IU Grad Growing Tailored Clothing Company

(Indiana University Photo/James Brosher)

An Indiana University alumnus has turned what started as a hobby into a business that is set to expand next month. Kaleb Ryan founded Elevated Citizen in 2014 after being unable to find the kinds of suits that he wanted to wear or would fit his large frame. Since its launch, IU says the company has dozens of professional athletes as customers and is getting set to unveil its first women’s line in January.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Ryan said he wanted to make clothing that would be easy to sell.

“When I was building a line, I was strategically trying to make it as unique as possible so, more or less, those people would find the clothing brand and I wouldn’t have to sell it to them,” said Ryan. “When I started, I just met a couple of people randomly in Indianapolis that kind of gave me a couple of branches of trees here, a couple branches of trees there and everything just kept growing.”

The addition of a women’s line has been more than a year in the making and Ryan says the demand for it has been around since the company launched. 

“It’s a little bit trickier than the men’s clothing. That’s why there’s not that many women’s custom tailors out there because guy’s clothing is much easier,” said Ryan. “I heard it too many times and I finally just had to say, ‘Okay let’s just do women’ because clearly, women are wanting it.”

The women’s line will feature denim jackets, as well as blazers, skirts and pants.

Ryan says the company works with two tailors, one in Indianapolis and one in Bloomington, to make all of the clothing. The company currently has seven design reps scattered through the Midwest and East Coast.

Ryan says he wants to move westward and nearly double the amount of reps.

“It’s pretty tricky to find the right designer that we want, so it is a long-term goal to get to 12-15 really good reps that know how to design, know how to work with clients and all that. In a few years, I would like to have kind of the whole country for the most part covered.”

Once the company has “stabilized” its position across the country, Ryan says he wants to expand the types of clothing offerings the company has to include more casual clothes such as golf attire.