I Asked 250 Cosplayers How They Make Money And What I Found Was Shocking
このリンクまたは私のコード SARAHSPACEMAN を使用すると、最初の注文で 25% を獲得できます! Kitsch は米国内および海外 27 か国以上に発送しています https://www.mykitsch.com/sarahspaceman インタビュー対象者: Colleen の全文: https://youtu.be/FXMGfGUZ93k?si=pJeNyL3ZHcnmrNmM Casey のチャンネル: https://www. youtube.com/@CaseyReneeCosplay ケイシーの本: https://caseyreneecosplay.com/shop マグダのインスタグラム： https://www.instagram.com/magmamagda/ ウィッグガイに関する記事： https://southfloridatheater.com/2022/04/01/the-wig-menace/ お願いします覚えておいてください、私は数学者でも統計学者でもありません。そのため、私の調査結果と方法論は話半分に聞いてください。それらにはおそらく欠陥があること、および調査のサンプルサイズが比較的小さかったことは認識しています。 小さい。私が述べた内容がデータと一致しないことに気付いた場合は、お気軽に以下にコメントしてください。収集されたデータへのリンクは次のとおりです: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xT4FcYnBnYuuGhD-HoLq7yZyRD1aLfDAgqNnNxWjPC8/edit?usp=sharing 無料のパターンについて、またはチャンネルをサポートするには https://www.patreon.com/サラスペースマンのグッズ！ https://www.bonfire.com/store/space-merch-1/ 質問やコミュニティについては Discord に参加してください！ https://discord.gg/4CGBRsuR6U 新しいマシンを購入してください: (これはアフィリエイト リンクです。このリンクを使用して Web サイトで何かを購入すると、売上の一部が私に与えられます) http://shrsl.com/45mk1音楽: Lud and Schlatts Musical Emporium によるいくつかの音楽 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIdLNUnYf10 ほとんどのトラックはここから来ました: Animal Crossing 風の音楽: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2EJJFUnJxQ サウンドクラウド: https://soundcloud.com/trashkidd ドラマティック ブラス音楽: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoIyoWuQx_Ga7fQ35flEmQA 一部の音楽は Epidemic Sound のご厚意により提供されました: https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/featured/ コスプレイヤー250人にどうやってお金を稼ぐのか聞いてみたそして私が発見したのは衝撃的なものでした #cosplay
40 Comments
Absolutely loved the video and the amazing survey! Nobody really wants to talk about money, so it’s awesome to get some real numbers. Thanks so much for the effort, I’m sure it was a lot of work! I think everyone also tends to compare themselves with others and showing the hard reality can be helpful to stay realistic with own expectations. And yes, while turning your passion into a business sounds amazing, it’s mostly also a ton of work, a lot of pressure and isn’t anything then easy. At the end of the day you need to offer a service or a product that people are willing to pay for, but which you also enjoy and are passionate about. Benni and I also became self-employed in 2013 and while it was surely the best decision of our life, it was also incredibly exhausting, stressful and led almost to burnout in a hospital. However, as you mentioned, it’s totally fine to do it as a little side-hustle to cover material or convention costs. It’s actually pretty awesome if the hobby can pay itself and making patterns and selling digital patterns, books or courses is actually a great way to cover those cosplay bills!
In addition, I would also like to add that more and more cosplayers and crafters these days are getting hired by marketing agencies for promotional work. These can be walking act jobs at events like Gamescom or movie premieres, commissions for props and costumes and/or creative content creation for TikTok and Youtube for example. Be careful though, as many of those agencies often look for someone who is doing the job for super cheap or for free. Knowing your worth is important, however can also make sense to build up your portfolio with jobs that are not bringing in a fortune in at the beginning.
I would have been sad if the majority of cosplayers made a majority of their money from cosplay.
It was nice getting such good insight. Thank you for the video.
My mum knits socks for fun, like really cute ones with cat or frog faces on the toes.
Recently people asked her to sell them some and she struggled a lot on how much to charge. Because 10€ for a pair of knit socks is pricey but that barely covers the yarn and some of the work time.
$1000 annually? That's not a professional heck that's not even a side hustle.
If I posted a self portrait daily would I be money making artist on YouTube? Or a pretentious idiot?
I see this is artist. I make bracelets and its not easy for me at all.
I make tabletop game terrain, which poses similar challenges related to making a career out of my hobby. People constantly tell me I should make stuff to sell, but if I were to price it realistically, based on time and materials, no one would buy it because it would cost like $5-10K for a single large piece. No one is paying $8K for a styrofoam castle, no matter how cool it is. It was the same in my other hobbies, music and woodworking, everyone always told me I should try to make money doing it, but they had no idea what that really meant. The math never added up, never mind that it would also have drained all the fun out of it. I admire anyone who turns their hobby into a career, but the sacrifices required to do it successfully are appalling. Great video, it delved into a topic virtually no one wants to talk about but affects almost every hobbyist to some degree or another.
