Fursuit studio

A fursuit studio is an organization that creates fursuits for commission or auction to the public, as opposed to personal use. A studio can be comprised of an individual, or a team of two or more.

While an individual fursuit maker can auction or commission their work, forming a studio can offer benefits of brand awareness. In the United States, studios can become limited liability companies, which confers benefits and protection.

Commissioning
A fursuit studio will generally have a dedicated website with pictures of past work in addition to example or base price estimates. Those interested in commissioning the studio to create a fursuit for them can contact the studio to discuss specifics of the project for a more specific price quote, which is dependent on factors such as cost of materials, complexity, time required, and demand for the studio. At this stage, a visual reference sheet is usually required, as textual descriptions of a character may be to open to interpretation for an artist to work with.

Once a price is negotiated, the studio may request payment in full up front, or work out a payment schedule with the commissioner. Usually, the first payment must be at least enough to cover the cost of the materials the studio will need. PayPal is the most commonly used system of payment, which offers some protections for both the commissioner and the studio in case a refund is needed or a fraudulent chargeback is enacted.

Before work on the fursuit can begin, the studio will need body measurements of the individual for whom the fursuit is intended. For partial fursuits that require no body, this can be simply sending head circumference, arm length, shoe size, pant size measurements to the studio, but for suits that need to fit on a person's torso, a duct tape dummy may need to be sent to the studio.

A studio will typically only have a certain number of "slots" available at a time, meaning the studio will only take on so many orders at once. Slots become available again when other orders are finished, or when the studio is not on a hiatus for holidays or personal issues.

Auction
Some studios will create fursuits of their own design, and auction them, online or at conventions. When online, studios can use mainstream auction sites like eBay, or furry-dedicated sites like FurBuy.

Studios can also auction off commission slots. When slots for a particular studio are especially coveted, this can mean earning more for a single project than they might have normally. For example, in January 2018, an auction for a commission by Made Fur You closed at 13,500USD, despite their most expensive suits starting at only 4,000USD.