Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#344: Aidan Meany (Founder of Found Surface) (pt. 2 of 2)
Today we released part one of our interview with Fashion entrepreneur, Aidan Meany. He’s the founder and CEO of Found Surface, a Cleveland-based factory specializing in apparel and soft goods. Aidan leads the company’s innovation in digital knitting—blending technology with traditional craftsmanship to create high quality and sustainable goods.
Before Found Surface, Aidan launched Impossible, an experimental art store and project space that became a creative catalyst in Cleveland’s art and design community.
Aidan is becoming a major player in the field of fashion manufacturing, so join us for this motivational and informative interview! https://foundsurface.com/
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. I'm Andy Heise
Nick Petrella:and I'm Nick Petrella.
Nick Petrella:entrepreneur Aidan Meany is on the podcast today. He's the founder and CEO of Found Surface, a Cleveland-based factory specializing in apparel and soft goods. Aidan Aidan the company's innovation in digital knitting, blending technology with traditional craftsmanship to create high quality and sustainable goods with traditional craftsmanship to create high quality and sustainable goods. Before Found Surface, Aidan Impossible, an experimental art store and project space that became a creative catalyst in Cleveland's art and design community. You can learn more about Found Surface at the link in the show notes.
Nick Petrella:Thanks for coming on the podcast Aidan
Aidan Meany:, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to dig in. You've got some good. You know good folks in the past and I'm happy to join a nice lineup of alum Excellent.
Andy Heise:Can you tell us a little bit about the Algae ink that you referenced before?
Aidan Meany:before. Yeah, totally um. So we we have not developed the lg inc in-house here at found service. That would be a crazy additional task to take on in addition to everything I mean I would. I would love to have the, the bandwidth for it, um. But we have partnered with an incredible company called called Living Inc out of Colorado to again sort of be this like market market distribution partner. So I think that that's where we've come in really strong. Is that all of the ripple problems of not having production here right, even like new material science companies that need just like prototypes or product market fit testing or you know, like end use, you know product um or small batch like r&d. So we've, we've gotten, really we've built an awesome connection to living ink to test their ink on our organic t-shirts, got it, which just was a.
Aidan Meany:We were looking forever for folks who yeah we're even doing anything like this, like that's the other thing too. Even before we had an ink partner, we were like we make these amazing t-shirts and the people that buy them are buying them because they're organic cotton, because they biodegrade, but then we're throwing plastisol ink all over it and saying like thanks for saving the planet, and you're like what's going on, like I. So it felt really weird and that's why we were talking about how to you know knit in this customization, because we just immediately started thinking like this isn't the end. We haven't fixed this but the, the shirts we were working on when our marketing team was looking at how to communicate sort of our goal here and like this is pre, pre, lg Inc actually being like a option that we offer, we found t-shirts that were marketing like them, like we looked for biodegradable t-shirts. We searched biodegradable t-shirts and there were polyester t-shirts that said this is biodegradable, meaning this as, like the person wearing it, yeah, talking about like mortality, I guess and it's like made out of plastic and being sold on amazon and it it's like the funniest thing, like we were just like God, like we are. We are truly in a lane of our own here. Um, yeah, yes, no, it was. It was bizarre to see so.
Aidan Meany:So we, we kept our heads down and kept working. We worked with living ink. They sent us a whole bunch of stuff to test and we have, a little over a month ago, nailed a black screen print ink that is made out of algae, biochar, so it's a little bit processed but really it's burnt right. It's dried and burnt and turned into a very comparable to plastisol, the kind of screen printing ink standard. It's water-based, it's. It performs really well. We've done tons of wash tests and we're like this is it? I mean we nailed it. Now we go work on adding colors into it. But, um, yeah, we're super happy. You can bury this t-shirt in your garden and it'll break down, you know? And, wow, you just think about I was.
