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U.S. NEWSSaturday 31 October 2015
Dogs with busy social lives dress up for more than Halloween
SUE MANNING Two years ago, Wally left This 2015 photo provided by PetSmart shows a dog in a Another popular pet cos-
Associated Press the simple banana cos- Supergirl costume for Halloween. The pet costume industry has tume consists of a figure
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wally tume behind when he come of age. that appears to be riding
the Welsh corgi used to get underwent a lifestyle and the dog, like a storm-troop-
dressed up to go trick-or- wardrobe makeover. Now Associated Press er riding a dewback, a rep-
treating for Halloween, of- he dresses like Elvis Presley tile from “Star Wars.”
ten as a banana, once as (“King Corgi”) and Michael Cynthia Dalangin has
a dinosaur. Jackson (“Thriller Corgi”) been in charge of Wally’s
But Wally, owned by Marc and has become a ris- wardrobe expansion, buy-
and Cynthia Dalangin ing star on Instagram, with ing from eBay, PetSmart,
of Wharton, New Jersey, 63,000 followers, and Face- DIY sites and garage sales.
doesn’t go trick-or-treating book, with 12,000 likes. Wally has a particularly
anymore. Like a lot of busy Wally’s transformation co- large collection of bowties
dogs, he has too many oth- incides with the pet cos- because they set off his
er engagements. And as a tume industry’s coming of ears so well. She gets a lot
budding Instagram celeb- age. And business is boom- of ideas from Pinterest and
rity, he needs a wardrobe ing. Etsy.
full of costumes to choose The National Retail Federa- Most sellers said they stock
from. tion estimates that 20 mil- pet costumes year-round
As dogs have filled their lion pet owners will dress because birthdays, Christ-
social calendars, they’ve their pets this Halloween, mas and New Year’s are
had to fill their closets too. spending $350 million on all good holidays for party-
ing and photographs. And
keeping up one’s online
profile with fresh photos
is a year-round job. Wally
This 2015 photo provided by PetSmart shows a dog dressed for business development and
Halloween in a Batman costume. The pet costume industry has affiliate marketing direc-
come of age. tor. The majority of their pet
costumes sell for $14.99 to
Associated Press $24.99. You would never
know the costume only re-
They’re not just dressing up the costumes. quired a 10th of the fabric This Sept. 2, 2015 photo provided by Marc Dalangin shows his
once a year on Halloween. The online marketplace needed for a human cos- Welsh corgi, Wally, dressed in a Batman costume for Halloween
These days, dogs and their eBay had 1.5 million pet tume, he said. in New York.
owners are getting invited costumes for sale on Oct. “Costume SuperCenter
to parties, parades, meet- 21 out of 800 million items has seen its pet costume Associated Press
ups, pumpkin patches, pic- listed for sale, with 159 mil- sales double every year
nics, Christmas tree farms lion active customers in 200 for the last three years,” Es- For adults, the top five cos- went as Batman on Oct.
and many other themed countries, said Zoher Karu, posito said. He expects the tumes are Batman, Frozen 17 when he joined 56 other
outings. vice president of global trend to continue. characters, Alice in Won- corgis at a pumpkin patch
As a result, canine cos- optimization and data for Halloween costumes for derland, Star Wars char- at Conklin Farms in Mont-
tumes have become more eBay. pets and people tend to acters and French maid. ville, New Jersey. A minion
than just something dogs Pet costumes represent 2 follow news headlines and Spider-Man came in 10th. is next.
wear once to a party. It’s percent of Costume Super- movies. The latest “Star The children’s list put Mario If Wally accepts all his in-
essential for dogs and cats Center’s sales. The com- Wars” movie isn’t out yet and Luigi (Mario Bros.) on vitations, he might have
who are up-and-coming pany sells nothing but cos- but demand is already top, then Star Wars, Bat- to rotate through all his
social media celebrities to tumes and accessories on high for Darth Vader and man, Frozen and a witch. costumes, including Cap-
have a varied wardrobe. eBay and other sites. Yoda costumes. The Minions, Spider-Man, tain America and an out-
With their likes and follow- “There does not seem to “In March next year, Bat- Teenage Mutant Ninja fit themed on “Breaking
ers growing faster than be a ceiling on what peo- man and Superman — two Turtles, Minnie and Mickey Bad.” And if he comes up
speeding bullets, their fans ple are willing to spend on of the most iconic super- Mouse and Power Rangers short, “we still have the ba-
want new photos all the their pets,” said Michael heroes — will face off on round out the kids list. nana,” Dalangin said.q
time. Esposito, the company’s the big screen, but we are
already seeing the com-
petition play out in stores
and online this Halloween
season with these two
costumes neck-and-neck,
topping our best-selling
list,” said Eran Cohen, chief
customer experience offi-
cer for PetSmart.
It’s close, but the Batman
costume is actually outsell-
ing the rest of the field, Co-
hen said.
The top five best-selling
costumes on eBay for pets
are Superman, lion, pan-
da, Batman and necktie.
