Since 1997, the costuming organization known as the 501st Legion has spread the magic of the Star Wars genre worldwide through its authentic-looking costumes, and has become the leading force in fan-based charity events. The 501st, also known as "Vader's Fist," is truly dedicated to brightening the lives of those less-fortunate. While recognized by the inclusion of the 501st name in official Star Wars material such as books and video games, the 501st is not affiliated with Lucasfilm nor does the Legion rely on the company for bookings, event coordination, compensation, or costuming materials. The 501st Legion is a 100% volunteer fan organization.

The Great Lakes Garrison is the Michigan unit of the 501st Legion that encompasses both lower and upper peninsulas. Established in 2007, the Great Lakes Garrison participates in over 200 events a year all across the state, sharing our love of Star Wars with our local communities and bringing support and awareness to numerous charity organizations.

Legion Founder Albin Johnson (TK-210) chose the name in 1997 to represent our fictional unit of Imperial Stormtroopers. Author Timothy Zahn, with the approval of Lucasfilm, honored us by incorporating the name into his Star Wars novel Survivor's Quest in 2004. Since then, the 501st name has continued to appear in official Star Wars material including books, toys and video games.

Please use our request form. Once that has been completed, your event will be passed along to one of the Great Lakes Garrison’s event coordinators who will contact you directly. We do our best to support every event request that comes our way, but please remember, our members are volunteers and our participation in some events is restricted by our agreement with Lucasfilm.

Typically we ask for 2-3 months advance notice for an event. All of our members are volunteers, so in order to coordinate our troopers and best fulfill your request, the more lead time you can provide us with the better.

While we do not charge a fee for appearances (public or private), we enthusiastically welcome donations made to your favorite charity in the name of the 501st Legion. If you do not have a charity of choice, we would happily provide you with a list of some of our favorite causes such as Make-a-Wish and the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation.

Do you have a passion for Star Wars and helping others? Do you own a professional-quality costume based on "bad guy" characters from Star Wars? Are you at least 18 years old? If you answered yes to these questions, then you should visit our Join Us page for registration details.

If you’d like to join our online community, please register on our forum or discord server, introduce yourself, and see what upcoming events are happening in your area. We are always happy to have people help as NCS (Non-Costumed Support) at events while they complete their costumes. This also gives you an opportunity to get to know the members before you start trooping.

All of our members' costumes are “fan-made”. If your goal is to join the 501st Legion, we STRONGLY advise potential new members NOT to purchase costumes from any retail or online stores before checking with us first. More often than not costumes purchased online or in retail stores do not meet 501st Legion requirements and will need drastic modifications in order to pass our standards. Typically it will cost you more time and money to modify one of these costumes rather than building it from scratch or using a verified vendor.

Please visit our forum or discord server where we can point you in the right direction on how to start building your own costume. Or, if you have an idea of which costume you would like to build, you can also visit the “detachment” for that costume where they will have more detailed information. You can find a list of the detachments here.

You can also click here to find a list of CRL’s (costume requirements) for all approvable costumes to date.

Yes, the 501st Legion has minimum standards for all of our costumes. We like to say it “looks as if we just walked off of a Star Wars set”.

Once your costume is complete, one of our Garrison Membership Liaisons (GMLs) will review your application photos to make sure you’ve met all the requirements, or let you know what parts need a bit more work or fixing.

Most definitely! Occasionally we will host “armour parties” where members and new recruits get together and help each other out with their costumes.

Our members have a wealth of knowledge and are more than willing to help out. Feel free to post a question on our forum or discord server and somebody will either have the answer for you, or at the very least point you in the right direction to find the information you need. We’re a friendly group and who were all “noobs” who had never put together a costume at some point in our lives too!

That really depends on how involved you would like to be. The 501st Legion does require you to participate in at least one official event per year in costume in order to remain an active trooper.

Sorry, but no, the 501st Legion is made up of only the “bad guys” from the Star Wars universe. Please visit our sister costuming club, The Rebel Legion, if you’re looking to join the light side of the force. Or, if you want to build a custom Mandalorian or custom Dark Side user, consider the Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club or the Dark Empire.