About Us

Ellevate didn’t start as a brand project. It emerged as a natural result of a career built over years, living barbering in practice, making choices, adjusting paths, and understanding that real growth requires more than talent. It requires vision, discipline, and purpose in everything you build. Founded by Gian Smalti, a barber with 18 years of experience, Ellevate represents a point of maturity. A moment where experience moves beyond execution and becomes direction. Here, barbering is understood as a career, a business, and a professional identity. The brand carries the idea of elevation—raising the standard of work, service, and how the profession is perceived. Not for status, but for awareness. Standards are not declared—they are built through consistent decisions made over time. Our services reflect this vision. Every detail is designed to support an experience aligned with Ellevate’s values: professional attitude, environment, intention, and presence. Nothing is random. Everything exists to create consistency between belief and delivery. Our products are a natural extension of this journey. They were not created just to complete a line, but to accompany those who share the same mindset, inside and outside the barbershop. Products developed for those who value care, aesthetics, and functionality in everyday life. Ellevate believes evolution happens when knowledge is shared and when professionals develop awareness of what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. For this reason, the brand engages in initiatives that promote exchange, organisation, and consistent growth, always grounded in the reality of the profession. More than a brand, Ellevate is a project in continuous development. A project that believes it’s possible to grow without losing identity, evolve without disconnecting from the foundation, and build something solid without taking shortcuts. For us, elevation isn’t just a concept. It’s method, routine, and responsibility for the outcome.

My journey with barbering didn’t start in a salon. It began when I attended a demonstration class, where a teacher showed different cutting techniques. In that moment, I realised it wasn’t about learning a skill—it was about starting a path. Soon after, I enrolled, began practising, and understood that this was my direction. My first cuts took place in a simple barbershop set up at my parents’ house. That’s where it all truly began—through daily practice, mistakes, constant adjustments, and the discipline of learning by doing. Over time, the space grew, became a larger barbershop, and years later it became the realisation of a dream: building the city’s biggest barbershop. As the structure grew, so did my vision of the profession. I came to understand that results don’t come from technique alone, but from everything that supports it: the environment, professional attitude, experience, client service, and the decisions made every day. Barbering stopped being just execution and became construction. It was during this process that I stopped seeing myself solely as a barber. Naturally, I also became an educator and entrepreneur—not by title, but by necessity. The profession required vision, responsibility, and direction. I built my career in Brazil, going through cycles of growth, pause, reflection, and rebuilding. I learned something essential: real evolution doesn’t happen quickly or impulsively. It is built in the quiet of day-to-day practice, in consistency, and in the right decisions made even when no one is watching. Four years ago, moving to Australia marked a new chapter in this journey. A conscious restart, guided by maturity, adaptation, and long-term vision. This period reinforced even more the importance of building with clarity, consistency, and purpose. Ellevate was born from this journey. Ellevate represents the idea of elevation—raising the standard of work, the way the profession is lived, and how it is perceived. It’s not about status or trends, but about method, consistency, and alignment between what you believe and what you practice. Ellevate reflects my journey as a professional and as a person. A project in constant development, created for those who understand that it’s possible to grow without losing identity, evolve without disconnecting from the fundamentals, and raise the standard without losing touch with reality. This is just the beginning. Everything here is for those who believe it’s always possible to go further—with vision, awareness, and purpose.