Unbroken Hades may be a new member of our cosplay crew but he is already making a scene. This amazing cosplayer and talented craftsman has already been featured by Apex Legends! Come learn a little more about Unbroken Hades!
Cosplay Name: Unbroken Hades
Age: 26
Location: San Diego, California
Social Media Links:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/unbrokenhades/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/UnbrokenHadesCosplay
Twitter – https://twitter.com/UnbrokenHades
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUYE1MEkMagcAeBlIJRTREw/featured?view_as=subscriber
Tik Tok – @UnbrokenHades
What Got You Into Cosplay?
I first got into cosplay back in 2008 when I went to my first convention in Virginia. I was cosplaying Gaara from Naruto Shippuden and only had the jacket and vest. Even though it wasn’t a full cosplay, everyone there loved it and interacted with me and it was an all-around amazing experience. I kept drawing and designing costumes and such until I started casually cosplaying after I graduated and in 2017 I decided that I wanted to make a career out of cosplay and crafting. Since then I’ve been working nonstop on my cosplays and props, and I’m constantly trying to push myself artistically to better my craft.
What Is Your Favorite Cosplay You’ve Done So Far?
This is a really hard decision but I think I would have to say that my Reaper cosplay from Overwatch is my favorite that I’ve done so far. I made it in a short amount of time for a convention I was attending and ended up being one of only two Reapers at the entire con. It was comfortable and easy to move around in (which is a huge deal to me because I cosplay a lot of characters with armor haha). But what makes it my favorite is that it’s the cosplay I had on when I met a bunch of people who became really good friends and I’m so thankful for that.
What are the main factors in choosing a cosplay for you? My biggest thing I look for when choosing characters to cosplay is how much I connect with them. I tend to cosplay characters that I feel embody a part of myself that I want to bring out or show such as friendliness and loyalty with Kirishima from My Hero Academia, or my more cultural side with Bloodhound from Apex Legends. I also look for characters to cosplay that embody traits that I want to work towards.
Current Favorite Cosplay Breakdown:
My current favorite cosplay is Caustic from Apex Legends. I’m currently working on Caustic’s Prince of Darkness skin which involves a lot of armor, fabric, and metal. I have personally made each armor piece from the beginning pattern to the finished product. I also made the mask using a base face mask pattern from Kamui cosplay that I altered and changed to create the iconic gas mask. My girlfriend helped me wrap wire into coils for me to cut for the chainmail and I pieced it together by hand, which was time-consuming but looked absolutely amazing when it was finished. It was also my first time making full chainmail pieces too so it was a learning process. I personally don’t know how to sew, but I’m lucky to have an amazing girlfriend who does! We’re in the process of making patterns for all the cloth pieces for the cosplay which she’ll sew together and I’ll do all the design details and weathering afterward. All in all, Caustic will probably be finished sometime in November, making it 6 months total of work time!
What Is Your Occupation Outside Of Cosplay?
Over a year ago I was let go from a customer service job at a popular hardware store that I had worked at for almost 5 years and had worked at stores in 2 different states. After that, I decided that I was going to put my all into cosplay and decided to really give it a good shot at becoming a full-time content creator. So, at the moment I’m self-employed, trying to get my “business” per se off the ground and running. I’m in the process of creating cosplay prints while working on as many commissions as I can get, and hopefully, in the near future, I’d love to be able to sell a few shirts with my cosplay logo and such on them.
Why Do YOU (Personally) Continue To Cosplay?
I personally continue to cosplay for a lot of reasons. I’m an artistic person and cosplay takes all of the things I love to do, like painting, drawing, armor making, photography, and such and mixes them all into one thing. I also continue to cosplay for my mental health. When I worked a full-time job I didn’t have very much time to work on my crafts and when I would have a really bad spurt of depression, it would make it so much worse. Now that I cosplay and create as a job my mental health is extremely better all around.
What Is Your Favorite Convention To Cosplay At?
I’ve been to a handful of conventions on the east coast, west coast, and everywhere in between and I have to say it comes to a tie between Wondercon in Anaheim, CA. and Naka Kon in Overland Park, KS. Wondercon is a large size con that has tons to look at, plenty of people, and is just all-around amazing. I’ve attended there twice and plan on going back several more times! Naka Kon is a medium-sized con that had an amazing dealer room and artist alley, and the people there were so friendly and welcoming so it was like going to a big city con with a small city feel and I really enjoyed that.
How Much Time Do You Spend On Your Cosplay Per Week/Month?
I’m honestly ALWAYS crafting or working on something 6 or 7 days out of the week. I could spend anywhere from 3 or 4 hours to the whole day. I get asked a lot on how I don’t burn out and I tell people that I work on 2-3 cosplays at a time, so if I’m stuck on one, or tired of one, I can work on another. If I’m not working on a personal cosplay then I could be building commissions or painting artwork for someone. If I’m not doing either of those then I’m probably in cosplay recording videos or taking photos for new content or streaming. Even during the parts of the day when I’m not working on stuff, I’m gaming or watching movies, looking for new characters to possibly build or new props to make, or I’m picking up around the house and finding things that I could use in my cosplays, so it’s kind of an all-day everyday kind of thing because I’m so passionate about it and it’s a huge part of many things in my life.
Best Cosplay Experience You’ve Had.
Just recently, I had someone that works on Apex Legends reach out to me and ask me to do an interview for their next community spotlight video. I was and am still shocked but I was so thankful that they had reached out to me for the opportunity. I had never worked with or even talked to a big game company like that before and I thought it was too good to be true until I saw the premiere of the video and I had realized that my hard work and patience had gotten me to where I am now. The experience I had with the interview for Apex Legends put everything into perspective for me motivated me to keep pushing myself more and more.
Best Advice You Have For New Cosplayers
I would have to say my best advice would be to fuel your passion. Content creators try to cosplay or craft things from fandoms that are relevant to what’s popular at the time, and that’s not bad in any way, shape, or form but I have done that in the past and found that I would get drained because I would be working on things that I had no interest in. It just wasn’t worth it to me. I really enjoy cosplaying characters that I have really deep connections to which helps fuel my passion and helps me push through the whole cosplay while keeping my motivation up. And I feel that people can see the passion in your work if it’s a character or fandom that you truly love and enjoy. I would also say be as patient as possible and don’t give up. I’ve been cosplaying seriously for about 3 years now and I’m still learning new ways to craft things, I’m still finding new materials to work with, and all sorts of stuff.
