News morphed on 08 // 05 // 14
Crowdstorming:
Morphsuits launches MorphLabs to create and discover the
most innovative costumes in the world
Morphsuits unveils first ever ‘crowdstorming’ programme to catalyse an evolutionary step in costume design
Morphsuits’ wider costume brand, Morph Costume Co. is pioneering the first on-going ‘crowdstorming’ programme,
driven by a NASA level scientific approach that creates, tests, and tweak hundreds of costume ideas to deliver
innovation in costume design. Dubbed MorphLabs, the campaign aims to establish a network of creative, inventive
and passionate costume enthusiasts, and unite them to build the first ever infrastructure of crowdsourced R&D in
the costume world. MorphLabs will not only identify contributors, but also provide a network of collaboration and
support to see ideas come to fruition and, the very best to market as MorphLabs graduates.
Rich in video content and images developed by the contributors and Morph Costume Co. itself, MorphLabs will act
as a digital social hub for fans and a small specifically selected group of the best existing costume designers in the
world, to share, celebrate and inspire the most advanced and innovative costume designs across the globe.
The Morphsuits social media community, which includes 1.4m fans on Facebook, will be used to raise awareness
of the initiative, and the company has already identified hundreds of interested costume innovators all over the
world.
The key facets of MorphLabs will be:

MorphLabs Graduate Crowdstorming – an empowering opportunity for fans to submit their own designs
and vote for their favourites to progress from the drawing board to production and sale

The Costume Wizards Community – a best in show area, where world renowned elite costume designers,
who regularly compete in the world’s most prestigious costume competitions in Las Vegas with prizes of up
to $25,000, were specially selected to exhibit and sell their one of a kind hand crafted costumes. The
costume wizards will also be collaborating with Morph Costume Co. to design a more affordable, yet still
innovative and advanced costume range accessible to the mass market

A programme of social video content – showcasing new costume launches from fans and Costume
Wizards, DIY tutorials and inspiring or entertaining content to drive the creative process. This will include a
WTF page devoted to the wildest, craziest and most innovative designs that are a result of all things
Morphlabs
Sara McCraight, Brand Manager at Morph Costume Co. commented:
“Morphsuits is built on a foundation of innovation and a passion for kicking down boundaries. We have been
creating cutting edge costume ideas for 5 years now and we’re increasingly receiving requests for us to create
different costumes and some of the designs we receive are simply breath taking. We saw an opportunity to pull
together the most amazing creative brains from all over the world and we’re thrilled to now launch this as
MorphLabs.”
Morphsuits was the first costume company to incorporate wearable smartphone technology and augmented reality
into a range of costumes. The full range of costumes now exceeds 200 designs – from Halloween costumes that
feature real life beating hearts or flesh-eating maggots to a human sized magic eight ball complete with random
animations.
Mark Rober, founder of Digital Dudz commented:
“We’re the world’s most innovative costume company and to continue to create impactful and innovative costumes,
we have to stay ahead of the pack – with the launch of MorphLabs, we’re taking this to the next level by
incorporating a scientific based testing approach to deliver the most innovative and creative designs in the entire
world.”
“We’re not just pushing boundaries within the costume industry,” added McCraight. “We’re also revolutionising the
business process of producing ideas, generating products and rewarding fans. We’re proud to create a multifaceted
model where everyone involved stands to benefit – costume enthusiasts who have no way of producing designs
and selling them to the mass market, established costume designers struggling to generate awareness of their
amazing designs, and Morph Costume Co. who will be the custodian of greatest talent pool the industry has ever
had. MorphLabs is reinventing the industry.”
--- ENDS --What are Morphsuits?
Founded in 2009 by brothers Fraser and Ali Smeaton and friend Gregor Lawson, Morphsuits is the costume
phenomenon taking over the world. Morphsuits are all-in-one spandex suits that cover the whole of your body from
head to toe. They’re specially designed so that the wearer can breathe through them, see through them and drink
through them.
In August 2013, Morphsuits launched Morph Costume Co. and acquired ex-NASA engineer, Mark Rober’s clothing
and costume company Digital Dudz, to integrate the interactive Digital Dudz smartphone app to an expanding
range of costumes. The full range of costumes available from Morphsuits now exceeds 200 different designs and
includes a huge variety of costumes – from officially licensed Tetris blocks that use pop-up tent technology, to
Halloween costumes that feature wearable smartphone technology to display real life beating hearts or open flesh
wounds filled with maggots.
The patented integration with wearable technology came about when ex NASA engineer; Mark Rober turned his
talents to costume design and app creation, and came on board with Morphsuits in 2013. At the end of 2013, digital
Christmas jumpers also joined the family of innovative products – this was just the beginning, with a huge amount
of exciting innovation and NPD in the pipeline for 2014.
For more information please contact:
Hannah Ashley & Hermione Upton-Speed
t.
0203 1379270
e.
MCC@manifestlondon.co.uk