SHAPE MASCOTS
These characters are generally built to represent a particular brand product or character. They can be a coffee cup, a cell phone, or even a Muppet or a monster. They are usually durable, and immediately identifiable as a representation of your brand.
The defining characteristic of a Shape Mascot is that it doesn’t have a detachable head but is rather a shape that may or may not incorporate some sort of face. Shape mascots always stand out in a crowd!
Below are some notes on important considerations for Shape Mascots.
PURPOSE
One of the most important things to determine is your Shape Mascot’s purpose. Branding a product? Community service? Think about the location and environment, and what your mascot will be doing.
MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS
We often give you the chance to choose between a collapsible or rigid mascot, both of which have their pros and cons. A collapsible character is made of softer foam, and can be compressed to fit into a much smaller packing box, reducing shipping costs substantially. A rigid character has a more defined shape and will generally wear better over time, but won’t ship as easily. Some characters must be rigid because of their inherent shape, and some can share aspects of both soft and rigid construction.
In some cases, all or part of the material used to cover the characters may be removable for machine washing. Care must be taken to avoid shrinkage. Other characters without removable coverings must be spot cleaned or cleaned using a hand-held gentle wet-vac as needed.
SIZE & PERSPECTIVE
To determine size, take a human silhouette and place it over the image of your mascot design. While keeping the ratio of the silhouette constant you can enlarge or shrink it to fit in your sketch. If this is a person around 5’8” or 5’10”, you can imagine what the height of your overall shape will be when complete. Will this fit through a standard doorway? Will it fit into a car, or will you need a van? Will a single performer be able to support your mascot?
The depth of a character will influence whether a performer is centered within a costume, or close to the front. This can affect vision placement, and whether or not the performer’s face will be visible, or should be hidden behind a screen.
The width (and occasionally depth) of a character can influence armhole placement. You will not get full-length arms out of the side of a mascot that has a diameter of 55” – they would more logically be placed toward the front of the character, which is a more natural position for the performer. Even with such positioning, you most likely will only see partial arms and hands on a large character. However, you may find that your shape mascot won’t need exposed arms at all!
BRANDING
Where will you place cresting or corporate identification? Keep in mind that too much branding can detract from the character.
FEET
Our walkabout feet weigh approximately 17 to 25 oz. each, which allows for fairly vigorous activity. Since many people may wear the costume, we have designed the feet in a way that makes them more sanitary, as the performers can wear their own street shoes inside. They are made from a flexible, durable soling with a hand carved upper shoe which is reinforced to last.
HANDS
What will your character be doing with their hands? Will they need dexterity to sign autographs? Hand out paper or cardstock brochures? What about handling of doors or equipment? The larger and more padded the hand, the less dexterity will be exhibited. Most shape mascots have cartoon mascot gloves, but there are also aesthetic options such as points, claws, decorative paw pads, gauntlets or hand branding.
Do you need to incorporate brochure or sample storage into the design?
HEAT CONTROL
It can get hot in a Shape Mascot. While the best air-conditioning will always be a good attitude, there are some helpful things you can do to ease the heat:
- Have your mascot constructed with an exhaust fan to expel hot air.
- Purchase a cooling vest system, or, even better, a dual cooling and hydration vest.
- Strategically placed or hidden venting can allow extra air flow that works in conjunction with your exhaust fan, and make your Shape mascot extra comfortable.
- Using breathable and/ or wicking fabrics for arms and legs can provide much needed relief.
SPONSOR OR RUNNING MASCOTS
Running and Sponsor mascots are most often built for sports teams through sponsorship. Sponsors pay a fee to the team to participate in events during breaks in the game. Sometimes, a team prefers to have a group of generic running mascots, like pieces of fruit or running sushi that are used purely for entertaining purposes. As with all mascots, they should be well built and durable so they can stand up to rough handling. Running mascots in particular, are typically built from a soft foam which allows them to run, bump into each other, and even have ‘rumbles’ between game breaks. It is especially important that the branding and/or the item the sponsor mascot or running mascot represents be immediately recognizable from the stands.
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We LOVE Fiona the fisher! She showed up yesterday just in time for me to put her head on and walk into the start of our staff meeting. Folks are completely astonished at the quality of the costume, especially how realistic the fur looks. Thank you for working on this with us, and for producing such a top notch product!
US Fish and Wildlife Service
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She looks WONDERFUL! We're delighted to have her here and look forward to using her frequently. Thank-you so much for your patience and your feedback - it was a pleasure to work with you and your staff. Have a wonderful week and I'll be sure to say nothing but GREAT things about you guys.
