The spirit of Elvis is being kept alive and well around the world, thanks in part to a Nanaimo company that will appear on CBC’s Dragons’ Den’s 20th anniversary broadcast next week.
Eleanor von Boetticher, founder of Pro Elvis Jumpsuits, is one of a handful of the show’s alumni businesses that will be profiled during the broadcast Thursday, Oct. 16, at 8 p.m.
Von Boetticher appeared on the fifth episode of the show’s fourth season in 2009 when Pro Elvis Jumpsuits was just a fledgling company looking for an angel investor or a dragon to help it get off the ground.
Instead of taking part ownership of the company, dragon Brett Wilson offered a loan, which gave von Boetticher the boost her company needed. Today the company has seven employees who help create costumes for Elvis impersonators around the world.
“In those beginning couple of years it was just me, and then, after Dragon’s Den, we started hiring people and preparing to expand,” von Boetticher said.
The loan helped the company buy the materials to expand into a ready-to-wear line of costumes, which allowed it to increase production beyond the custom-fitted suits which took longer to produce.
“The demand was definitely there and one of the major obstacles for people was having to wait months to get a costume made as opposed to weeks,” she said.