Found Surface Company Profile (2026)

Nathan Latka (00:00) Hey folks, my guest today is Aiden Meanie. He learned how to sew from his grandmother at 14 and went on eventually to launch Found Surface. It's a programmable knitwear factory in Cleveland running digital machines that knit patterns, logos, and colorways directly into the fabric. So think semi-custom garments in days rather than months, a 50-unit minimum instead of the thousands from traditional mills that they demand. It also develops its own cotton yarns with American spinning partners and farms in Texas. and North Carolina. So they are vertically integrated from fiber to finished knit. Aiden, how did I do? Aidan Meany (00:35) Really great. Really great. Nathan Latka (00:36) Okay. Aidan Meany (00:37) I was waiting, you know, there's lot of big words there. So it's like I was waiting for somewhere you to slip up, but you did not. That was great. Nathan Latka (00:43) Well, you you you caught my eye because I'm fascinated by how folks that are passionate about some industry are applying technology. It's obviously I'm based in Austin. So anytime they're focused on sort of the US and American manufacturing, that's very fascinating too. And so I mean, some of these pictures of you getting going is fascinating. Why don't you just first walk us through, maybe let me zoom in on one of your products here. What is it that you're selling? Aidan Meany (01:05) Yeah, so we we are in three markets. We're in customizable apparel, which services Pro Sports, you know, museum gift shops, brands, you know, f from fashion to promo products. and then we're in the medical space where we do technical textile development and medical products. And then we also are in PPE and defense for for textile products and finished goods. So those are the three main areas that we're in. when it comes to the more customizable apparel merchandise side of things. That's where we got started. That's where my, you know, early days, you know, were were were in. It was more in the you know, fan gear, fashion products, those sorts of things. so that's really where I got started. But you know, there's textiles in everything. And so what our mission over everything has been is how do we make America one of the, you know, global superpowers in textile development and textile manufacturing. Nathan Latka (02:05) Everyone, if they've just read the press, what they will assume is, well, look, I can't buy a shirt. You know, Target can't sell me a shirt for thirty bucks if they manufacture in the US. Everyone assumes that needs to be done overseas somewhere. I'm gonna guess you would disagree with that. So educate my audience. Why do you think the trend is changing and how are you you playing a role in that? Aidan Meany (02:24) Yeah, so the argument for ages has been labor, right? So the argument has always been we can't compete with labor. That's why we offshore everything. and and really everybody's automating now. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, though they're reducing labor. Like it it is it is happening through software and hardware. So we we now need to re-enter the arena. And sort of retake control of our supply chains this way, not just for national security reasons, but also because there's a ton of amazing jobs that we can bring back that look very different than the old days when we were manufacturing apparel, but are are are really interesting and really like fulfilling jobs that that might not be as you know repetitive and you know hard, you know, from a from a physical labor standpoint, but you get to be a part of a team like like we are over here where, you know, our throughput is the team of what would have needed a hundred and fifty people and we're seventeen. Nathan Latka (03:31) W what is that throughput today? That's a good question. Aidan Meany (03:34) Yeah, so we're we moved into a facility in turned on production about 10 weeks ago. We've been building it out for a year. we the facility will reach its maximum throughput about this time next year. And we'll be able to do millions of units. So we'll be able to do, you know, kind of pick your spread because we do things that range in knit time. Our whole business, like again, this is like the economic flip, right? Is like it's not It's no longer a well, how cheap can you pay people hourly to make as much stuff as you can? Right. It's now it's a finite number of machine minutes that equate back to how many machines we can plug in and run and how we manage that fleet. And so if you're if you're talking beanies and smaller goods, smaller knit time or like shorter knit time versus sweaters, blankets, larger, you know, wall coverings, larger goods, those just have higher, you know, higher number of Machine minutes in our total capacity of our fleet. So our fleet will be in. I mean, right now we've our our our fleet manages a couple million minutes a year. that's the pool. But it's kind of a crazy way to think about manufacturing apparel. It's very, very different than what people are used to. But that's how we get to be competitive again. Nathan Latka (04:53) No, know I love it. And I had a sense that this is the direction this would go, which is why I wanted to have you on. 