STF Q&A: Mascot Expert Brian Adam

Our love of mascots is no secret. It's one of the top things we love about the fan experience in college hoops, something that just isn't the same at the pro level. We've kicked around the idea of interviewing some of the people inside the suits, but where do you even start when there are 300+ teams?

When we heard about Olympus Flag & Banner, it seemed like a natural: these guys had made or refurbished some of our favorites. They'd know the score. To make things better, Brian Adam, the VP of Sales and Marketing for Olympus, actually put in his time inside a megacranium before moving to the supply side. He talked to us about the famous hit he took from a Spartans cheerleader, which mascots are inherently bulletproof, and just what the heck a Blue Raider is.

STF: You told me earlier that you served as Bucky the Badger when you were at Wisconsin. Did you have any go-to moves to fire up the crowd?

Brian Adam: Bucky has a big fiberglass head, so we'd love to do headstands. I'd get on my belly and do the worm across the end zone at Camp Randall. The worm would have been my personal go-to move. Just to get on my belly with a 25-lb. head and try to undulate.

Being a mascot you get into some interesting situations. I can remember having to change in port-a-potties, or run down the hall and duck into a bathroom stall. We get invited to do weddings, where the best man is trying to sneak you into the bathroom to surprise the bride and groom when they arrive. One of the other guys was a ring bearer in somebody's wedding once for a guy who got married on the 50-yard-line.

If you want to see a really funny video of me in the Badger suit, there's a Youtube of the time I stole the Michigan State flag and was running down the sideline and a male cheerleader just blasted me, just form tackled me in the end zone at Camp Randall.

[ed: He's right, that is funny.]

STF: How often does a school need to replace its mascot costume?

BA: It varies greatly depending on the school and the sports programs they have. For a larger school that sponsors all of the sports, it can be every year. Most of the bigger schools have us refurbish yearly, replacing the gloves that have holes in the palms and knees that wear out from sliding and diving. Usually a full replacement comes every three to five years.

Some of the smaller schools will go nine years, especially if they don't have the outdoor sports like football and baseball. If basketball is the main sport, they tend to get less wear and tear indoors. The worst wear and tear, in my opinion, is for baseball mascots, because they're crawling through the infield dirt and out in the sun and rain, and they play a high number of games.

STF: Olympus has worked with Ohio State and Michigan State. As a former Bucky, did you have to recuse yourself?

BA: I did not recuse myself. Any mascot we work on I'll support, but that doesn't necessarily extend to the players.

We worked most with Michigan State recently. They were having issues with Sparty's chest plate cracking. We didn't make the Spartan originally, but they called on us for a solution to the problem. We went through five or six materials, and every one we tried kept breaking. We finally ended up making it out of a formed carbon fiber lined with Kevlar. So we like to say Sparty is bullet-proof.

STF: Our site's banner features the two most popular basic mascots I can think of. Since you've been with Olympus, have you made more dogs or cats?

BA: My gut would say dogs, unless you count all felines in the cat category. You're counting Tigers and Cougars in that? [ed: Yes, we are.] In that case, I'd definitely say cats. Tigers, Leopards, Cheetahs, Panthers... there are a lot of ferocious cats. We also do a lot of High School mascots, and I'd have to say Bulldogs and Panthers are the most popular overall.

STF: In a situation where a mascot is kind of common, like a dog, cat, or eagle, how do you go about making tweaks so each is unique to its school?

BA: Let me just back up a bit and give you a quick rundown on how the mascots are made. Olympus started out just selling flags and banners in 1893. About 40 or 50 years ago, we got into hats and shirts. Our company designed the clown outfit that became Ronald McDonald. So we have those businesses, too, but the mascot division has always been a lot of fun.

Today, we've become the largest mascot manufacturer, and it's a really enjoyable business, where you interact with the client and work together to create an original costume. As to how we differentiate between similar mascots, we work with a couple of artists who are trained to design mascots. They have a background in it. So, if a high school in Florida says "we want a gator just like the University", we have to explain that it's a copyrighted design, and we can't duplicate the Florida Gator without their permission.

