About Elite

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About Elite.....

Elite Canes and Browbands, formerly known as Elite Canes and Garlands was founded in 2008 by Me, Debra Tonkin, the current owner from Stawell in Country Victoria.

I saw an article on how to make a hacking cane, and thought that looks like fun. So off I went to the local hardware store for some supplies and I made something like this :-)

I sold my first cane on eBay for about $30 I think and started to make more and more for friends and from eBay inquiries.

My Canes started to sell very well and I received a lot of inquiries for specific styles which had me spend countless hours researching and developing new lines while still working my part time job and being a Mum at the same time.

I introduced the Garlands in about 2009 from memory to offer something other than canes, but they were too time consuming and not much profit so I thought I better start to sell browbands as my customers wanted them to match their canes. I picked up a couple of browbands on eBay I had intended to wholesale and resell but chose to have a go at making one instead and this was what I made for my black Hack.

The Snowball effect started pretty much immediately I advertised on a forum and set up my own website from scratch and designed my first logo. Pretty soon I was working late nights to get orders made and chose to give up my job and try to make a go of my Business Full time in November 2009. The first month I panicked with no set income to feed my horse, but from then on I have not looked back. I spend every spare moment now researching new unique components for my products and countless hours developing the most current unique designs on the market and developing my Branding to mirror my current level of Quality. Elite has grown almost beyond me which has meant longer turnaround times on orders but my customers pay me to design their show day creations so I would not feel right getting someone else to make them for me, besides every item I make gets me one step closer to PERFECTION!!!

I taught myself to plait a cane out of an old vintage leathercraft book my Grandfather left me...

I have enlisted my dear Mother to work on Mondays for Coffee to keep on top of my accounts I am very Lucky to have my Mum nearby and I value her contribution very much. I am proud to say I have built my entire business on my own with absolutely no outside input. I even design every advertisement I submit myself. I have exacting standards and expect every aspect of my business to deliver the ELITE EXPERIENCE!

It has become my mission to create the most sought after and talked about products in the Equestrian showing world and to exceed your expectations in quality every time.

Thank you for visiting my website.