'cause you're a blend of art and and you're talking the numbers to me too, which is awesome. Let's land this though for a second. This this Ryan Shaw's sitting here, do you know the machine minutes this would take to produce today versus what it might have taken ten years ago? Aidan Meany (05:09) yeah, you're at you're at like 40, 40 minutes for that whole piece. and and traditionally, like traditionally, this would take a machine that only made sweaters like this. And you'd you'd have a machine in a building that took up an entire room, like the room I'm in right now, and it would only make sweaters like this, and you couldn't really change it unless you brought in someone to fundamentally change the machine, right? Our our machines can make this, they can make College pennants, they can make blankets, they can engineer new types of textiles for the military. They can do all these different things in one machine because it's digitally controlled. And so the main gain is in the flexibility there that we can just plug these things in and designate different machines to different categories of products. Nathan Latka (05:57) Is your most impressive machine, is it one of these videos? Is like is it this machine down here or this machine here or is it not pictured? Aidan Meany (06:03) Yeah, bottom left there. Nathan Latka (06:05) This one. Okay, tell us about this. What's happening here? Aidan Meany (06:08) Yeah, so these are what we're filling out factory one with. And so really it it's called digital flatbed knitting. You're controlling almost a thousand needles in that machine. every moment that that carrier passes over the bed of needles, it's instructing the needles not only what yarns to pull from, but also the angle and pitch to form the desired stitch that you want. So this is why we're working in medical, because it's like it can get to that degree of granularity where where you're you're making very important healing products, you know, down to you know the level of stitches that that you can control. So these can do, like I said, a w a wide range of products. And we do tons of work just in textile engineering, just making fabrics Making fabrics that need to have utility in certain areas, you know, of the of the product. and we're so, you know, we're so in the weeds and knowledgeable about what textiles can and can't do that we feel like we can crush some of these insane markets and industries like promotional products, which is a $20 billion a year industry where more than half of it is a soft good, right? So just in just in the US, like businesses are buying swag. We all want awesome swag for our teams. You would wanna be mission aligned with who's providing your swag and make that stuff in the States. And so that's that's the a huge opportunity that we've pounced on is like we want to make every business, regardless of what market you're in, we want to be your swag provider because you know you're contributing to the the dominance of making textiles in America again, even through Nathan Latka (07:50) Mm-hmm. Aidan Meany (07:50) your sweater or your, you know, your giveaway blanket for your donors or whatever, you know, whatever the product is. Nathan Latka (07:56) And how many just staying on this machine for a second, how many different types of yarn are inside of this thing right now? Aidan Meany (08:01) So it's it's tooled up per run or per category. So like the the primary stuff that we run on here, we do a lot of we do a lot of blankets, we do a lot of like really like fine gauge stuff. This is our fine gauge machine, so like we do a lot of like almost like t-shirt weight things. and t-shirts are something we're we're doing. and and the economics of that are insane. But basically you you tool up max four cones of yarn. To it for something like that. We've done products where we've had to actually bring in, like spool tons of plies of ends of yarn together to try and engineer something new. a good example of this is like we've had projects where the available yarn to us provided by a client was too fine for the product that we wanted. And so we had to spool together bunches of it to like tons of ends of it into the machine to mimic a thicker yarn. before we could proof a concept the product and then just go make the thicker yarn. So like Nathan Latka (09:05) Interesting. Aidan Meany (09:06) we've we've we're very flexible on that. We've done lots of different things. Nathan Latka (09:09) So we're looking here at factory one or factory two. Aidan Meany (09:13) This is factory one. We were in a in a HQ space for two and a half years that acted as a as really like a test kitchen. And we did do production out of it, but it's where we proved lots of models of manufacturing. I'm I moved into it. It was a burnt down tea factory with no windows. I moved into it, it was cheaper than my studio apartment, and I bootstrapped the whole business out of there with folks from Kent State that were willing to gr like donate their time and just sew stuff the