The artists then work with them on what attributes they want in their mascot. Do they want it to be ferocious, friendly, mean, goofy? What are your school colors? Do you want to incorporate them into the fur, or do you want it to look realistic? We try to find out what physical challenges their performer might run into: Does he need to be able to run up and down the bleachers? Does he need to pick up a basketball and do a trampoline dunk? If so, he can't have big foam hands.

There's two ways of producing a mascot. There's the big foam shape, like the Brewers' racing sausages, the Syracuse Orange, things like that. The other way is just to create a separate head out of ADS plastic and just vacuum-form a mold in that shape. Like the Kansas Jayhawks have their own unique head shape. Aside from those, we have a stock Bulldog, or a stock Cardinal head, and we'll customize that with different-sized eyes, or different colored fur or other accessories that will give them their own feel, but save them some money out of their athletic budget.

STF: When a school comes to you to make a less common Ragin' Cajun, Gentleman, or Stag, where do you begin?

BA: Our artists probably love it when they get one of those, because they get to bring all of their creativity to the job, and bring out some unique ideas and concepts. They've done so many bears and dogs, that they love to get an Anteater.

STF: The newest DI mascot you made is the St. John's Thunderbird. Since you were dealing with a new concept for a very old school, what process did you have to go through before you arrived at the costume they just unveiled?

St. John's became the Red Storm, but they didn't start work on a new mascot until a couple of months ago. They came up with five or six different concepts that they had pre-decided. Red Storm is a pretty open-ended concept, and we felt like we could go a lot of different directions. We came up with a big lightning bolt design, a mythological Thunderbird, a goofy dog for the baseball team, where they tend not to go so ferocious. The students got to choose, and they chose the Thunderbird. It gives them their own identity.

STF: You must have had to do some serious research on some of the more esoteric mascots. I'll just ask you for a brief explanation of the following costumes you worked on:

The St. Louis Billiken?

BA: Isn't a Billiken some kind of an alien? I really don't know. We didn't create that one, we refurbished it, so I didn't ever find out. But I think it looks like an alien.

STF: We only do DI basketball, but I love the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas.

BA: The Javelina's a wild boar. That one I did work with. It was my first mascot sale I ever made as an intern. A lot of schools have dabbled in having male and female mascots like Albert and Alberta at Florida, or families, like Jayhawk and Baby Jay at Kansas. If I remember correctly, the Javelinas are sending back their female mascot to be converted into another male. I'm not 100% sure, but I think we're giving the Javelina a sex change.

STF: Central Arkansas calls their women's teams the Sugar Bears - did you have to make a separate costume for that?

BA: I don't remember. I'm not sure if we did male and female mascots for them, but I can check. Mostly it's the large programs that have the multiple costumes. Like Wisconsin has seven Bucky Badgers, and they'll have guys all over town on game day.

STF: What does the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raider look like?

BA: It's like a chiseled muscle suit like Sparty has, but it's all blue.

STF: Why do you think people love mascots so much? Is it ironic and hip these days, or is there real affection?

BA: Well, especially at the collegiate level, they give you something to associate with the university. At the professional level, you have someone like Peyton Manning who has been the face of the Colts for the past ten years, and will be for another five or so. Favre was the face of the Packers for sixteen seasons before he became a traitor. But at the university level, the players turn over so quickly that the mascot becomes an icon and a symbol for the university. In some cases, if you grew up in the state, you grew up rooting for him.

If somebody says Wisconsin right now, people are more likely to reply "Badgers" rather than Ron Dayne or Barry Alvarez. It's an iconic figure, it's a good time, it's fun for kids. University mascots are usually more fun-loving. A five-year-old at a football game would rather give the mascot a hug than watch the game.

We go to the children's hospital every other week, and seeing kids get excited about your visit, and even parents who are going through a really tough time get to relax and smile and take pictures, that's a nice break for them. Seeing the kids' faces light up when you come in the room is so great. There are things you can do inside that suit that you can't manage otherwise.