CEOs You Should Know- Made Plus Inc

None

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
iHeart Media Presents CEOs you should know. Hi. I'm John Dickle, former
president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journaland now founder and CEO of Dinkle Business
Development. This is iHeart Radio CEOsyou should know and I'm here today with
Alan Guyan, founder and CEO atmad Plus Inc. Welcome Allen, and
thanks for being here. Thank you, John, I really appreciate that.

(00:24):
Absolutely look forward to our chat.I thought we'd start off by maybe getting
to know you a little bit betterand obviously the organization for those who may
not be familiar, Could he tellus more about made Plus Inc. Yes,
we are a trailblazing foot brand foundedby industry veterans who've owned their craft
by working for some of the largestbrands in the sport arena. And we've

(00:49):
done this. Our missionist to developproducts that deliver outstanding performance fit while we're
reducing based in the process and whattype of shoes you got there are available
little too consumers. We call ita performance a lifestyle or casual lifestyle,
and so we'll talk about like howare they more of the athletic side casual

(01:14):
side, like what, Yeah,we describe a little bit more about that
performance casual shoe is what we callit. We call it the skiff.
UH. It also works good forthe voting community right now as we're based
in Annapolis. It just kind ofnaturally worked out that way. We did
design for being able to work,to go to the office, but also

(01:34):
be able to have some fun andgo on your boat. Nice. And
one of the things that's very uniqueabout your operation, your brand is kind
of the custom design shops. Hecould he talk more about May plus is
kind of custom design shoes, yep, so are made for you. Kind
of platform is all about a mixand match combination of materials. With the

(02:00):
current UH kit we have right nowon our website is about two hundred and
fifty thousand combinations you can choose fromor you know, comb missions you can
make from that that kit. Anddo you plan on like expanding that or
doing or more the line stuff aswell? Yeah, absolutely, We're looking

(02:21):
at training focused styles, performance styles, a little bit more casual, and
of course outdoor nice okay, awesome? And what what what's your mission?
What's the mission of Nate Plus.Our main mission is, UH, you
know, deliver on products that haveoutstanding performance plus fit while excuse me,
while we're ucing waste. Yeah,and I like your philosophy too about kind

(02:46):
of you know, made for localsby locals. To talk about that a
little bit. Why is that importantto you? It's important across the board,
to be honest with you, becauseyou know, when we start empowering
our community to make great products,but we also sell to our community,
it really reduces the supply chain andalso customers can get something they really want

(03:07):
and we can also respond to thosecustomers a lot faster. So overall,
it's a it's a waste saving idea, it's a it's a customer experience a
position, but it's also uh,you know, kind of give back too
because we are creating jobs. Gotit. Yeah, I definitely have to
ask you about you know, whatwas your what was the motivation to start

(03:27):
a brand new kind of footwear brand? I mean, wow, he started
basically in the middle of the pandemic, right, because could you talk about
that and talk about maybe the challengesthere at any Oh, Yeah, there
was a there was a certain challenges. I mean, as you know,
I mean there's a startup challenge justbeing a startup, but you know,
yeah, it was a big challenge. So we started raising capital in twenty
twenty one, which was extremely challengingtime as you know, to raise capital.

(03:52):
Yeah, I would say some ofour biggest challenges was was the supply
chain of course, you know,so yeah, come overseas, not all
of it, just to a fewportions of it, but again going through
that piece, getting people, youknow, how they work in an office
environment, you know. So weactually view this as an opportunity though by
bringing manufacturing back to the US fora product that historically has been made in

(04:14):
Asia or in Europe. So itkind of taught us overall like a survival
tactic with precise decisions that we couldleverage with our digital data to make decisions
about actually having to have the product. And one thing that was kind of
unique during our pandemic or at thebeginning, was we are developing a footware
line and a factory parallel. Andthen as it came out to the you

(04:40):
know, as we got to thefinish line, you know, it's just
kind of unique. I haven't seenthat. We also told ourselves, as
this is all the way we're gonnabe doing our business for here on out.
We will be constantly be growing ourfactories and we're all constantly be developing
new shoes, so it's now nowa culture of our our process. Yeah,
that's cool. And do you seelike this trend too towards other kind

