What’s hot for Halloween?
Superheroes rescue Halloween from political costumes
Get ready for superheroes to take over the streets this Halloween. Costumes from fictional superhero worlds, in some cases anti-superheroes, are one of the top trends for this year’s Halloween season. Kylie Ziebell has worked at the Spirit Halloween store for a decade. She said that she’s sold more superhero costumes, for both adults and children, than anything else. Popular costumes vary every year, she said. The store is only open during the Halloween season and usually sets up shop in vacant retail spaces. The store Ziebell works at is located on the top level of Cottonwood Mall. “It goes with the tides of whatever is portrayed in the media,” she said. “Whatever is popular in movies, social pop culture or video games are our biggest sellers.” Superhero costumes also feature prominently on the shelves at local retail stores Target and Walmart. Michael Kenison is working at Halloween City in the shopping center near Coors and Irving. He also said superheroes are the biggest sellers. The most popular, he said, is Harley Quinn, who is a popular comic book villain but was also featured prominently in the “Suicide Squad” movie released in August. In the movie, Quinn wears her platinum blond hair, dyed purple and pink at the ends, in pigtails and takes down her enemies with an arsenal of weapons and sophisticated gymnastics moves. She’s often the main squeeze of Batman’s nemesis The Joker. Other superhero movies released this year include “Batman Vs. Superman,” “Captain America: Civil War” and “Deadpool.” The Spirit Halloween store had displays featuring characters from all three of those
movies. There’s at least one national survey that seems to support what Ziebell and Kenison are seeing in their stores. According to the National Retail Federation, superhero costumes are the number one choice for children this year, ending the 11-year reign of princess costumes. Batman is the top costume pick for adults 18 to 34 years old. The information was obtained through the organization’s 2016 Halloween Consumer Top Costumes Survey. The National Retail Federation is a trade association with members from various retailers including department, speciality and discount stores, catalog and internet companies, restaurants and grocery stores. Ziebell said other popular costumes include Pokéman characters, which she noted is not a surprise because of the recent release of the Pokéman Go game, and clowns. Kenison said he’s also seen a lot of “Star Wars” costumes go out the door, especially among children. Both said they were surprised that the political candidate costumes are not more popular. The Spirit Halloween store has a display called “Making Halloween GREAT AGAIN,” mimicking the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” used by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The section includes hats, wigs, masks and cardboard heads of Trump, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. However, according to the National Retail Federation survey, there is at least one group of costume buyers that is interested in politics. Among adults 35 and older, political costumes were ranked number three following a witch in the number one slot and a pirate in the number two slot. Although not first, superheroes were ranked in the top 10 for this age group. Ziebell said although many store visitors pause at the political display and have a good laugh, not many are buying up the masks and costumes featured there. “There’s been lots of selfies,” she said. “But not many sales.”