• Realistic web-shooting effect

• custom 3d printed webshooters

• screen accurate clothing

2017

The Spider-man Protosuit, or so nicknamed by its fans, was seen in this form in the film Spider-man: Homecoming. I have always enjoyed the character but fell head over heels for Spider-man with his arrival to the MCU. Back then, I wasn’t the most comfortable with a skin tight body suit which made any other iteration of the costume difficult. With this version of Spider-man, people can easily don the red and blue without fear of body consciousness. I also realized how easy it would be to put this costume together with items gathered from local stores and/or online. It was the realization of this relaxed level of difficulty that drove me to film an instructional video to guide others to create the same or similar costumes through youtube. I created a youtube channel called ElefanteDesigns and started the show ‘Let’s Make’ to encourage others on the path of costume making. Currently, this video is the only episode available (more are on the way!).

Extensive research of this costume and history of its creation led me to find the exact color used for the film along with many details I wanted to get correct. If I had a nickel every time I searched the words “Carolina blue sweat-clothes” this costume would’ve been free. After long hours of tracking down the correct clothing I finally had a base to work off of. Most of the other things like socks, hoodies, and shoes were fairly generic and chosen from their aesthetic similarities to the source material.

I knew I wanted to make this costume easy for most people to follow along, but also wanted to add my own spin. For this, I decided to model and 3D print my own custom web shooters. At the time, the film hadn’t been released for home viewing, which really made a challenge to find good pictures of the original version from the movie to recreate. After completing this costume, I was fortunate enough to meet a stuntman who worked on the film who was able to show me the original props he had used. Both he and I were fairly surprised at how close my model was to the original! I was very relieved to see my research and work had paid off. I also wanted to include a realistic effect of shooting webs. For this, I tracked down a few paper Chinese yo-yos to thwip while I was in character.

This costume took about three months in total, two months of specific research and gathering supplies, and one month of construction in my free time. I am very pleased with how this costume turned out and always look forward to another opportunity to wear it. Below, I have included a gallery of photos taken during the building process. This includes 3D modeling, sewing, etc. To the left, you’ll find the Let’s Make episode that guides you step by step on how I made this costume and how you could make your own as well. I hope you enjoy.

- Zach