Marymount Academy
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I have met Elliott (the beaver) during the 10th year party that was held on September 9th and I can confirm that parents and students were quite impressed by Elliott. Your team did a great job! Please thank all your team members.
École élémentaire catholique Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau
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Our Saanich Police mascot arrived late Friday afternoon and looks great! What a first class costume... It looks fantastic...
Sergeant, Saanich Police Department
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Just wanted to say the whole office LOVED the mascots and we had a great time wearing them and making them bobble last night. Tell everyone we were blown away by the quality of work. Thanks!
Boom Marketing
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He's very cute! I'm sure he will be loved by all in the Guelph community. Thank you very much to you and your team at Sugar's for putting this together in such a tight timeline.
Z Factor for Guelph Police Service
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You created an absolute masterpiece. In fact, I will go on record to say this is one of the best looking mascot costumes I have seen in my 23 years of sports management.
Sioux Falls Stampede Hockey Club
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Just a note to let you know that the mascot has been extremely well received. The kids love him and he can hardly walk for all the kids around him - kind of reminiscent of peter piper! We are learning a lot about crowd control and have a designated handler for him so he can make his way through the crowds. Omingmak is getting lots of hugs and making everyone smile. Thanks so much - he will be a big part of our annual Frolics.
The Hamlet of Cambridge Bay
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We love it We are very happy with the end product and I would recommend your company to anyone due to the great customer service, quality of the product and the very, very nice people who work there. Thanks again, Dave
Vancouver Island University
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I really enjoyed working together on this project. We just got our dog in today and I tried him on! Your team has done an awesome job. The goggles are amazingly well done! They look like they were made of real caribou antler! The fan is great too. The body is nice and buff...loving it!
Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, Gover
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I have to say again that He looks amazing...I am so glad we went through Sugar's Mascots. The professionalism on all levels of your company has really been great!! I do appreciate your hard work and the passion everyone has there for what you all do!!
Saskatoon Police Service
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I just wanted to thank you for your diligence and resourcefulness to make CAPER the best looking mascot I've ever seen. We did a rehearsal run with him yesterday and it looks terrific!! He'll be meeting the students today at noon with a big celebration taking place with our first day of classes. Any recommendation you want from us in the future, don't hesitate to ask.
Cape Breton University
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Yes, yes, yes! Our Spartan has come! He is magnificent! He will be presented at an assembly tomorrow and we're sure he'll make a huge impression. Thank you so much for accommodating us these last two weeks!
Margaret Barbour Collegiate
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I wanted to thank you for your outstanding work on Les Watts. We received him yesterday and were thrilled not only with how he looked, but with your attention to details. Sending a birth certificate and a personalized thank you card are both lovely touches.
strategie Revolution strategy
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Savertooth has made it here safe and sound. He's so adorable we can hardly stand ourselves today! He appears to be in perfect health, his fan unit works... and we especially like his birth certificate... very nice touch... we plan to have it framed!
BECU; Learning & Development/Financial Education
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He's a huge fantastic wonderful and furry addition to our staff. The kids went mad over him. Thanks so much for your wonderful work and thanks to Sugar Mascots.
Parks Canada -Public Outreach Education Officer
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Everyone who sees Mikey is instantly happy and delighted. People in cars passing by are shouting, waving and blowing the car horns. We are planning on an official arrival event for Mikey next week at the corner park where our sign is located . We hope to get coverage by out local papers. Thank you for producing Mikey for us.
Main Street Dartmouth and Area B.I.A.
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HE IS PERFECTLY AWESOME!!!!!!!we are all standing here looking at him and we are beyond pleased. Thank you and your team so very much!!
Town of Labrador City
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... just a quick note to say "Thank You" to everyone at Sugars. Everyone from the first phone call to when he arrived were all so helpful. "Flip" arrived on Friday afternoon and was a huge hit! All the staff was totally impressed how much he did look like our "logo in real life". He was in a parade on Saturday and the kid (+ adults) absolutely loved him - he got hundreds of hugs!!!
Westridge Electric Ltd.
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The costume handled very well at the game. This being the longest I've had it on since a video shoot we shot about two weeks earlier, I found it quite comfortable and a lot more expressive than our old suit. I've noticed that the fans seem to react a lot better to this costume as well. Their excitement level has really shot up. Thanks for crafting our new costume. I feel like a whole new bird, so to speak!
Rochester Knighthawks
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We have used him in our Open House Rally! We are planning to use him... for recruitment and all our events next year! Thank... all the staff for the work they put into him! He came with a lot of character- looking fierce!
