Tradesmen International is hiring production crew across three specialties to build mascot costumes for school, team, business, special event, and convention use. Costumes are made from molded foam, latex, vacuum-formed styrene, and acrylic fur, and go through mold-making, sewing, and hand-painting/airbrushing before completion. Choose the role that fits your skills — pay and PPE requirements vary by position.
Mold Maker — $28.00/hr (OT $48.20)
Full PPE required. Takes an approved master model and turns it into a durable, production-ready mold: preps the model, determines parting and mold construction, builds the mold and its supporting casing, applies and finishes mold coating, corrects defects, and ensures the finished mold can repeatedly produce quality parts. Works on an assembly line — molds move on to casing once complete. Prepares surfaces for adhesion, mixes coatings to spec, applies evenly, controls thickness/coverage, allows proper flash-off and cure time, and inspects for runs, bubbles, pinholes, cracking, or poor adhesion. Works with lightweight molded foam and latex.
Sewing / Production Sewer — $27.00/hr (OT $44.00)
Full PPE and mask required. Fabricates and assembles the soft-goods portions of mascot costumes (body, mitts/hands, feet/spats) from high-quality acrylic fur, with some latex/vinyl accessory work. Supports both standard and custom costume orders. Reviews work orders, patterns, and specs; identifies needed fabrics, trims, thread, and closures; measures, marks, and cuts fabric per pattern (accounting for grain, nap, color, and pattern direction); flags defective materials; and organizes/labels cut pieces by work order and mascot model to prevent production errors.
Detail Painting & Airbrush Finisher — $35.00/hr (OT $56.00)
Full PPE and mask required. Handles surface prep, painting, airbrushing, shading, highlighting, and final finishing of mascot heads and related components (molded foam/latex or vacuum-formed styrene). Cleans and preps surfaces, applies primer/base coats, and masks off vision panels, vents, fans, fabric, and hardware to protect against overspray. Mixes and color-matches paint, applies uniform base coats and layered shading/highlights for dimensional effects, and hand-details features such as eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth/teeth, facial markings, fur patterns, scales, feathers, and claws.
Tradesmen International not only offers consistent work, top pay, and employment opportunities, we also provide a benefits package that is among the best in the industry.
Our comprehensive benefits include:
Tradesmen International is an EO employer - M/F/Veteran/Disability
“Be Safe” from fraud! Tradesmen International will never ask you to pay for certifications, equipment, or other “up front” costs as a condition of hire. Similarly, we do not request pictures of documents or IDs to private phone numbers or email addresses. If in doubt, please call or visit your closest Tradesmen office to verify the request.