Word of the Day -- Zentai

Zentai is a term for skin-tight garments that cover the entire body. The word is a portmanteau of zenshin taitsu ("full-body tights"). Zentai is most commonly made using nylon/spandex blends.

Some companies have tried to create mainstream brands of the suits, by dropping the traditional name; in particular, examples include RootSuit or Superfan Suit in the United States and Bodysocks or Second Skins by Smiffy's 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 alone to Canada. Morphsuits brand has actively tried to disassociate themselves from the existing zentai community, occasionally being listed as the product's co-inventor.  Superfan Suits acknowledges that the outfits have existed previously in interviews. Their term has become somewhat generic in the process; one New Zealand-based newspaper refers to competing brand, Jaskins, as a "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. These suits are used by animators, the original colors offered allowed the person wearing the chroma key suit to be lifted easily from a video image.