Costume Craze was recently on our local TV news! Kate Maloney and her crew appeared on stations KUTV and KJZZ to showcase our Halloween costumes.

They appeared live on the morning news, and again in the afternoon. Live television can be a bit intimidating, but they did great! The video clip above shows the afternoon fashion show.

Are you ready for Halloween? It’s only 11 days away!

Have we said it before?

We’re proud of Costume Craze and its CEO, Kate Maloney!

Recently, Costume Craze was named one of Utah’s Fastest growing businesses and was recognized at the Utah Business Fast 50 awards luncheon on Thursday, Aug. 27.

The event was an opportunity for the 50 fastest growing and revenue-generating companies to take a minute out of their busy schedules and celebrate their accomplishments.

Derek Miller, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, spoke to the group of honorees, saying that Utah has been ranked the “No. 1 most dynamic economy in the nation,” seeing a 50% growth since 2007. He attributes this success to its values and work ethic.

Well, we know Kate Maloney is definitely guilty of long hours and hard work. That’s why Costume Craze is listed as #39 on the Utah Fast 50 list!

Way to go Kate!

We’ve been selling a lot of cow costumes and cow hats lately, and we weren’t sure why. Finally, one of our customers who bought a baby cow costume explained it was for Chick-fil-A’s Cow Appreciation Day on Friday, July 10, 2009.

Wear a cow costume to any Chick-fil-A and receive free food! If you dress in a full cow costume from head to toe, you get a free combo meal. If you have a partial costume, such as a hat or shirt, you get a free sandwich. How fun!

Chick-fil-A does provide a Do-it-Yourself Costume Kit pattern you can download, but they also recommend searching the Internet for “cow costumes.”

If you want an easy costume, search the Internet for “cow costumes,” and you will be flooded with full-body costumes available for purchase. (And hey, you’ll be set for Halloween, too).

Why THANK YOU, Chick-fil-A, for sending us so much business! No wonder our cow costumes have been flying off the shelves.

Chick-fil-A is also running a Facebook contest where you can upload your costume photo and everyone gets to vote for their favorite picture. Grand Prize winners receive Free Chick-fil-A for a year!

Here’s a peek at a few submissions. Voting ends on Aug 31, 2009.

Free Chick-fil-A for a year? With steaks this high, let Costume Craze help beef up your cow costume. Check out our large selection of Cow Costumes — for babies, children and adults! You’ll have an udderly a-moosing good time!
 

Baby Cow Costume

Comical Cow Costume

Cow Mascot Costume

Last Friday, CEO Kate Maloney was honored as a finalist at the 27th Annual Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet. She was one of the 28 finalists selected out of over 100 nominees. We are so proud of her! And doesn’t she look incredible in that dress?

Costume Craze employees accompanied Kate to show our support. It was certainly a night to remember. Over 1,200 people attended the event, held in the Grand Ballroom of Salt Palace Convention Center.

The evening started with a cocktail reception which included tasty hors d’oeuvres and a live jazz band. It was so much fun talking with so many intelligent and interesting people.

After the reception, we all took our seats in the gorgeous ballroom and the event began. The finalists were all asked to stand and they received a thunderous round of applause for their excellence in business.

Then, dinner was served. The food was absolutely delicious! They served beef tenderloin w/ fried onions, dijon and herb salmon filet, sweet potato gratin and vegetables. For desert we were given a choice between chocolate mousse or blueberry & mandarin orange yogurt mousse. It was out of this world!

As we ate, Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert started things off as the keynote speaker, and it was an honor to hear him speak. Then, they honored each finalist by showing a video clip of each finalist being interviewed.

 
When Kate’s name was called, we applauded, cheered, let off noisemakers and blew horns. Heh, not to brag, but Costume Craze employees can be a loud bunch when we want to be. We made the most noise by far, and probably also the greatest mess.

After the event, we had fun taking photos – some VERY silly. When Jeff Wiseman, our V.P. of Marketing, gets in front of the camera, he turns into the world’s funniest comedian. He’s so funny!

It was quite an honor to be a part of this year’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Here is a list of this year’s talented and amazing winners:

Technology: Matthew Heaton — BlueHost
Retail and Consumer Products: Jonathan Freedman, William Freedman and Charles Freedman — DownEast Outfitters
Emerging: David Flynn and Rick White — Fusion-io
Contract services: Douglas Sayer — Premier Technology Inc.
E-Commerce: Ryan DeLuca — Bodybuilding.com LLC
Social Entrepreneur: Matt Minkevitch — The Road Home
Services: Andrea Anaya — Career Step
Distribution and Manufacturing: Dallin Larsen — MonaVie

We’ll post Kate’s video interview soon, so be sure to check back! And feel free to view all photos of this event in our Photo Gallery.

Congratulations to all winners and finalists for being such amazing entrepreneurs and talented business leaders. It was an honor to be included among you.

Doesn’t this look great? Yesterday, we all wore shirts and superhero capes with this iron-on and declared ourselves to be Kate’s Posse.

CEO Kate Maloney has been nominated for the “Entrepreneur of the Year” business award, and Ernst & Young came to interview Kate and shoot video footage of Costume Craze!

It was a lot of fun, and everything went very well. We’ll have video from the interview available soon. The winners will be announced at an awards banquet at the Salt Palace Grand Ballroom in Salt Lake City on June 12, 2009.

Good luck, Kate – and congratulations!

I’ll leave you with this fun Ernst & Young video I found on YouTube. Apparently this is a teambuilding video they made back in 2001. LOL, it’s too good not to share. Enjoy!

As I was driving home yesterday, I noticed Omniture put up a new billboard. It appears they are still looking for Kates.

Now, I don’t blame them for trying. But as we’ve already explained – Kate is our CEO and we’re keeping her!

Costume Craze was the proud recipient of two awards at the recent 2009 UV50 Award Banquet, presented by BusinessQ Magazine. Costume Craze placed 17th in the Fastest Growing Companies category, up from 21st place in 2008. We were honored to also place 13th in a new category, Top Revenue Companies.

The BusinessQ UV50 Award annually recognizes Utah County’s 25 Fastest-Growing Companies, 15 Top Revenue Companies, and 10 Startups.

The awards banquet was held on Wednesday March 11th at UVU in Orem, Utah. Food was provided by Culinary Crafts with a menu of salmon or fillet mignon, salad, mashed potatoes and green beans—a beautiful spread. Curiously, the salad dressing was served in shot glasses, confusing many attendees and leading to an explanation by way of announcement.

Entertainment was provided by ComedySportz of Provo, Utah. ComedySports offers a unique blend of fast and funny improvisational comedy that is appropriate for all ages. Red and Blue teams battle for audience favor through improvisational acting games with hilarious results.

Costume Craze is honored to be recognized by BusinessQ Magazine again this year and hopes to repeat the effort in 2010!

Visit our photo gallery to view the rest of the pictures.