Squid Game Costumes: Where to Buy (or DIY) for Halloween

For once, the Halloween costume of the year isn’t an improbably sexualized version of a beloved character that seemed impossible to sexualizeor a real life person who became popular meme. This year, according to retailers and Google searches, the dominant wardrobe choices come from Squid, the Korean battle royale series that has become a international Netflix sensation.

No wonder people are excited about the idea of Squid Costumes: The show has become a dominant cultural monster, frequently on the news and in constant social media memes. The series is based on vivid colors, including memorable and instantly recognizable costume designs. And the dynamic of the story instantly lends itself to group costumes, whether people want to dress up as blood-spattered contenders in death games, guards in overalls guiding them between competitions, high rollers watching and they bet on the outcome of the event.

For people concerned about the transmission of COVID at Halloween parties, parades or other large gatherings, there is even a notable advantage: guards and high rollers wear masks. So does the mysterious Front Man from the games, for those who prefer to go the route of disguise alone.

But anyone looking for a quick and easy option for Halloween should be careful what they buy and where they buy it. The arrival of an immensely popular show just before Halloween has online retailers flocking to offer impulse buying options. But most of those options will disappoint shoppers, and many might leave them without costumes when the holiday rolls around.

Read the fine print on Amazon listings

A quick search for “Squid Game Costume” on Amazon shows hundreds of options, but virtually none of them are available through the site’s premium shipping service. A suspiciously high percentage of listings are from new suppliers based and shipping from China. While it may seem fun to defeat mobs of Squid soldier cosplayers by instead dress up as the creepy giant robot girl Red Light, Green Light from the seriesIt is important to check not only the proposed delivery date, but also where the costume is shipped from. For this particular costume, the “faster delivery” option may not arrive until November 2. And a large percentage of Amazon Squid show costume listings Arrival dates of November or December. Given the huge delays in shipments currently affects industries around the world, the chance of a costume being shipped internationally successfully to arrive before Halloween is low.

Even if a suit shipped from abroad did arrive on time, there are other important considerations. Clothes ordered in China tend to be very small by American or European standards, so even the costumes listed as XL or XXL may not fit people who are expecting a family size. Too, Squid It only debuted worldwide in late September, so there hasn’t been much time for clothing and costume companies to put together legitimate options, even the kind of hilariously cheap imitation costumes that appear on social media sites every Halloween. Chinese manufacturers have been careers to meet the global demand for Squid ties (Although the program is not legally available in China!). But the quality of any product produced so quickly is likely to be low.

There is also a high probability that many of these listings are outright scams. Most of them do not have photos of the actual product, or they use PR still images from the series or copy and paste the text and the same few images from other listings. In some cases, the listings may have been kidnapped by unscrupulous scammers. For instance, this listing for Squid tracksuits It claims to be from a Michigan based seller with a 100% review rating, but if you check the reviews, they are for vitamin supplements, not clothing.

The fact that most of the companies listed are new and don’t have user ratings yet means you can’t count on any of them having successfully shipped the product to anyone yet. A handful of the listings that Polygon began tracking two weeks ago have now disappeared. So keep in mind that the company offering to sell you the impulse purchase you want today may be gone tomorrow.

Netflix is ​​not playing the game

The problem is not limited to Amazon. Several sites have emerged that claim to be “official Squid“ or “original Squid“ stores. But these outlets notably lack any Netflix-related branding or integration, suggesting that they are pirate sites, either selling counterfeit products or not delivering any products. They have the same problems as the vendors that operate through Amazon: few or no images of the actual products, promises of unlikely responses, delivery dates that often fall after Halloween.

On October 11, Walmart announced a massive new online shopping center to sell Netflix-affiliated products, including merchandise licensed to The Wizard and Strange things, like Squid. But while a Walmart reading Squid merchandise includes some fun things, like a very pretty knockoff Squid Lego-people style game and a variety of Squid teddies – the costumes have the same problem as the Amazon ones. Careful with Costume deals that only use photos from the show., products where the “arrive by” date is after Halloween (sometimes four months after Halloween!) and non-returnable costumes. Many of these options seem legitimate and sanctioned, until you start looking at the details, or until the hosting sites abruptly remove the listings.

That happened with a Walmart pet listing. Squid costumes. These costumes were originally posted on Etsy and have been duplicated there many times, but a retailer posted the same images at Walmart for a few days before the listing was removed. Again, before hitting the “buy” button, it’s worth checking the history and ratings of the listing, and with something unique, googling to see where else it shows up.

Image: Walmart.com

In fact, there are only a few listings that don’t feel like a guess and a gamble. A vendor offers Front Man or soldier masks via Amazon Prime, listed as in-stock and available for delivery no later than October 27. Another vendor offers “premium t-shirt” options, which include competition numbers from protagonist of the series Seong Gi-hun, first player Oh Il-nam, or Gi-hun’s old friend and bitter rival Cho Sang-woo. Those jerseys are listed as official Squid Linked merchandise, but they’re not a great costume on their own, unless you’re opting for the low-key “costume suggestion without going crazy over it” look. But add the masks to the correct color of pink or black hoodie, and people will at least know what you’re looking for.

Or if you’re feeling lucky, you can always spin the roulette wheel on the many, many other listings out there. Certainly, there are many vendors eager with real products on the shelves, hoping to take advantage of the intense temporary demand. Just remember, as with the squid game itself, it’s worth knowing in advance what the risks are and what games everyone else is playing.