gotta know the history behind an end sometimes, because there's always a unique, and I did say, legend has it, so I don't know exactly how much of that is true, but that is the story, and the legend sometimes is better than the actual.
Speaker 3:The more you tell it, the bigger it gets exactly.
Speaker 2:It's like a fishtail, that's it see. So why fort myers beach?
Speaker 3:uh, fort myers beach was, was home to, uh, the company, okay, and it was. It was somewhere where we felt like we were really part of the community and it's where we started, it's where we continue to to thrive, um, whether it's with all of the fort myers beach events that are happening all over the area, um, and it's just especially like with everything that's happened with the storms and everything that's happening with the storms and having to rebuild everything, it just it, it kind of the sense of community really came back, that that we felt and it was. You know, it's everybody knows your name and sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes that's a bad thing, but it's. It is when, when it really comes down to it, everybody is everybody's friendly. It is when it really comes down to it, everybody is friendly Everybody's. You know they're in it for the same reasons, to just have a beautiful area that we call home. And most of the business owners, you know they know each other and they work really well together.
Speaker 2:It is Like you said. It's a multifaceted paradise that we've all been attracted to and we all help each other out. So let's talk about that a little bit. You know, obviously you know, being by the beach, we have our storms. Yes, you know, we've had a number of big ones lately, but both personally and maybe professionally, what has that done to you?
Speaker 3:Well, the good and the bad of it, and we were just as a company coming out of as we were getting ready for this, coming out of a hurricane prep meeting with our operations team going through. All right, if we need to pull the trigger on a hurricane, what do we need to do? Five years ago, four years ago, this meeting was an hour and a half. This meeting that we just had was 15 minutes, because we've been there, we've done that, we got the t-shirt, we know exactly how to do it. We went through it with Ian where we had what was it? 14 feet, come in and take care of the entire store and just kind of cleared everything out for us. So we could, I always say the blessing of losing the Fort Myers Beach store was we finally got to design it to exactly where we wanted. You know, we were no longer going into a space that was designed for other businesses. We were then being able to design the space that blank canvas, yeah, exactly. And so that really helped us out with getting ready for the hurricanes that we had last year in 2024. And when you have a aquatic apparel brand, you are next to the water and you are located in paradise and you are right in the middle of hurricanes.
Speaker 3:During hurricane season, you know, we always have with each of our four retail locations. We have kind of the steps that we go through with each location of whether we need to move merchandise upstairs if it has a second level or if we need to go get a U-Haul and bring all the merchandise to the warehouse or to another secondary location to get it out. And so that was. That was Ian was really helpful getting us ready for Milton and Helene that hit last year and they didn't really affect our Fort Myers Beach store as much as they affected our Sarasota store. At our Sarasota store we ended up getting three and a half feet of storm water in our Sarasota St Armand store, so that was tough.
Speaker 3:Wow. In our sarasota st armin store. So that was tough, but luckily we had done um leading into that. After ian we had gotten to the point where we would say, all right, move all the merchandise upstairs, get everything upstairs. And you hate doing that over and over again because two days later they say the hurricane isn't coming and then you put everything downstairs like it was two days before that you go. That was a waste of time and you always feel like it's a waste of time until that one time. Yeah, that you go. Really glad we did that and that was that.
Speaker 2:And I think you know down here in southwest Florida I want to say comfortable, but we kind of in a sense did get comfortable because the last couple of storms that came through we didn't have that surge. Yeah, it actually hit the reverse.
Speaker 3:It pulled the water out.
Speaker 2:So people are like, yeah, it's not going to hit us and, like you said, the one time that it does, the one time that it does and it changes your mindset from there on out, because, especially, a lot of people move here.
Speaker 3:They don't know what hurricanes are. They go through a couple of hurricanes, they go ah, we got this. I understand hurricane parties and hurricane party prep. That's all well and good until you get hit with an actual hurricane and then you go wait, this is really tough. Yeah, that beer is really not gonna help. Exactly I I had to cook all my meals on the grill for four days and and heat up the coffee on the grill, and no ac, no electricity for four days, or or however long it is. So it really we learned a lot from it. We're still learning. Yep, um, you know is the best way to combat it is to be prepared for it and make sure you're doing everything that we can to avoid the big impact that would would really really hurt a smaller company like us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you mentioned it's something you want to be great at, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:But she's still got to prepare. But when the when the time comes to pull the trigger and say, all right, we've got to do this, the anxiety is less because you know the story.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. You're familiar with what could happen and how bad it could be, so you know what to cover. So let's talk. You touched on it a little bit before about community, and I know you guys do quite a bit to support the community and you know sponsoring events. You know the Songwriters Series is one of them as well too. But what other things are you guys doing?
Speaker 3:Specifically for the community. I mean we partner, like you said, we do the songwriters events. We have done fishing tournaments, charity fishing tournaments, both offshore. We do an inshore fishing tournament tournament, which we actually kind of took that template and moved it to our new sarasota location and we did our first uh beach fishing tournament in sarasota this past season, trying to, you know, establish ourselves in the community there.
