My first performance was filling in as my high school’s mascot for the sake of my twin sister’s Spirit Club she started because she didn’t get elected as Student Body president… or it was the Easter Bunny for a neighborhood egg hunt around the same time. Both of these seemed like one off favors that wouldn’t amount to anything. Performing at football games was fun but we were a newer high school that didn’t have any traditions, so I had no idea what I was doing.

Fast forward to my sophomore year of college at Winthrop University, I was gaining career experience working in the press box of various sports to compliment my Sport Management degree. There was an activation at halftime of every soccer game where fans could come onto the field and kick a penalty kick again the mascot (Big Stuff) to win a free sub or something. My boss asked if I was interested in suiting up to fill in for the main performer who was “busy”. I said sure, thinking it was mostly to fill a need.

I was good enough to keep filling Big Stuff’s big yellow feet for the rest of soccer season (or the only person willing to suit up, let’s go with the first one). Eventually, I was getting asked to start doing community appearances, campus events, and other sporting events our main performer didn’t want to do. Somewhere in there I started getting paid, which was nice as a broke college student. This series of events led to me becoming the main performer my junior and senior years.

Cool, so I’m now the only Big Stuff performer going into junior year, now what? Outside of general feedback from my bosses and classmates, I still wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. At games, if was fun and got reactions from the crowd, I did more of it. If it was fun and the crowd didn’t like it, I probably tried it another time or two before giving up. For appearances, there wasn’t much outside of interacting with people and trying not to do the same dance move a thousand times (looking at you “dabbing”).

Since there wasn’t a ton of history and traditions for Big Stuff, I wanted to try and grow the character. I was granted permission to start and manage social media accounts for Big Stuff, collaborated with leaders of the student sections and basketball coaches, and kept an eye out for appearance opportunities on campus and in the community. I felt there was something important to have this giant bird representing the university and create connections with people, but looking back on it, I probably did all that for more opportunities to get paid.

Heading into my senior year and after attending the UCA Mascot camp where I learned about how larger programs operate, I wanted to set up my successor(s) for a smoother transition than what I had along with creating some personality traits for Big Stuff in hopes of establishing some consistency for the character. I organized signups, an audition process, and a “training schedule” for my eventual successor(s). I found some successors and felt comfortable leaving what I built up during my three years as Big Stuff would continue.

As fun as this experience was, I didn’t try and pursue finding a professional position. Instead, I wanted to break into the Sports Industry through Marketing / Promotions / Community Relations with the notion that I’d have opportunities to perform again.

The first full-time job I landed in sports was for a minor league team as the Marketing / Promotions / Community Relations Assistant. I wasn’t expected to be the full time performer, but managed the program and performed as necessary at various events. Perfect fit, exactly what I was looking for as a retired college mascot performer: I get to learn the boring office grind of working in sports while still getting to perform. There was only one problem (well there were way more problems, but in terms of the mascot)… the costume was 12 years old, falling apart, heavy, not performer friendly, had minimal visibility and was cumbersome… yikes. At least it looked good?

What had happened was the original manufacturer the team used specialized in costumes for theme parks, so mascots where movement and vision aren’t as important as outward appearances. And they used a very specific fabric for the body that they couldn’t replicate to make a new costume when the team tried to order one a few years before I got there. So they found another manufacturer that could replicate the original costume to the best of their ability and ordered a new one.

What’s that you say? Didn’t I say the costume they were using was 12 years old? Why yes, I did say that. This “new” costume was in just as bad of shape as the original one, but in different ways. The team went with the cheapest manufacturer they could find that could replicate the original costume and they did a decent job with it. So what’s the problem? This manufacturer either used a cheap dying process on the fabric or the person in charge of maintaining the costume before I got there team did not follow the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions so all of the color washed out giving the character a very very very pale complexion.

Now the team had to decide between the two costumes: the one that looked good but the performer is limited in what they can do or the one that doesn’t look good but the performer can do a little bit more. They went for the looks, and I don’t blame them. Unfortunately, that costume continued to deteriorate over the next season and I was forced to use the “new” pale costume.

I fought so hard to get a new costume and work with whatever manufacturer to make it more performer friendly. I argued that the team looks pathetic when the performers in the current costumes have to be led hand in hand by their handler just so they don’t run into things. I complained that it was impossible to keep performers committed throughout the season because the costume wasn’t easy to wear. Time after time, I was told my complains are valid but kept getting shot down (turns out the team was for sale and the old owner didn’t want to spend more money than they had to). Eventually, the new ownership takes over and they agree wholeheartedly.

