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Important update on 1476AMHow a coach, CEO and former Dog helped kickstart $60 million bikini business
Tom Morris • April 8th, 2026 10:13 am
Remember Craig Ellis?
He played 122 games in nine years at the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne.
He was an athletic defender from Stawell who retired at the end of the 2002 season.
Initially Ellis wanted to be a pilot, but a trip to New York around the time of 9/11 changed his mind.
He and former teammate Nathan Brown started St Lenny, a t-shirt brand. But soon it fell to pieces and Ellis was bankrupt.
Ellis met his partner Erin, together they started a bikini label ‘Triangl’ and moved to Hong Kong chasing the dream.
Only disaster struck a second time… They were essentially bankrupt again. They were losing thousands of dollars per day.
Between Ellis and Erin, they didn’t have enough money to fly home from Hong Kong to Melbourne.
It was January 2013 - Ellis' career and life was at the crossroads.
This is where Leon Cameron and Luke Darcy came in. Former teammates and close friends... Each gave them a low-five figure sum. Let’s call it between $15k and $20k.
Then Ellis had a lightbulb moment. He changed his business model.
They didn’t go to David Jones or Myer. They also rejected traditional advertising.
No, the new and improved Triangl was built on Instagram! This was before stories, reels and ad ecosystems like today. Just square photos and simplistic filters.
Influencers weren’t a thing.
Ellis sent bikinis not to A-listers initially, but to girls with growing followings.
They were gifts. The advertising spend was the price of a bikini. It was genius.
In the space of a few months, Triangl wasn’t just selling swimwear… It was selling a look.
No retail stores, no traditional ad spend.
Before long, everyone was doing what Ellis did. But Ellis got in first.
And it made him $60 million and the rest. He helped change how brands were built, moved to Monaco, purchased a private jet and the brand EXPLODED.
The Triangl Instagram now has 2.5 million followers. Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Camila Mendes, Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Margot Robbie, Bella Hadid and Ellie Goulding all wear Triangl, which is a nod to the geometry of the product.
And none of this, NONE of this, would have been possible without $20,000 from Leon Cameron, Luke Darcy, and maybe some help from Fremantle CEO Simon Garlick 13 years ago.
