ELITE

ELITE is a young Australian brand, founded in 2022 by Kylie and Mick Dwyer out of Gymea Bay in New South Wales, but its founders aren’t newcomers. They bring 32 years of combined time in the trade as salon owners, educators, and tool-makers, and that educator background is the most telling thing about the brand. ELITE was designed by someone who teaches cutting for a living, which tends to produce scissors built around how techniques actually feel in the hand rather than spec-sheet bragging.

Two steels, two tiers

The range splits along its metallurgy. The Signature line runs on ATS-314 cobalt, a high-end stainless prized for edge retention and a fine, durable point, while the Premium line uses Japanese 440C, a tougher, more forgiving grade that resharpens easily. That’s a sensible structure: it lets a stylist choose between the longer-holding cobalt edge and the more robust everyday 440C without leaving the brand. Both sit in the premium band, roughly $400 to $800.

The catalogue covers cutting scissors, thinning shears, left-handed models, and accessories, with specialties spanning blunt cut, slide cut, point cut, slicing, plus volume and texture control. Kylie Dwyer led the design in collaboration with scissor makers across several countries, with the stated aim of serving working stylists’ real needs.

The education link

The educator angle isn’t incidental marketing. Dwyer runs hair-cutting workshops and built the SNIPT streaming app for on-demand cutting education, so the brand sits inside a teaching practice. That’s a useful signal: the tools were shaped by feedback from actual technique work.

ELITE sells direct through its own site. As a 2022 launch, its wider retail network is still building, so the brand’s storefront is the main route for now.