I received my third shipment from Ellie yesterday and thought I’d check back in and talk about the pieces a little bit. (Here is one of the first tops I got and here is a look at an older pair of leggings I received too.) 

Ellie still has some growing pains to work through. Their shipping is still quite slow (though much improved over the original shipping time). Worth noting: they recently sent out a notice that they’ll begin charging for shipping soon, so they may have upgraded their shipping services. They also run out of stock/certain sizes quickly. Sizes seem to be restocked randomly, but it’s frustrating when the popular basics (like this long-sleeved top) have been out of stock for months. 

Here is the top I just received from their most recent “Cosmic Love” collection:

It’s the Supernova Tank and I wore it this morning. But, to my point about stock—it’s already unavailable in sizes XS and S. The tank is pretty great, though. The quality is good, I liked the fit and they have unique detailing on some of their items. 

I find a lot of the product can be hit or miss for me—especially the tops. The leggings/bottoms are where they really shine. These leggings are in constant rotation for me—and not just at the gym. I also own the Stardust Leggings (which I received with the tank above) and the Dark Matter Leggings, both of which I love so far.

Last month’s collection—Coral Crush—is a good example of the hit or miss thing. On the other hand, the items I eventually chose—the Dynamic Duo top and the It Takes Two top—are ones that I like much better in person than I did when I ordered them. I was kind of apprehensive after I clicked submit, but I’ve worn them both several times. 

I should add that you can skip a month of the Fit Fashionista Club without penalty if you don’t see anything you like or would just prefer not to order one month. I phoned in my order this month since I wanted to go over a few details with them and received amazing customer service from one of their reps (Justin, thank you so much!). Yet, a few days later, I was notified that another Ellie order was on its way. Apparently their system didn’t see that the order I’d placed over the phone fulfilled my Fit Club membership for the month, so the auto-order function kicked in. I had to call and ask them to cancel it. As always, they were helpful and apologetic. 

There are some obvious upsides to Ellie’s service:

1. The designs are mostly really cute and unique and the quality of the pieces I’ve received so far has been great (through multiple wearings, washings, etc.). 
2. It’s cost-effective if you are a Club member AND you wear activewear a lot and would have bought it anyway. It works out to $25 per piece per month and the quality seems far superior to $25 worth. The key though is whether you would have bought more activewear anyway. It’s kind of like Stitch Fix: would you have been shopping anyway or is it just another way of getting you to spend money for novelty’s sake?

And the downsides:

1. Not being able to try on activewear is tricky, but they do have a good return policy. 
2. They need to keep items in stock or restock within a few weeks. I have two theories about this. The first is that they genuinely can’t keep things in stock because they expanded too fast and production can’t keep up to the number of members and orders. The second is that they might be able to restock, but choose not to in order to foster a kind of competitive shopping rush—similar to Lululemon’s sparse restocking strategy. That’s fine, but they’re not Lululemon, despite their best marketing efforts to the contrary. (Check out the message at the bottom of their homepage.) 

With that being said, the clothing is still worth the occasional problem and I’ll keep ordering it for now. 

If you’re considering joining Ellie, I’d be so happy if you used my referral link here. 

Anyone else order from them yet?