Questionable Branding and Missed Opportunity
Disappointing event, questionable branding, and a missed opportunity to serve the tall community
This review pertains specifically to the Tall Tour NYC event on Saturday, September 12, from 2–6 PM at 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar in New York City.
Tall Tour, founded by Tyler Bergantino in 2025, is a traveling social community that brings tall people together through in-person meetups. The concept has genuine merit. Unfortunately, my experience at this event left much to be desired.
The NYFW branding was misleading.
New York Fashion Week is a globally recognized fashion institution where designers and fashion houses present collections to buyers, editors, stylists, and other industry tastemakers. Against that backdrop, branding this gathering as an NYFW event created a reasonable expectation of meaningful engagement with fashion.
That expectation was not met.
What unfolded was essentially a social-media activation in which content creators and influencers of a particular stature—socially and literally—walked a Soul Train-esque runway modeling clothes from their own closets. No designers presented collections, and no fashion houses showcased their work. This was a meet-up, not a fashion event.
The audacity was not in hosting a gathering for tall people during Fashion Week. It was invoking the cultural capital of NYFW without delivering an experience that meaningfully reflected what that designation represents.
The event logistics left much to be desired.
Despite paying $50 for admission, attendees faced a roughly 45-minute wait in line to enter, while members of the general public could apparently walk into the establishment without a wait.
Long lines were a recurring theme of the evening, both at the entrance and bar. Yet, despite the congestion, there appeared to be no one—neither the DJ, a host, nor a member of the event team—directing attendees or informing them that additional bars were available on the establishment’s upper levels, including rooftop bars open to the public.
This raises an obvious question: was the lack of communication simply an oversight in event coordination, or was there a financial incentive to keep attendees patronizing the bar on the event’s designated floor? Only the Tall Tour team knows. What is clear is that attendees were left navigating unnecessary queues without being made aware of alternatives that could have improved their experience.
The response to criticism was perhaps the most disappointing part.
When attendees began discussing their experiences in the Tall Tour Facebook group, the admins shut down the conversation rather than allowing an open discussion about what went wrong.
A community is not built solely by bringing people together, cultivating enthusiasm, or selling tickets. It requires accountability to the very people who sustain it. You cannot market belonging when everything is going well and withdraw the invitation when people have something critical to say. A community is not a captive audience, and brand loyalty should never be mistaken for an obligation to remain silent.
To be fair, the community itself was the event’s redeeming quality. Attendees salvaged what the event failed to deliver.
What initially felt like a mockery of the fashion community ultimately became something far more meaningful: a celebration of a marginalized segment of society. Ironically, this was not the achievement of the event’s organizer, but of the attendees themselves.
As each person stepped onto the makeshift runway at the DJ’s prompting, they were met with cheers and applause. You could sense it in the room: for many of those who dared to take that walk, this was an opportunity to be seen, affirmed, and embraced in a space where they did not have to explain an experience that set them apart from others. There was an unmistakable sentiment of "I’ve finally found my people."
Tall Tour has a compelling concept and an opportunity to foster meaningful connections among tall people across cities and cultures. But based on this experience, the execution fell short of the branding. The event logistics were frustrating, and the handling of criticism undermined the very sense of community the brand promotes.
Tall Tour brought tall people together physically, but this event left me unconvinced that the community itself is or ever will be the priority.