Several things that have been happening and will happen with costumes

Things have been rather quiet the last few months. Part of the reason is the winter weather, certain times of the year also do not have many birthdays happening and the beginning of the year is usually also an extended empty wallet season. A new factor added is the international finance mess that everyone is suffering from to some extend.

On to the latest changes and updates:

1. The costumes and clothing taken over from a shop in another town will be arriving some time in August as per discussion with the shop owner. Unfortunately the exact date in August is unknown, same with the exact content. There is supposedly quite a bit of variety according to a very reliable source of mine.
   
2. Some costumes have been retired due to age reasons mostly or parts never returned. Unfortunately this is not always understood by some people.
   
3. Due to age, some costumes are now a bit cheaper to rent. Prices have been mostly adjusted on the website.
   
4. Once some finance issues are sorted out, there is a plan to move the website to local hosting in South Africa and an easier domain name. The current website will then be set up to redirect and update the search engines accordingly.
   
5. Advertising for brand awareness has been recently expanded. This is mostly very localised to the Monte Vista suburb and a particular shop in close proximity to the premises.
   
6. A service for posing in costumes with messages has been started. Right now it is limited to very few characters and due to legal reasons, trademarked characters have to be avoided. There should be something appearing on the website soon about this. This kind of service can be used for advertising, birthdays and other events.
   
7. Keep in mind that the annual Halloween season is coming up which tends to be busy. Booking costumes two weeks ahead of time is usually too late for all of the popular costumes.

Public costume events in the first part of 2014

There are at least two events in 2014 near the beginning of the year where the public can show up in costume. The first event will be UCON which takes place at the UCT Upper Campus in the sports hall.
The event will take place on 29 and 30 March starting from 10AM onwards.

The second big event is the annual Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) which Readers Den is hosting as well as other comic book shops like Outer Limits. This is an international event to promote reading. Readers Den had a best dressed competition the last couple of years and had over 70 entries in 2013 as well as various anime performances.
Free Comic Book Day always takes place the first Saturday in May.

Plans to get new costumes

Several of my costumes have been getting a bit old and are in need of replacement. Different sizes for some costumes are also required as well as new styles. This year is going to be a focus to get new stock and more of it to cater for the different sizes of people that come to fit on.

Several needs in regards to this matter have been identified and will be getting more attention. At the moment there are final decisions being made about the first batch of new costumes to get.

The year 2013 was not good for getting new costumes due to the major expense of replacing the premises as well as getting many costumes repaired. Also getting a couple of costumes at 3000 Rand each ended up destroying the rest of the budget.