Gustav – Member of the Birgelen fire brigade
Fitting is part of our daily routine. Keeping sample sets ready, measuring, producing customised products… But we have NEVER had what came next.
-GUSTAV-
Let’s start from the beginning. In January, we received an enquiry from the Birgelen fire brigade. They asked us if we could dress their member Gustav, as he was hired for the local children and youth work. He would like to accompany the day with his camera and post it on Instagram. After a brief consultation, we decided to say „yes“ straight away, as the fire brigade is close by and we are naturally happy to support this work.
Due to Corona, however, this was not immediately possible from our point of view, as we do not carry out fittings on site. We therefore suggested a suit from our test pool for the transition. However, this caused confusion among the men of the Birgelen fire brigade and the only response was: „You do realise that Gustav doesn’t fit into a normal suit, right? He’s about 1.30 metres tall.“ Which raised the question: Is he a child?
Well, maybe we should have gone straight to the Birgelen fire brigade website to find out: Gustav is not a person! Gustav is an oversized fire brigade Playmobil figure.
You can vividly imagine the laughter in the company. But well, since we knew it once and we like to accept challenges, we invited Gustav to the fitting (Corona didn’t play a role for him either).
Of course, we at S-GARD like to joke around, so we did NOT tell our colleague, who measures customers with custom-made products, what was in store for her. So we simply told her that she needed to measure someone.
When she saw Gustav, the look on her face was a mixture of: Is this a joke or are they going completely nuts in marketing now? Once she realised that we were serious, she was on fire. Because she’d never really had a challenge like this before. Proportions that aren’t proportions at all, hands that are just as wide as the upper arms, a super wide neck, arms that you can’t lift up… So the first thing we did was to take measurements and think about it: How do we even get the suit on? After all, Gustav can only move to a limited extent and his hands and feet cannot be removed.
It quickly became clear that a Velcro solution was needed. The sleeves, back and trousers could be opened and put on without any problems. We tried back and forth again and again until the finished suit was finally completed!
And it fitted! It simply fitted perfectly.
Once again, a big thank you to our design department for their creativity and realisation. And of course also to the Birgelen fire brigade for their trust in us to realise this. Now Gustav can go into action in the S-GARD suit just like his colleagues.
Will he be happy? We think so!