Aidan Meany:I was tagged on linkedin on something, uh, talking about racing and runs, like 5k runs and events, and they were talking about how they they. I have no idea who they are and I want to know who they are because they're talking about us, but, like they, how can we make these runs and events more sustainable? Everyone running them doesn't need another polyester T-shirt with all the you know corporate supporters on the back of it. Let's make that something that could have a lifespan, just have a lifespan, not even, just not even like you know be, you know you. You don't need to make it anything super radical here. You're just saying like, let's like get rid of the t-shirts, like still do the whole thing, but let's just make sure that it'll go away at some point or it won't let a leak toxins into your skin and the whole world. So, um, that's why I think we're that's what we're super excited to to start getting those into the world. So we're, we're racing to the finish here on getting orders in motion.
Nick Petrella:I want to be sensitive on time, but I do have a question, and if this is getting too far into the weeds, let me know when you are creating those knit shirts where the logo is basically inside, is it like an old-time piano roll? Hear me out here. So. Is it like you have one long thread but there are pieces of ink going down the thread? Is that what you're doing?
Aidan Meany:I am so. So, man, I wish we had more time, because because what, what you're, what you're touching on is that when we digitally knit stuff in, in theory and we've done this in small volume, but in theory you can unwound the whole thing. Yeah, so any product that we use, that we create on our on our flatbed machines, that we create on our on our flatbed machines, you can have like a yarn spinning machine essentially in reverse, take it up, yeah, and have like a whole t-shirt turned back into a spool of yarn and that is.
Aidan Meany:That is, I think, has something to do with the future of apparel. We just have not had enough time to really think about it and play with it, but I think overall, yeah, you could. So, to really answer your question, our current t-shirts are traditional cut and sew method. We create organic yardage and we're cutting them out and then we're screen printing on top. So that's just like normal cut and sew, yeah, process.
Aidan Meany:The shirts that have customization knit in, we have yarn in different colors and then we're selecting the colors that match whatever pattern, logo, whatever you want in the shirt, and then, okay, that just gets knitted as a as one structure and you could like, if you think there's no, you know there's no. Uh, how do I, how do I say this? Like your logo is, is the fabric right? There's no, like kind of weird specialty embedding of anything. It's really just like you are creating a t-shirt front, back, sleeves, one piece, uh, that has. You know, the fabric was custom made essentially for it and it just happened to all be done in one process, because this equipment is sort of magic.
Nick Petrella:It feels like yeah, yeah, okay. So found surface works with companies from Cleveland Cavaliers to the Cleveland Museum of Art. How did those collaborations begin and do you have team members actively pursuing sales leads?
Aidan Meany:Yeah, we do, yeah, so we. I think back to mentioning the reasons why I think American factories traditionally have had a hard time aside from everything out of their control sort of being stripped away from them, it's that there hasn't been an ability for factories to have any sort of good client management or good sales teams like any any successful business. Even you're like, okay, I'm gonna go build a business of any sort of category. You're like I'm, I'm going to go build a business of any sort of category. You're like I'm going to go have folks that go seek and convert and then manage anything that's closed, and so, um, and we've, we've put that in place very early. Like our sales team was, you know, developed, obviously secondary to the actual making of things, but very, you know, very close alongside that and we're all in one space. So, like we're in this, you know this building in Slavic village and sales and production are, you know, neck and neck, like where they're all, we're all collaborating all the time. So, um, it helps you kind of have really knowledgeable sales folks that are selling accurately and selling with intention, right, not just like I have this sheet of whatever and I'm just going to run my script and that's been. I mean, that's, that's been huge, because it lets us understand the problems that brands have sort of what's interesting to them. You know, like that have sort of what's interesting to them. You know, like that, that again is the way that an american factory that I've been calling a smart factory can come in and change the entire game for brands is by being built actually for brands, because we can sort of collaboratively build our services, our offerings, our pricing or you know a lot of our methods around what they say really matters, um, and so it's not just like, uh, here's our. You know, if you want to interact with us, here's how to interact with us. It's all right, this is we've. We're going to continue to iterate not just our external sales approach but also our internal, you know, making method around what's working for you, and we want to have long-term partners and whatnot.
