Commissioning a Custom Fursuit

This page is an in-depth guide to the process that Haunted Opossum Creations LLC uses for custom fursuit commissions, and is made to be a fursuit specific guide to our commission process. If you want to learn about commissioning us for general work, please visit our “Commission Us!” page. Hopefully we can answer any questions you may have about what it takes to bring your idea to life!

We will start this guide with the assumption that you know what character or animal you want your fursuit to be. A visual reference sheet is not required! We will happily work with you to flesh out the image you have in your mind. Remember that a fursuit is a large project that can cost thousands of dollars. We are going to take the time needed to get the details correct! If you have any references, descriptions, mood boards, inspiration photos, or other resources that you can provide, gather them up when you are ready to contact us. All of those will help the process immensely.

Please remember that a fursuit is a bespoke creation just for you. We have a variety of pre-made features that we build off, but every suit is unique and one of a kind. More than most commissions, this process requires a lot of work on all sides of the process! This guide will help make that process as smooth as possible.

Reaching Out

After you contact us, we will discuss the overall vision for your suit. The following are some important details that we will want to know,

• Are you looking for a Full Suit, a Partial Suit, or a Mini-Partial?
• What are you planning on using the suit for? This gives us context for helping decide on the materials to use and the construction methods. Are you going to use this while skydiving? We will want to use more robust materials and attachments. We want to know the hardest life your suit will see so we can build it to those specifications.
• What type of Head Base are you looking to use? A 3D printed base will give more ventilation, a better mouth movement, more detailed contours on the face, and more flexibility when it comes to integrating special features and electronics. A foam base will be softer and more durable to abuse, but it will be more stuffy and may be uncomfortable for some people to wear.
• Are there any important features that you are looking to have? Lights, UV reactive materials, considerations for accessibility, and anything you can imagine can be part of this list!
• What “vibe” are you going for? Is there a certain mood you want the fursuit to give off?
• What kind of feet will you have? We build big, chunky feet around slip-on shoes as well as “sock paws” that feel more like slippers, but we certainly are not limited to just those!

If you don’t feel like you can answer all these questions or this is an overwhelming list, we will prompt you for these during the initial discussion. Based on this discussion, we should be able to provide a basic sketch concept of the idea as well as an estimate of the final price. These projects can take a long time when they get more complex, and it is not uncommon for changes to be made while the project is in progress. We do not charge for changes unless it requires us to remake a part or order new material. Some significant changes may also incur additional design fees. We will provide additional estimates to revise the final invoice as needed. You will not be hit with any hidden costs.

During this process, once you are reasonably certain that you will accept the estimate we give you, we will also ask for your information. This will include your name, address, and email at minimum. We will require your legal name for billing, but we use your chosen name everywhere else in our system. We will never give out your personal information unless required by law.

Once you accept your estimate, we will send you the invoice that can now be paid off. You may pay in installments, and we will make sure you are prioritized on our queue based on the percentage of your invoice that is paid off. In terms of the milestones you can expect in relation to payment:

• Down-Payment Paid: We will order materials for your project. Once materials are ordered, you can expect us to keep you informed of the date we expect all necessary materials to arrive for us to start. We will begin working on your project as soon as possible.
• Invoice Payments In-Progress: We schedule and pace our work based on when we expect your invoice to be paid off as well as taking any deadlines on your project into account.
• Invoice Paid Off: If you pay off your invoice before the deadline of your project, you can expect delivery on or before that deadline. If you haven’t paid off your invoice before the project deadline, we will deliver it upon completion of payments. If your project is being shipped, shipping will be calculated as soon as we package it up. We will give you an estimated shipping price as soon as we can get a rough weight of the final project.

The Process

The Head

Your fursuit’s head will likely be its defining feature and is also the portion of your suit that will contain the most variety in what is possible.

If you have a 3D printed head base, you can expect this to take up to a week to print. Carved foam Head Bases are hand made and will take as long as it takes to carve out all the needed details. If we need to make a new mold for an expanded foam head, it can take up to a month.

Regardless of which head base you choose, we will need measurements! A friend is very helpful for this, but they can be done yourself. We will give you a guide on the specific measurements we need for your project.

Heads will have the most variability in time to create. A simple cartoon husky will be finished fairly quickly, but a creature with complex patterns, features, and materials may take significantly longer. We will provide a time estimate for completion as soon as possible in the process.

The Body Suit

This next step only applies if you have a body suit as part of your commission.

Before we can build your suit, we need to make sure it will fit. To do this, we will ask you to make us a duct tape dummy (DTD). We are currently working on our own guide, but detailed guides are widely available for this process. You will need the following: Dust Tape (1 to 3 rolls), a full body disposable painter suit (no hood needed), scissors (EMT-style shears are recommended), and a friend. We will guide you through the process and help you get the DTD to us.

Once we receive your DTD, we will build the bodysuit pattern from it. In most cases, we should also have the material by this time. If your bodysuit isn’t very complex, it will be completed fairly quickly. Details that increase complexity can mean that these body suits may take a significant amount of time to complete.

The Foot Paws and Hand Paws

Your shoe size will be the best thing to give us to provide measurements. For the foot paws, we provide several styles. “Sock Paws” will be constructed to feel like slippers and are mainly built for comfort and indoor use. Another common foot paw style is made by gluing a foam or rubber sheet to the sole of another shoe before building the larger foot paw around it. We typically use slip-on style shoes as a base for this, but if you have a specific preference we will work with a wide variety of shoes for this.

The hand paws for your suit will be made to match your glove size, but if you require a more precise measurement, we can provide guidance on giving those measurements to us as well.

Final Checks, and Delivery

At this point, your project should be finished. We will be in contact with you to send you detailed pictures of your fursuit so you can give us approval to deliver. If you approve the final product, we will package everything up and calculate shipping. On larger or more expensive items, we waive shipping costs if they are low enough. This amount varies depending on the item, but ranges between $5 and $25.

Your fursuit may be delivered in multiple boxes if we feel that any parts are delicate enough to warrant special packaging. All shipments are tracked and insured and you will receive tracking numbers as soon as we create your shipment(s).