History Main / CheapCostume

[[caption-width-right:350:''You look amazing, Spider-Man!'']]

* ''Film/TheFlash2023'': The Flash goes back in time to before he had his superhero suit, so he takes one of Batman's superhero suits and paints it red, adding a yellow lightning bolt on top of the bat symbol. {{Downplayed}} in that while the suit looks cheap, it probably cost a lot of money for Batman to make the suit.

* ''Film/TheFlash'': The Flash goes back in time to before he had his superhero suit, so he takes one of Batman's superhero suits and paints it red, adding a yellow lightning bolt on top of the bat symbol. {{Downplayed}} in that while the suit looks cheap, it probably cost a lot of money for Batman to make the suit.

* In the ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' comics, Gladiator used to be the owner of a costume shop that specialized in superhero and supervillain costumes (the place looked kinda like a Wax Museum Morgue). He alters a DD costume for Foggy Nelson that looks pretty darn good for a knockoff. Except for the plastic prop billyclub, of course...
** In the "[[ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain Born Again]]" arc, the Daredevil impostor hired by the Kingpin had such a convincing costume (also made by the Gladiator), the real Daredevil actually stole it from him and put it on himself. Of course he had no choice as all of his other costumes had been destroyed.

* Seems to happen with [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] quite frequently. Makes sense, considering he is often TheWoobie, TheChewToy or both.

** During a Team-Up with Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}}, Spidey once found himself abroad and in need of a costume. Luckily for him he was able to purchase a reasonable imitation of a Spider-Man costume in a costume shop in Berlin. Unfortunately it had "Die Spinne" written on the back, the name that the character was known by and that Spider-Man comics were sold under in Germany back then. Worth noting that Spidey's normal costume at the time was the black & white number, so it wasn't a "reasonable" imitation to his way of thinking since it looked like his then-retired red-and-blue costume.

** The Steel Spider began as a boy in a Spider-Man Halloween costume with (non-functional) aluminum arms coming off the back. He eventually developed his own, still Spider-Man–based identity.
** In ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', the Chameleon was a pretty convincing Spidey, except for the fact that Pete had switched to the black costume at this point. Oh, and the Chameleon had some weak imitations of the webbing, really hammed it up with the voice, and had an "insect early warning sense". On top of all that ''he's a full foot too tall.''

** D-Man's "costume" consists of a copy of Daredevil's old yellow outfit and a knock-off Franchise/{{Wolverine}} mask.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Eventually, the Blue Squares begin using cheap, shark masks to conceal their identities while [[spoiler:removing the 'bad apples' from the Dollars under Mikado's orders]]. Later, Chikage and Masaomi try to lure out [[spoiler:Mikado]] in a fake hostage situation. However, the Blue Squares undermine them by making it impossible to tell if [[spoiler:Mikado]] is really there as they are all wearing shark masks.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': After Izuku Midoriya successfully gets into [[SuperSchool UA High]], his mother buys him a hero costume based on the sketches he drew that she found. It's a tacky light green costume that's ''very'' transparently based on All Might, which gets mostly shredded during Izuku's first lesson as opposed to the more professional ones the other students got via a costume designer firm. After his costume gets repaired via said firm, they made several upgrades to bring it up to par with the others.

* Deconstructed in ''Manga/{{Gamma}}'' Light Bright wore a cheap costume when she was starting as a hero, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome which led to a villain uncovering her identity]] and [[RevengeByProxy murdering her best friend in retaliation]].

* During a time when his costume was confiscated by the U.S. Government due to accusations of treason against the nation, Comicbook/CaptainAmerica was provided an improvised costume that eliminated the stars & stripes of his regular outfit.
* ComicBook/TheCreeper's rather ... ''flamboyant'' ... costume is explained in at least one version of his origin story as being odds and ends he put together from the leftovers nobody wanted to rent from a costume shop. Then he realized it creeped the bad guys the hell out, and decided to run with that theme.

