Mascot Musings Archive

Beverage Can Mascots – It’s all in the Details

January 11, 2025Leave a Comment

It’s the Pop-top that makes the beverage can mascots over-the-top adorable!

They are a kind of “Pop-Art” , an art that raises the ordinary into the extraordinary.

That is what the mascoteers at Avant Garb do. We bring an ordinary sized container into an extraordinary size of, well…..REALLY, REALLY BIG!

The Beverage Can mascots are social media stars. They give people the gift of story and the story is backed up with photos on their phone.

People take photos of friends and family w/ the GIANT cans —and because the photos of the cans are on their phones they become part of the family of friends. It becomes a personal, serendipitous, word of mouth marketing, social media event.

Mascots are experiential marketing at it’s best. The give the gift of story.

Labels for the cans are printed on heavy duty, athletic fabric – a process called dye sublimation. The colors bond with the fabric. The labels don’t fade with wear.

With an enthusiastic performer, the beverage mascot cans move, groove and interact with their enthusiastic fans.

There are many beverage choices. People who interact with the Beverage Can mascots will tell their friends and family about the can mascots. Interacting with or watching the “Pop-Top Can” mascots makes them friends. We’re not getting maudlin about this. It’s true!

When a company spends significant time and money getting an original, custom mascot to entertain and interact w/ current and future consumers, they are sending them a love letter. The company is saying. “We want to be friends “

Thinking about a mascot? Get in touch – [email protected] 317-523-6267

9 Reasons to Get a Custom Mascot Costume

February 12, 20203 Comments

Why get a big bundle of fuzz and foam with a big head?

1. Mascots are media magnets. No matter how good-looking and socially savvy your marketing people are, they will not get the attention a mascot gets by just showing up.

2. You posted a photo of your kid (or your mom, grandma, boyfriend, uncle) dancing with a mascot. You’re probably going to buy the product, go to the game, consider the college, attend the event.

3. You have an amazing, custom-made mascot. Your competition has a brochure. ‘Nuff said.

4. A mascot is a diplomat, your representative at events that matter in the community like parades, charitable runs, festival. You can probably name a dozen event where a mascot’s presence would enhance your brand.

5. When a mascot shows up, everyone knows they’re gonna have fun.

6. …and there’s mascot merchandising. Get bobbleheads, plushes, hoodies, caps.Marketing and the revenue pool is much bigger than just the mascot. When people wear your image – or sleep with your mascot —I mean the snuggly, plush toy of your mascot!!!! —-you have made a lasting bond.

7. Mascots are the true, real life, totally interactive social media.

8. Mascots are Brand Awareness Monsters.

9. Mascots promote goodwill for your brand because they bring people together in a community around the mascot. It’s a kind of accidental Flash Mob community. Mascots are the true warm fuzzies of marketing.

Join the fun! Let’s talk about your mascot.

Mascot Makers, Designers, Experts & Know-It-Alls

March 6, 2019Leave a Comment

From Idea to Mascot & BEYOND!!!

We’re with you from from concept to design to finished mascot. We can also guide you with your mascot strategic plan, mascot training and mascot safety.

There’s a whole world of mascot trainers, advisors, designers and performers who are also part of our world. We consult with them on a variety of projects almost daily.

We’re mascot know-it-alls

Need a custom mascot? Get in touch.

Adorable Crew

We’re a pretty adorable crew. The gaggle of mascot makers at AvantGarb are loaded with talent. That’s Annie at the top of the page. She’s sitting on her favorite high-heeled shoe chair to attach a wheel to a truck mascot. She’s one of the Magnificent Mascot Mavens.

Queen of Fuzz

I head the crew of mascot experts. On my biz cards I’m the Queen of Fuzz. I started Avant Garb in my Berkeley, CA garage in 1986.

Mascots were just inching their way into the culture when Avant Garb started making them. They were so new, I had to invent ways to make them. We’re still inventing.

Master of Mascotology

Annie is the studio manager, and she’s in charge of shoes and accessories. In Mascotland, tails are accessories. She’s also my daughter. She has been hanging around mascots since she was a toddler.

We awarded her a special, Mascot of Mascotology degree

Puppets, Video & the Over-head Projector

Mike’s background is puppets, video & the over-head projector – yes, really! In his hands, the over-head projector is an art form & it’s hilarious! Turns out those are great skills to have in the mascot studio

Fuzz Whiz

Tonie was on the Phantom of the Opera Costume Road Crew for a year. She also grew up in costume shops. Her mother was a designer. She knows how to put all the foam, fuzz & fabric together.