My hands are to bad to do much sewing but I do crochet and I find it impossible to price my work according to
Yarn+ time spent+ whatever. It would come to a price no one would pay
Wow.
I charge at least 100 an hour, but i build niche IT systems, i guess people are more inclined to pay for that?
Wow, this just fell across my feed. I am way impressed with the amount of work you put into this video. Thank you for shining light into the backstage of the shiny cosplay we all enjoy.
All of the arts are under fire right now.
I commissioned a piece that went from a 3 month time estimate to a year and a half (with no communication so i was pretty ready to chalk it up as a bust) and the price had doubled. When i finally got it, it was a completely wrong color, like pistachio green somehow turned into brown. So, I'm learning to make everything myself 😂
I started cosplaying in 2007 for Blizzcon the same year. I entered the contest and had so much fun that I decided to enter again for Blizzcon 2008. The backstage / judging was much more intense and took a really long time to get judged and it was more intense being on a bigger stage, but i had a great time and ended up entering the same costume into a local comic-con in 2009 where i won Best in Show for Novice Cosplay (for Anzu the Raven God[dess]). I felt good enough that i didn't want to pursue the contest part of cosplay again and went the prop maker / costume maker route after that. been doing that as a side hustle ever since. XD I don't make more than 5k a year either. Thankfully i just get to enjoy making things for others and I still get to make something new for myself on Halloween. I don't take it as seriously because of all the drama I dealt with the first few years of cosplaying for conventions. I went to college in 2003 for media arts and animation, changed majors to Character design and development and 3d modeling / animation. Making costumes is easier when you can just 3d model them. XD Its crazy to see how far cosplay has come. I'm glad i got out early though!
The quote about people who view service workers as owing them something… I used to run into that a lot when I was a mechanic. I also ran into people who were incredibly grateful to have their car working again and I loved helping them 💚
Are these incomes before or after taxes?
for anyone interested in doing commission work, i highly recommend advertising to the LARP (live action roleplay) community. a lot of them do some sort of craft themselves so they understand the labor, there are standards like cloaks and pouches that you can make tons of, and a lot of them are willing to drop very big chunks of change for skilled labor. i do crochet commissions for people in my local LARP scene, and seeing people wear and love the things that i make as we march off to battle together brings me so much joy
You know conventions used to.just pay professional models to be Booth Babes, then wen complained those boothbabes were making women uncomfortable.
They "professional cosplayers" showed up and suddenly tried making money for existing and constantly have complained to staff at cons and made them lose their fun charm and appeal.
Frankly, I don't care what these attention seekers complain about.
I’m a little bit frustrated with your “tiktokers are NPC’s” when you went into depth on YouTube and spicy work. It’s a continuation of weird ideas that cosplayers on tiktok aren’t “real cosplayers”. I make tutorial content and yapping content, and to hear someone I admire devaluing what I do is frustrating. You could have asked your respondents who make money on reels or on TikTok how it works. If you ever want to learn exactly how it works, and how the algorithm is just as difficult as any other algorithm, please feel free to reach out ❤
I just found your channel last night… I do leather work..and sew everything by hand.. mostly leather masks that are probably used in the spicy world…. But I have made a few costumes accessories for Renaissance costume people… I have never been Ren Fair …but after the video I seen you and your friends visit , I need to go to one ..I also love traveling by train 🚂. I only get leather work jobs from Etsy or by people knowing me from spicy clubs ….are there anywhere you recommend to find more customers? I'm definitely on the very low end of the cash makers…. And I love the curly hair, so that product you are using is working great… ❤
I‘ve been a cosmetologist for “the vacation destination of the world” located in central Florida for over a decade as well as owning my own wig company. I dropped to part time two years ago with big company because I could handle the disregard for humanity there six days a week. I’m there three, maybe four days a week now and I still hate the way we’re treated and not paid anywhere near enough for the amount of education and skill I have (I have a BFA in theatrical makeup and wigs and a cosmetology license). I stay because I love my performers. As for my business, I do commissions, princess party wigs, and the wigs for multiple local theatres and I’m still struggling to charge what I’m actually worth (and I very much get paid more per hour for my business than with the “big cheese.” I never stop working, rarely have a day off to actually take care of myself, and I am so incredibly tired and burnt out and I STILL can barely afford to pay my bills. It’s insane.
The scream I scrumpt at the end of the video oh my god
Oh my god the Heroes of Cosplay video has to be coming out soon I'm so excited (as someone who also lived through that era as a cosplayer)
Honestly, that’s why I don’t do cosplay commissions anymore. You can actually make way more money doing alterations than doing custom clothing, something to think about.