** D-Man's "costume" consists of a copy of Daredevil's old yellow outfit and a knock-off ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} mask.
* One ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' comic for ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' featured Darkwing's mask getting stolen by a mask thief. Gosalyn protects Darkwing's identity from the public with a PieInTheFace. Later on in the story, Darkwing confronts the thief while wearing a Mardi Gras mask, with a luchador's mask underneath. The thief steals both of those masks anyway, leaving Darkwing unmasked again. After a few other disgruntled superheroes capture the mask thief, Darkwing reveals that it had all been a BatmanGambit, and that he was actually wearing [[LatexPerfection a mask of his secret identity]] over one of his spare regular masks [[MindScrew in order to keep his secret identity safe]]. Launchpad and Gosalyn are befuddled.

* Comicbook/HarleyQuinn's costume was just something she stole from a costume shop. ComicBook/TheJoker's duds may count as well, given he just wears a ratty old suit. This tends to fall into DependingOnTheWriter at times. In ''Comicbook/SalvationRun'', Joker mentions that his famed purple tuxedo is made of pure velvet. In the ComicBook/{{New 52}} continuity, Harley's costume is shown to be made up of articles of clothing [[MuggedForDisguise she stole from a cheerleader, jogger, prostitute, and fast food employee, respectively]]. Presumably this was done to explain the {{Stripperiffic}} nature of the outfit.

* When ComicBook/{{Silk}} started off on her heroic adventures, she ran around in basically her naked body covered in webbing. Thankfully, she learned that she could create clothing from her webbing and changed accordingly.
* Seems to happen with Franchise/SpiderMan quite frequently. Makes sense, considering he is often TheWoobie, TheChewToy or both.
** In the comics, after getting rid of the symbiote, he had to borrow a Comicbook/FantasticFour costume, but because it didn't have a mask, he had [[BrownBagMask to wear a paper bag over his head]] (and a [[KickMePrank kick-me sign on his back]], courtesy of [[ComicBook/HumanTorch Johnny Storm]]). No, seriously. He was called [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190125184904/http://www.spiderfan.org/characters/himself/costume/not_really/index.html "The Amazing Bag-Man" and "The Bombastic Bag-Man"]].

** During a Team-Up with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Spidey once found himself abroad and in need of a costume. Luckly for him he was able to purchase a reasonable imitation of a Spider-Man costume in a costume shop in Berlin. Unfortunately it had "Die Spinne" written on the back, the name that the character was known by and that Spider-Man comics were sold under in Germany back then. Worth noting that Spidey's normal costume at the time was the black & white number, so it wasn't a "reasonable" imitation to his way of thinking since it looked like his then-retired red-and-blue costume.
** The ComicBook/ScarletSpider outfit started out like this. This may be where the "stenciled sweats" idea came from in the movie.

*** Comicbook/MilesMorales, the [[AffirmativeActionLegacy second]] Ultimate Spider-Man, started off in a ratty store-bought Spider-Man costume that was given to him by his friend Ganke. He later upgraded to a cooler, more official model designed by ComicBook/NickFury.

* In ''Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool'', Comicbook/{{Static}} makes an approximation of his [[WesternAnimation/StaticShock cartoon outfit]] out of some clothing stolen from a sporting goods shop. He later ditches it after several of his friends claim it makes him look like Ash from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''.
* In ''ComicBook/TalesFromTheDarkMultiverse: ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', [[spoiler:Lyta "Fury" Trevor]] becomes the new Wonder Woman after [[spoiler:the death of her mother, the Earth-Two Wonder Woman.]] Her new costume is initially just her torn [[spoiler:Fury]] costume with Diana's tiara and a scrap of [[SymbolMotifClothing star fabric]] attached to her belt. Justified, since she literally went from one battle to another. A WhereAreTheyNow SplashPanel shows her later wearing a costume similar to the [[ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth one from the current comics]].

* ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader'': In Selina Kyle's story of how she first met Batman, she's wearing a fullface cat mask and ladies trenchcoat, instead of the familiar [[FoeRomanceSubtext slinky catsuit]] she wears [[DatingCatwoman as their relationship evolves]].
* Cassie Sandsmark as ComicBook/WonderGirl tends towards this as a member of ComicBook/YoungJustice (both when she started out and in [[ComicBook/YoungJustice 2019 series]]). Her original Wonder Girl outfit was , black leggings with yellow stars, a skirt, and a return to a Wonder Woman-themed shirt.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': As is the case with his comic book counterpart, ComicBook/MilesMorales' original superhero suit is a store-bought, improperly-sized Spider-Man Halloween costume. His growth into a confident, worthy successor to the first Spider-Man is signified by him donning a proper suit.

* Brandon's "superhero" costume in ''Film/{{Brightburn}}'' is a [[SackheadSlasher burlap sack]] and a ragged cape made from what looks like an old sheet, highlighting him as a cross between Franchise/{{Superman}} and a [[HillbillyHorrors backwoods slasher]].

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Batman encounters a group of vigilantes dressed in Batman costumes and is not impressed, leaving them for the police along with the criminals.
-->'''Bat-Vigilante:''' What's the difference between you and me?\\

** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', Spider-Man starts off in a cheap, homemade outfit, but gets a more professional Avengers-style outfit from [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]. Stark even makes fun of the outfit by calling him "Underoos." During ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', he's forced to don his old outfit again for the final confrontation against [[PunchClockVillain the Vulture]], though he gets his hi-tech outfit back from Stark in the end. (As noted above, it's also a MythologyGag to the ComicBook/ScarletSpider outfit.)

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' runs with this for season 1. Though, given Matt Murdock's financial situation it's no surprise he'd be running around in some simple bunches of black cloth, a bandanna, and some knee pads bought on the internet. It isn't until the season 1 finale that Matt gets Melvin Potter to build him a red and black suit of body armor and a red, horned helmet, in time for Matt's final showdown with Wilson Fisk.

* And in ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'', the Rider Club cosplay themselves as the Legendary Riders, using the same materials. They must have been taking "fashion tips" from the Shinkengers and Gokaigers...

* In Brazil, doing {{Cosplay}}s with serious budgetary issues has become known as "Cospobre" (literally "Cospoor"). Great cases of this combined with ForHalloweenImGoingAsMyself are [[https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_ADUAxnhAO/ three ]] [[https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_XNojUnY46/ different]] [[https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_tOfIVHV0b/ videos]] where dubbers dressed as characters they voice, using only what they had at home - even if some had accurate props ("Picard" owns a Starfleet uniform, "Star-Lord" has both the helmet and the pistol).

* In ''Film/Scream1996'', the fact that Ghostface is wearing a cheap, mass-produced "Father Death" Halloween costume is an important plot point, demonstrating that the killer is an ordinary person (unlike such {{Implacable M|an}}en as [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]] and [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]) and making it much harder to identify who the killer is based on an IconicOutfit. Indeed, in one scene we see a pair of {{Class Clown}}s run around the school hallways with Ghostface masks on to scare their classmates, as if to demonstrate that [[EveryoneIsASuspect it could be anyone]]. The opening scene of ''Film/Scream2'' also highlights this, with an entire theater full of people in Ghostface costumes that allow the real killer to blend in.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', someone takes Yugi's deck and copies his look. His hair leaves much to be desired.
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'':
** Zoisite, one of the Shitennou, dresses up as Sailor Moon, saves people from accidents he sets up himself, and stages his own kidnapping to trap the real one. However, the red parts of the Sailor Moon costume are deep purple on the fake costume. (It happens in the ''Sailor Moon Plus'' fan game, too, in which he also adopts Sailor Moon's move set.)
** Sailor Venus also tries to disguise herself as Sailor Moon at one point when the latter is out of commission, although the effect is ruined by her orange costume highlights and a rather... ''unconvincing'' attempt to recreate Moon's attacks and OdangoHair. [[PaperThinDisguise It still works.]]