Aidan Meany:But I will say too, coupled with that, there are so many young independent designers, folks that worked in the industry, that are starting something new, that need a more flexible partner to do what they want to do or get something off the ground, and so that's a been a major like. No factory has been able to meet that need because there aren't account managers, there aren't folks for them to go, you know, meet with and talk about their project. So we very rarely say no and I think that's been our growth engine is like, how can we set things up to make sure that we're almost never saying no, unless it's like you know some major barrier, but like you can go on our website and in one click, be on a 30 minute call, you know, or have that call scheduled, um, and be anybody right Like it doesn't, we're not, there's no filter there. So I think, yeah, I think that's the game changer.
Nick Petrella:And it looked pretty easy. I mean, I was messing around, I didn't actually make anything, but I was clicking around and you could see it's easy to do.
Aidan Meany:Yeah, and that's a huge priority for us too. Right, we have our team in-house that focuses on how the website's being used. You know how it can be built out for clients.
Aidan Meany:You know, once you've made stuff right, like, all that stuff is a top priority for us because that's the, that's the world we're in. Like, if you're a brand, you don't want everything to be analog and have to show up at the factory and do all this stuff right. It should be like there when you want it, you know, but like not the only way you can work and interact. So, yeah, we're, we're constantly.
Aidan Meany:I mean, it's funny, my job has shaped out to be, aside from like, you know, the classic like chief, everything officer, like uh, is following up with folks, yeah, mid-project after project, like, and just being like, hey, like I wasn't your, you know I wasn't here through the whole process, but I want to hear about what you know, what you maybe didn't weren't able to say or tell about your experience to you know, the team that you were working directly with you know.
Aidan Meany:So that just keeps things getting better and better. Cause then I just have this long, ever, you know, ever growing idea log from clients of like, hey, I wish, I wish you could, you know, deliver in batches this way. Or I wish the development experience I got to talk to this specialty skilled individual about this thing you know, and like, how can we make that possible or, yeah, it's just like we. We are here to make this better and solve every issue that we possibly can for brands, because without that approach, you're just always going to have this like horrible disconnect that lets factories be terrible. Basically, yeah.
Andy Heise:Real quick before we go on. You've mentioned your team, uh, several times. How many people are on your team right now?
Aidan Meany:so we're 14 full-time, okay. Um, we have a program for training going from like training to contractor to part-time, to full-time for a production team Cool. Um, so full throttle production ramp can be like 25 contractors, got it? Um, but yeah, 14 full-time Cool.
Andy Heise:Uh, I read somewhere you have a goal of capturing 1% of the U S initiated apparel production by 2030. So we're getting closer to that, right? Uh, how do you, how do you scale a business like 30. So we're getting closer to that, right? Uh, how do you, how do you scale a business like like yours without, without sacrificing all of these things that we've been talking about, that are so important and differentiating for, for your business.
Aidan Meany:Yeah, um, the way I like to, the way I like to answer this is or at least just sort of think about it, because it is a lofty, it's a super lofty goal, um is if farmers markets bear bear with me if if farmers markets can exist everywhere and the potential for everybody to have fresh food is doable in the future, then so is is doable in the future, then so is this. And so the reason I start with that sort of prompt is because the answer is not to grow the Cleveland factory as one giant behemoth of servicing the whole United States. This is best done as a regional approach throughout the United States. So we're sort of building, we're building the first proof of concept, sort of regional opportunity here to solve that, and then it's going to require more of these models put in different communities all over the United States. So that is the way you service it, because it's not possible to look at it as we have one distribution center, one place where things are made, and we need to service this whole industry. They're going to be different facilities with different focuses and different niches in a geographical location where that makes sense. Um, for example, there's a company we work with that does really cool, uh, preventative work getting plastic that's ocean bound away from the coast. They make yarn out of that. It makes sense to go have a facility that's focused on just making that product somewhere nearby, there, right, like there's, there's a, there's a, there's a way to do. That's just one example. But like there's a way to do this, where you're kind of taking what is geographically appropriate throughout the country and scaling it so from a quality standpoint.
