EVERETT — It didn’t look like a hoax email, but then it did look too good to be true.
Heather Cherewaty and Abby Wait own Olive + Atlas, an Everett business that makes hand-crafted, fashionable dog collars, leashes and soon, harnesses and blankets.
The pair started the business just a year ago and sell their wares online, at the Everett Farmers Market and plan to sell their items this fall at Paddywack pet store in the Mill Creek Town Center.
And then, they received the email.
An assistant for television personality Lilliana Vasquez last month wanted a couple of the dog collars — the Mill Creek and Columbia styles — to give as birthday gifts to Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb on the “Today Show.”
“It was one of those things,” Cherewaty said. “Is it too good to be true? It was very professional and she gave us lots of information and lots of points of contact, but we were just shocked.”
Vasquez had found the dog collars on Instagram and wanted the leather collars with fabric overlays for Gifford’s dog Bambino and Kotb’s dog Blake. The show aired on Aug. 5.
“We’ve had a lot of Internet traffic coming,” Cherewaty said. “We’ve had a pretty nice response to having the show aired.”
It’s a boost for a business that’s still just launching.
Cherewaty and Wait met while working out at the CrossFit Everett in downtown Everett. Cherewaty, 30, is originally from New Jersey and moved here when her husband got a job at Boeing. (He’s since moved on to another aerospace company.)
She was working as a technical writer at a Bothell biotech firm when she decided she wanted to go into business for herself. She invited Wait to be her business partner.
“I think she knew she wanted to do something dog related and what it came down to is I had a little bit of sewing experience, I think I told her I could make a dog collar,” said Wait, 26, who continues to work as a dental hygienist in Mukilteo.
Last August, they started making the collars, experimenting with leather obtained from local stores and fabrics like Pendleton Wool. Together, they came up with 11 styles of dog collars and made the creations in a shop behind Cherewaty’s Everett home. They named the styles after Pacific Northwest locales like Mill Creek, Alki Beach and Nob Hill.
“That was an idea that we both had to kind of stick to our roots and where the business is from,” Wait said.
And the business was named after their two dogs, Olive, a French bulldog, and Atlas, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, border collie, cattle dog mix. The motto for the business is, ‘Where the sidewalk meets the trail.’
“My dog Atlas is more of the rough and tumble one,” Cherewaty said. “Oliver is more a sidewalk kind of dog. Atlas jumps straight into the river. Olive takes naps in the sun.”
Wait’s sister, Evelyn Kritler, 21, a graphic artist, developed a logo for the company. The metal logo is attached to each collar. In May, they started selling the collars at the Everett Farmer’s Market.
“I love it when people whip out their phones and show us pictures of their dogs,” Cherewaty said. “It’s a meaningful way to connect with another human being.”
They’ve committed to donating $1 from each collar and leash to nonprofits: the Old Dog Haven in Lake Stevens and Project Canine, in Seattle.
Wait put their designs on social media sites like Instagram. The pair were just getting their website, oliveandatlas.co, together when they received the message from the Today Show. While their collars was one of several gifts given to the hosts, Cherewaty and Wait were happy about the recognition.
“It’s been a lot of fun and it’s been reassuring to both of us,” Cherewaty said.
They hope the boost can help the business continue to grow.
“We’ve had a phenomenal response,” Cherewaty said. “We’re not growing so quickly that we can’t keep up, but we’re keeping steady.”
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