* In ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'', all the fake Angels have perfect costumes, but, besides the fake Milfeulle, they are also all {{Gonk}}s and look completely different from their counterparts. (The VideoGame/GalaxyAngel gameverse versions were almost exact copies, but a sharp eye could tell them apart anyway.)
* One of Maron's heists in ''Manga/PhantomThiefJeanne'' gets complicated when her TransformationTrinket ends up in the hands of the possessed VictimOfTheWeek. Her makeshift disguise includes an altered yukata, a (much, much plainer) handmade cross, hair extensions, and spray-on hair dye. Things get even more complicated when she gets caught in a DrowningPit, the dye washes off, and the hair extensions float away.

* Seems to happen with Franchise/SpiderMan quite frequently. Makes sense, considering he is often TheWoobie, TheChewToy or both.

* In the ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' comics, Gladiator used to be the owner of a costume shop that specialized in superhero and supervillain costumes (the place looked kinda like a Wax Museum Morgue). He alters a DD costume for Foggy Nelson that looks pretty darn good for a knockoff. Except for the plastic prop billyclub, of course...
** In the "[[ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain Born Again]]" arc, the Daredevil impostor hired by the Kingpin had such a convincing costume (also made by the Gladiator), the real Daredevil actually stole it from him and put it on himself. Of course he had no choice as all of his other costumes had been destroyed.
** Another impostor, an actor claiming to have been Daredevil for publicity, also had a perfect costume.
** D-Man's "costume" consists of a copy of Daredevil's old yellow outfit and a knock-off ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} mask.
* In Franchise/TheDCU, ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} had a "rival" hero called Nite-Wing with a 'costume' that consisted of a hockey jersey and combat pants.
* Molly Hayes of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' tried to make her own costume with a T-shirt cape and cheap mask. This lasted a few seconds before Gert yanked the mask off herself.

* Towards the end of the ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' series, former Batgirl Barbara Gordon met with a teenage girl who was co-opting her old identity. The cheapness of the young lady's costume -- the cape and cowl of which were made from binliners -- became a plot point, when it was what led Babs to figure out that she was homeless.
%% * In ''Comicbook/KickAss'', a few of the costumes are pretty lame. It's kind of the point.
* Comicbook/HarleyQuinn's costume was just something she stole from a costume shop. ComicBook/TheJoker's duds may count as well, given he just wears a ratty old suit. This tends to fall into DependingOnTheWriter at times. In ''Comicbook/SalvationRun'', Joker mentions that his famed purple tuxedo is made of pure velvet. In the ComicBook/{{New 52}} continuity, Harley's costume is shown to be made up of articles of clothing [[MuggedForDisguise she stole from a cheerleader, jogger, prostitute, and fast food employee, respectively]]. Presumably this was done to explain the {{Stripperiffic}} nature of the outfit.
* Like Harley Quinn, UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|Of Comic Books}} hero the Guardian stole his outfit and shield from a costume shop. Though at least in his case, he left behind some money for it.
* ComicBook/TheCreeper's rather ... ''flamboyant'' ... costume is explained in at least one version of his origin story as being odds and ends he put together from the leftovers nobody wanted to rent from a costume shop. Then he realized it creeped the bad guys the hell out, and decided to run with that theme.
* At one point when Tony Stark had retired from his Comicbook/IronMan identity to recover from his alcoholism, Tony had his "Recovery Armor" (basically a modernized Mark I armor) discovered by Dr. Demonicus and taken for a test run. Tony had to scrounge up costume parts of his teammates' within the Avengers West Coast so he could go out and get the armor back. Hawkeye mockingly named him "Spare Parts Man".
* One ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' comic for ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' featured Darkwing's mask getting stolen by a mask thief. Gosalyn protects Darkwing's identity from the public with a PieInTheFace. Later on in the story, Darkwing confronts the thief while wearing a Mardi Gras mask, with a luchador's mask underneath. The thief steals both of those masks anyway, leaving Darkwing unmasked again. After a few other disgruntled superheroes capture the mask thief, Darkwing reveals that it had all been a BatmanGambit, and that he was actually wearing [[LatexPerfection a mask of his secret identity]] over one of his spare regular masks [[MindScrew in order to keep his secret identity safe]]. Launchpad and Gosalyn are befuddled.
* During a time when his costume was confiscated by the U.S. Government due to accusations of treason against the nation, Comicbook/CaptainAmerica was provided an improvised costume that eliminated the stars & stripes of his regular outfit.
* In ''[[ComicBook/DialHForHero Dial H]]'', Nelson has to rescue a friend without a working Hero Dial, and creates his own blue-collar-worker-themed "Rescue Jack" superhero identity with a thrown-together costume and metalworking tools as weapons.
* In ''Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool'', Comicbook/{{Static}} makes an approximation of his [[WesternAnimation/StaticShock cartoon outfit]] out of some clothing stolen from a sporting goods shop. He later ditches it after several of his friends claim it makes him look like Ash from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''.
* The "Burnside" costume Barbara Gordon wears in ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl 2011}}'' fits this as some of her costume pieces includes a jacket, boots and a cowl that fits more like a cap. Note the costume itself is not cheaply made, it just consists of artifacts that could resemble real world clothing instead of a spandex outfit.
* When ComicBook/{{Silk}} started off on her heroic adventures, she ran around in basically her naked body covered in webbing. Thankfully, she learned that she could create clothing from her webbing and changed accordingly.
* Before she became ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}, Kate Kane fought crime wearing tactical clothing and stolen military hardware (gas mask, flak vest, and collapsible truncheon).
* In Ridley Pearson's ''Super Sons'' graphic novels, Jon and Ian are not officially affiliated with their superhero fathers, so the boys dress in cobbled-together sports equipment to fight crime.