Aidan Meany:You look at it as how are we partnering with clients based on what they need to make and sort of reinstituting what we learn as the expert product makers communicate that clearly to their designers. And for the first time, like first time ever and I know this because, like my, I have a cousin. I have a cousin who works for Adidas and he goes to China all the time, he goes to Vietnam all the time the first time that designers and the factory workers can get together and talk about what the best stuff we need to make actually is removes any sort of like greenwashing effort. The reason my brands are greenwashing is because they can't actually get a hold of their factory and say let's all put our heads together and make the best thing. They need to make a campaign, they need to scrape whatever info they can or offering like new material, offering that their factory has.
Aidan Meany:Nobody's actually coming together and saying like let's go make the best Patagonia jacket together as factory and brand. It's too disconnected. So that's why I think that us coming in and saying like we want we're not here to make you play our game, we want to play your game and just be the experts of how that gets to you know your doorstep and be able to just sort of tell you iteratively how we can start improving things you know together, um, so that that that approach is how we scale it. Um, I like the farmers. Does that answer your question? It does.
Andy Heise:Basically, you're not going to have a giant, giant warehouse in um Cleveland that does all of this to your. To your point, you're going to um distribute that and I, I like your your farmer's market example, or analogy too, because you know it is, it's sort of the regionality of of the country. Or, you know, italy does this with food right, Different parts of the country have different kinds of food, and when you go to that part of the country, that's what you eat, and when you're in a different part, that's what you eat there. You know Um, uh. And so, to your point, different parts of our of the U S have different um, whatever you want to call them, competencies or uh resources that are available that could be utilized in this process to to make it to your point, efficient and sustainable.
Aidan Meany:Yeah, totally, and, and there's a way to do it, I mean one it's it's sort of there for the taking, because the brands are here, right. So it would be tricky if, like all of the brands, contracting production were far away. Yeah, brands are here. It's about relationships. Yeah, we want to build relationships.
Andy Heise:Half of our whole business is just there to build relationships I mean, I mean the elephant in the room is I can buy a blank from you for 50 bucks, or I can go on amazon and get one for four bucks. Right, I mean, that's the elephant in the room. So that's the real problem that has to be addressed here. It's it's a consumer behavior piece as well as a cost piece for for the sustainable approach totally and, though, and what?
Aidan Meany:what we know is that with any sort of a long-term commitment, you can pretty much go solve any sort of a headache there, and so it's mainly just when you're swimming in the ocean by yourself you have to really protect yourself, and that's where the costs come up. But when you've got the right partners and people that are committing, it lights out. So I've got a partner right now that we're going to give a. We're going to give a 17 t-shirt to, uh, that is, you know. Just, they're committing to the volume, right, and it's our. It's the same shirt that we sold to them last year for, just like you said, 48 bucks, yeah, um, and we get to go say that was nine months ago and we went from 48 to 17. So imagine what's happening in five years.
Andy Heise:Yeah, absolutely, and again as you create markets for these types of products, supply will follow, hopefully in theory.
Nick Petrella:And they're different customer segments.
Andy Heise:The person looking for a $4 blank is totally different, and that was the other example I was thinking of. It was like the EV market right, the first EVs the market was high-end, right? Or is high-end and, given all sorts of different reasons, that it's kind of fading away now. But that's usually the first market are people that can just afford it, right? So that's kind of where we are with some of these types of products.
