NY Retail Roundup: Fursuit Pursuit

My attempt at a tuxie honeyness fursuit

Furries are a misunderstood community, and I have been spending the past couple months learning about them. For me, it's more about finding a place to belong, only to find like anything, there's baggage there too. I also want to pack mine and go to a convention in the tri-state over the extended Halloween weekend (which is why I put the zip code for the location). I don't necessarily believe in labels, but I learned that only a portion of furries actually own a fursuit. With the economy these days, it's no wonder, and in my case, that goes double. However, I always have had that FOMO bit, and I tried finding places to buy something. Experienced furries say to buy from actual makers or DIY (not in the Home Depot sense). Many original designs have been nicked and sold on amazon, eBay (which also has a couple real things I want), and sites with ties to mainland China like AliExpress or (fill in the blank) Mascot. Etsy has both real and fake. Facebook Marketplace has most of their offerings out of state and pickup only. I wonder if the bin store would even have anything since they get amazon returns. If Switz's still existed, they would probably have some version of these or at least the materials for one to make them from scratch. These pseudo-suits and sites get slated and it's oftentimes fur-gins and younger ones that may make this rookie mistake. In fairness, they're lucky to afford even that. It's not an Armani from Harrods, mind. At least I'd have something for the holiday. Had less trouble finding a place to go on the night back in town this year if going two hundred miles away after fifteen years' time is a long shot. If comic-con events are in town, that would be the closest thing I would be able to do this, while a group are in the area. Even the co-op had a small drawing. I could go to cons in the boys' area, Albany and Allegheny (PA) Counties in future. I just want to have an original cat fursuit so I don't let the side down. If a miracle happens in time, I could just send the other things I ordered back and go all in for the do as well as a show or two. One seller on the app wound up having a dolly (kitty) in my price range that wasn't too effeminate, twee, cheap or exotic looking (a black cat, while my real one's a girl), since I settled on a husky dog character (safer than last years cliché with his "cousin"!). If you're also exploring, do your homework before getting carried away. I wound up with a doggo knockoff one of a fur who shall remain nameless (we even share a birthday), but I will dress him up SU style with a wig to boot since I would rather layer up a cheap fursuit with charity shop finds than tear into one since I'm not at that level at this stage and I wouldn't ruin anything like that. Say hello to Novek, which is an anagram of who this is a clone of and a Serbian word after coding the name in Cyrillic letters. Other people bought similar copies and made them their own, so this is my sona now.

Dedicated to the memory of Dragoneer, founder of FurAffinity. With apologies to Kevon.