Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Milaitis.
Elizabeth, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Ellany started when I was in college. My mother and her friend had a headband store on Etsy but given their schedules, they were no longer able to keep up with demand. I needed an extra avenue for cash flow since I was still in college and had to pay for my horses so I took over and started selling horse items that I made. I started expanding the line to more monogramming which was doing rather well but I wanted to take a different route since there were so many places to get objects monogrammed already.
After college, I started working at a healthcare analytics company and loved the atmosphere. It was super low-key and we could wear jeans or nice yoga pants to work. I would wear generally wear my riding clothes to work because I would head straight to the barn right afterwards and didn’t want to take the extra time to change if I didn’t have to. Walking around downtown Madison, WI in my riding clothes definitely got me some strange looks, so I wanted to design a line of riding pants that didn’t looked more like street style than clearly equestrian wear. I contacted a consultant in RI once I had put the pieces together on how I wanted it to look and we ran with it.
My parents and friends have been a huge support system along the way too. A major part of the equestrian world is being a vendor at horse shows all over the country to gain exposure. As this was my side job, my mother would help me haul my setup all over the country and take over selling whenever I had to get some day job work done. Same with my friends whenever my mother had to help take care of my siblings. I had a really great support system and without them helping me along the way, I definitely wouldn’t have gained the exposure to get the business to where it is today.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There have definitely been some struggles! The first two years of the business, I was working full time and working at my barn on top of running the business so there were many all-nighters getting orders out on time and making sure my suppliers were able to help deliver my supplies to complete everything. It was really hard juggling all of that and not getting super burned out. I still work full time but I’ve been able to streamline a lot better now so there are still lots of late nights making sure I get all the orders out on time, just not nearly as many as there were in the beginning.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Ellany story. Tell us more about the business.
The business is well known for our belts and riding pants/breeches. What sets our products apart from others is that our belts are one size fits most, made from a large variety of patterns and I make all of the belts myself. I really pride myself on that and will continue to do so. Our riding pants are a whole other concept, trying to merge street fashion with equestrian wear. I wanted something edgy that hasn’t been on the market before but still has the classic equestrian look when competing. It has definitely set us apart from other brands out there and makes it easy to spot our products.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I was very lucky with the people I met growing up to mold me into the person I am today. They had a major impact on my work ethic and being very goal-oriented. Even now, I have had the privilege of meeting some amazing people that I would never had met if it hadn’t been for the business. They have made a major impact on my life and been huge supporters of myself and the business.
I guess you could say I had some bad luck between ages 16 and 20. I had eight knee and ankle surgeries reconstructing the alignment of my joints which really set me back on a few of my goals but in the end, it definitely made me want to work harder to get the life I wanted. I haven’t had much bad luck in the business. There have been MANY times where there were struggles but I don’t believe it was bad luck necessarily.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ellany.com
- Email: info@ellany.com
- Instagram: ellany_official
Image Credit:
Bethany Lee (woman walking with long brown hair); Andrew Ryback (horse jumping)
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