Aidan Meany:There's a way to like, you got to look at who, what people care about when you're looking for the cheapest option. So, exactly, if you can make a clear list of all right, would you be open to the style changing? Yeah, in x, y, z way. Uh, for the sake of it being made in the usa and truly sustainable? Like, say, maybe you don't have, you know, maybe it's a little bit boxier of a shirt and you don't have a men's and women's version, but would you be willing to make that, you know, your shirt instead of Gildan, for the sake of it hitting the price point? And that's just like a conversation data collection game that we're in right now, which is like, yeah, yeah, for the folks that want the cheapest t-shirt possible, it's just a different approach.
Aidan Meany:Like that, that's why we did the bio t. Like that's the starter of saying, from a sustainability perspective, these are all getting lost or thrown away. Nobody's gonna wear their 5k shirt every day to work like it's their prized possession, like that's not gonna happen. So let's make it something that biodegrades and then go innovate from there. So, yeah, it's all you know it's. That's what's so exciting and, yeah, for sure, somewhat overwhelming, right as you're. Like how, what do we focus? Because there's so many cool things to go solve so found surface.
Nick Petrella:It appears to be growing exponentially right over the past few years. So I'm wondering where do you spend your marketing dollars?
Aidan Meany:Yeah, and this has been a learning curve. Our marketing team is also our UX team. So our marketing team is essentially designing the website too and kind of wears a lot of these hats. They help set up most of our community engagement. So we leverage marketing as both digital marketing realm, what's effective, kind of what sort of levers do you need to be pulling just to be, you know, successful in today's environment? But also, how do we go build again, continue to be like a relationship builder, kind of relationship driver.
Aidan Meany:Um, there, I think what we've noticed is there's so many designers that like we end up working with because they just DM us on Instagram. It's crazy, but like when you, it's true, like it's it, it it's something that we've prioritized because we're like this is, this is how people are talking, like this is the way people people see us making something and they go my my cousin's got a brand. I just texted him, made sure it was cool if I reached out. I just sent you a dm. Can I set up a call? You know that's the world we're in and when your competition, or at least other factories in the United States and again, I don't like saying competition, but like our partners out there that are making stuff in the U S, like here here in the States, don't have like a website, and you're like this is why no one says we can make stuff in the States. Yeah, there's labor problems. All these things are solvable. What's not solvable is if every factory doesn't have a website, then, like, no one's going to know how to get to them, right? So I think that's where the marketing, the marketing spend is mostly web dev and community outreach.
Aidan Meany:Yeah, um, for us is it's mostly like UX tools and like customer support. Um, we spend a little bit on Instagram SEO, just kind of like good practice, but there's no, there's nothing special other than we show what we do every day in the factory. Like we try to have a presence on like any, any factory we've seen which is just saying, like here's what it looks like. Right, that's sort of the real, like checkmate to a lot of brands or overseas factories, which is you don't need to spend that much because we can just have an iPhone video and it looks super cool that we're making you know what. Like, it just looks cool to be in our space, like we're doing cool stuff. We don't need that, you don't need that much marketing.
Aidan Meany:It's like you look at all the best companies too, that are really changing the game, like they don't spend that much on marketing because they don't need to, I mean, and so I think what works for us is cheap, which is nice because you don't want to be blowing a ton on marketing, but, like our marketing director is not spending a lot on content is not spending a lot on content. We're spending a lot on a really good marketing director that makes relatively cost-effective content by just pulling the curtain open and saying, hey, brands, if you also want to partner on making content, I know the best film studios, the best photographers, the best graphic designers to go do this in Cleveland on behalf of you, right? So that's the other thing, too is we've we've been able to make content for brands we work with and say like we'll just take that problem off your plate and just do it all here and send it to you for review.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, so with the DMs and things like that and I hate to say this cause it's going to sound like I'm joking around with sustainability, but it sounds like it's organic yeah yeah, um, yeah, and it's funny because you don't think, like you know, there's sort of two ways, two sorts of clients that we have that really matter a lot to us.
