Kim Ellis-Durity quit a successful career and quit smoking a decade ago to make a change in her life so she became a fitness instructor. On her way to getting fit, at 200 pounds and five feet nine inches tall, Ellis-Durity had trouble finding fashionable, comfortable workout clothes that fit her.
She felt ignored and frustrated with the poor selection available so she began making her own workout wear, then in 2002 started her company Go Figure.
With only a few sewing classes from high school for experience, she started making a few pieces for herself then her fitness clients starting asking where she got them because they wanted the designs for themselves.
Ellis-Durity created all the designs and did all the sewing on her own for the first two years, then hired a designer in 2006 when she started taking orders through her website. Sales have shot through the roof since her company got some newspaper coverage in an article that focused on small businesses in Canada. That article got her attention from Canada’s oldest department store and two weeks later she found herself buying lots of fabric and looking for a factory to produce her designs.
The business continues to grow and Ellis-Durity no longer works as a fitness instructor, but she keeps her former clients in mind when designing new styles. She has ten new designs coming out in 2009, most named after the women who inspired them.
Read more about Ellis-Durity in the Northern Shore News, or visit her site at GoFigureGo.com.
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