(05:04):
of really niche markets in other apparel? I mean, the fact that you
have so much customization with these thatmakes it really kind of really neat for
people to customize other in personalities andcolors and things like that. Is that
a did you guys kind of seethat as a trend moving forward and said,
oh wow, let's let's let's tacklethis on the you know, on

(05:25):
the photopparel side. But do yousee that in other lines as well or
now? I mean what we seekind of like across the board is customers
are looking for something that's kind ofpersonalized and a little bit unique to them.
Yeah, kind of like that individualitypiece. But but the over arching
piece, by far is we justget rid of waste reduction. You know,

(05:48):
by having to reduce waste, wecan change the way we make our
products, and sometimes we've had itchanged the way we make the entire process
to make waste effective. I mean, even how are made to order model
We don't pre buy a bunch offinnished goods. We buy a bunch of
finnished raw goods and then we're atthe last minute, we're kind of moving

(06:12):
to the market and putting those thingstogether. So we see waste being across
the board on trend by far andthen having something that's a little bit more
less greenwashing but more traceability. Sowe try to partner with companies that have
traceability that we can you can letcustomers in on that. That's cool,
that's cool. Yeah, that kindof leads me to my next question is

(06:34):
about you know where are your manufacturingthey plus and talk about how you're sourcing
your materials. Where do they comefrom? Yeah? Absolutely, Well,
you know, Maryland pride is trueand we are made in the USA and
we were made in Annapolis, Maryland. Awesome. We also see our factories
being scattered out as we grow,and we see this being another position for

(06:59):
another as well. Are most ofour excuse me, most of the stuff
is kind of locally sourced domestically,but we do have a handful of globally
sourced components. Got it? Andtalk about like the technologies that you're using
to kind of manufacture and and marktI know you mentioned kind of three D

(07:20):
printing. How does where's that allfit? And what are some of the
kind of the new technologies you're lookingat, you know, kind of deploying
or what are you already deployed inthe manufacturing of these things. Well,
there's no shortage technology in our space. I can take that. And one
of the big things that when welooked at the whole for our manufacturing landscape

(07:40):
was we had to bring these jobsback a little bit differently. Right,
we can't just go one to onecompeting with overseas labor. So what we
did was we positioned on advanced knitting, three D printing, computerized stitching operations,
and then a various other kind ofspecialized equipment to kind of speed the
process up. And then we lookedat overall the processes to create that product

(08:03):
and we dramatically reduced this. Wejust cut all these steps out and that's
kind of how we leverage technology ina lot of ways. And then the
other pieces. We have this wholethree D asset portfolio that we've made decisions
from a lot of three D objectsthat we can naturally transcend into our factory.
That makes it speed to market.Got it very cool? And and

(08:26):
you know, I know your guysare a startup, but like what what
would you say is your kind oftarget market or do you even have a
target market? Are these pretty thesepretty kind of desired You're getting orders from
kind of all different kind of communities, the ages. Yeah, have you
seen a trends yet? Well,it's kind of it's kind of funny that

(08:50):
you say that, because I mean, you know, being started, you
know, starting out, you know, you know, as we start out,
you know, we're trying to,of course, you know, just
get sales, but we are seeinga trend of you know, it's a
little bit higher price point, it'sa little bit more ethically driven product,
so that that naturally kind of bubblesup. But the one thing that we

(09:11):
did out of the gate was wemade our shoe unisex, and that was
a kind of a big deal becausegenerally you see men's and women's. It's
actually a big deal website trying toget people, you know, not confused.
But what we saw was it wasthe easier way to manage the inventory,
is a easier way to manage theproduct. But also some colors can

(09:33):
work with both sexes. You know, there's no sense of limiting, so
we just did that. We dohave future plans to eventually break off and
make a really made for her lineand made for him line that really but
it really is about making that kindof a unique position with the first out
of the gate, out of theblocks, so to say. We wanted

