The Mascot Company started out making life-size mascots in 2001. and Founder and president Mark Decoux-Cozzi said his Calgary-based company is one of three in Alberta -- and word has spread.
“Our website really generates a lot of traffic,” he said. “I haven’t made a cold call in 20 years, it’s been great, (clients) just come to us.”
Decoux-Cozzi said one of his best clients is the Rocky View School District, where staff have made eight mascots. But he also has worked with various professional teams across North America, including the Chicago Bears, the San Jose Sharks and the Miami Dolphins along with the WNBA’s LA Sparks.
“The pro sports teams are great,” he said, “but our bread and butter is really made with high schools, colleges, elementary school -- and certainly the elementary school gets the same quality mascot as the Chicago Bears does.”
Decoux-Cozzi describes a mascot as the community outreach for any brand -- a brand ambassador. He said the nice thing about them is they never retire, never graduate, they’ll never be placed on “injury reserve” and they’ll never demand a trade.
“When our product walks into the room, someone’s going to get a smile on their face,” he said. “Whether it’s a pep rally or in front of 50,000 people at a football stadium or just walking into the children’s ward at a hospital where it’s just making somebody’s day.
“That’s what really makes it a lot of fun to do this job.”
Mascots are all handmade and range in price from seven to USD $10,000. They can last for close to 10 years and the bodies are washable. There is a designer on staff who works with the client to create a mascot on paper, then it’s turned into a life-size suit in about a week.
“We try to make the costume as lightweight as possible, about (eight kilograms) head to toe, we’ve made pieces of cheese, comets, tacos, dogs, bears, lions and tigers, we’ve made it all,” said Decoux-Cozzi.
“Ultimately we will create whatever (the client) wants us to create,” he added, “but it’s my job to make sure that they get the right character that’s going to last a long time.”
All about proportions
Jennifer Emm, production manager has 26 years of mascot building experience. She can make every part of the costume but focuses on the heads.
She said it’s all about proportions, weight and vision.
“We try to keep the heads pretty user friendly -- you want them to fit through the door,” she said.
“You don’t want them too bobbly on the (performer’s) head so you want something that’s good and compact but you know, the oversized comical character that is supposed to be.”
Emm has seen all kinds of shapes and sizes come through the shop over the years and isn’t typically surprised with a designer’s ideas.
“If you can think about it, we can make it,” she said. “We did a train head this year that was really cool, a Zephyr train with a big light in the front so we can do anything.”
Before each finished mascot is sent to the client, it’s worn by a staff member to make sure it functions the way it’s intended.
“I have to put it on every time I make them to make sure that I can see and I can move my head side to side and things like that,” said Emm.
Ese Ewhro cuts out patterns and sews the pieces together for the bodies. She’s worked at the Mascot Company for close to two years and enjoys working with her hands.
“It’s never the same thing twice,” she said. “That’s true because you can get this person who wants a bear, but then another person wants a bear but longer or shorter or a bear that has spikes or something.
“It’s always something different,” she added. “It’s fun though, because you have to figure out a way to transfer what the client wants, what the artist drew and make it into something that’s real.”
Decoux-Cozzi got his start working with mascots with the Calgary Cannon’s triple A baseball team.
“I was hired to be the public relations assistant and part of my purview was managing Wabash who was arguably one of the first mascots in Calgary for a pro sports team,” he said.
“You’re really the unsung hero as a mascot performer because nobody knows who you are and at the end of the day, you are putting yourself second and bringing the character that you’re representing forward.”
Now The Mascot Company has a worldwide footprint.
“We’ve made mascots for people in Italy,” said Decoux-Cozzi. “AS Roma the big soccer team in Rome, the Swiss national basketball team, we’ve gone as far as Egypt, I’m dealing with someone right now in Bolivia.”
Decoux-Cozzi said the company refurbish and produce more than 60 mascots annually and he’d like to increase that number to 100 but needs more staff to achieve that goal.
“Believe it or not Alberta, Canada has the best mascot companies in the world.” he said. “Ours included in that and in eastern Canada there’s a couple more, there are some in the United States, but really for whatever reason, we seem to be the leaders in mascot production.”