* In ''ComicBook/TheShadow: Year One'' from Creator/DynamiteComics, Lamont Cranston is attending a party when he sees Margo Lane being abducted by gangsters who plan to throw her off the roof. Not having his Shadow accoutrements with him, he is forced to improvise a mask out of his dress scarf, and rely upon his mind tricks to do the rest.
* Don Martin's Mad Magazine protagonist Captain Klutz got his costume by pure accident. The impoverished schmuck tried to commit suicide by jumping off his floor of a skyscraper when he got fitted out by various laundry items air-drying on a line (most notably some red long johns) and he landed on top of a thug who just robbed a bank. The robber called him a klutz, and when the police asks who he was, he slurs "I'm a klutz, Captain." The officer tells another "I think he said he was Captain Klutz!"
* In ''ComicBook/TheSecondLifeOfDoctorMirage'', Doctor Mirage's costume is actually just a ski outfit that he was wearing when Master Darque discorporated him.

* In ''[[ComicBook/TalesFromTheDarkMultiverse Tales from the Dark Multiverse:]] ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', [[spoiler:Lyta "Fury" Trevor]] becomes the new Wonder Woman after [[spoiler:the death of her mother, the Earth-Two Wonder Woman.]] Her new costume is initially just her torn [[spoiler:Fury]] costume with Diana's tiara and a scrap of [[SymbolMotifClothing star fabric]] attached to her belt. Justified, since she literally went from one battle to another. A WhereAreTheyNow SplashPanel shows her later wearing a costume similar to the [[ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth one from the current comics]].

* ''Film/SpiderMan1'' had Peter Parker in his first costumed appearance with stenciled sweats and off-the-shelf gloves, mask and shoes. The novelization of ''Film/SpiderMan2'' revealed that Peter got his proper costume made by a guy who specialized in wrestling costumes. In the unfilmed James Cameron movie script, stores began selling Spider-Man costumes based off of what they saw him wearing. Peter ruined his costume and decided to buy the store costume because it was actually of better quality.
* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' has Peter simply wear a red face mask with sunglasses paired with regular street clothes consisting of a beanie and a jacket, shirt, jeans and tennis shoes until he makes a proper suit out of a ski suit.

