We were lucky to catch up with Ellie Day Spoerer recently and have shared our conversation below.
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?
Ellie Day Activewear is a line of contemporary sportswear, designed by Ellie Day Spoerer. It was created to bring a feminine voice and appreciation for beautiful garments to a space dominated by menswear styling and fast-fashion processes.
Behind the Seams:
I was born in April 1978 after my mother walked the Houston Golf Open to kick-start labor. While many relatives had taken to the sport, I was convinced early that I was destined to be a designer, preferring creative play without rules or a strict code of conduct.
A part-time high school job at Banana Republic, and later J.Crew fueled a shopping habit, and spend hours planning head-to-toe looks. In 2000 I graduated from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana with a BS in Advertising and pulled together my ideas at Chicago Portfolio School. I headed off to New York City in pursuit of my passions, and internship at Betsey Johnson.
At Betsey Johnson, I assisted her stylist, Monica Paolini (Founder of SEA NY) in all things pattern, color, and vintage sourcing. She taught me so many things, but especially that I wanted a line of my own design.
2005 I began freelancing for various designers including Ann Ferriday and LuLu Lame (not Lemon) and completed Patternmaking at OTIS College in LA. I spent hours merchandising for Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie creating spaces women could feel great in, and love the way the items made them feel.
In 2009 my first child was born, someone gave me a book about newborns and it detailed something like “new babies sleep on average 18 hours a day”. PERFECT I thought it’s time to launch my own line.
The first iteration of Ellie Day focused on ready-to-wear with a few red-carpet looks for Natalie Zea and others in LA.
For the next 10 years, I played in a space of capsule collections, and trunk shows and learned a ton about how to dress women and market things to friends of friends. Eventually, we moved back to Chicago, IL for the promise of free babysitting and cousins to play with. My husband joined a golf course, and I showed up for the women’s wine event and have golfed since.
2019 a friend turned to me as she hit a perfect bomb drive down the fairway and said “Hey! What about making something that looks good for women to golf in?”
Ellie Day Activewear, born April 1, 2021 (my pandemic baby) creates beautiful clothing so women can golf, play tennis, run errands…and basically be their most authentic awesome selves. It’s all about women, and that is my passion. Come check it out online https://www.ellieday.com
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
When I launched my business, I was reminded why I love the communities that exist in women’s golf and tennis. I found tremendous support from my local teams, and they are the reason my business made it to its second year. From the local tennis league needing graphic tee shirts to the golf team looking to up their uniform game…it was the women of my community who stepped up to support.
They help me with networking with other local players, they send my website to their in-laws in Florida, and they ask their local pro shops to take a second glace at whats coming next season.
I will forever be grateful for this word-of-mouth recognition and growth.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I’m a big fan of email marketing and I love to send my loyal followers special treats. I think that within my email I’m able to communicate in a personal voice and my followers know to expect at least one spelling error :) I love to bring products to market that I think will delight and surprise my fellow sports enthusiasts…I want to break from mainstream sports. I love to tell them all about how it’s made, and really geek out on fabric development and care.
I hope that they feel they are supporting a small local-made women-owned business, and that this is fostering loyalty.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ellieday.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elliedaygolf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EllieDayGolf
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliedayactivewear
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EllieDayActivewear
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ellie-day-activewear-river-forest
Image Credits
Lori Sapio Photography