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Once upon a time in 2022, I made a cosplay of a human Shadow the Hedgehog. I've loved the character since I was a kid and wanted to bring homage to him. I took it out to a convention for casual wear on the last day of the event to rest... And boy, did I feel terrible wearing it. It wasn't bad, seeing photos after the event made me feel absolutely awful. I shelved the costume, re-purposed the jacket as a nerdy battle jacket for non-cosplay purposes, and moved on.

When Sonic X Shadow Generations came out in late 2024, I was hooked all over again. I completed the entirely of Shadow's portion of the game down to 100% and wanted to try cosplaying him again, learning from my previous experience (figuring out what I think looks good on me) and from my previous fursuit builds for the animal ears and tail. I wanted to tap into his Black Arms origins with the design, and I came up with the idea of having one of my arms look like it was in the middle of a Doom Power transformation.

This cosplay is made up of a lot of thrifted clothes with modifications, including the thrifted denim jacket, the bleached and re-dyed shirt, and the (surprisingly thrifted as-is!) pants. I didn't want to have fragile shoe covers, so I looked around online to find similar enough shoes that referenced the look out of the box. The jacket was the bulk of the work; with painted markings and Shadow's logo, a Project Shadow patch I commissioned from Melonati Patch, leftover studs and white fur added from previous projects... The Doom Power arm has cutout appliqués of textured velvet, 3D veins made out upholstery foam covered with faux suede, with a heavy paintjob to fill in the space, and a matching fleece glove with translucent 3D printed red claws.

The wig was originally a short black wig, trimmed and styled into curly spikes to look a bit like Shadow's quills. I grabbed a lot of red wefts from the previous Shadow wig sewed them in-between the layers. The ears were made out of shag fur from previous projects, shaved and painted and sewn into the wig.

The rest was just adding details on other parts to equalize how busy the jacket was. A hand-made leg strap harness made with nylon webbing and gold hardware with clasps for quick detachment (just to be safe), a white glove from the Ingo cosplay, and dogtags and pins from the previous version of the Shadow Cosplay.

I haven't had the chance to take it out to an event yet (or to a photoshoot for better pictures), but I enjoy a lot more than the previous attempt to far! A lot of the issue came from the previous wig, in my opinion; I just felt weird with long hair. I'm particularly fond of the Doom arm; I think it was a banger idea that came out looking wonderful. It'll be a great way to do more Sonic-related fandomery at events where my Sonic Mascot just isn't feasible to bring out!

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