From Salt Lake City’s Deseret News, June 22, 2008:

Retailer turns test into Costume Craze

Kate Maloney turned a quirky business, started on a lark with her brother, into one of the world’s largest online retailers.
In 2001, Matthew Maloney, Kate Maloney’s brother, had developed Static Advantage, search-engine optimization technology that he was eager to test. As a test site, he started Matthew’s Robes, a Web site that sold, of all things, monk’s robes.

Matthew Maloney brought in Kate Maloney, a recent Brigham Young University business school graduate, to run the robe business while he tested his “real” product.

But Kate Maloney quickly realized the business could tap into a huge online market for costumes. A name change, a massive expansion of product lines and a few years later, Lindon-based Costume Craze is dominant in its field.

But in those same years, the online costume business has become highly competitive. To stay ahead of the pack, Costume Craze is continually updating both its product mix — up to 1,000 new products are introduced each year — and its business practices.

The company has developed a proprietary technology that uses internal and external data, plugged into complex algorithms, to determine what products, and how many of them, it should order.

Costume Craze also operates a network of related Web sites to optimize search-engine hits, and sells on eBay and Amazon.com. The company has started manufacturing new, exclusive, costume lines and will begin selling mascots this year, as well. And unlike many of its competitors, the company ships worldwide.

 
Thanks to the Deseret News for writing about us!

 

What do you wear to work?

Have you ever wondered what kind of dress code a costume company would have? Let’s look in on a “normal” day at Costume Craze and see what the employees think “business casual” means:

 

Who wouldn’t want to see this face at the reception desk?

 

The IT department manager really attacks
our technical problems passionately!

 

We never have to worry where the money’s going with our bookkeeper!

 

Shaggy, the marketing director, is like our on site ghost buster
(C’mon…if you were a ghost, you’d be very afraid)!

 

Who said working in the warehouse isn’t fashionable?

 

So there you have it…a typical day here at Costume Craze. Okay, okay. The truth is, Ernst & Young came to interview Kate for the 2008 “Entrepreneur of the Year” award and we just wanted to show off a few of the thousands of great costumes that we sell. If you’re not impressed now, you will be when you see our New 2008 Costumes!
 

One of our cherished customers just made our day. Jen Lytle purchased a Wonder Woman costume from us and sent in some photos.

She looks beautiful! Thanks, Jen, for shopping at Costume Craze and sending us your pictures!

 
 

Ernst & Young nominated our CEO, Kate Maloney, for the 2008 “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in Utah.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year awards recognize the leading business men and women who demonstrate “extraordinary success in the areas of innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.”

The Utah winners will be announced on June 27, 2008 at a black-tie event at the Salt Palace.

Good luck, Kate! We’re all rooting for you.

 

 
Costume Craze held a farewell party for Jordan, who recently left for his LDS mission. Jordan worked diligently in our warehouse, and we are very sorry to see him go. To honor his departure and to thank him for his great work, we had a party in “The Backyard!”

What’s the Backyard, you ask? Oh, just one of the many perks of working at Costume Craze.

When the owners planned the layout for our new building, they made sure to set aside a large area for fun and parties.

It’s a beautiful indoor fun center, covered in Astroturf and surrounded by fencing — hence the nickname “Backyard.”

After work or during lunch, employees are encouraged to relax and have fun. There are several comfortable couches in front of wide screen TVs for Xbox 360 and the Wii.

There’s also a pool table, ping pong, foosball, darts — and air hockey is coming soon!
 
 

Jordan plays pool at his goodbye party

 
A tournament was organized by Dave, our Vice President of Warehouse Operations and Information Technologies. Some fierce competition ensued as employees tried to claim the title of Champion of the Backyard.

 

Here are the winners of the Costume Craze Backyard Tournament:

Mario Kart: Russell

Foosball: Patti and Dave

Ping Pong: Dave

On a personal note, I made it into the ping pong final round, but I couldn’t beat Dave. THIS TIME. He’s really good, but I’ll get him next time!

All in all, it was a great party. Goodbye, Jordan. Best of luck to you!

We’ve come a long way since moving into our new building in December of 2007. We moved from a splitting-at-the-seams warehouse in Lindon, Utah, to a 54,000 square ft building on Center Street in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

On May 30th, we were pleasantly surprised when Pleasant Grove City extended a warm welcome to us with a ribbon cutting ceremony. In the true style of a costume company, instead of using the usual scissors, CEO Kate Maloney sliced through the ribbon with one of our own Lord of the Rings swords.

We enjoyed mingling with several local business owners who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony to show support for the “newbies” and welcome us to their community.

We’re very excited to be part of the Pleasant Grove business community and look forward to a long and beneficial association!

Welcome to the new Costume Craze Blog!

Costume Craze is rapidly growing, and with so many exciting changes happening, we want to take the opportunity to share our experiences with you. This blog will provide fun news and helpful information, giving you a behind the scenes look into our daily operations.

We owe our success to you, our customers, and we invite you into our home. So come on in, pull up a chair and kick off your shoes. Join us on our costume journey as we continue to grow and learn, always striving to be your very best source for costumes and accessories.

This blog is for you, and we look forward to your questions and comments.