Starship Food Delivery Robot Sweatshirt Costume

Grubhub Starship food delivery robots are an iconic feature of college campuses these days. They regularly drive into ditches, cannot cross the street unassisted, and frequently panic in the middle of the sidewalk. Absolute icons. They are just like me for real for real.

Starship robots originated in 2014, and are often associated with Milton Keynes in the UK and college campuses in the US. The robots are mostly autonomous and deliver fast food and groceries.

To pay tribute to my favorite on campus robots, I dressed as one for halloween. I wanted to make a costume that was fast to assemble, comfortable, and that I could wear to all my classes on halloween, hence the sweatshirt design. On my campus, the robots tend to dress up for Halloween themselves, so I also emulated their pumpkin costume. These decals could also be put on a rectangular, more robot shaped costume!

I accidentally used blue vinyl instead of black for the base details, using black would definitely look more accurate to the original robots!

To Make the Costume You Will Need:

1. A White Longsleeve Tshirt or Sweatshirt
2. Heat Transfer Vinyl in the Following Colors (Or in the Colors Corresponding to Your Local Starship Robots)
3. Black
4. Neon Green
5. Orange
6. Sparkly Red or Sparkly White
7. Parchment Paper/ Transfer Paper
8. Tweezers/ Toothpicks/ Needle Nose Pliers
9. Iron & Ironing Board
10. Old Towel/ Parchment Paper
11. A Vinyl Cutter (Such as a Cricut)
12. Corresponding Vinyl Cutter Software
13. SVG Files (Attached Below at the “Design” Step)

If Editing the Decals You Will Need:

1. Adobe Illustrator or Other Software Capable of Editing SVGs

I began this project by doing some on-campus reconnaissance of the Starship robots. After studying the robots’ anatomy I identified important features I wanted to incorporate into the design. Our robots’ defining features are:

1. An Orange Grubhub Decal
2. A Black Speech Bubble Decal with Varying Text (Not Pictured Above)
3. Lights on the Front and Back of the Robot
4. A Reflective Flag
5. Neon Green Wheel Rims
6. The STARSHIP Logo
7. A Pumpkin Costume Decal!

In my research I discovered Starship robots in different locations often have different raps of different colors, with different statements on them; these are the features that I chose to highlight.

I designed the front of the shirt to have top and bottom lights, the pumpkin costume, and Starship logo. I made the eyes and nose of the pumpkin a little bit more rounded than the reference; this could easily be changed to be more accurate to the original if that is what you are going for! The back of the shirt has lights at the top, a “GrubHub delivered by STARSHIP” decal, and a black speech bubble decal. The svg file below for the black speech bubble decal just says “Happy Halloween”, but can be edited to fit local Starship Decals. I designed the “wheels” to go on the sleeves of the sweatshirt (more info in the “Adding Wheel Details” step). The SVG files below are designed to fit an adult large sweatshirt, but can be resized as needed.

Please note: these files have NOT been mirrored. Depending on the heat transfer vinyl and vinyl cutter you are using, the designs may need to be mirrored before cutting. Please do a small test component before cutting all components.

To edit the decal text, download and open the .AI file in Adobe Illustrator. Double click on “ADD TEXT” until a cursor appears. Edit the text as needed. To export your edited file as an SVG select:

File → Export → Export As → SVG

The Starship robots have black wheels with green rims. I decided to put the 6 wheels on the sleeves of my sweatshirt, 3 on each side. To add some extra fun flair to the “wheels” I added designs related to my university to 3 out of the 6 wheels. This was a design choice that isn't exactly in line with the real Starship Robots, but it is one of my favorite parts of the finished robot costume! SVGs for a paw print and “Boo!” designs are below!

To create the designs in Adobe Illustrator from a PNG File:

Create a new 4” by 4” file. Set the preset detail units to inches, and the width and height both to 4.

File → New → Preset Details

Use Place to insert your PNG File. Resize the PNG image to your deserved size.

File → Place → Select PNG Image

To convert the image into a vector, first select Image Trace. Then Expand and Ungroup the vectors. Delete any undesired components. Use the properties panel to change color.

To export your file as an SVG select:

File → Export → Export As → SVG

Depending on the vinyl and vinyl cutter being used, you may need to mirror your graphics before cutting. One way to do this is in Adobe Illustrator, however many vinyl cutters also have a built-in software that can mirror SVGs.

To reflect/mirror an object in Adobe Illustrator:

Group the objects you will be reflecting.

Select: Objects → Transform → Reflect

Adjust your reflect settings as desired and select OK. I use Vertical.

Cutting out the decals will vary depending on the vinyl cutter you are using. Make sure to read the manufacturer directions both for the vinyl cutter and for the heat transfer vinyl you are using.

The SVG files provided in this tutorial have not been mirrored/reflected. Depending on the heat transfer vinyl and vinyl cutter you are using, the designs may need to be mirrored before cutting. Please do a small test component before cutting all components.

You may be thinking: I do not own a vinyl cutter, but I still want to make an epic Starship delivery robot halloween costume. What can I do?

Same! Vinyl cutters are expensive specialized pieces of equipment! I was lucky enough to be able to use the vinyl cutter at my college's maker space. Many universities and public libraries in large cities now have maker spaces with vinyl cutters available to be used for free if you bring your own materials. If you live in an area with a public library, I highly encourage you to see what resources are available! If you do not have a vinyl cutter available these components could be cut out by hand using a paper stencil, exacto knife, and cutting mat, it would just be very time consuming.

I cut out the decals on my university’s vinyl cutter. I then used tweezers and toothpicks to “weed” the decals, removing the components of the decals that would be white space on the design. It was really helpful to have a reference photo of what the final product would look like while I was weeding. Once a decal was weeded, I covered it with wax paper to keep everything separate and organized. Depending on the brand of heat transfer vinyl you are using, transfer paper might be useful in this step.

To iron on the decals, first iron the portion of the shirt you will be using flat. Then place the decals onto the shirt, with the dull side of the vinyl down facing the shirt and the plastic covering facing you. Lay out any surrounding decals until the arrangement looks good. Place parchment paper or an old towel on top of the decal to protect your iron. Iron the decal on, pressing down firmly for at least 15 seconds over each section.

Let the vinyl cool for at least 30 seconds before carefully pulling the plastic covering off the decal. If the decal still seems loose, recover with parchment paper and iron again.

To layer the vinyl, place the second layer of vinyl on top of the cooled first layer. Iron over it the same, with parchment paper or a towel on top of the decal to protect your iron. Make sure all the exposed vinyl is covered before ironing.

If you are layering multiple types of vinyl shiny, metallic, or sparkly heat transfer vinyl, like the vinyl used for the lights, should always be the very top layer.

To complete the look I added a sparkly pumpkin headband. A reflective flag would be a great addition to the project as well! I then took some pictures with a gaggle of Starship delivery robots. Sadly the group of robots I ran into were not dressed up for halloween this year. As I had accidentally gotten blue vinyl instead of black, the resemblance was a little bit off, but overall it was a very fun costume to make! I think in the future if I do this again I would build a Starship robot shaped costume to add the decals onto for a little bit more accuracy.