Aidan Meany:One is just the, the, the dude dming us saying they want to make a new collection here in the states and they have a really great idea. And then we've got the big institution that is making tons of stuff and wants to actually change their supply chain to incorporate us.
Andy Heise:Right yeah.
Aidan Meany:Both of those are a priority for us. There's not, you know, we're not going to say like, uh, don't check the DM, that's not worth it, cause we're moving into a more like. The direction of the apparel industry is not necessarily in brands favor, right now. Right, it's more democratized and I do see a future where there's a lot of folks Um, if you guys don't know Zellerfeld, they're a footwear manufacturing company that has basically let anybody go make their own shoe for very, very cheap. Um, I think that's like.
Aidan Meany:The right direction is like more custom. We're not going to go in the other direction of like more one size fits all stuff. Yeah, so we want to have this open door where it's like if you have like, truly, the process right now is if you have an idea of a garment you want to make and our team deems that as a standard garment or an advanced garment, mostly like jacket, fitted, tailored item being advanced, almost anything else being standard you can get a prototype of that for 1500 bucks in 10 to 12 weeks from us. So there's a lot of individuals that are like I just want to make my own clothes, right, yeah, like, I just want to like, instead of going to like a custom suit company and paying them five grand for a suit, I want to go make like 10 different things and like have my own wardrobe. So like we want to kind of enable, if that's the future of things too, like we want to have that door wide open too. Yeah.
Andy Heise:So, um, we we've been talking. You know a lot of what we've been talking about is big ideas, vision for where we want to go, so maybe some practical implementations, uh, that could be utilized to get there. But for you you know what. What does six? How would you define success personally? What is success for you personally?
Aidan Meany:Yeah, I mean, the root of where this whole company started is in my dissatisfaction in a true making job and career path. I was frightened by the fact that if I wanted to go make something with my hands, that there isn't really a career there for me, here, like that's. That's the root of this, and so there's a lot of ways you can look at that, but at the end of the day, that's the most meaningful thing ever. It's not only finding your purpose, but it's letting other people be able to find their purpose. It's not, it's not just like I want to have it my way, it's, this is our way. We're all making things. You got to have somebody to ask you to make something in order to make it in a capitalistic world, right?
Aidan Meany:Yeah, I think that success is the exciting nature of being on the front of something that is totally revolutionary and able to really improve the lives of people that are making things that we use every single day. But it's also in the education of the people that are using those things every day to better understand, just like the world around us. So I take a lot of you know, I take a lot of gratitude out of the fact that we're not just pulling off the making part, but we're pulling off the educating part, and that the opportunity of having conversations around, like I mentioned earlier, what truly is the best thing we can make. Right, I'm a design guy first, right, so I want the best designs.
Aidan Meany:I think that we achieve the best designs when the conversations start happening between the people actually making the stuff on all fronts materials, assembly, design. The closer you bring those people together that have the best conversations, we're going to start having incredible apparel that is like just unlike anything we've seen before, not like okay. We made a huge advance in manufacturing over here. It's going to take years for designers to catch up. Right, this happens as one effort together and to, to, you know, be spearheading the opportunity there is already super fulfilling. So I feel like, yeah, you know, really really lucky already. That's great.
Andy Heise:Yeah, I think you make a great point there about it being design-led rather than oh look at this cool new novel way that's sustainable to do something. It starts with the design, it starts with the vision, right?
Nick Petrella:Yeah, Before Andy kicks off the final three questions where do you see the biggest growth potential for found surface in the next five years? Is it private label or maybe your own fashion designs?
