Furever Friends Fursuit Company

Website created by Joan Wright and Valerie Obryant, edited by Valerie Obryant

Who are we?

Furever Friends was created by Joan Wright and Valerie Obryant in an AP Business and Personal Finance class, both current high schoolers at YWCPA. They both wanted to create a company that was appealing to customers (low-budget prices, eco-friendly) while still making a difference in the community. Joan mainly handles the fursuit handmade projects, while Valerie works mainly digitally.  We aspire to make you happy, satisfied, and truly hope to make a difference in our community. We try to be as open as possible about our research, findings, and what we are doing.

Notes From the Creators

Joan:

The idea all started with the question "I wanted to make fursuits for a living, but how can it be eco-friendly, cost lower for buyers, but still make money?" That's when we came up with Furever Friends. We intake faux fur and foam scraps that most people wouldn't use anymore and make recycled fursuits, reducing costs and lowering the amount of plastic in landfills, oceans, and incinerators. In the future, we hope that all faux fur will become made from recycled plastic

Valerie:

Since there's a lot of wasteful or expensive ways to make fursuits—most of which being plastic that eventually ends up in landfills or other places that would cause environmental harm someday—we came up with a business that makes cost-efficient and high-quality fursuits and items for them. By doing this, we're not only helping people, we're also helping the environment, since like Joan said, we recycle faux fur and other scrap material and use them to make our items.

Core Problems

Fursuit making, commissioning, and ownership is usually very expensive, so we took in how much the cost would be to make a fursuit, including time, materials, and quality. A single item for a fursuit can cost anywhere from $150-$3,000+. Now, that's a lot of money.  For your convenience, I have researched the average costs for each item. 

(These are not our costs, these are average market prices!)

Handpaws - $150-$900+

Fursuit Heads - $400-$3,000+

Feetpaws - $400-$900+

Arm/Leg sleeves - $225-$245+

Tails - $150-$500+

Bodysuits - $1,000-$3,000+

Fursona Badge/Reference Sheet - $10-$200+

Therian masks - $100-$300

Based on my research, I have found a way to cut down the costs. As intermediate fursuit makers, that takes the price way down since quality is still good, but we can't do extremely complex or intricate items. Time is valuable, since we both have to focus on studies, but we mostly are free during night time and weekends. Materials that we're using aren't necessarily expensive, since they are recycled or previously used on other projects. 

PESTEL Analysis

Overall, 3 macro risks are Petrochemical and Sythetic Textile Supply (most faux furs and EVA foams are made from petroleum based materials), the fact our product is a luxury and not an essential item, and platform transaction fees (if we were to make a shop, the 3rd party seller can raise taxes, reducing net profitability). 3 macro opportunities are sustainable consumerism (millenials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are getting more involved in purchasing eco-friendly products), post-pandemic revival of conventions (many people go suiting to conventions), and the fact our products are budget-friendly (most full fursuits cost anywhere from a total of $1,500-$6,000).

     Interviews

We interviewed 2 people and asked them 5 questions.

The questions were:

1. How important is environmental sustainability to you when choosing which brands or businesses to support?

2. Would you buy from a small business?

3. Would you rather purchase handmade goods or manufactured goods?

4.  What is your understanding about plastic waste in the environment?

5. What do you think is a fair balance between the price of a handmade item and the experience level of the maker?

     Bria: 1. "Pretty important."

2. "It depends."

3. "I would do both."

4. "Plastic does not decompose."

5. "If the maker is more experienced, they should sell for more."

Hailey: 1."Not that important."

2. "It depends."

3. "Both, but it depends on the product."

4.  "Plastic is bad for sea turtles."

5. "If the maker is more experienced, they should sell for more."

Based on this feedback, it led us to adjust and refine our idea by knowing that certain products are bought by certain people, that not everyone would buy the exact same thing. Some people know very little about plastic and how it harms the environment, even with all the data, research, and speeches about plastic waste. Some people even have different opinions on what matters in a business, and I thought that was interesting on my part. Interpreting these interviews, we will try to include in our product how much it matters to reduce plastic waste and how you can do more for your community.

Business Classification

Our business is considered a physical good, service, and digital good, since we make fursuits and digital fursona references. How we would detail the finalized core feature set is sustainable products by reducing waste, budget-friendly crafting, and our commission-based designs.

How Our Refined Business Idea Directly Solves the Validated Customer Problem

Problem:

Custom fursuits and high-quality character gear are notoriously expensive, often costing thousands of dollars. This leaves hobbyists, younger members of the fandom, and budget-conscious creators completely priced out of the market. Additionally, makers looking to fix or upgrade their own suits struggle to find affordable, small-quantity replacement parts and raw materials without buying in bulk.

Solution:

We try to provide an affordable, highly accessible alternative by offering handmade fursuit pieces, components, and budget-friendly digital art assets. By utilizing a mix of different materials and recycled scraps, the brand lowers production costs and passes those massive savings directly onto the customer.

Core Values and Offerings:

Affordable Premades - Complete partials, handpaws, and feetpaws priced significantly below standard market rates (e.g., Handpaws for $100, Feetpaws for $300).

Repair Supplies - Accessible, smaller-scale individual components like eyemesh ($10), custom extra teeth ($30), and small fur scraps ($5) so customers/creators only pay for what they actually need.

Refurrbishments - Affordable refurbeshment services ($40 per part) to fix up old or broken suits, extending the lifespan of beloved characters without requiring a full replacement suit.

Budget Art - High-quality digital character design assets, including badges ($25) and reference sheets ($50), for future purchases or conventions. 

Magma Commissions: https://forms.gle/rxudtEyw3hb364iG7 

Fursuit Commission: https://forms.gle/sinRJFSMbuQWYj46A