* Creator/WoodyHarrelson's costume in ''Film/{{Defendor}}'' (misspelling intentional)
* Done in ''Film/KickAss'', where some of the costumes are really cheesy. And yet the title character makes a wetsuit look downright awesome.

* ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'' features Andrew Detmer making a cheap but fairly effective supervillain disguise out of his dad's firefighting gear and gas mask. Unfortunately, because he wears his school backpack over the coat, the neighbourhood thugs recognize him almost immediately. [[CurbStompBattle Not that it does them any good.]]
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Blankman}}'', where the titular character wears what appears to be a cheaply-made costume made out of long underwear, a sock for a mask and a tablecloth for a cape. But as it turns out, the entire thing is bulletproof. Played straight with his sidekick "Other Guy", whose "Michigan" shirt and unmatching exercise pants are completely regular.
* In ''Film/Scream1996'', the fact that Ghostface is wearing a cheap, mass-produced "Father Death" Halloween costume is an important plot point, demonstrating that the killer is an ordinary person (unlike such {{Implacable M|an}}en as [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]] and [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]) and making it much harder to identify who the killer is based on an IconicOutfit. Indeed, in one scene we see a pair of {{Class Clown}}s run around the school hallways with Ghostface masks on to scare their classmates, as if to demonstrate that [[EveryoneIsASuspect it could be anyone]]. The opening scene of ''Film/Scream2'' also highlights this, with an entire theater full of people in Ghostface costumes that allow the real killer to blend in.
* Brandon's "superhero" costume in ''Film/{{Brightburn}}'' is a [[SackheadSlasher burlap sack]] and a ragged cape made from what looks like an old sheet, highlighting him as a cross between Franchise/{{Superman}} and a [[HillbillyHorrors backwoods slasher]].

* ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' and ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' both featured the heroes dressing themselves as Nanashi and Gormin, using cardboard and buckets. And they manage to fool the other mooks with them, too...

* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. Downplayed in "A Narrow Escape". Kate Kane has taken a TenMinuteRetirement and another woman tries to inspire Gotham by doing heroics in a cosplay version of her Batsuit. It's not bad, but hardly offers the protection of Kate's multi-million dollar Batsuit made of military-grade kevlar woven with enriched carbon nanotubes. She's introduced being wheeled into Mary's illegal hospital clinic with several broken ribs.
-->'''Cosplay Batwoman:''' ''(as the suit is cut off her)'' No, no, no! This thing took forever to make!
-->'''Mary:''' So, insider tip: my scissors should not be able to cut through your supersuit.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' has him losing his mask while fighting Venom and grabbing a sheet drying on a rooftop until he can get out of public view.

* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': When the title character lost his mask while fighting a pair of bounty hunter villains, he grabbed a bandanna out of a nearby dumpster and tied it over his face, leading to derisive cowboy jokes from his foes.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Bender is so desperate to become a Harlem Globetrotter he makes a shabby homemade team outfit - earning only derision and the threat of a lawsuit.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' episode "Oblivio", both heroes AND their Kwamis (The source of their powers) lose their memories due to the titular villain. When Plagg flies off in a fit of pique, Adrien fashions a custom Cat Noir suit from some cardboard boxes, complete with ears, tail, and bell, so he can help Ladybug without revealing his identity. It doesn't last long, as Plagg comes back so Adrien can transform properly.
* Man Man from ''WesternAnimation/MegaManFullyCharged'' wears a hero outfit reminiscent of Bad Box Art Mega Man, made out of painted blue-and-yellow cardboard and a large soda cup taped to his helmet.

** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'': Once Steve Rogers is turned into a Super-Soldier, he's put into USO shows while wearing a sloppily-made version of the Captain America outfit (though it is faithful to the character's appearance in the comics...). However, once he gets his new costume for actual missions, Steve personally sees to it that the outfit is based on the USO costume.