old school way for people. And it was through our work with Kent State on a more partnership level where we were able to have these conversations about how the United States would re-enter this this this global industry. And it was through flat knitting. So it was like we we determined this is the manufacturing method. These are the machines we need to make globally competitive product again. And and yeah, I mean it's it's insane. So we don't call that factory one. That was that that was HQ. but we didn't make a lot of stuff out of there. We were we were running all kinds of production out of there at a small scale to figure this thing out before we deployed it here. Nathan Latka (10:16) What year was that that you moved into the burnt down tea shop? Aidan Meany (10:19) That was end of 2021, into twenty-two. yeah, into into twenty-three. and we I mean we we still have it. We just don't, you know, we moved our main team out of there. It's a lot of like logistics and stuff out of there too. So we still, yeah, yeah, yeah. We still have place is sentimental. We don't wanna give it up. Nathan Latka (10:37) So when so when did when did this ac when did this factory then open? Like when did you I guess break ground and when did it open? Aidan Meany (10:45) we broke ground a year and a half ago. and then we we started production ten weeks ago. Nathan Latka (10:52) Okay, so broke round like late twenty twenty four and then opened it officially for production about in June July twenty twenty six. Aidan Meany (10:59) Correct. And it was an old CNC machining shop that was abandoned for like a decade or so. And we had to like take the whole roof off of it. And I mean, I mean, you know, we wanted to make a place where we're like, this is where this is what we want people to think of when they think of a paramanufacturing gun, not rows and rows of people smashed together with their heads down, like this is this is what automation looks like. This is what, you know, yarn in product out looks like. that's yeah, we're we're very proud Nathan Latka (11:27) This Aidan Meany (11:27) of it. Nathan Latka (11:28) this doesn't look cheap to open. Are you just like a rich person or something? Or did you raise money? How much did this cost to open up? Aidan Meany (11:35) so I I've maintained full ownership of the business. I'd say that it is it is a a mix of I've I I've bootstrapped and friends and family this thing. it we have not raised serious capital. we have we when we were in our first space, we were next to one of the largest importers of sewing equipment who gave us net question mark a lot of the time to like to really help us grow. And so we were able to in our in our first space take build a book of business that was willing to be a part of this this this reshoring effort and say, hey, like I value this relationship, I understand your guys' vision and mission. I need, you know, I need t-shirts, I need I mean, all kinds, we made baby robes, we made, you know, components and straps and bags and all these crazy things out of that building. that like let us save money and like build this thing up. And then we we met an incredible partner on the on the real estate side who gave us insane, I mean, we didn't pay rent for the first year of this space. Like Nathan Latka (12:45) And where's it's based in Cleveland? Aidan Meany (12:47) we were in a a location called the Flats in Cleveland, which is w which is downtown. Nathan Latka (12:52) I see. I mean, so did you have were you able to negotiate a good rate with him like going forward? I don't know how many square feet this is, but this rent, if you're paying market, doesn't look cheap, right? Aidan Meany (13:00) No, and he's he's, you know, found a way to essentially be an investor in the business without, you know, literally investing capital. So like he I mean we we've we just had a ribbon cutting yesterday actually and like you know, we're going at this almost as as partners in a way. and yeah, it's it's been a community at like c city of Cleveland is involved heavily. Newmark, Terry Coyne involved heavily. or our globe sewing, right? Giving us net question mark. It's been this like real Cleveland community effort that has said, hey, if you guys just keep delivering on what you say you're gonna deliver, we're we're we're gonna do what we can to invest in this and like really help you guys out. The sweaters that we're making that that that you've seen, year over year we've dropped the cost for us to produce them ninety-five percent. Nathan Latka (13:50) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Aidan Meany (13:51) And like we have another 60% before the end of the year that we're gonna drop the cost of produce. And so we just keep showing people that it is not magic. It's just working hard and it's understanding software tools. We've built our own ERP system. We got all our own shop floor apps. We do all this stuff to show people like we can compete. And when we deliver product that we said we were gonna do, you know, a couple weeks back. It it it lets people, you know, get through throw us a bone when we say, Hey, we need