Honestly, it's not that surprising if you think about it and use some common sense.
Not you wearing a shirt in the shower to show the shampoo product 😂😭 (solidarity for the content creators!)
It’s complicated 😊
For my crimes, I'm a Japanese literature professor (lecturer in Australia) who now publishes academic work on cosplay … don't make your hobby your research area
I love this video and I'm returning to it a month later because it's just such a great dive into the silent parts of this hobby/industry. I'm a full-time cosplay patternmaker now, so I'm kicking myself that I didn't see the poll in time, but the spreadsheet is incredible! I did a bit more digging through the data you collected, and it really shows that a lot of us could stand to raise our prices, share more info about "scaling up" and other fancy business words, and spread the word that there's more than just 'make it yourself' or 'buy it all online', but a third secret option… 'reduce stress and expand time by getting help from someone with specific experience'.
Personally, in my first year of patternmaking as a full time job, (after 10 years of very casual patternmaking, Sarah you and I were the only two on Etsy selling She-Ra patterns when the series came out, remember that?) I'm definitely middle-ish band of income, but I know several other patternmakers making so much more than me after sticking at it for several years (and ultimately leaving cosplay behind when they enter the fashion space), so if you have business know-how there's always room for expansion. And the ebb and flow of it all can hurt so much! It's good to look at the big picture, stay realistic (and let yourself have a little copium sometimes, as a treat).
Patternmaking is where my interests truly lie, and after 8 years of gruelling mental and physical torture as an international cosplay commissions girlie, I'm happy to stick to my guns and hopefully never have to return to a Real Job(TM). Well, this one is far more intensive for less immediate return, but my health has never been better, so there's that!
In related news, I'll be starting YouTube sewing tutorials soon, and I really appreciate your long form videos! They (and the comments below each one) let me know that people still watch them, and the brainrot that is tiktok/ig reels might be king, but long form content really allow viewers to feel good about what they've just watched. We love you and the amount of research, design, and overall effort put into each episode, keep it up! ♥
On the parasocial thing boundary pushing thing; I was born in the early 90s and was 'first generation child' on the internet. I was was taugth by parents and the internet communities I was in that those kind of questions were a red flag in any context not just in a fan/creator context. It was near unspeakably rude to ask detailed questions like that of persons you were not already good friends with.
I think that anyone asking for personal info in the very public comment section deserves to be blocked from the get go. Or at least on a '3 strikes' system.
I would argue you're also a filming guy and the guy in front of the dang camera…. to me those are the harder parts of being a YouTuber.. I drag myself to do them.. though I'm not exactly looking to get money out of this I just like having a YouTube channel like an open diary of what I did with my life.. which very often is just sewing :p I don't even cosplay as much now that I fully dived into sewing 😅
Is this the time to say uuuh that wet t-shirt content 😛
Gah! I LIVE DATA!!! This was really interesting.
10:30 one hundred percent. Fast fashion (and fast cosplay fashion) is proof. My friend was shocked and upset that a commission costs as much as it does, and debated getting a cheap one in a hurry. I thought the price was cheap, considering the work and materials, at X hundreds of dollars. I suggested only commissioning one specific iconic piece to save time and money. I was like girl, you have months and this cosplay is all black clothes–get ur butt to the dang thrift store!! Some ppl simply do not value the time it takes (themselves or others) and enjoy the process of completing a cosplay project, let alone curating a wardrobe. I would never guess fashion is any fun for these sort of ppl, but more a necessary performance to keep up with others. In the end I just feel bad bc that seems a lonely road 😢
Thank you for this information and the information about your patterns! Im currently doing a commission for a pink diamond cosplay, and the shorts had really stumped me! Thank you so much!!!
{Just for survey sake, Im a full time student with a part time job, while also doing cosplay and makeup comms, I make about $300/yr from cosplay and makeup comms 😭😭}
I was a military antiques collector and got my young son ( now a adult ) into it but we turned it into a very successful business.
My grandmother was a seamstress in Chicago making good money but in the 50's she started making professional costumes to the large local theaters and she made costumes for some very famous plays. The only costume she made I still have is a Santa Clause costume. I love it.
This was a really good video, thank you 🙂
While I can't say I 100% understand, I would assume most people who do end up making cosplay as a side job or hustle also has another job to balance for sustainable living. When I worked at Joanns, I only saw one fur suiter come in and kind of explained to me there aspect of what they do profession wise. When they came in they had a plastic mask and were getting materials for the mask and told me it was for a client (if I remember). I honestly think it's hard to make a full time living off cosplay. It's possible, I mean look at Yaya for an example, but how she got to that point was various hurdles and loops on top of other work.
The real answer of how cosplayers make money is social security disability checks