Man Who Lost Leg to Cancer Debuts Creative New Halloween Costume — an Inflatable Tube Man! (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Josh Sundquist’s New One-Legged Halloween Costume.Photo:Courtesy of Josh Sundquist (2)

Courtesy of Josh Sundquist (2)

Josh Sundquistis back with anothercreative costume for Halloween, and he hopes it will be something that makes everybody smile.

The motivational speaker and author exclusively tells PEOPLE that this year, he’ll be dressing up as an inflatable tube man, a costume he has longed to do “for many, many years.”

Sundquist, who lost his leg to cancer at age 9, believes this is “one of the funniest” costumes he has created. “This year, I was just kind of thinking … people just really need funny things, particularly at this time of year, every four years,” Sundquist says. “So I just thought, this is hilarious.”

Josh Sundquist’s (center) 2024 Halloween costume.Courtesy of Josh Sundquist

Courtesy of Josh Sundquist

Each year, with each costume, Sundquist’s goal is to “make it visually clear that it would be impossible for a two-legged person to wear the costume” he created.

The process typically begins in May, or about six months before Halloween. In the past, Sundquist has dressed up as a firefighter sliding down a pole, Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, the leg lamp fromA Christmas Story, thePixar lampand more.

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Sundquist has been working with the same costume maker,Calen Hoffman, since 2020. The two have only met in person one time, but have found a creative way for Hoffman to design a costume specifically tailored to Sundquist.

Josh Sundquist.Courtesy of Josh Sundquist

“I feel like I need to kind of learn how the character moves, so I like to have a couple of weeks before Halloween in which to do it,” he tells PEOPLE.

It has been more than a decade since Sundquist first went viral with two of his costumes, a partially eaten gingerbread man from 2010 and the leg lamp costume from 2012.

Josh Sundquist as Tigger.Josh Sundquist

Sundquist hopes his costumes are empowering to others with a physical disability, especially amputees. He has similar hopes for the Emmy award-winning Apple+ seriesBest Foot Forwardabout his life that features Logan Marmino, “an actor who wears a prosthesis.”

“To have the chance to create a show like this and to hopefully set precedent for more entertainment programming that can be representative of disability, I think is … just a cool legacy to be a part of.”

Sundquist is also excited about his new motorized prosthetic knee called Power Knee from the Icelandic company Össur, which allows him to do more than he’s ever been able to do before. He hopes this will encourage other amputees to seek out motorized lower-body prosthetics, which are less common than upper-body prosthetics.

“I could never walk more than about a block without having to rest if I was outside,” the paralympic athlete says. “But once I figured out how to use Power Knee, the first time I took it out, I walked a mile without needing to rest.”

source: people.com