Entrepreneurs find success from a full body spandex suit

You may think a full body spandex suit would never catch on to become a trend, however after selling over 2.5 million units, party fashion company Morphcostumes can safely claim their suit is a fashion hit.

Founded by Edinburgh University graduates Gregor Lawson, 36, and the Smeaton brothers Fraser, 36, and Ali, 34, their first business plan was to sell just 20,000 suits because they reckoned that was the maximum number of people who'd want to wear one.

They first came across the suits when a friend turned up to a get-together wearing one that he'd bought on eBay. When he wore it out in Dublin, "hundreds of people wanted a photo with him and so many people were buying him drinks," says Fraser.

Keen entrepreneurs, they improved an existing design and sold it themselves

Keen to replicate the attention Fraser, Ali and Gregor, turned to eBay to acquire suits of their own. As is so often the case, what they found wasn't quite what they were looking for: the fabric was too thick, the wearer couldn't see properly, the colours were limited. Hence they decided they could improve the existing design and attempt selling them themselves.

After designing their first prototype and sampling, they looked for manufacturers in China via Alibaba, which links small and medium-sized firms to manufacturers and traders across the globe.

Using Facebook to advertise their business, they launched their first transactional website for just 459 pounds. Within two weeks of launching they sold out of their initial stock and pre-ordered a further 2,500 units.

According to the National Retail Federation, the costume market is worth 2 billion dollars in the US alone. MorphCostumes now has a turnover of 10 million pounds per year.

In 2012, Morphcostumes received 4.2 million pounds in funding from investment firm the Business Growth Fund which allowed them to grow by moving into the more traditional non-Spandex costume market.