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Costumes, character heads and other cut pieces in Disney World.
If there is a "cool" brand right now, it is Disney. Who would have thought, even five years ago, that the hit show on Broadway as the 20th century comes to a close would be the Walt Disney Co.'s "Lion King"? That suburbanites terrified of New York City would venture into one of the really rough areas of Manhattan with their kids just to buy Winnie the Pooh Tshirts? "In a world of limitless choice," says Disney's chairman Michael Eisner, "the value of a brand that consumers trust is inestimable. That trust must continually be earned." But by cleaning up West 42nd Street?
Building a better mouse
This is not a story about the dozens of licensees who make millions of novelty Tshirts for Disney's 636 stores, 109 of which opened last year. Nor is it about Disney's uniforms for concessionaires, which are made by the company in Los Angeles using Silhouette and a Gerber plotter and cutter. Nor is it about Disney's operational garments, 99.9% of which, though designed by Disney to very strict specifications, are made by outside vendors such as I. Appel and Angelica.
This is a story about character heads and costuming, made behind the scenes on the MGM Studios lot at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla. It's a story about a place where great ideas come into being, where the operating "cast members" are given a chance to voice their concerns and offer all kinds of solutions to production problems, where people flock from all over the world to work in what many might consider menial tasks. It is a place of employment famous for "continuous improvement" and other current philosophies.
Mouse and Goofy heads everywhere
When you walk into Rob Mason's office, you are less aware that you are in the office of Disney's manager of Character Heads than you are of the toys everywhere - the Han Solo spaceship, the C3PO, R2D2, Darth Vader and OB Wan statuary, Star Wars artifacts, consorting on Mason's bookshelves along with a large collection of management and motivational books - not to mention French dictionaries and phrasebooks, essential for dealing with con freres at Disneyland Paris.
Two steps outside...