five more machines, right? Like Nathan Latka (14:22) But Aiden, how I'm sorry, my audience is gonna look at this and go, No, Nathan, you're missing something here from Aiden. These are not cheap. I mean, I imagine each of these machines are half a million bucks a pop, right? I mean, something like that. Aidan Meany (14:30) Not quite that crazy. There I mean there's there there's there's six figure range depending on the on the, you know, spec or the you know, product and the internal build of it. But I will tell you like Nathan Latka (14:39) Okay, but maybe you're you're maybe a convincing guy though, but you didn't just get all this for free. I mean, you have to I mean, when you say don't you didn't raise meaningful, did you get like a grant, a half million grant from the city and then a friends and family for three hundred K? Or how did you fund this thing? I want more people to do what you're doing, which is why I'm pushing so hard Aidan Meany (14:53) Yeah. No, Nathan Latka (14:53) on this. Aidan Meany (14:54) no, no. It yeah, it's it's it's not a problem. There have been some weird things that have aligned, some weird stars that have aligned. So the when we decided, okay, we're gonna go with flat knitting machines, right? Up until then, it was it was bootstrapped. Like there was no s no real equipment investment that was needed. There was no sizable amount of capital that was that was that was really needed. We were able to go as this kind of like band of grads that wanted to make a buck after college and sew things for fun. And you know, it was like pretty, pretty low, capitally intensive. Once we were like, we're gonna go like run this production and like figure out this method and like we flipped that switch. We were able to purchase one machine bootstrap. Yeah, I pulled together, you know, you know, couple, you know, like 20 grand from one of my former bosses and like 50 grand from friends and family, right? We're able to like pull enough to get one of these machines. we recouped the investment on that machine in less than four months. having no idea like honestly how to run it, like when we got it. Nathan Latka (15:55) And it this this matches some of the pricing you saw, right? Sort of in these ranges, depending on how old it is. Aidan Meany (16:00) Yes, yes, yes, yes, correct. So so then what happened was we go, Great, we proved the model. We have one of these machines, we have a a spreadsheet that explains what we think we can do at scale. This is awesome, you know. Let's go get more, let's figure it out. Maybe let's raise, right? That was kind of like the the point we were at. We go to buy more machines and stole shuts down. They they they ran they they got bought by Karl Meyer, they got and Karl Meyer shut down. The maker of the machines that all of our technical staff was trained on how to use. And you know, it's this huge like, shit moment. And Nathan Latka (16:38) Mm-hmm. Aidan Meany (16:40) we we ran to them and we go, you know what? We think we can pivot to another provider down the road, but maybe we can go get like a four, five, six for one deal because they're shutting down. And we did. And we did. And we got and we got we got an amazing deal out of that. And I mean like like pennies on the dollar. for for for this fleet that was that's state of the art. and it lets us now again hit this checkpoint of we gotta make globally competitive product and then we'll make our own machines. Like that's a that's a part of the plan. Is is like, you know, we know a lot about fundamentals and knitting. So that's when yes, yes they said. No, I'm I'm I'm an open book man. I'm Nathan Latka (17:16) Okay. See now it's making more sense. Yeah, yeah. You're you're you're a creative entrepreneur. I get it. This is great. Okay. So fast forward to it. You break ground in twenty twenty four, sixteen thousand square feet in the flats in Cleveland. You get it open in twenty twenty six. You're a creative deal maker. You're opportunistic. You want to be vertically integrated and prove that you we can do this sort of in the US. So when you look at where you're at today, I think you said you had seventeen people today. Aidan Meany (17:41) Yep. Yep. Nathan Latka (17:41) When you look at twenty twenty six, w what do you think you guys all hit in terms of total revenue if you crush your goals? We still have a couple months left. If you crush your goals, what do think you hit? Okay. Okay. And that feels Aidan Meany (17:51) Thank you. Nathan Latka (17:52) reasonable to you, or is that a stretch goal? Aidan Meany (17:54) No, that's like that's like what's in you know, if we close, you know, do reasonably well in the pipe, yeah. Nathan Latka (18:01) Okay. And and as people are saying, can this really be economically viable in the US? Right, they're gonna be thinking, Well, can the margins make sense? So I'll ask you the margin question. I mean, can you make meaningful margins on five million top line or are you really you struggling to stay break even? Aidan Meany (18:17) That's that's traditionally been the issue, right? Is like in factory, especially in apparel, it's just been