It was the Summer of 2009 When Brett Beachner And Kyle Scism were looking for ways to make extra money on the side from their full-time jobs. When Brett Asked Kyle if he like to split a big order of Glow Sticks and sell them at a local fireworks event for the 4th of July. Kyle agreed and thought it was an amazing Idea. At the event, their supply didn’t last long, in just a couple hours they sold out of everything they had. But they wanted a better way to be more approachable without feeling so much like salesmen. Kyle and Brett put their heads together and that’s when ideas of light up costumes came to mind. Because they knew if they stood out in a dark crowd, people would have to see them.
Then a light bulb went off and that’s when the idea of creating a Light Up Stick Figure Costume was born. The Proto-types were nothing fancy but the idea was amazing! They took a set of EL Wire and connected it to their body to form a light up stick figure. Genius!
At first, they were just going to use the costumes as almost like a character at a theme park to promote their glow sticks sales. but once they took them out in the public for the first time they knew they had something big on their hands.
In the beginning, People couldn’t believe their eyes, it was something no one has ever seen before. Was this something from outer space, an alien being that came down from another planet. That was the feeling people felt when seeing this never before seen costume. It was almost like people were in shock about how amazing they looked.
Here you will see Kyle and Brett's First Stick Figure costumes ever Created in August 2009. Brett's, on the right with a yellow Peanut shaped head and Kyle's on the left with a simple Green circle head. With all the buzz from the end of summers events people asking where they could purchase one. They knew they had to get them ready for purchase and a website built ASAP.
Kyle and Brett spent weeks trying figure out a company name. They wrote on sheets of paper putting together words and phrases until they found a domain name at auction for only 250.00 dollars it was called GlowCity. So they searched the data bases to see if the name was already used in commerce, and sure enough - the name was open for the taking!
GlowCity.com was born
Once the ownership of domain was secured they then moved forward in trademarking the name and creating the website. What's unique about GlowCity was they created hand made masks with several different designs. As sales grew more every year GlowCity Stick Figure Costumes were getting sent not only around the United States but all over the World.
Then came a Date Brett and Kyle would never forget, it was October 22nd 2013 when GlowCity started getting orders in every few minutes. Website traffic was in the tens of thousands, phones were ringing off the hook. They had no idea what was happening until Brett's friend said "Dude checkout this video they are copying your stick figure design and the video is going viral"
That's when Brett and Kyle saw the famous Glowy Zoey Stick Figure video for the first time. A short but simple video of Royce Hutain's Beautiful daughter Zoey running down a hallway in a LED Stick Figure Costume. At first Brett and Kyle were a little Disappointed, they released the Light Up Stick Figure Costumes 4 years before Glowy Zoey. They tried several times trying to create a viral video on YouTube but had no luck. To this day Brett and Kyle Joke about it saying "All we had to do was put a baby in a stick figure costume, Who Knew!"
Brett and Kyle had mixed feelings about the viral video at 1st. They worked so hard creating 100's if not 1000's of the Stick Figure Costume's in the GlowCity shop thru out the years trying to get national coverage of their creations. Then Royce posts a quick video of his daughter and gets millions of hits.
"That's just how things work sometimes" says Brett.
For the record Brett and Kyle have nothing against Royce Hutain or the Glowy Zoey Company, but are more so thankful because when the video went viral Royce didn't have Glowy Zoey established yet. So when the consumer went on the search engines to search for a stick figure costume to purchase GlowCity.com was the first to show up. So it worked out to be an amazing October! So although GlowCity didn't get the national attention they would of liked. They still received viral traffic to their website with 100's of new orders and customers. Which made for a great finish to the Halloween season of 2013.
GlowCity.com now has new technology for their light up masks with light-weight printed EL Panel. They even have an exclusive licensing deal with the emoji company and have a bunch of different light up emoji masks this year! They were even featured on ABC the view in 2017.
Be sure to check them out for the latest in light up stick figure costumes & glowing accessories.