Speaker 3:We also do I don't know if you've been to it, some of of the followers might have we have a pretty killer beach cleanup every year. So we do a what started out as a small we call it our beach keepers club and small, you know, it's a beach keeping cleanup every year and it started out we had about 80 plus people our first year. We had some donated food from local restaurants just to kind of feed people afterwards and clear up. Clean up the beach. Um, we're on year. I don't remember exactly what year, but I do know that last year we had 400 plus people, wow, at our beach cleanup. Um, and then from there we started bringing in live bands that would play. We have the food, we have raffle items.
Speaker 3:It was bringing the beach cleanup core and then expanding on that and not making it just an event that you get up early, you go do the beach cleanup. You're done by 10. It's hot. You go home, you take a shower. Now it's an event. You hang out, you have some drinks. It's hot, you go home, you take a shower. Now it's an effect. You hang out, you have some drinks, you have some food, there's live music, we have raffles at the end. So that really creates the sense of community where most of the time when we do these events, when they're over with at 1 o'clock, they're over with at 1, but everybody knows everyone. So everyone sits around the rest of the day and it just hangs out. So the official is over with at one, but the event keeps going and that's yeah.
Speaker 2:And again, you know that's great with the community and bringing people together and keeping the beach clean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean you know many people are so messy out there. It surprises. It surprises me. And we've we've started doing, we've done all of our. We've expanded our beach keepers club to all of our four retail locations. I love it. So we've got um sarasota. We do a beach keepers club. We've done it in our st armand's location. We're doing it now with our our siesta key location.
Speaker 3:Okay, key west, we go down there and we we call it an island cleanup because there aren't a lot of beaches in Key West. But the surprising thing in Key West is everybody goes. Well, where should we clean up? There's tons of places that need it. Unfortunately, like you said, a lot of the tourists and locals, even the biggest thing that they pick up is cigarette butts. That's crazy, right, they pick up tons of cigarette butts because people just flick them and forget about them and it's a hazard for birds and for people.
Speaker 3:And just getting out there and cleaning that stuff up, and one day a year I always try and emphasize this you shouldn't be doing this. One day. The one day should remind you why you should be doing it continually, exactly. And so we kind of try and keep that. You light the fire, you give it a little bit of gasoline and you let it, you let it go and and hope that people you know, every time I go out on the boat, every time I go to the beach, I've got a small bucket that I carry with me or an extra bag that I put stuff in. Yeah, and that's just through years of of of trying to make sure that you leave it better than you found exactly, and you're not just walking by like somebody else will pick that up here.
Speaker 3:You actually go and pick it up exactly, but it was supposed to be and that somebody else might be a bird, it might be a turtle, it might be something that shouldn't be picking up the garbage, so just pick it up. I've seen, unfortunately I've seen many piles of garbage or stuff strewn about and not 10 yards away from a garbage can. Right, exactly, it's crazy. So throw away your stuff, yes, your garbage, throw it in the garbage can.
Speaker 3:So you're from Southwest Florida originally right, well, I was born in Tallahassee. I'm actually a fourth generation Floridian. All right, okay, I wear the badge of Florida Cracker with pride, nice. So I was born in Tallahassee, moved to Southwest Florida really young, when I was four, okay, and my dad was a golf pro, so that kind of fits in Southwest Florida, perfect, yep, yep.
Speaker 3:And so I, until 18, you know, I was the beach kid out on the boat, out at the beach, and at 18, you know you hate, you just want to get away from home, and I couldn't wait to get out and I got out and I lived a bunch of different places and I think it was that getting out of Dodge, getting away from it and then going. You know, it's not that bad, it's kind of really cool. Um, and so I spent some time in a bunch of different other different places and then came back to Southwest Florida and this is what I call home now. And and now it's tough to go up anywhere up North when it's cool, cause below 60 and I'm like break out the parkas and the skull caps and the gloves because it's cold.
Speaker 2:You're better than me, because it's below 80 for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was born in.
Speaker 2:Wisconsin. The same thing, though. My daughter was born down here. She's like most Floridians they get tired of down here and want to go somewhere else. She went back up north, spent one winter up there and she goes.
Speaker 3:yeah, no, that's not me Not there she goes. Yeah, no, that's not me, not so much. Yeah, the winters, the winters are beautiful and I get it, and I saw my first snowfall and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And how could something be so beautiful? And three weeks later I went. So when do we get to go to the beach? Enough of that. How I get that there's ice fishing, but why would you fish on ice? Why wouldn't you just go down south? But yeah, it's, it is. It is definitely a a eye-opener, it is it is.
Speaker 2:It's like owning a boat up there. You use it what?
Speaker 3:for three months, yeah and I've had neighbors who said well, are you going to winterize your boat? I said homeboy, this is, we don't winterize, you can use it all year long absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's why we're speaking of rich. You like getting out and boating, but outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?