I could go on forever about this. I'm like trying to have a short answer. But really, like, you know, for ages, brands have squeezed factories to to get down to like single digit mar you know, like really bottom of the barrel margin. And factories, the only skin that they've had in the game has been raise the MOQ, right? So they've just said, great, we'll make it as cheap as you want. But you're gonna buy 10, 20,000 of these. And and and that's that's the way it's gonna be. That's the only way we can do this, right? So the brand needs have changed over time. We have hit a we've we've we've hit a moment where buying 20,000 of anything doesn't make sense, even if you're Patagonian, right? They're like, I gotta go then pay to get all this stuff imported and housed and and and then distributed to my stores in. I've got way too many of this stuff and we're never gonna sell all of it. Forty percent of everything that's bought is is is in limbo to be thrown away, burned, shipped to the corners of the earth that no one cares about. So we're talking like hundreds of billions of dollars worth of product that brands are are have no plan for, they just expect to lose it. This is like a an insane problem. Like it is an Nathan Latka (19:38) Mm-hmm. Aidan Meany (19:39) insane issue. And so the Nathan Latka (19:43) Well you didn't let me let me try and pin you down here just because we're running short on time. The beanie, it sounds like Aidan Meany (19:45) Yeah, sorry. Nathan Latka (19:46) it's very popular product you guys run. It's you know, maybe easy to produce, but it's high quality, different colors, logos, etc. I if this is sold by old navy and produced at a lower quality in China, what are they gonna retail it for? What do you retail it for? Aidan Meany (20:02) So we're running beanies. Obviously the materials matter, right? So we've decided to use homegrown cotton, and that's gonna be the most expensive option you can possibly do, right? If you're at Old Navy, you're doing pot polyester made in Vietnam, you're gonna sell that thing for I mean, I honestly not exactly sure, but you're gonna be in the, you know, mm single digit, you're gonna be maybe like eight bucks, nine bucks, maybe, right? What what we're after is like if we were making them out of polyester, we could do that. Like we could we could hit that like the the production system that we have can meet that need. Now you're talking about input and you're talking about domestic infrastructure for yarn production and all these other things that are essentially like our chips. This is the way I look at it for tech, right? Like we don't make our own chips, we don't make our own yarn. Nathan Latka (20:53) Mm-hmm. Aidan Meany (20:54) we want to because we'll be able to make an an insane impact there. So currently Nathan Latka (20:58) But to be clear, like your goal is to sell a premium product with better quality, homegrown and built in America. It's not to compete at the eight dollar price point with old Navy produced in America. Aidan Meany (21:08) ultimately we will be be able to do it do do it all. Like we'll be able to make a price that fits for everybody and you're not using virgin polyester materials, you're not using, you know, you're not using bottom of the barrel materials. Like Nathan Latka (21:23) Ha when you charge thirty five bucks for that beanie, how much of that really is something you can't make cheaper, i.e., the cost of the actual thing versus the cost of labor? Like, you know, the cost of the ingredients versus cost of labor. Aidan Meany (21:34) We we sell those beanies B to B for a price that like a business could sell sell it for twelve bucks. Nathan Latka (21:43) Okay, so you wholesale these at like eight, nine, ten bucks if someone's bulk ordering fifty, a hundred, a thousand Aidan Meany (21:48) Okay. Nathan Latka (21:48) of them. Aidan Meany (21:49) We we we are in in many cases, especially on the customizable stuff, cheaper than what you'd have to import. Nathan Latka (21:56) I okay, th and that's where you think you're alpha. That is why you're doing what you're doing. Aidan Meany (21:59) yeah. It's been like that since we opened this factory. Yeah. Nathan Latka (22:03) Very cool. Aidan Meany (22:04) and and again, we're not D to C. So like the stuff we have that you could go buy a single beanie, yeah, it's expensive. It's what we would hope a brand would retail it for, right? But there's so much more, like the, you know, the Nathan Latka (22:17) You're fully integrated here, right? Aidan Meany (22:18) like the PPE stuff we're selling is is is cheaper than what they're buying it for now. You know, we're coming in and solving real issues for businesses that are getting higher margins and sell them for the same price. Nathan Latka (22:28) Yeah. The next time COVID hits, if if China doesn't want to sell us masks, you figure out a farm in Austin or whatever to to to or Texas to work with to source the yarn to produce a million units per year out of your factory in Cleveland. Aidan Meany (22:42) Absolutely. We do full I mean, we have a whole supply chain team that goes and co develops the w