With the World Series days away, Milwaukee Brewers hype is spread far and wide – even to a galaxy far, far away.Xander Renish, of Milwaukee, is an engineer whose career has taken him everywhere for the team: the coaches’ offices, the bullpen and even the catwalks to open and close the stadium roof. Renish works on the stadium controls team, which means if something moves or should not be moving in the stadium, his team is typically involved.He always wanted to use his engineering skills to craft his own Mandalorian armor out of the “Star Wars” universe, and as a lifelong Brewers fan, the color scheme was an easy choice. Renish tapped into his late father-in-law’s love of the Brewers and his mother-in-law’s love for nerd culture to get over the finish line.It took Renish more than 200 hours to construct his blue, gold and barley-adorned Mandalorian suit. The suit is almost entirely 3D-printed plaster, resized again and again to fit him. The constant reprints and adjustments almost made Renish quit the project. He had to put the printer down for about two months as “it stops being fun if it’s like, you know, making you mad.””A lot of the times while I was watching games, I would be working on the pieces of the project,” Renish said. “My superstition became the better I made the armor, the better the Brewers would do.”Renish’s armor features beer mugs painted on the forearms, a Brewers logo charm fixed on the chest and a double-sided Brewers blanket fashioned into a cape. The project isn’t done yet: Renish still plans to etch Brewers milestones into the armor.Several young fans called Renish on his attention to detail while equally lambasting him for not keeping his helmet on as the Mandalorian code calls for in “Star Wars” lore. Renish laughed, shut his helmet face for a moment and continued on.”Every young man wants a suit of armor,” Renish said. “It’s more of an artistic thing for me, and the feedback, it’s just been so overwhelming but positive because I think it’s so unique.”It’ll be easy to follow: Renish spends most of his time in the basement of American Family Field already. Brewers armor was a long time comingFollowing a career in the Navy, Renish attended Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay to further his engineering skills.But college wasn’t an easy sweep for him. Renish eventually moved back to Milwaukee, where he quit drinking and got help for his mental health, eventually getting a job for Johnson Controls at American Family Field in 2023.”Some of the guys I work with have been there since County Stadium and literally don’t know anything else. There’s something to be said about an organization and work that has retained employees for 20 odd years,” Renish said.Renish works stadium controls and has spent more games keeping track of American Family Field’s fire systems than sitting in the stands or in front of a TV. But the game is always nearby one way or another.He even lives just a short distance from the Hank Aa
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