* ''Literature/{{Supergifted}}'': In chapter 6, before going to confront [[JerkJock Hashtag]], Noah makes himself a wrestling outfit out of long underwear (the bottom of which he spray-painted black to make his shows look like boots), a sweatshirt that was cut in half at the front, his mother's gardening gloves, and black leather shoes.

* In ''WebVideo/BenMcYellow'', ''[[StylisticSuck all]]'' of the costumes are just regular clothes with one or two props for effect. The title character's costume is just an orange t-shirt and tinted glasses, and even the FacelessGoons just wear [[GasMaskMooks gas masks]] over plain black t-shirts.

[[folder:Film]]

* Subverted and combined with MistakenForAnImposter and YourCostumeNeedsWork in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' where Bernard mistakes the title character for a fan in costume due to the fact he was at Metro Man's museum in his ''pajamas''.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': As is the case with his comic book counterpart, ComicBook/MilesMorales' original superhero suit is a store-bought, improperly-sized Spider-Man Halloween costume. His growth into a confident, worthy successor to the first Spider-Man is signified by him donning a proper suit.

* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanManOfTomorrow''. Clark Kent's BetaOutfit is a [[PilotOutfit vintage aviator's uniform and goggles]]. He then tries to tie a red blanket around his neck and likes the look, but [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the blanket falls off]] the moment he zooms into the air. Then the [[FullFrontalAssault rest of his outfit gets burned off]] during his fight with Lobo, leaving Superman exposed to the world (literally), so his parents wear out several bandsaws cutting and sewing the alien material used in the blanket Clark was wrapped in as a baby, to make his classic Superman outfit.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': As is the case with his comic book counterpart, ComicBook/MilesMorales' original superhero suit is a store-bought, improperly-sized Spider-Man Halloween costume.

The logical opposite of ImpossiblyCoolClothes. Often overlaps with RummageSaleReject, sometimes with CostumeCopycat, or with YourCostumeNeedsWork, which is about the hero's ''real'' costume being perceived as an unconvincing imitation. Compare ImprovisedClothes, BrownBagMask.

** In the ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' tie-in comic ''[[ComicBook/RenewYourVows Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows]]'', Peter's daughter Annie wears a costume which is just her normal street clothes with knee pads, fingerless gloves, a dog leash for a belt, a sheet for a cape and swimming goggles for her eyes. The ComicBook/PowerPack made it for her.

* In ''Radio/TheShadow: Year One'' from Creator/DynamiteComics, Lamont Cranston is attending a party when he sees Margo Lane being abducted by gangsters who plan to throw her off the roof. Not having his Shadow accoutrements with him, he is forced to improvise a mask out of his dress scarf, and rely upon his mind tricks to do the rest.

A costume that looks shoddy and inexpensive, for a variety of reasons. Maybe the hero has to go into action, but doesn't have access to his official costume; so he contrives a shoddy emergency costume. Or, an imitator may want to look like the hero and fail, since he doesn't have the budget to make up a nice costume (This might lead to an IAmSpartacus scene). Or, it is halloween, and some characters dress up extravagantly but one cannot afford anything more than a potato sack. Usually PlayedForLaughs. Sometimes it's even meta in that the show ''itself'' doesn't have budget for good costumes.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[SarcasmMode You look amazing, Spider-Man!]]]]

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' runs with this for season 1. Though, given Matt Murdock's financial situation it's no surprise he'd be running around in some simple bunches of black cloth, a bandanna, and some knee pads brought on the internet. It isn't until the season 1 finale that Matt gets Melvin Potter to build him a red and black suit of body armor and a red, horned helmet, in time for Matt's final showdown with Wilson Fisk.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' runs with this for season 1. Though, given Matt Murdock's financial situation it's no surprise he'd be running around in some simple bunches of black cloth and a bandanna. It isn't until the season 1 finale that Matt gets Melvin Potter to build him a red and black suit of body armor and a red, horned helmet, in time for Matt's final showdown with Wilson Fisk.