Kool-Aid Man Costume

My wife and I were trying to think of a iconic costume that we hadn’t seen anyone try. After a lot of brainstorming we came up with the Kool-Aid Man. Since we had never seen anyone with the costume we had to come up with a way to construct it.


After playing with some ideas like a rigid shell or an inflatable suit were still unsure of how to actually make one. After thinking of what spherical object could be that large I thought of a beach ball. Although still inflated it was comprised of 8 segments attached at the seams. Once the size was determined I used AutoCAD, an engineering design program, to print off a scaled template. Using red felt fabric I cut out 8 panels to make up the body. Now that I had 8 equally sized segments I sewed them all together at the seams. Still playing with ideas how to hold the spherical form from loose fabric I settled on the same design as a tent. On the top and bottom of the body I folded an inch of fabric over and sewed pockets to hold a rod in place. Needing something flexible and lightweight I used half inch PVC. Cutting each piece the length of the seam I installed all 8 PVC rods. I also added a sleeve to hold a ring of PVC around the top to keep the opening round. The body also has a length of PVC around the centerline to hold the body shape. The ring round both the top and body are secured with a coupling. This way the center can be pulled apart to shrink the diameter to fit through doors.


The brim took a little more work. The only way to get the PVC to hold form was to melt it into shape. I cut a piece of half inch plywood to form the brim curve. Once I had the template clamped down I used a blowtorch to warm the PVC to bend around the curve. I made 8 of those as well to construct the brim. Since these were separate pieces I attached them to the rest of the vertical PVC sections using hose clamps. I wanted to make the fabric around the brim conceal my head but couldn’t see out of white fabric. So the first two panels I used a white mesh attached to the rest of the white fabric. This way I can still see but still remain slightly camouflaged.


Now with the body and brim constructed I still needed the handle to make the pitcher complete. I needed something that would hold its form and not break off. I knew that would be the first thing people would grab and shake. The handle had to be something that could be bent in the correct shape but not weigh down one side. I decided to use a quarter inch aluminum rod I could bend into the handle. Since it way too thin I had to use half inch pipe insulation to wrap around it for added width. The insulation was black so I made a sleeve out of extra white fabric and slipped it over the handle. To securely attach the handle I used two more hose clamps to attach to one of the vertical segments of the body.


So now I had a faceless Kool-Aid Man pitcher. To make the face I sketched the eyes, nose and mouth and cut those out of black felt. Using fabric glue was able to adhere to the body.


The only thing left was to make some kind of shoulder harness I could wear to keep the costume in place. Since I had quite a bit of extra materials I decided to tie twine to the frame of the costume. Using the extra half inch pipe insulation wrapped around the twine I was able to make padded straps like a backpack.


I wanted to make the costume as functional as possible so I added a couple of accessories. Since drinking would be way too hard and pulling anything through the arm hole would spill everywhere I needed a drink holder. Using the paper tube from a roll of plotting paper I cut a section and taped it to the inside of the body. This way I can just pull my arm in and have access to anything inside. I also zip-tied a small zipper pouch to the inside to store extra supplies.


Everyone loved the costume and wanted to take pictures. Wearing it makes you feel like a celebrity. The link below is a video we made modeled after the LMFAO video I’m Sexy and I Know It.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqcHn2HGxk4