The Tan and White Industrial Park is located in Powell’s Anondescript, a place where Halloween revelers turn into incredible Disney Princess, Mario or Donald Trump.
But this is not a local locker room or a seasonal pop-up clothing store.
It is the secret headquarters of Disguise, a company of about 51 players with about 65 players, technicians, computer guides and various “creative people” who transform the role of television, film and video games into thousands. Young children. A generation of baby clothing for the baby boomer generation.
You can’t shop at Disguise, but if you’re a retail business or lucky to enter the market, you’ll see the hottest things of the year, and the next thing that might be popular on Halloween.
This is not a seasonal business.
“It’s Halloween all year round,” says Pauline Cuevas of the graphics department.
In the past few decades alone, apparel retail has evolved from a predominantly mom and pop-off to a small manufacturer-led company, such as Disguise, which says it accounts for 25% to 30% of the market. (Rubie’s Costume in Melville, New York is the largest customer manufacturer in the United States.)
They draw inspiration from popular culture and compete for licenses for major movies, television, video games and toy companies. The days of DIY clothing give way to families with tight time, and children want to look like a ninja turtle or a child of Zelda, Hailar. Universal ghosts, witches and zombies simply won’t do this. The clothing designed by Disguise eventually appeared in major retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart and Party City, as well as pop-up Halloween stores.
The ghosts and superheroes of this day are not just some penny candy days. This is the third largest holiday of the year after Christmas and Thanksgiving, worth $9 billion.
Joe Anton, the president of disguise, worked almost at the company from the beginning, initially as a sales representative for Dallas. The Internet was science fiction, and Sears’ directory was not surpassed by Amazon.
“The most important thing is that when we saw our products in retail stores and standing there, I was satisfied and heard that the kids would be excited when they saw our products,” Anton said.
Jakks Pacific is a toy company founded in 1995 by Jack Friedman, based in Santa Monica, and acquired Disguise in 2008 to expand its child-centric product line. But the popularity of Halloween now attracts everyone, not just young people.
It is expected that 175 million Americans will celebrate this year – their 31 million pets will also be dressed (the most popular clothing: pumpkin). “For a while I remember that when my children were very young, I was always well dressed,” said Jakes CEO Stephen Burman.
Most camouflaged Halloween costumes are low enough (starting at about $20) and can be worn once or twice.
The process began with Disney, Nintendo, Lego and other companies that announced future releases. Camouflage and then move to translate the items on the screen into real-life items (with Mr. Incredible’s built-in six-piece).
They use the company’s original artwork, using computers, 3D printers, sublimators and vintage scissors, wires and fabrics to simulate the final product.
Last week, Jacqueline Soto was designing for Shego, the character in Disney’s “Golden Possible” TV show.
But like many colleagues, Soto did not leave her imagination at work. She is a veteran role-player who won an award at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, because she played Mercy in the Watchman video game.
Dane Munkholm carved a mask on his computer screen using “digital” clay.
“When using real clay, it’s definitely more tactile,” he says, but pokes the image on the screen and makes the image more accurate.
If you want to know, he and the other 65 camouflage workers are still thinking about what to wear in the company’s noon costume competition on Halloween.
The 25,000-square-foot warehouse at Kear Place is large enough to hold sample garments, buttons, ribbons and other craft materials in cartons and showcase monsters and superhero masks from Halloweens.
David Lea showed a Vacuform machine that molded plastic sheets around a resin helmet. He then opened a door near the room reserved for the company’s single 3-D printer. In a five-hour project, the time to produce a small set of batwings is one-fourth.
“This is all clay and hand-carved,” Lea said when he joined the company in 2004.
But the sample room is not all high-tech products, and the tailor sews the prototype on the sewing machine. The model arrives at 1 pm every day to understand the performance of the clothing on the field.