(09:56):
to make it appeal to a lotof people, but we are seeing a
nice demographica who are people are wanta little bit, no, a little
bit more about their product, Andof course we've had tremendous success of just
saying we're made local, you know, and people really resonate, like the
local Maryland has ever really resonated withthat. Yeah, definitely, definitely,
Yeah, thanks for sharing that.Yeah, and just kind of switch gears

(10:18):
a little bit, you know,to tell us a little bit about your
personal background and how you got tothis point in your career. Well,
we had to have a longer sessionfor that, of course, but I'll
keep it simple and say that,you know, I started out as a
machinists at Third Generation Machinists at thatand my family's a machine jup high technology

(10:39):
machine shop, and from that process, I just constantly worked through meccanical engineering,
industrial design and then I moved outto Maryland from Ohio to work for
excuse me, to do some machiningfor another company. But it wasn't just
machining. It was like how ourknee role. It was making quick products,

(11:00):
fast market. These have to beyou know, kind of sensitive products.
And then I spent a little bitof time in a three D printing
company. He was giving a plasticcompany along with just constant being involved in
the three D printing community. Andthen I did spend a great deal of
time under Armour Need. Awesome.I appreciate you sharing that. That's I
guess where the technology in your backgroundon the three D printing and all that

(11:26):
stuff kind of comes in handy,I guess. Yeah, Well I brought
that to you a in a lotof ways. That was a position as
we grew. I was always kindof familiar with it, you know,
for the last twenty five years,so it just kind of naturally worked out.
Awesome, excellent. Well, Ilove talking about leadership on the show
as well. How would you describeyour leadership style? Well, if I

(11:50):
give you my opinion, it's gonnabe the best opinion. If I give
somebody else's opinion, maybe a littlebit different, but no, just just
messing around there. I'm very reactand honest, is kind of how my
approach. I'm big on empowerment.I'm big on empowering my team to make
good decisions, and I also tryto set them up for success to make
those good decisions. I'm huge onbeing delivering from an effective approach, you

(12:16):
know, being passionate about building theproduct team and also driving successful leaders into
their future careers as well. Andthen eventually at the very end of it,
which is a big deal for metoo, which is a lot of
like a lot of other companies,is you got to deliver on results,
you know, and we take prideon delivering on those results. Yeah,
that's what it boils down to,I guess as a leader, right is

(12:37):
uh, you know, managing yourteam your business to yeah, get results.
And that's what it all boils downthere, no matter, I guess
obviously there are better, better stylesthan others. But you know, I
love the h I love the youknow, engaging and you letting your team
you know, do the job thebest way that they can do it,

(12:58):
not you know, kind of tellthem that send up for educated decision making,
you know, and the big thingfor us too was as we were,
you know, building out this thisyou know, this team and how
we did it. We need abunch of leaders, but we also need
a bunch of craftsmen. So yeah, yeah, and you had they had
to you know, we have toyou have to build trust with those folks.
Yeah. I mean, having beenpart of a couple of stars myself,

(13:20):
it's it's you have to get avery talented team in there, but
also one that is willing the rollup their sleeves and like do whatever they
need to do to to uh,you know, move the company forward.
Right. I think the other thingI left off here was believe. You
know, I think you know,you have to believe in this overarching message
because that's what gets you through thegood days and the bad days. You

(13:41):
know. Yeah, what kind ofpulls you through that? That that piece.
Yeah, that's good, good stuff. Man. Thank you. With
kind of the general threat of thepandemic behind us, and you having you
know, uh, started to buildthis company during a pandemic, what did
you what did you learn about memanaging or you know, kind of leading

(14:01):
people through that? Yeah, that'sanother really great question survival, but also
concerned you know, I saw alot of people come together just because of
concerned of you know, the peoplearound them, the community, the city,
the state, the country, likethe world like. It was kind

(14:22):
of a together moment, I thinkin some ways. But we also learned,
you know, how to survive,and then it kind of spends into
We were extremely resourceful, you know, we had to be resourceful with our
local tool set, which naturally allowedus to be you know, aligned,
and be agile and be you know, and be effective and hear what's happening
and so forth. Even our factorylike we can you know, we could

