Cosplay Industry-20131201

The first Cosplayer is Nobuyuki Takahashi. He attended the world science fiction convention in Los Angeles in 1983. At that time people just thought cosplay is a bunch of geeks dress in wired costumes. 

Why does Cosplay become a pop culture in recent years? It’s not only because people notice cosplay more, and find that this is a great way to be entertained and relaxed, but also because cosplay make a lot of money. 
For example, this year, San Diego’s comic cons and cosplay events are worth 180 million dollars. Among that, 67.8 million dollars are directly spending by the attendees.


Firstly, the Cosplayers would like to buy the comic books, DVDs or video games, So that they can study their characters before cosplay. Sometimes, Cosplayers buy all the versions of one work just because they want to figure out the exactly look of the outfit. If the character has more than one look, the Cosplayers might spend much more money to see all the costumes.

Second, some Cosplayers buy costumes because they don’t know how to make clothes. For other Cosplayers, they might buy some materials to make their clothes or armors.

Third, the characters from fictional world always have colorful hair and eyes. That requires the Cosplayers to buy wigs and contacts. A friend of mine has an online store selling wigs and contacts. Her monthly income is around 3,000 dollars. She also sells some costumes.

Cosplay products have become an industry already. That’s the main reason why everyone wants to take a bite of cosplay.