Trick or Treat?

A growing — albeit still relatively small — sector within the Halloween costume industry consists of licensed garments based on food, beverage, and restaurant brands. These products allow kids and adults to trick-or-treat or attend holiday parties, this weekend and throughout the scary season, dressed as their favorite snack item, its package, or its brand mascot. Some are presented as limited editions, but they can come back in future years if they do well the first time around. 

This is not a new phenomenon, as examples have popped up from time to time over the decades. But there has been a proliferation of late, which is not surprising given the expanding role food, beverage, and restaurant brands have been playing in pop culture during this period. Here is a sampling of recent costumes in this space to illustrate: 

• Spirit Halloween — a primary player in licensed costumes and especially food and beverage–branded products — paired with Tilray’s Shock Top craft beer brand this year for costumes including candy corn (inspired by the latter’s Candy Corn Wheat brew) and the Shock Top Wedgehead logo. Spirit has also partnered over the years with a range of other brands, such as Butterfinger, Mountain Dew, Kung Fu Tea, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, among others. A high-profile example was its 2024 partnership with Chipotle where it brought the fast-casual chain’s burrito, napkin, fork, water cup, and to-go bag to life in Morphsuit-like Spandex, in the wake of several viral memes Chipotle had posted of fictional Halloween costumes tied to its brand.
• Jakks Pacific unit Disguise announced a license with Hormel Foods in May of this year, with plans to introduce costumes, including tunics and headwear, based on Hormel’s Spam, Skippy, and Corn Nuts brands. The product line debuted at Target stores this fall, with expansion to other retailers and global markets planned for 2027. 
• Imposta Costumes (formerly Rasta Imposta) produced a limited edition this year of 100 Pierogy and Sour Cream costumes for Mrs. T’s Pierogies, released on October 1 in time for both Halloween and National Pierogy Day on October 8. The costumes were given away to select fans who followed and tagged Mrs. T’s on social media. Last year, Imposta released Mike’s Hot Honey costumes, capitalizing on the popularity of “swicy” foods, and that brand in particular, especially among young adults. In 2024, it paired with Danone’s International Delight for costumes depicting the latter’s two best-selling creamer flavors, French Vanilla and Pumpkin Pie Spice. Previous examples have included Sazerac Brands’ Fireball Cinnamon Whisky.
• Fun.com, operator of the Halloween.com e-commerce site, has produced costumes over the years, some of which are still available, with food- and beverage-related brands including Eggo Waffles (with tunics debuting during the product’s pop culture spike due to its placement on the Netflix series Stranger Things) and Morton Salt. In addition to its exclusive licensed designs, it sells costumes from other Halloween costume purveyors.

Beyond licensing deals such as the examples listed here, some food- and beverage-related brands have released Halloween costumes created and sourced internally and sold through their own retail and/or e-tail channels. Chili’s offered a two-person mozzarella stick costume based on its best-loved appetizer in 2024 and again in 2025, for example, while Pantalones Tequila, founded by Matthew and Camila McConaughey, released a costume depicting its bottle last Halloween. Non-licensed food and beverage items have also grown in popularity in recent years.