(14:43):
add additional products in another event ofa crisis quickly. We have the equipment
that can make certain things that wouldbe appable for that type of protection of
So source got it. Thank you. And speaking of like kind of the
pandemic and the way things have youknow, kind of shifted as far as
the workforce concerned to this kind ofhybrid environment. Obviously you have to have

(15:09):
people on the factory floor that youknow, are in the in the factory
doing the job. But then maybeyou have you know, people on the
absence side or leadership side that areare a little more flexible. How are
you, how do you kind ofmaintain that culture of folks that you know,
kind of need to be there andthen folks that don't necessarily need to
be there work from home a littlebit. But so how do you how
do you how do you wrangle that? Well, labor is labor is challenging

(15:37):
in general, Like, yeah,we have a changing workforce environment as we
speak, right, it's yeah,different workforce environment. The remote piece is
absolutely huge, so we and wehave a kind of more of a technical
workforce too, so as another layerto it. But we just built our

(16:00):
process and our team and our inour company around what we're trying to achieve
and that's kind of naturally allowed usto work it all out. We we
do embrace, uh, you know, the creative and also the people who
really want drive results. So itjust kind of works itself out. That's
good. I like that. Iappreciate you sharing that. What gets the

(16:22):
excited about the future of May Plus, I think the opportunity to refine the
boundaries of footwear. You know,I love product and I love shoes.
Of course, it's pretty easy,you know, the growth in our product
categories, you know, making somethingentirely from start to finish right here in
our factory is extremely rewarding. Andthen you know, setting a new standard

(16:47):
for high performance shoes that are madedomestically is always in my mind. And
then naturally by doing it kind ofI wouldn't say necessarily our way, but
our our path would be uh,you know, we're naturally saving waste across
the board. Yeah, and howwe get to rethink that the manufacturing steps

(17:11):
and processes and to convey the backto consumer where they also get excited and
they share the same passion that wehave. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
A lot to look forward to.Obviously, what kind of keeps you
up at night? Well, youknow, being a young startup, I
mean there's just about a million thingsthat keeps up a night. I think

(17:32):
I always look at uh, youknow, we are super small, you
know, so we don't always getthe benefits that mass volume of purchasing.
So you know, other brands thatcan really order a very large lot,
we have to be kind of choosing. So that kind of makes this limber
limber on inventory, but also makesthe price point a little bit more expensive
for us. And we do havea lot of marriage manufacturing experience on our

(17:56):
on our staff and our team.But essentially we've only been in business for
a couple of years, so youknow, we haven't been making choose for
a hundred years. You know,raising capital is always a burning question because
we know we'd be raising money forfor some time until we get to a
really good volume state with our factoriesand our product and of course sales naturally

(18:18):
matches that, and then saying consistentwith our messaging. And then lastly would
be the the ever changing employment marketof just getting good staff talent that you
know that are part of our mission. Yeah, I think everybody's struggling with
that. I think every uh,every podcast that I do is that the

(18:38):
labor thing comes up. Absolutely,that's a tough one. So to wrap
things up, you know, isthere anything else you'd like our listeners should
know about you and may Plus.Yeah, we're open for business. Uh,
We're excited to get in the communityand we'll be out at some sniffing
events in the upcoming fall, beginningwith the Napolis Bow Show. Great,

(19:02):
please come out and meet us.You can also business at made plus dot
com or follows on Instagram at madeplus dot us. But yeah, we're
really excited to be here to bepart of this, uh this interview and
and really make a difference with ourproducts. Yeah, well, thank you

(19:23):
so much y'all. And it wasit was great learning more about mad Plus.
And I'm excited for the future andseeing where you where you guys go
and I look forward to getting thepair myself. Thank you so much for
the interview and thanks for your timeto appreciate what's good talking with you.
Thank you again, John, andlook forward to working with you in the
future. This has been iHeartMedia.Us CEOs you should know