GETTING STARTED

GETTING STARTED

It is not just the attention to detail which gives our character mascots heart, it’s that twinkle in the eye and saucy grin which turn a Sugar’s mascot into a crowd-pleasing, huggable mascot costume.

dilley-high-school-wolfie

Just like any investment, it is important to do your research and planning to ensure that you get the most out of your character! Start with an idea, or no idea at all! Bringing your character to life can start in many strange ways… some may start with a graphic of a character or logo that is already used in branding, while others may begin with the crayon drawings of a child. Some clients have an existing mascot costume that they want redesigned or duplicated with only minor changes. Whatever the circumstances, contact us and we’ll help you develop your ideas into a design that exceeds your expectations.

IT'S ALL IN THE ARTWORK!

At Sugar’s Mascots, we understand what makes your concept truly come to life. The same careful attention we pay to every detail of your character’s expression is applied throughout the process of building your entire custom mascot.

Sugar’s Mascot Costumes has played a major role in inspiring design standards for our industry. Our art department is vital to the character development process. We are trained to help you with the creation of a unique mascot, whether you are working with a concrete concept or not. We listen to your needs and wishes, and use our many years of experience to deliver exactly what you want in a mascot.

At Sugar’s, we offer a linear sketch as complimentary hand drawn original artwork. There is something unique in a free-hand drawing that doesn’t seem to be captured in computer-generated artwork. We also provide colour renderings and digitized artwork in circumstances where the character or project becomes more complex.

Understand your options and needs before you start! We’re in the business of making custom mascots; this means that you’re in charge! Not only are there boundless design possibilities but also there are many functional choices when it comes to hands, feet, vision, etc. We’ll help you decide what is right for you, your performer, and even your target audience. Have a look at our Different Styles to get an idea of the possibilities, and don’t be afraid to ask for something we didn’t mention. In fact, our mascot mentors are just a phone call away… why not give us a call to brainstorm?

sketch-getting-start

Understand the cost. It often takes our specialized artisans 120 man-hours to make a character. They are made with heart and made to last. While some vendors sell higher priced mascots, these often incorporate intangibles, such as marketing plans. Yes, there are also lower priced mascots out there (we’ve often been asked to replace these). Cheap mascots are usually produced at a low quality by cutting corners or mass manufacturing, with small changes to fabric, colour, or ear style, etc. It is important to spend the right amount of money on a mascot built by an experienced manufacturer that understands your needs and will stand by their product. A mascot is an investment that should last for many, many years and that should be able to live up to your mascot marketing ambitions.

diamond-cheer-dance-photo-princess-kitty

SUGAR'S MASCOT COSTUMES IS WORTH THE WAIT!

We’ll admit that we’re constantly busy and that our lead times are often 18-24 weeks. You might think it would be easy for us just to add part-timers or temporary contractors to increase our production speed, but we don’t take shortcuts. In fact, we are rather slow to add members to our team for two reasons.

  1. It takes time to find an artisan with the right background, training and attitude who has the potential of becoming a perfect fit and valued member of our elite team.
  2. Hiring is only the first step. It takes two years of training and apprenticeship before we see a new staff member work independently.

One of our beliefs is that part of our excellence comes from the personal attention given to each job and this takes time. We also need time for consultation amongst our team of experts and for consultation with you. On average, it takes our specialized staff over 120 man-hours to hand-craft your mascot!

When you choose Sugar’s Mascot Costumes, you will notice the care and attention to safety and comfort that goes into your custom-made character. With Sugar’s, you get more than just an excellent mascot designed and built to look like the artwork. You get us, too, and we have been making custom-made mascots since 1985. Your business is important to us, and we will always treasure your mascot. We support our clients with a full in-house repair and cleaning service for all mascots, whether built by us, or elsewhere. Our artisans build every part of your costume on our premises with pride and accuracy, to ensure that you receive a character that you will love for years to come.

Send us an enquiry and we’ll get you started in making your own three-dimensional huggable and high-fiving mascot costume!

WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY

  • 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!

    Jennifer Jones
    Jennifer Jones US Fish and Wildlife Service
  • 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.

    Dan Bartolucci
    Dan Bartolucci Marymount Academy
  • 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.

    Carole Gauthier
    Carole Gauthier École élémentaire catholique Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau
  • Our Saanich Police mascot arrived late Friday afternoon and looks great! What a first class costume... It looks fantastic...

    Scott Treble
    Scott Treble Sergeant, Saanich Police Department
  • 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!

    Lee McGrath
    Lee McGrath Boom Marketing
  • 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.

    Candice Faul
    Candice Faul Z Factor for Guelph Police Service
  • 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.

    Jim Loria
    Jim Loria Sioux Falls Stampede Hockey Club
  • 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.

    Brenda Mercer
    Brenda Mercer The Hamlet of Cambridge Bay
  • 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

    Dave Switzer
    Dave Switzer Vancouver Island University
  • 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!

    Christine Lamothe
    Christine Lamothe Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, Gover
  • 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!!

    Rolanda McAvoy
    Rolanda McAvoy Saskatoon Police Service
  • 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.

    John Mayich
    John Mayich Cape Breton University
  • 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!

    Ellen Long
    Ellen Long Margaret Barbour Collegiate
  • 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.

    Sarah Goulding
    Sarah Goulding strategie Revolution strategy
  • 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!

    Ronda Stevenson
    Ronda Stevenson BECU; Learning & Development/Financial Education
  • 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.

    Fred Sheppard
    Fred Sheppard Parks Canada -Public Outreach Education Officer
  • 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.

    William Mills
    William Mills Main Street Dartmouth and Area B.I.A.
  • 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!!

    -Evelyn Ryan
    -Evelyn Ryan Town of Labrador City
  • ... 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!!!

    Donna Wagler
    Donna Wagler Westridge Electric Ltd.
  • 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!

    Nick Hadad
    Nick Hadad Rochester Knighthawks
  • 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!

    April Moran-Reza
    April Moran-Reza Roseland Collegiate Prep
  • 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.

    Brandon MacEachen
    Brandon MacEachen New Mexico Rail Runner
  • 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.

    Georg Lund
    Georg Lund Stjernen Hockey
  • 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!

    Tawnya Dooper
    Tawnya Dooper Winfield Minor Hockey Association
  • 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!

    Laura Ward
    Laura Ward The Academy at Nola Dunn
  • 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.

    Pedro Londoño
    Pedro Londoño Collegio Granandino
  • We just got him…It looks even better in person than it did in the pics…You guys get top marks for customer service!!

    Cathy Chalmers
    Cathy Chalmers Stonewall Collegiate Institute
  • …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.

    Steve Gabbitas
    Steve Gabbitas Bakersfield City School District
  • … 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.

    Carsie Denning
    Carsie Denning DudeSolutions.com
  • 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!

    Tori Barton
    Tori Barton Chi Omega Executive Headquarters
  • 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!

    Laura D. Fabian
    Laura D. Fabian Ridgemont Local Schools
  • ... 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!

    Sherry Shadden
    Sherry Shadden Appalchian Fair
  • 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.  

    Jenna Hildebrand
    Jenna Hildebrand Jennacide
  • 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.

    Monica Hart
    Monica Hart Lockout
  • 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

    Rachel Neff
    Rachel Neff Eastlake High School
  • 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.

    Stacy Campbell
    Stacy Campbell 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.

reCAPTCHA is required.