Aidan Meany:Yeah, I would say jury's still out on which actual unit really runs. I think that they're all doing well, which is great, but again, they're different targets, so we service a lot of different people. Private label is going to be more of a retail forward customer. So what we found is, for folks that are doing private label, they're mostly store owners, not brands, that want to have their own in-store brand alongside what they sell, and so that's an amazing, very like tappable market for us that we're, you know, kind of like, again sprinting at. I do think that the largest growth potential for us overall is in partnership with big brands that want to make a huge difference and want to do something really exciting, and I'm very energized by the conversations we're having. The hard part is that those are always the ones you can't talk about, right, but where I'm sitting today, with what I know, I'm very excited about what the like-minded big apparel companies of the United States are thinking about and working towards Cool, so I do think that's where. That's where our biggest leaps end up happening.
Andy Heise:Um, yeah, Well Aidan, we've reached the point of the interview where we ask all of our interviewees the same three questions, and the first question is what advice would you give to others wanting to become an art entrepreneur?
Aidan Meany:Don't wait for any sort of condition that you think is necessary. Also, don't listen to anybody for a while, not ever, not ever, not ever. But when you're like, should I start or am I on the right path? Like, just say yes to yourself for a while and then you'll figure out what you like really believe in, because then you'll just have all these people sort of whip you around and not not really know, like, what this is.
Aidan Meany:This is the problem I had when I was like sponsor for some retail brand is it a materials company? Is it a production partner, right? So, um, you have to be optimistically delirious at times and that's okay. That doesn't mean you're a crazy person. That means that you're on a mission like that's okay. So I think that saying like, yeah, I don't. I don't know if I'm right, but I know what I I know and I know that I'm going to wake up and keep doing this and I've had people tell me that this is bad or wrong or not going to work. I'm going to keep doing this and it will be up to me to decide when I will stop and pivot and change whatever I decided to start working on. Go about it that way and don't don't worry about it Great. Go about it that way and don't worry about it Great.
Nick Petrella:What can we do to ensure the arts are more accessible and reaching the widest possible audience?
Aidan Meany:Leave your house, get out of your house and go to stuff. I think that's the biggest thing. Yeah, especially in Cleveland, right, everything you've got to drive to it's not like it's happening down the block. It's not like New York Go to stuff Because the like it's happening down the block. It's not like New York Go to stuff because the artists that are actually creating the culture in your community they're not on Netflix, they're not on Max. You can't pay them with a subscription, like you have to show up to stuff and the institutions that put you on Max and Netflix and you know whatever, don't do it if they don't see that you've brought people out to stuff. So if you want to see more interesting things or understand the artistic culture that you're in geographically, you need to go out of your home and do stuff. I like it, it's great.
Andy Heise:Lastly, what's the best artistic or entrepreneurial advice you've been given?
Aidan Meany:Fail fast, yeah, yeah, you're just like. You're never going to be right all the time ever. You're probably right 10% of the time, realistically, 10% of the time realistically. But if you just keep generating, you know 10% you'll. You'll load that up to a hundred, right, and so I think the yeah, I think there's too much. There's too much worry, especially in the way that we're raised in education to get the right thing the first time, to to you know our worth and our value and our self-esteem is based on our results. I went to Montessori school. I didn't have grades until high school. This is a huge thing that I talk about where I'm like. I went to Montessori and then I went to a private Catholic college prep high school, where I learned what a grade scale was in the ninth grade. So I've been on both sides. It's about open to growth. It's about learning. It's about being wrong and finding out why you're wrong for yourself, not because someone told you it's wrong. So fail fast has always been the best advice I got.
Aidan Meany:I've heard that version from a bunch of people, so that's not one person that I've, you know, attributed that to, but that is a thing I've held onto, that I didn't learn myself, right? Yeah, well.
Nick Petrella:Aidan, it's been fun and inspiring to hear your innovative and open approach to fashion manufacturing. Thanks for coming on.
Aidan Meany:Thank you so much, guys. Yeah, this was awesome, um, one of the coolest conversations I've had on a podcast. So thanks for making, thanks for creating the space to really have a good talk.
Andy Heise:Thanks Aidan, thanks guys.
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