Speaker 3:Outside of work. I love to go fishing when I have time. Okay, it's kind of zen for me. I do a lot of solo fishing. When I can, I read a lot of books. I try to read a lot of books. I think we always say we have the ambition of reading a lot of books and they stack up on the nightstand and then you go, yeah, but Netflix. So I try to read a lot of books. My family is in the Florida area so I try and spend a lot of time with family, that's important yeah.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good. So what is one thing you wish our listeners knew about Tuna Skin that maybe they wouldn't be too familiar with?
Speaker 3:One thing that I wish that they knew. You know, we a lot of people. If they're just coming in and seeing Tuna Skin, they they see it as just another T-shirt company. And what we strive to be is not just another t-shirt company. Anyone can screen print, anyone can dye, supplement what we do. We try and A become part of the communities.
Speaker 3:Wherever we put our brick and mortar stores, we try and engulf ourselves into the communities, whether it's Chamber of Commerce, which is an easy one, but also hosting events there, getting you know, in the off season, it's the people that live there that are really going to come back over and over again and they're going to bring their friends and they're going to come back if they feel like it's their brand, if they feel like it's their company.
Speaker 3:We've seen a lot of people that they buy tuna skin. They go up north and when they come back the next year they come back in and they buy it because, oh, I went up north and I told all my friends back home we have tuna skin and so it's a source of pride. It is so that's I think that's one of the big things that I would emphasize with the listeners is, you know, we're not just a t-shirt brand and kind of. We kind of try and walk the walk and talk the talk. And you know, with our a hundred percent recycled material I'd say 80 to 85% of the stuff in our stores is made out of the a hundred percent recycled plastics. So we try and, like I said, anybody can get a bunch of shirts and screen print them in their garage. We try to be a little different.
Speaker 2:You know, give you a little something to go yeah, but yeah, and you feel like you're giving back to the community, exactly, exactly, and you are.
Speaker 3:You are, because it's a lot of what we do. We partner with Keep Key West beautiful, keep Sarasota beautiful, keep Lee County beautiful. We partner with Plant a Million Coral down in the Keys Mote Marine in Sarasota. So even the people that we're donating to or partner with, you're doing some good.
Speaker 2:That's good, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 3:That is what it's all about. If you can put your head on the pillow and say you know what I've done good today, then you're in a good place my slogan is no, no shade, just sunshine, right there you go. What it's all about.
Speaker 2:You know it's got to be sunny and bright and fun, so how would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more?
Speaker 3:get some apparel so you can go if you are in within vicinity of any of our retail locations. We have a brick-and-mortar store on Siesta Key, in the village. We have a brick-and-mortar on Fort Myers Beach. We have a brick-and-mortar right here where we're doing the interview. It's also our warehouse in Bonita Springs. We also have a brick-and-mortar on Duval Street in Key West.
Speaker 3:If you're not within walking or driving distance or, depending on your income, flying or helicopter distance, you can check us out online on tunaskinco, and we've got all of the stuff that you see in stores is online. Some of the stuff you can only find in stores, because it is very store specific, like this one with the rooster on it for Key West I love it. Well, you can only find those in the store, and so I encourage people to follow us on social media. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook, follow us on social media. We have a lot of events that we are either attending, that we are hosting or that we are partnering with, and we will announce those and say hey, we're in key west this weekend for the songwriters festival, or we're doing island hopper songwriters festival or whatever we're doing, come out and see us love it. And so, even if we're doing the satellite locations that you go.
Speaker 3:Wait, tuna skin is in clear water. They don't have a store. We're going to clear water in a month and a half. There's a beach. There is a is a beach in Clearwater, so we'll be there for the offshore powerboat races Nice For that. So keep an eye. You'll follow us on social media to see what we're up to. Again, we try, and all of our employees try, and walk the walk and talk the talk. So if we're doing something cool, we take pictures and we post it and you go. Well, this was my weekend. What was your weekend? Check us out on social media. Come to our stores, talk to our staff. Check us out on the website tunaskin. co.
Speaker 2:There you go. It's been a pleasure getting to know you you as well. Thank you for being such a good neighbor. I love what you're doing, thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, let's play this.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to the fort myers beach good neighbor podcast, where community meets paradise. If you loved what you heard, share it with a friend and keep the good vibes going until next time. Stay sunny, stay salty and keep being a good neighbor. Also, to nominate your favorite neighbors, local legends, heroes or island businesses to be on the show, go to CaboWaboJim. com. That's CaboWaboJim. com, or call 239-427-4100. We want to send out some island love to Eric Tibbs from Edward Jones State Insurance USA and Home Well Care Services Fort Myers. They are the businesses that allow us to share the soul of our community with every listener, from local stories to the positive vibe of island life. Here's to celebrating all that makes Fort Myers Beach the slice of paradise we all love.