Lucky us! Tonie also works backstage on many of the big shows that come through town so we sometimes get great stories of stars backstage.

Robotics, Sound and Lights

David is our lights, robotics & sound guy. If the mascot needs some sort of battery & sequential lights or some moving part that needs to be manipulated remotely, David knows how to do it. He is, indeed, a wizard!

Let’s connect and discuss big things!

Say Hello

©Jennifer Smith 2018

With Mascots it’s ROI and ROL (Return on Loyalty)

February 10, 2018Leave a Comment

We are all looking for the Return on Investment (ROI). There are ways to measure ROI, Mascot are rarely understood as a factor in ROI. The mascot falls into that great unknown category called, “other”.

Think about a mascot as ROL – Return on Loyalty

Rather than having museum guards shoo children out of the Children’s Museum at closing time, the children joyfully skip out of the museum.

At 4:45, every afternoon, starting from the top floor of the museum, Rex leads a parade of children with flags and noise-makers down a circular ramp and out the front door of the museum.

There are many children who beg to go to the museum just for the Rex Parade. There have been numerous memberships purchased because of that 15 minutes at the end of the day.

It’s loyalty to the mascot that keeps the children coming back for the parade. ROL=ROI

A bank has it’s mascot at a community baseball game. The place is filled with families. The parents take a photo of their children hugging the mascot. Where will that family go when they are looking for a mortgage?

We were told the mascot we made for a bank made double their money back within the first 45 minutes it was introduced. ROI=ROL

A company wants to connect with their community. They have a mascot. The mascot heads out to festivals, games, fairs and holiday events. The mascot mimes, wiggles and high fives through the crowd. The mascot symbolizes goodwill toward the community. With a mascot present, the company or organization becomes part of the life of the community. ROL

Babies are given stuffed animals of the mascot from the parent’s alma mater. ROL + ROI

ROL – the mascot Returns on Loyalty over and over again

A grocery store has a very visible mascot. it is at stores and at every community event. the mascot is around so-o-o-o much, the families and children love seeing the mascot and mascot performer is terrific – of course they buy their groceries from the store that has the mascot.

Get a custom mascot and punch up your ROL!

Let’s connect!!!

©Jennifer Smith 2017

Racing Presidents – Not Just for the Ballpark

July 14, 2016Leave a Comment

Racing Presidents

Racing Presidents aren’t just for the ballpark. A racing president is a way to celebrate new leadership, bring characters in history to life in a BIG BIG way and strengthen a sponsorship message.

The planners of festivities welcoming Dr. Angel Cabrerra as president of George Mason University, asked AvantGarb to create a big-headed racing president in Cabrerra’s likeness.

Here’s the video

Have some BIG FUN!

Mascot Muscles

December 10, 2015Leave a Comment

Pumped up mascots!

First Sir CC, the mascot for the Cleveland Cavaliers, got the really fabulous muscles. Then he got the really cool tattoo.

Making Mascot Muscles is an art. It takes astounding pattern drafting skills, super-hero sewing skills, a bunch of the right kind of foam – foam that can be washed in a washing machine and keep it’s shape.

At AvantGarb, we lo-o-o-o-ve making muscles and we love modeling our work, too

Here’s a huge muscle mascot arm & Wally Wabash, the mascot we made the arms for!

…and then there is Viktor the Viking for Niles Schools, a very handsome mascot.

….and an awfully strong bear named Brutus, for Bellevue University – his eyes light up.

Check out the video! https://youtu.be/k10a7hhScXY

…and here’s a strong dog, LEO the Lab for Law Enforcement Against Drugs in NJ.

Do you need a big, strong mascot, a mascot with muscles? for your school? organization? team? event? product? video game? We know how to make mascots with muscles!

Thinking about getting a mascot?

Mascots Are Loyal &True

January 7, 2025Leave a Comment

Favorite players and coaches may change teams, students will graduate and tastes may change. The mascot remains true to the brand, the team, the school and even the idea.

Mascots are loyal and true.

Mascots are also totally, uniquely, adorably themselves.

Mascots are totally engaged with the brands, teams, schools and causes they represent.

Their ambition is to connect with everyone they encounter.

Mascots bring peace on earth and joy to the world.

Mascots are designed and created to be miraculous loyalists to the school, brand, event, do-good organization and even idea.

Here at Avant Garb – Big Mascots Big Costumes & Awfully Big Puppets – we work with you to design mascots with the right tone and enthusiasms.

