Conversations with Jaden Rodriguez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaden Rodriguez

Jaden, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Jaden Rodriguez, I have been going to conventions and cosplaying since 2007. Growing up in a very small, and equally small minded town I was often bullied for my interests and there weren’t many anime fans around let alone cosplayers. I got the honor of getting to live through the evolution of cosplay as a hobby and art form from the early days to now and seeing its growth has been amazing. When my family moved to Springfield in 2015 my sister and I didn’t know almost anyone let alone cosplayers. We wanted to meet others and took a chance by attending the Japanese Fall Festival. We met friends who would become the original council and it was the birth of Springfield Cosplay.

Following 2015 founding we worked hard to network with other cosplayers, host meet ups, do charity work, and try early workshops. As we grew in numbers over the years, new opportunities came to us. Local places wanted collaborations and we began working with places in town to promote and have events catering to the Cosplay community. Alamo Draft House, OMO Japanese Soul Food, Lucky Cat Boba are just a few of our business collaborators. For organizations we formed a close bond with Springfield Sister Cities, being able to participate in the Kite, Piñata, and Cherry Blossom Festival & The Japanese Fall Festival for the past 10 years. They have also helped us in one off events such as the Demon Slayer Café & Miku Matsuri.

Through out the years we have watched community members grow as cosplayers and individuals. They have created friendships and memories with each other. Our goal is always to allow a safe space for individuals to come together and learn from each other in this hobby. As of the last few years we have made more conscious efforts to educate the greater community too as cosplays popularity grows each year.

In 2025 Springfield Cosplay is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. We are so proud and happy to be here and thankful to the community that has helped us thrive. We are happy to have so many that can “Be yourself, while being someone different.”

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When we first started out cosplay was not popular and I would even say we were still shaking off the “cringe culture” epidemic of making fun of others with different interests.

Due to that we had our work cut out for us with trying to build and maintain a good reputation as an organization. We are completely donation based, at first council would split the bill to be able to pay for events so our community members could enjoy free of charge. It was rewarding but unsustainable. We then began to reach out or even be reached out to to for sponsorships.

One of our sponsors even commented on how lucky they would have been if we were around when he was young. It’s those comments that make us happy to keep working hard each time. Over time we were able to build a great reputation among businesses, organizations and individuals.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Each member of council has a specialty that they bring to the table when it comes to how SGF Cosplay is run.

Co-Founder Arantxa has a masters in PR and Social Media Management making her our Marketing manager.
Council Member Hailey is an award winning seamstress and knows the insides and outs of sewing and creation.
For me personally, I have a degree in 3Dimmensional Design and Management. It’s important to have people who not only can be creative in thinking but analytical in the ways to create an event or bring an idea to life.

For me, a personal project created through SGF Cosplay I am proud of is our Hologram Vocaloid Concerts. I have been a Hatsune Miku fan since 2009 and I watched as the evolution of those concerts came to what they are now. As I got older and had friends interested in the same technological advances as me we realized we could create our own concerts. So we did. SGF Cosplay was then sponsored via Sister Cities for a supposed one time event of our first concert. However due to the popularity of the show we have now been going strong with the concerts for the past 4 years.

For us, we know cosplay is more widely accepted now. Even if when we started our goal was to be a safe haven and connection opportunity for other cosplayers its also changed with time. We still maintain our original goal, but we have evolved to help with educating the greater community on the good cosplay can do. When a mother reached out to us unable to afford a character for their childs birthday, we put out the call and the community responded and brought smiles to that child’s special day.

Moments like that, make why cosplay can be so special not just to us as the ones wearing it but to others for brightening their day.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
We have had our fair share of good and bad luck. We’ve had events rained out or canceled due to weather. Sometimes things can be completely out of your control and that can be hard to accept. For me I tend to have a hard time when plans fall through but I also know being able to quickly recalculate is just as important. Anything that can will, ya know?

But we have also had good luck too! We consider ourselves lucky to have met so many people and make connections with those who want to see SGF Cosplay succeed and have offered to help us through out the years.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/springfieldcosplay/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SGFcosplay/
• Other: https://ko-fi.com/springfieldcosplay