A Look Back on Studio Cosplay
Studio Cosplay is a nonprofit that came into being via Kickstarter. A little under $31,500 was contributed to their campaign with the intention of opening up a physical makers space tailored to the needs of cosplayers in the DC area. Now after one year of operation Studio Cosplay is closing its doors.
A few months ago I requested an interview with any member of the Studio Cosplay team and was met with a “soft no”.
The Timeline
The Studio Cosplay Kickstarter was funded in March of 2015. After this point they started promoting their brand and “repair station” at practically every convention local to the the Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia area.
A location for the makers space or “Cosmakers Space” (a term the organization actually went out of their way to coin) was secured in July of 2015
The makers space actually opened to the public in November of 2015
In March of 2016, four months after opening, Studio Cosplay launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to continue operation.
After only raising about $1,000 out of their $23,000 goal, Studio Cosplay announced a liquidation sale of everything within the makers space and used the GoFundMe money to pay off debts and costs associated with closing.
Here’s the main area of Studio Cosplay’s makers space. Their final fundraiser before launching their GoFundMe was a maid cafe. Please note the festive streamer.
It’s hard watching a train wreck but it’s even harder watching a train wreck that could have been easily prevented. Studio Cosplay took one bad turn after another in a sad attempt to rally DC’s cosplay community.
Location Location Location
Entrance to Studio Cosplay in the parking lot behind a warehouse.
Studio Cosplay’s biggest mistake was the location they picked for their makers space. Launching through Kickstarter really worked against them. The space needed to meet specific requirements as promised in stretch goals and they were pressured to find it quickly so that backers could reap their rewards.
The result was a 1,460 sq. ft. (which is REALLY SMALL!) warehouse space hidden in a mostly residential area of Silver Spring, Maryland that was cramped, out of the way, hard to find and a thirty minute walk from the nearest metro station.
Less than Convenient
In order to use this space you would have to pay $50 for a month long membership ($20 day passes were only available to people who already knew someone with a membership). Then purchase your own materials (fabric, foam, etc.). Then drive all your materials to the warehouse. Then go through a safety orientation. Then you are able to use donated equipment like sewing machines, heat guns, spray paint, and 3D printers. (With the exception of a 3D printer, most experienced cosplayers already own most of this kind of equipment.)
Studio Cosplay’s spray painting room. No materials were properly organized within any of the space. You had to dig through bins and shelves if you wanted to use anything that was already there.
Then you presumably work on your cosplay until it is done because the space offered no form of storage (a stretch goal they didn’t reach) and so you either finished it in one day or packed up all your materials to then haul them back to the makers space a different day.
All that meant their target costumers were narrowed down to a practically nonexistent demographic of cosplaying adults with cars that lived in apartments smaller than 1.460 sq. ft. and who didn’t already own equipment like a sewing machine.
Studio Cosplay needed about 40 people to consistently purchase memberships in order to maintain the makers space. Obviously, turn out was less then expected.
A Nonexistent Marketing Team
Studio Cosplay functioned almost entirely off of Facebook. Dates and times for events were frequently omitted from their website (which seems to be overrun with spam bots). Other social media platforms such as Twitter were rarely used. Their newsletter was just forgotten about, ceasing around January 2016.
Their presence at conventions was just confusing. A table with business cards and buttons functioned as their “repair station” which was actually a box underneath the table with basic craft supplies in it that you had to go up and ask about to see. A lame resource when compared to things like the International Cosplay Corps, or extensive repair rooms at large conventions like AX. Either they’ve improved the station over time or it just varies depending on the event, but their Facebook does have photo of a much more elaborate version than what I’ve seen in person at conventions.
Only the one table on the left is what I’ve seen at conventions. (Studio Cosplay would also present panels at conventions, but I didn’t know this until doing some digging, so their table obviously has a farther reach.)
Final Thoughts
Studio Cosplay was a weird thing to observe. I’ve noticed their table at every convention I attended for a year and wanted to know what the deal was. I’ve communicated with its team members in person and over e-mail and each time is was just awkward and the more research I did on them the more it became apparent that no one had thought this project entirely through.
Their liquidation sale was chaotic. Anything with any real value was snapped up within literally 10 minutes of opening at 9am, it was basically just a free for all until 1pm when they saved the 3D printers for a final auction. None of Studio Cosplay’s staff wore anything denoting them as such, meaning that if wanted help you had to already be acquainted with who was actually in charge. Again, nothing was actually organized so people just dug through bins of random fabric and supplies.
A permanent space for cosplayers sounds like a fun idea but ultimately cosplay is a very personal hobby. Cosplays are frequently created at 3am the day of a convention, (half naked, in tears,) in the privacy of your own home. Many cosplayers go by aliases so that their co-workers or other peers won’t know about it. Cosplay isn’t something to be ashamed of but it feels a little strange to try to not only bring it into an area open to the public but to also add extra costs onto what cosplayers are already spending.
After closing its doors, Studio Cosplay will still exist as a nonprofit and still runs their table at conventions.
