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Fursuits are custom-made anthropomorphic animal costumes owned and worn by and members of the furry fandom, commonly known as "furries"; a furry who wears a fursuit is called a fursuiter. The term is believed to have been coined in 1993 by Robert King. Unlike mascot suits, which are usually affiliated with a team or organization, fursuits represent an original character created by their wearer, and are often better-fitting and more intricately crafted, with features such as a moving jaw. Fursuits are made in a wide range of styles, from to highly realistic.
Most early fursuit making was done by the suit's owner using guides released by members of the community, with one of the most prominent being Critter Costuming, a 2004 manual by Adam Riggs. However, by the mid-2000s, the demand for high-quality fursuits was high enough that fursuit making became a viable business. Furries began to commission specialized makers with their custom designs or open-ended requests. Including used suits, the industry now sells millions of dollars worth of suits each year, and organizations such as sports teams are increasingly commissioning custom-made fursuits for their mascots.
According to Forbes in 2018, a few fursuit makers in recent years have gained a larger audience by making mascots for mainstream organizations.
To have a fursuit fit correctly, many fursuit makers want a "duct tape Mannequin" to be made, which will measure and represent the wearer's body during the construction process. Fursuits are often made with Fake fur that may be sourced from places like the Los Angeles Fashion District. A single suit can take more than 200 hours of work and sell for thousands of dollars.
Fursuits can be expensive to clean, although many modern-day suits are machine-washable.
Fursuits can range from cartoon-styled to hyper-realistic. The most popular animals for fursuits to be based on are and . They may also be based on fictional animal hybrids. Some suits may include integrated technology, such as LED lights and programmed expressive eyes.
They may also be seen as overtly sexualized due to negative coverage from shows like , though this is typically not the case. However, according to a 2019 study, only 8.8% of furries had a Sexual fetishism for fursuits. Researcher Courtney Plante stated in 2015 the vast majority of furries "don't want to hear about sex in fursuits, and while they might not reject you, they don't want to know."
Furries who own a fursuit often base them on a "fursona", an anthropomorphic character that represents themselves. Dedicated fursuiters may own as many as a dozen suits based on different characters. Despite being stereotyped as "basement dwellers" still living at home with their parents by many outside the subculture, many members of the furry fandom aspire to be society's highest earners, in part to afford expensive fursuits and associated furry art.
Fursuits are usually worn to such as Midwest FurFest and Anthrocon. Some fursuits of existing characters are made for the purposes of cosplay and are worn to Anime convention or gaming conventions. They are also worn in public, though this often requires a spotter or handler to ensure the safety of the performer from things like rowdy people, exhaustion or accidents due to limited vision.
Esports champion SonicFox became notable in the gaming community for participating in and winning fighting game tournaments while wearing a partial fursuit of their fursona created by fursuit maker Yamishizen. They later ordered two new full suits from the same maker.
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