Roseland Collegiate Prep
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Trax is going over better than we could have ever hoped for. We have had nothing, but positive responses at all of our events! We had 7 appearances in May alone. Wherever we go we are hearing “look its Trax” not “look it’s the rail runner”. We are actually starting to get requests from the public to attend their events. Again, a special thanks to you and everyone at Sugars who brought our vision to life.
New Mexico Rail Runner
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Falco was "born" today. A huge success, the kids love him. Our idea was that Falco would start shaky on skates and improve during the match. From next homegame he will pick up the speed since he is then a week old and has "practised" the whole week. Thank you again. It's been great working with you.
Stjernen Hockey
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I would like to thank everyone who worked on our wonderful Mascot. He was a HUGE hit at our tournament. He brought an air of fun and celebration to our event. Huge smiles, hugs and high fives were shared, pictures were taken and memories made! Visiting teams were so impressed, they will remember our little town forever... We will definitely recommend Sugars Mascot's to anyone who asks... Thank you again for everything!
Winfield Minor Hockey Association
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Our Olympian mascot "Torchy" was a huge success. Our students went wild when he made his debut... The entire process with Sugar's Mascots from beginning to end was excellent. We are so happy with the final product. Thank you for working with me and building a mascot for our school!
The Academy at Nola Dunn
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I just wanted to let you know that the Bull arrived today!!! You can't imagine how exited we all are and I wanted to thank you for such a responsible, amiable and excellent job you guys did … thanks for being so kind and so into our mascot and taking so much care of us as customers. Be sure that we will recommend you with our eyes closed and we will always take you in account in any further mascot character. Once again thank you and your crew so, so much and we are extremely happy, it is beyond what we expected.
Collegio Granandino
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We just got him…It looks even better in person than it did in the pics…You guys get top marks for customer service!!
Stonewall Collegiate Institute
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…Everybody loved Clockey! He looks terrific. I was also surprised and impressed by the owner’s manual that came in the box. It is very comprehensive and useful – even the tips for how to be a good mascot. The whole thing looks really good.
Bakersfield City School District
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… Instantly everyone loved the Dude. Everyone wanted their picture taken with the Dude. We carried the Dude all over the country to shows and exhibits. We’d walk around display halls and people would immediately think of SchoolDude. It became the symbol and instant reminder of what we did and how and helpful that the Dude actually is…Fast forward to today and SchoolDude has grown to the point where it is the leader in the industry… So your company (Sugars Mascots) can make a huge difference in the success and branding of a company if done properly.
DudeSolutions.com
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It was such a pleasure to work with Sugars Mascot Costumes. The entire process was such a joy and we appreciate the attention to every detail. ... thank you for such a wonderful experience as you brought Mr. Owl to life right in front of our eyes!
Chi Omega Executive Headquarters
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He arrived safely and we LOVE IT!!!! Had so much fun unpacking our new mascot with both of our principals and everyone is super pleased with the quality of your product. I appreciate all of your help and support during the process, it was a pleasure working with you and your team!
Ridgemont Local Schools
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... how much we have enjoyed our new Mascot – “Appy” the Happy Duck. You all did an excellent job on him and he was certainly a hit all during our fair in August! It was very hot but we had a couple young people who did a great job!! Thanks to you all for your hard work designing and making him for us to have for many years to come!
Appalchian Fair
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Thank you so much! Your customer services was amazing. Feel free to follow our page "energetic city roller derby association" for updates on shotgun Sally including her formal debut and where we take her. We will highly recommend your company to other teams and organization.
Jennacide
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When we received our mascot we were blown away by the quality of the materials and the craftsmanship of the sewing. Overall I highly recommend Sugar's Mascots to bring your character to life. They did a great job, and when people see our mascot it always brings a smile to their face.
Lockout
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Our school went through Sugar's for our mascot... We started with a basic drawing one of our art students drew up for us based on what we wanted. They were able to design it and tweak it based on what we wanted. They were EXTREMELY patient with us and communicated with us every step of the way... went above and beyond to help us! Thank you
Eastlake High School
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That looks awesome!!!! Today was actually our 1st day back to school into the building. This was a welcome pick me up after a day of crazy new co-vid procedures.
Leipsic High School
NEED MORE INFORMATION
Sugar’s Mascot Costumes has been making mascots with heart since 1985! If you are interested in having us create a custom mascot for your company or would like information about cleaning & repairs, please complete the following form or contact us in person or by phone.