We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Allison Malenfant and Connie DeMaio N/A. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Allison Malenfant and Connie DeMaio below.

Allison Malenfant and Connie DeMaio, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Here is our story :)

Connie has been riding horses almost since birth. Her father was a standardbred trainer in New Jersey, so she and her sister grew up around horses. Connie’s mom started sending them to riding lessons at a very young age, and they spent most of their free time riding and competing at horse shows. Connie has been training and riding professionally since she was 16 years old. She has lived in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania throughout her teenage and adult years, enduring harsh northeast winters in a job that kept her outside. Several years ago, Connie found a vintage men’s coverall at a neighborhood yard sale and started wearing it over her riding clothes in the winter. It was one easy piece that kept her warm and kept her riding outfits clean and presentable. It didn’t fit her body and it certainly wasn’t technical in nature, but it did the job. Everywhere she went in the horse world, people asked her about it. That’s when she realized there was a need in the market for a coverall, but she thought there must certainly be a better way to do it.

Around the time Connie started thinking about the equestrian coverall as a legitimate business idea, I had just started taking riding lessons with Connie. I was a beginner rider and completely new to the sport, but very enthusiastic. I had been working in merchandising and product development in the athletic apparel industry for many years, so I had some retail business knowledge and knew how to get things made. When Connie shared her coverall idea with me, we decided to partner up and see what we could do with it.

We found a manufacturer to help us develop the idea, and spent about a year testing and fitting prototypes. When each new sample arrived, Connie took it to work to test it out, and then we would talk through any issues and rework any details as needed. There were several things that were really important to get right:

1. It needed to fit a woman. There were no “work wear” coveralls in the market that actually catered to a woman’s body. If women were wearing coveralls, they were wearing menswear. They were too bulky and baggy. They were unflattering and unprofessional.
2. It needed to be lightweight. Other available coveralls were very too heavy and exhausting to move around in. Any job in the horse industry is going to be movement and labor intensive. You have to be able to move, bend, reach, ride, etc!
3. It needed to be waterproof. Horses are a 365 days/year thing, regardless of the weather. You’re out in the rain and snow on a regular basis. There are also lots of water troughs and buckets involved in their care. Spilling water on yourself in freezing temps is not fun, to say the least!
4. It needed to be warm enough, but not too warm. We tested several versions of the insulation before we landed on our 60g fill. Any thinner wasn’t warm enough. Any thicker was too warm when you get moving, and too bulky to be comfortable. We also have pit zips for additional air flow.
5. It needed to be able to work around riding boots. Let’s say you’re wearing it over your horse show outfit to stay warm and clean before going into the show ring. Or you’ve just done all your morning barn chores and now need to take a riding lesson and it’s cold out. You need to be able to take the suit off without removing your boots. So we’ve got long zippers running up the back of the legs to allow for that.
6. It needed storage! The suit has storage options for equipment like crops and spurs, and essentials like phone, keys, cash, cards, chapstick, gloves, medication, and horse treats, There are enough pockets for anything you’d need all day.

Eventually, we landed on our very first version of the suit we brought to market in Fall 2018! It was the first ever winter coverall that catered to not only women, but to riders! We knew they were taking a risk as the horse industry is VERY traditional and skeptical of new ideas, especially in fashion. But we knew that if WE needed this, so did everyone else! Thankfully, it has resonated deeply with our ever-growing customer base and makes surviving winter so much easier and more comfortable! Our coverall is still our signature piece, but we’ve also expanded into rain gear, bib and jacket sets, and a schooling collection.

In November 2022, we acquired FITS Riding, a popular equestrian apparel brand. It is a wonderful complement to Redingote, as Redingote is outerwear focused and FITS Riding is riding apparel focused, especially riding breeches. We are really excited to expand into new areas of the market through such a reputable business with a loyal following!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I touched on a lot of this in our previous answer, but I will elaborate more here!

Connie is from New Jersey originally and lives in Colts Neck, NJ now. She has a small private horse farm with her husband, Mike, and 4 year old daughter, Rose (and 5 of her own horses, 5 boarded horses, several chickens, a pig, a cat, and her pit bull – Tom). She grew up riding and the equestrian lifestyle is the fabric of who she is.

I am originally from Mississippi and moved to New York City in 2006. I started riding lessons with Connie in 2015. We met through our husbands, who worked together. I have been hooked ever since, and I have 2 of my own horses that live on Connie’s property. We work and ride together almost every day. I live in Brooklyn with my husband and our 2 German Shepherds.

I think one of the most important things to know about us is that we live the lifestyle we are outfitting people for every single day. We are not only riding, but caring for the horses day in and day out. It’s important to us to create products that facilitate what we are actually doing in addition to looking beautiful.

We also have different body types and different preferences on how we like things to fit. So we often measure the success of a product by – If we both love the way it fits and feels, most other people will love it, too!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Building our reputation in the equestrian market has been extremely important to our success, and I think we’ve used a lot of different tools to do it.

Our initial marketing efforts were very grassroots. We did not have a marketing budget to speak of, and it was just the two of us. We wore our suits and branded t-shirts everywhere. We put up hanging racks at small local horse shows, we walked into barns with stacks of flyers, we gave suits away to local trainers, we asked people to post about us on social media. Every time we convinced someone to try it out, we would see the orders trickle in from other people riding in their barns. Once they tried a Redingote, they lived in it, and told people about it. Our customers have always played a huge role in our growth.

We eventually landed some enthusiastic brand ambassadors around the country. Many of them came to us after seeing the suit on social media. Having very high level riders in the industry telling people about us online, at clinics, and at horse shows went really far in not only spreading the word, but in people believing we were worth the price tag and actually making a purchase.

We always did and still do manage our own customer service communication. We take great care to make sure everyone leaves a conversation with us happy, informed, and helped in whatever way necessary. We stand tall behind what we do and if any customer ever has a problem or a complaint with a product or anything else, we will make it right.

We jump at any opportunity to stand with the big businesses. We may not always be able to afford the hefty price tag of sponsoring industry horse shows and events, but we like to think outside the box. Maybe there are prizes for competitors or outfitting for staff and volunteers that will get our logo on the sponsorship boards right alongside brands like Land Rover and John Deere!

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

Redingote is an outerwear focused brand. We specialize in winter wear and are expanding into warmer weather outerwear options like rain wear, jackets, and vests. It’s what we are known for. But we’ve been considering expanding into riding shirts and breeches for a long time. We have a lot of ideas to bring to the table, but the space is highly competitive and there are new brands popping up every day.

In the summer of 2022, we found out FITS Riding was for sale. FITS is a famed breeches company that has been around for about 20 years and has a very devoted following. FITS has released some of the most innovative pieces in the industry over the years. This acquisition was very intriguing to us as the brand’s focus was very complimentary to Redingote’s focus. One primarily sells outerwear, while the other primarily sells apparel. They don’t compete against one another. Additionally, the customer base was already there.

We entered a discovery period to examine the financial health of the business, the day to day operations, the products themselves, the design process, and the team structure. After determining we wanted to move forward, we secured funding and moved quickly. We spent a week on site training before moving the headquarters from South Carolina to New Jersey.

It has taken some time to get our team in place and learn the ins and outs of operating this new business, but we are excited to inject it with new life in the coming 12-24 months by launching a new website, a new content and photography style, and lots of new products!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.redingoteequestrian.com , www.fitsriding.com
• Instagram: @redingote_equestrian , @fitsridingltd
• Facebook: Redingote Equestrian , FITS

Image Credits
Tara Moore