Meet Trailblazer Alexis Noriega

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Noriega. She and her team share her story with us below.

Please kick things off for us with some background on the story.
Alexis Noriega is a self-taught costume maker and wing specialist. She started cosplaying in high school and quickly fell in love with creating and designing elaborate costumes. Once she made her first set of wings for a costume, she was hooked. Her work has been showcased in several viral videos in the last few years and has even made appearances on The Science Channel and Adam Savage’s new “Tested” VR show. She has been fortunate enough to create wings for fans all over the world through her cosplay business The Crooked Feather as a full-time profession. Her favorite cosplay materials are feathers (duh!), foam, aluminum, and chiffon. She loves exploring new high tech ways to make fantasy a reality! She hopes to inspire young people to go into STEM fields with her creative mechanical wings.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Obviously, every business has risks and challenges, and this business was no exception. I started it off as a side hustle, just something I did for fun and kept having friends and acquaintances ask me to make wings for them. It kept growing and growing until I really couldn’t handle it on top of my full-time job, so I took a leap of faith and quit my job to do it full time. In the beginning, it was financially difficult and since it was just me making the wings it was pretty exhausting, but the more I made the better I got and I was able to grow and add some independent contractors. Now, we have a shop in Tucson and several independent contractors who all have enough work to do this full time or part time as they choose. The only advice I can give is to be tough and stick it out if it’s what you want to do!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Crooked Feather – what should we know?
The Crooked Feather is best known for its large mechanical costume wings and has been featured in several viral videos from companies such as 60 Second Docs, Margle, In the Know, and Now I’ve Seen Everything. We get new fans every day from the videos and pictures out there! We’re most proud of the variety of wines that we produce and the ability to customize pretty much everything. We’re really the only company who does build quite like this – there are some that do just the static (non-moving) builds, and a few who try to do the electric builds but use different mechanisms – so that’s what sets us apart.

Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
I was lucky to have incredibly supportive parents who encouraged me to explore my passions along with with increase my education. I also had a great community of friends that helped me develop my interests.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecrookedfeather.com
• Email: info@thecrookedfeather.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thecrookedfeather
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecrookedfeather
• Other: www.patreon.com/thecrookedfeather

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