SEATTLE — This story has legs. Those are very long.
At a Seattle sports bar on a recent Saturday night, hundreds of tall people had the opportunity to experience something rare: fusion. Women in high heels craned their necks to look at someone taller. The men who usually hide under doorways look ordinary. For once, no one had to explain why they didn’t play basketball.
Welcome to the Tall Tour, a traveling reunion that attracts thousands across the United States to celebrate the one physical trait that made them unique – for good and bad. Since its launch last summer, the tour has visited 19 cities, with crowd numbers growing from 30 people in Tampa, Florida, to about 4,000 in Orlando, according to organizers. Seattle painted about 750 people, they said.
“You’re walking around and there are people your height and people taller than you when you thought you were just this giant freak,” said Tyler Bergantino, the tour’s 6-foot-9 founder who wears size 16 shoes. “This is something that I think is very healing for tall people.”
This concept appeared almost by chance. Bergantino, 32, is a former software salesman TikTok creatorposted an informal invitation on social media while traveling through Texas. He wanted content. Instead, he sparked a movement.
“She created herself,” he said. “I can’t really take credit for that.”
Each stop follows a similar format: tall people gather, take photos, share recommendations for shoes, and swap stories about banging their heads against door frames and cramming onto planes.
For many women, the biggest draw to the night is the speed-dating element and the hope of meeting someone who’s comfortable dating a taller woman – whether that means matching or exceeding his height or just opening up to him. Many relate to the common challenge of navigating a dating culture that still favors petite women.
“Dating as a tall woman feels like you’re intimidating people,” said 25-year-old Ksenia Protasenko, who is 6 feet tall. “There’s an association with being a warrior type, but that’s not true. It’s hard for your height to be the first thing people notice about you because it seems like people don’t really see any weak parts of you.”
Protasenko said men often ask if she plays basketball. She usually has a ready response.
“I tell them, ‘Yes, sure, even though I don’t do it,’” she said. “Then I ask them if they play miniature golf. That seems to set them straight.”
The most important event comes when the organizers crown the tallest man and woman present. In Seattle, those titles went to a mother and son. Susan Mullendore, 44 and 6-foot-5, stood next to her son Grayson, 19-foot-7, as the crowd erupted.
“As a mother, just seeing Grayson go through that experience meant the world to me,” Susan said. “To be able to win the crown with him was really special. It was nice to celebrate our heroism.”
For Grayson, a college freshman, the evening offered something rare: a sense of normalcy. He said that when he is in public, strangers make comments and photograph him without asking. “People think that because we’re tall, they can say whatever they want or do whatever they want, almost like we’re animals in the zoo,” he said.
On a long tour, the dynamic flipped.
“It was crazy to feel small for once,” he said, referring to the 7-foot-3 and 7-foot-4 event hosts known as the “Tall Boys.” “It was very surreal to be able to have a conversation and look into people’s eyes.”
This commonality goes deeper than shoe size. Attendees describe lives spent in social hypervigilance — raising their voices a few pitches to sound less intimidating, slowing down around corners so as not to spook strangers, and staggering to fit in.
“You’re very focused on making sure people don’t see you as a threat,” Bergantino said.
Tall people often feel isolated and out of place, especially in puberty, he said, noting that he reached 6-foot-9 at 16 years old. But on the Tall Tour, people can finally feel what it means to fit in.
“It heals part of your inner child,” he said. “Everyone’s walls are coming down, and it’s like we’re all one family.”
Susan knows this feeling.
“Sometimes, we just want to pass through the airport and be alone. That doesn’t happen for us. We usually get a lot of whispers,” she said. “We get it. It’s shocking to see tall people. But sometimes it just gets old.”
The challenges extend beyond social embarrassment. Finding the right clothes and shoes can be a task. Susan, who wears a size 14 shoe, orders clothes from a specialist UK brand. To match his dorm bed, Grayson added a mattress extender and three sheets of plywood for support. He’s still hanging on the edge.
Bergantino left his sales job two years ago and now runs Tall Tour full-time with a small team that includes his brother, who handles video and social media, and a CEO and COO.
Even celebrities have taken notice. Seven-foot-6 basketball player Mamadou Ndiaye attended the Los Angeles event, and the team came into contact with 7-foot-1 NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.
Future plans include expanding speed dating, launching a fashion show featuring length-inclusive brands and models, and adding spin-offs such as Tall Tour at Sea. International stops in Canada, Dubai, London, Australia, the Netherlands and Japan are also on the wish list. Bergantino says he wants to build a “tall person ecosystem” — advocating for checkout line-up seating, better clothing choices, and even a phone app.
Nowadays, the reward comes in smaller moments, like watching women in high heels celebrate their once-shameful height.
“The most fun of the day comes from the tall queen when she gets her crown and everyone goes crazy,” he said. “He gets me every time.”
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Long tour It will continue through May with two additional stops in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram.