Aiden Mattauszek was looking at potential scholarship opportunities during his final months as a high school senior when he came across Duck Tape’s annual Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest.
The contest awards a $10,000 cash scholarship to the student whose prom tuxedo or dress, crafted entirely from duct tape, is voted the best. Mattauszek, a 2026 graduate of Hayfield Secondary in Fairfax County, was intrigued by the opportunity and spent about a week thinking about how he wanted to approach the design.
Then with help from his parents, 27 rolls of duct tape and over 100 hours of work, Mattauszek created a suit and accessories he considered both broadly interesting and specially tailored to his interests.
The results of his effort included a pair of black baggy pants, a ruffled button-up undershirt, and a 鈥渟uper exaggerated long letterman鈥� jacket with patches on the sleeves, chest and back.
His outfit is now a top 10 finalist in the Stuck at Prom contest, and Mattauszek is competing for the chance to earn scholarship money to help him pay tuition at George Mason University this fall.
鈥淚t鈥檚 insane, honestly,鈥� Mattauszek said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 fully expect to become a finalist, and everybody else has pretty good suits too.鈥�
The letterman jacket was always part of the plan, but Mattauszek 鈥渨anted to make it feel like me, so I mixed hip-hop apparel,鈥� he said.
The jacket’s patches represent his love of music, as do sound waves on the accompanying hat. One reveals his passion for soccer, and his birth year is displayed in Roman numerals on the chest. The abbreviation 鈥淰A,鈥� represents his Virginia roots.
鈥淚t was mostly me and my mom working together with designing the patches, and especially the base outline, and getting the tape on there, because it鈥檚 hard to do as one man,鈥� Mattauszek said.
Part of the challenge, Mattauszek said, was 鈥渕aking sure it still would actually fit on, because the tape gets very heavy.鈥� Some of the patches required cutting very small pieces of tape.
He also learned while working with the tape “how strong it is.”
鈥淎 lot of times when you messed up and you tried to take it back, it was just not going, so it was very hard seeing how strong the tape actually was,鈥� Mattauszek said.
Mattauszek wore a traditional suit to Hayfield Secondary鈥檚 prom, but brought his design with him.
鈥淚 showed a couple of my friends,鈥� Mattauszek said. 鈥淭hey were saying it鈥檚 pretty cool.鈥�
is open until Monday. The winning dress and tuxedo will be announced later this month.
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