the raw materials needed for a project. So we've got design development prototyping as well. Like people come to us and they say, I need this thing and I have nothing to show for it except this conversation with you. And in six months you're you're you're making ten thousand units of it. I mean it's Nathan Latka (23:02) Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, hey, your goal is five million of this year. We should celebrate where you're already at. Are you comfortable sharing what year you guys passed a million bucks of revenue? Aidan Meany (23:11) Sorry, say that one more time. Nathan Latka (23:13) Are you guys comfortable sharing what year you passed a million bucks of revenue? it was last Aidan Meany (23:16) Last year. Yeah. Nathan Latka (23:17) year. Okay. So you think you're gonna five X this year, year over year? Aidan Meany (23:20) yeah. yeah. I mean it it it's it's been a crazy i again, it's been so much of this like slow, low capital intensive process that then all of a sudden we found a model because it's just like, what equipment do they have over there and plug it in? Like it's Nathan Latka (23:34) Yeah. Yeah. Aidan Meany (23:35) not it's not like there's a ton of stuff behind the scenes, but ultimately that's the phase we're in. is just like go get the same tools. Nathan Latka (23:45) Yep. Yep. Well we're rooting for you. We hope you scale. If you hit all your goals next year in twenty twenty seven, how many units do you think you'll produce? Aidan Meany (23:53) In twenty twenty seven we'll we'll we'll surpass a like right now our plan is to surpass a ten figure throughput. So the d cost Nathan Latka (24:00) So more than more than ten thousand units shipped in twenty twenty seven. Aidan Meany (24:05) ten ten sorry, eight figure through eight figure throughput. So we're talking tens of millions of units. Nathan Latka (24:13) Yeah, eight figure. So you think you'd ship more than ten million units in twenty twenty seven with your current factory set up? Aidan Meany (24:19) Correct. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Nathan Latka (24:21) Awesome. Awesome. We're rooting for you, man. If people want to follow you online, where can they find you? Aidan Meany (24:25) I'm on X. that's primarily where I'm where I'm throwing out whatever's in my head out. so that's just Aiden at Aiden Mini underscore. we're we do a cool like blog on our website, foundsurface.com. Instagram's at found surface. yeah, we're we're trying to boost a little bit more of our messaging, you know, but it we're de we're definitely the the business behind the business a lot of the time, you know. So Yeah, we don't, you know, we forget about marketing to go make cool stuff sometimes. Nathan Latka (24:59) Nothing wrong with that trade, guys. Aiden Meany left Syracuse after two years of industrial and interaction design to found and run Found Surface. He moved into a burnt down tea shop in 2021 and said, you know what? We haven't enough success here. We're gonna break ground on a 16,000 square foot facility in 2024 in the flats near Cleveland. Ultimately, then negotiated with his Producers and suppliers of equipment, which were going out of business. He got a great deal on very high-end equipment for producing things like beanies and shirts and custom materials to wear for your favorite sports team. And ultimately broke a million bucks of revenue in 2025. This year in 2026, they started producing hardcore in their new factory. He still owns 100% of the business. He's gotten very creative with financing. 17 full-time folks today. And he believes throughput next year in 2027 will be in the millions. Of units with a five million dollar revenue target here in twenty twenty six. Bring manufacturing back to America. This is a guy that's doing it with an art flair to boot. Aiden, thanks for taking us to the top, man. Aidan Meany (25:58) Nathan, that was awesome. I wish I could, you know, run that back. That was awesome. Thank you for having Nathan Latka (26:02) All right guys. Aidan Meany (26:04) me. Nathan Latka (26:05) Cut. Aiden, what'd you think, man? You enjoy that? Aidan Meany (26:07) Dude, that was great. That was great. I I I mean, you you had stuff ready to go. I was I mean, I've been on several podcasts and a lot of folks it's kinda like, Who's gonna take the lead here? you know, like so that was great. Nathan Latka (26:17) You gotta love what you do. I mean, I'm a curious guy and and I just anything I see someone that fascinates me, I wanna go. I mean, look, my I have a whole f production crew. If this does well, we'll fly the whole crew out and do a full feature, you know, hour long documentary on you guys. So we'll see what happens. Aidan Meany (26:30) Come on out. Come on out. It's I mean it is it it is a sight to say. Like I said, we did a ribbon cutting yesterday and you've got people in here that are like, I've never seen clothes get made. Nathan Latka (26:43) I love it. I love it. I gotta jump here with my next founder, man, but great to meet you. See you, brother. Bye, bye bye. Aidan Meany (26:46) Likewise. Thanks, David. Talk to you soon. See you.