The Changemakers: Full Stop Productions and Costume Studio

The licensing industry significantly influences consumers and drives revenue, which enhances a brand's ability to create change. License Global terms these individuals “changemakers” because they harness licensing’s potential to inspire positive transformation.

To highlight those making a difference, License Global features a monthly column called "Changemakers," exploring the industry’s impact on sustainability, diversity, and inclusion. This month’s column highlights Full Stop Production’s sustainability initiatives and how they’re hoping to change live entertainment. Nancy Hutson, co-founder of Full Stop Productions and Costume Studio, chats with License Global on how the company plans to do this and what it has already done.

License Global: For those unfamiliar with Full Stop Productions, what is it that you guys do and how do you fit into the licensing space?

Nancy Hutson: We have two separate businesses. Full Stop Productions is the original company where we produce live events, shows and experiences all over the world. We specialize in IP’s, but we do many different kinds of entertainment, including live shows, family shows, experiences, exhibits, and marketing activations. Our second company, Full Stop Costume Studio, opened just this past July. We design, build and refurbish theatrical costumes, costume characters and character overlays.  Both companies are heavily based in the IP and licensing space.  

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You just created Full Stop Costume Studio. What was behind this decision and why did you create it?

It really was a very natural progression for us from a gap that we saw in the industry trying to costume and refurbish our own projects. We were struggling with cost, quality, and quite frankly, to get on the list with some costume houses was a 12 -18 month lead time, and we just don’t always have that luxury.

Chris Nobels, my business partner, and I have been in the entertainment business working for large corporations, working in live shows, working in Family Entertainment for many, many years. We have a unique perspective of the end user side of costuming.  We thought if we could take that experience and incorporate it into a new way of thinking about costumes, we could make a difference. We know that costumes have to be durable when they go on tour and they have to be built so that you can rotate through many cast members. We want to teach dressers and costumers how to maintain the costumes so they don’t need to be completely rebuilt every couple of years. From an end user perspective, we have a lot of knowledge that we can bring to the industry, and we look at this from a different point of view. Based on that gap, we saw a need  that we could fill within our industry.  We have established a rockstar team of seamstresses, drapers and foam artists who are specifically from the Costume industry. We’re all working together to solve the end-user problems and create  new ways of delivering costumes, particularly for the IP’s and the licensors.  

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How is Full Stop changing the live entertainment industry to be more sustainable?

Chris and I have a combined 50 years in the entertainment business working for various companies and working with different IPS, from both the production and costuming aspects.  We have honed the skill of how to manage IP integration.  For example, when a company wants to take a character that hasn’t been in costume form before, we have a great process. We understand the level of approvals needed, the respect for the character, and all the brand elements that go with it. We have an excellent process in place working with IP’s that we are proud of. This makes us stand out in the industry, and we are expanding that expertise to the Costume side. We want to help our industry. We also feel a responsibility to share our knowledge by helping people repair the characters that they have and teaching the professionals that are already working in costuming how to work and care for the Costumes so they last longer. Coming from the operator side, we understand that there’s quite an investment when building a new character. How can we help clients extend the life of those characters? We can teach costumers how to care for them better. We know that this means we might not get to build a new costume right away, but we think for our industry, it’s a better to repair than to constantly build new, build new, build new.  Let’s recycle, reuse and make it look amazing for our guests. With just a little bit of care, these characters can last a very long time. We have a great team in place that has the knowledge of how to extend the life of costumes and characters. Overall, sustainability and longevity are super important to us.

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We have some characters in the shop now that just need some love. We’re working on a plan right now to create a costume character spa day. We would send our team out to help teach and train dressers and costumers in theme parks and on cruise ships on how to get their characters to a better level so they can look amazing for the guests.  We want them to be proud of them without having to build a whole new set of costumes.

We love Entertainment. We love what we do. We want to continue to help see the industry grow, be sustainable and see companies be able to use their investments in the best and wisest way for guests every day.  We’ve worked on the other side. It’s often hard to find a company to help you repair or refurbish a Costume or a character, and we want to fill that gap. We understand that team members, especially on the Support side, like dressers and costumers, can move through positions very quickly and with that, you don’t get a lot of sustained knowledge moving from group to group. If we can help by being there and training people to take better care of the characters so that they last longer, we think that’s a win for all. We believe in providing that service. the Costumes will stay out on tour longer, and people will want to come back to us for more help in the future. This sustainable aspect is very important to us.

Those are the two things that make us stand out in the industry. We are so excited to be rolling out this new venture, and we love to meet new people. We’re excited to meet new clients and share our story. We love being at events like the Licensing Expo.

What trends are you seeing in the live entertainment landscape, especially for licensed IP?

We often work with tours, live entertainment, and museums, and we see that people still want to know popular franchises. Guests still want theme-based entertainment, and they want to see the characters they know. One of the trends that we are seeing is taking popular franchisees that contain known IP’s and blending it with educational components, particularly for museums. Consumers are looking for content that is meaningful in addition to being recognizable. I would say that’s one trend.

We continue to see this along with immersive and interactive experiences. People still seem to want to choose their own adventure. Guests want to participate in the activity versus purely sitting and watch a show. While we certainly see AR, digital interactions, and so many new technology elements, guests still want to have that meaningful emotional connection, the one-on-one experience with their favorite character, and it’s still the highlight of any experience or live show. Those are where the memories are made, and that’s how we take the brand extension to another level. There’s room for both. It’s a very magical moment when we see that emotional connection, like the first time a child sees their favorite character.  That interaction and that memorable photo last a lifetime. We’ve been seeing it on tours, in concerts, and museums. The guests love seeing the recognizable brand and having the opportunity for a meaningful moment with an educational component or an interactive experience -- and something that families can do together.

We believe that guests want something meaningful, not just a superfluous character meet and greet.  We are seeing many brands reach out to us for assistance with their characters, so we feel positive about the growing field. We’re excited to see where it’s headed next.

What work have you done with licensed IPs and what do you have planned that you can talk about?

We do have a lot of NDA’s in place that I’d love to share in the near future. We have done touring shows with MATTEL for Monster High as well as MGA with L.O.L. Surprise, and we are hoping to do more with them in 2025. We have also been working with Lionsgate the past couple of years, including marketing activations for some of their films such as “Clerks III” and the “Saw” franchise.  This year we had the opportunity to assist LEGOLAND, California with their first ever summer parade, LEGOWorld Parade.  We assisted with the creative parade elements, including Costumes, choreography, music, and creative direction.  We feel fortunate to have many projects in the pipeline at this time and look forward to sharing more when we are able!