Finally! After two years of arguing and pleading for new costumes, I can rejuvenate this character back to life. Going into this process I had three goals: keep the character’s identity (looks), make the costume slimmer and lighter, and make it performer friendly. I worked with a few different manufacturers before finding one that understood my vision and met my budgetary constraints. We talked through the changes we wanted to make and how to avoid past mistakes. After waiting for what felt like forever, the two new costumes showed up. Both costumes combined weighed less than what the original one weighed.

Considering we were shrinking the character from about a 150” waist down to a 60” waist, I knew we had to craft the right story to explain this transformation. Fortunately, this was about the same time as the big beverage serving-size campaign, so we partnered with our soda sponsor and the local healthcare system to tell a weight loss story. We unveiled the new costume at a dedicated press conference to an amazing reaction. This character went from this cumbersome, oversized creature with minimal performance ability to a character who’s performer could move more athletically, actually see, and have way less costume to move around.

I no longer struggled to staff performers or miss out on community appearances. The fans loved the transformation and how they could interact easier with the character. My bosses and ownership were in awe of how much of an impact a design change made on the costume’s performance. This was the first time I realized how powerful a performer friendly costume is.

Fast forwarding a few years here. Things didn’t end the best with that first MiLB job, I burned out and was not in a good mental space when I left. I worked a few different jobs while improving my mental health and considered what my next career move would be. I was hesitant to get back into sports but I missed the creating those memories for the fans. Eventually, I started looking at the application numbers for different minor league baseball jobs and noticed something. Any job that was strictly Marketing / Promotions / Community Relations was getting 400+ applicants, how can I stand out with those numbers even with 2.5 years of experience? I got a few interviews but they didn’t go anywhere.

On a whim, I looked up the application numbers for any job that required the person to also be the mascot performer and those were closer to 60 applicants. I figured if I really wanted to work in sports, then I can be a full time performer for 2-3 years before transitioning to a typical office role. I was on the fence about applying for one of these jobs, not because I didn’t think I could do it, but I didn’t have a highlight reel that most applications asked for. I convinced myself that maybe since I had 2.5 years of front office experience, that maybe it offsets not having a highlight reel and started applying. I had more interviews for these jobs that I did with the traditional front office roles but many ended when I confirmed that I didn’t have a reel. Eventually, luck broke my way and the next chapter began.

So this job was with a team relocating to a new area and doing a complete rebrand of it’s identity - include a brand new mascot. As soon as I got to town, we started hashing out ideas for this new character. I tried to learn as much about the area as I could as quickly as possible - we only had 5 months before the season started to create this new character, time was short. We wound up with an imaginary character, unique to any other mascot out there. There was a lot of back and forth with the manufacturer on design choices and trying to expedite the process to meet our short timeline. Unfortunately, we had to settle for less than ideal design elements to meet the deadlines, but we were satisfied with the process otherwise.

So what am I doing day-to-day while waiting on this costume to show up? I managed the mascot program… or did what I could without one. Started developing this character’s backstory, personality, signature, school show ideas, kids club, reading programs, the reveal plan, preparing their socials, and working with the community to start lining up appearance opportunities after the big reveal. In short, I’m doing everything I can to familiarize the community with the character as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the universe had other ideas.

Did I mention I joined this organization in late 2019? No? Remember what happened in March 2020? Yeah…

The time has finally come. The brand new costume shows up 3 weeks before the start of the season, we have a 10 day plan to tease and reveal the new mascot. Everything is going great until March 18 and the baseball season gets suspended indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are halfway through our plan to reveal the new mascot, I get furloughed, no one knows what’s going to happen, and I feel like I wasted the last 5 months building up to this debut this character only for the the team to unveil it to little fanfare (kind of a lot going on at that moment).

When it became apparent that the 2020 minor league baseball season wouldn’t happen and the organization couldn’t guarantee me my job back if/when things got back to normal, I had to move back home and hold my breath. As the world slowly got back to normal, I got word from the team that they wanted me to come back for the 2021 season, but only as a gameday employee performing at the home games. By this point, I had picked up a remote job, so worked it out where I would come back working my “real” job during the day and perform for the home games.

Interacting with fans at the games after 1.5 years of relative isolation during the pandemic reinvigorated the feelings I had performing in college. I felt the power of what a mascot can bring to an organization. To be cliche, it was like riding a bike. The performing nuances came back, I scratched the creative itch with nightly bits and skits, and my passion rekindled. Unfortunately, the team still couldn’t guarantee me my full-time position after the season.