Put together a Fanshawe grad, 2 business partners, and mix in a little social responsibility with entrepreneurship – and what do you get? A lifestyle brand called Ezzy Lynn.
Ezzy Lynn is a social enterprise venture that handcrafts and sales scrunchies. For every 25 pieces sold, they adopt an endangered animal through the World Wildlife Fund.
A former student of the Fundraising and Human Resources program at Fanshawe College, and the co-founder of Ezzy Lynn, Samantha Laliberte says each product design is inspired by a different animal.
“All of them are made from local material. For example, the Grey Wolf Scrunchie is our most popular,” says Laliberte. “We have actually adopted four grey wolf animals so far.”
They also make sure to only use vegan material that doesn’t harm animals. Ezzy Lynn also recycles old clothing from Goodwill to make their scrunchies.
Laliberte as well as her two business partners met and bonded over their love of entrepreneurship while still in school and came up with the idea of mixing fashion and animals.
“We met at the Student Entrepreneurship Centre at Fanshawe and Western. There wasn’t many women starting businesses so we bonded quickly and said we should do something together,” adds Laliberte.
Not long after that, Ezzy Lynn came to life.
“We launched our business at a one day music festival and sold over 100 units that day. And then in September, we launched our website and we are now in over 20 retail locations across Canada,” says Laliberte.
The girls of Ezzy Lynn hope to keep their business alive by continuing to support endangered animals through their scrunchie line. However, they hope to go even farther.
“We have really big, wide-eyed visions for what this wants to be,” says Laliberte. “We would love to be an international fashion brand that is able to support animals all over the world.”
For more information, visit ezzylynn.com.