Our mascot are one-of-a-kind. They are carefully sculpted and stitched.

Enlarge your brand with a mascot!

Be a knight in shining armour

Avant Garb brings your mascot ideas to life!

Get in touch

[email protected] 317-523-6267

Fuzz + Foam = Fun!

Food, Beverage & Condiment ( Yes! Condiment) Mascots

September 27, 2023Leave a Comment

Mascots are ridiculous and that is their strength.

They are big, charming, silly, wily, smart and sometimes “in your face”. They are potent brand ambassadors. At Avant Garb, we have been lucky, lucky, lucky to bring bunches of food & beverage mascots to life.

There’s just something about a beverage or food package w/ arms & legs that tickles our fancy.

We created some cocktail cans. The cans did everything – from yoga to having a drink w/ a friend.

…and there were the wonderful, really stylish Nutrition Label food packages that we made to promote the Nutrition Labels for the FDA …. check out the video on the link – stylish & FABULOUS!

Oh yes! and then there was Tubby – The Unhinged Duke’s Mayonnaise mascot – designed by the brilliant people at Familiar Creatures.

TUBBY, DUKE'S MAYONNAISE MASCOT JUST BEFORE BEING INTODUCED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

….and Big K – the Kroger shopping bag that holds all of the beverages, food packages and condiments….

At Avant Garb, we are true connoisseurs of food and beverage mascots. Our food and beverage mascots appear in stories people tell each other and photos people share. They are memorable & loveable.

Thinking about a mascot? Get in touch.

School Mascots – Your Students Will Love Them

January 13, 2023Leave a Comment

Say you’re looking at a couple of schools. Both are terrific schools. At one school, the mascot shows up to greet the potential students. You take a selfie with the mascot and go to the bookstore to pick up a plush of the mascot. You’re already invested in the school culture.

Or you’re at a sporting event and turn to the person next to you and say “Holy cow! I love that mascot!” and that comment leads to a new romance or a lifelong friendship.

Both scenarios are monster events. Something BIG happened because a mascot was present.

As a college, university or high school, when you add a mascot to your program, you get more than a mascot to show up for your school’s sports programs, you also get a representative at events that matter in your community like parades, charitable runs and festivals. You can probably name a dozen of local events where your mascot’s presence would enhance your brand. Your mascot will interact with students, their families and create media opportunities.

How do I choose a school mascot?

You might already have made the decision to get a custom mascot for your school, and now you wonder where to go from here. We will guide you. we will be with you from the teensiet germ of and idea until the completion of a wonderful mascot that will walk with you, in front of you and tickle your fancy

Avant Garb can help guide you through the process. Starting from just the school name, logo or team name, or maybe you already have a sketch of what you would want your mascot to look like.
Send us your ideas, and we’ll work with you to create a professional mascot design and bring the mascot design to life as a full-sized mascot.

Tubby – The Unhinged Dukes Mayonnaise Jar Mascot – A Strong Brand Mascot

September 11, 20221 Comment

What have we been doing recently at Avant Garb Mascots? Well —- We just finished making the Dukes Mayonnaise mascot, Tubby.

If you watched the Dukes Classic, you saw Tubby movin’ & groovin’ across the field

https://starexponent.com/tubby-at-dukes-mayo-classic-bowl/html_eb6f3743-6999-5c39-8147-77abdb4e462d.html

Or, If you watched the Dukes Bowl on December 30, 2022 – you saw Tubby again. Tubby is a social media star!

TUBBY pic.twitter.com/HIwAv5gqbY
— Duke's Mayo Bowl (@DukesMayoBowl) December 30, 2022

Tubby was a hugely satisfying mascot to make. We were delighted that the marketing & design team that conceived Tubby chose Avant Garb to bring their idea to life —and, of course Duke’s Mayonnaise has an innovative marketing team.

All in all, it was a great ride!

It’s a Frog! It’s a Mascot! It’s Hank the Frog!

August 31, 2021Leave a Comment

The mascot adventure usually begins with and email. Hancock Health had a sweet drawing of an orange frog and they wanted a Hank the Frog mascot.

Here at Avant Garb Mascots, we got busy designing the mascot.

We picked out some nice, soft, durable fabrics for Hank. We started making patterns for Hank’s frog’s body, sculpting the head and forming the feet.

…and, after attending to all of the details —-and its all details, Hancock Health has a mascot for events, health initiatives and sponsorship opportunities —and mascot they can be proud of that represents care, integrity and—well— fun!