Mississippi startup brings military

Mississippi startup brings military-tested tech to footwear made in state

At 26, Paul Thomas had options.

A Hattiesburg native, Millsaps College graduate and recent Columbia Business School MBA, Thomas could have remained in New York, pursued opportunities with established companies or joined the growing list of young professionals building careers outside Mississippi. Instead, he chose to come home.

“The bottom line is Mississippi is home. I believe in it and how this business can build from here,” Thomas said. “We still have a ways to go, but we are on the right track, and I think others see the promise of our product and our state.”

Thomas' entrepreneurial journey began well before business school. While attending Millsaps College, he was involved with the ElseWorks School of Business, where he gained firsthand experience working with startups and entrepreneurship programs. The experience helped shape his interest in building companies and laid the groundwork for his eventual return to Mississippi as a founder.

From childhood friendship to business partnership

Today, Thomas is helping lead Numadx, a startup developing air-pressure-based insoles designed to reduce strain on people who spend long hours on their feet.

The company's foundation was established by Jeff Wiggins, a University of Southern Mississippi polymer science professor and former Nike executive who founded the company and developed the technology behind its products.

Before entering academia, Wiggins worked for Bayer and spent roughly a decade at Nike, where he became general manager of Nike's in-house manufacturing division and helped advance the company's air-cushioning technology. After moving to Mississippi, he continued researching pneumatic cushioning applications, including projects involving military helmets, ballistic protection equipment and combat boots.

The company also has personal roots for Thomas. Growing up in Hattiesburg, one of his closest childhood friends was Griffin Wiggins, Jeff Wiggins' son. Through that friendship, Thomas spent years around the Wiggins family and became one of the earliest people to test prototypes of the technology that would eventually become Numadx.

A longtime distance runner who has completed ultramarathons and 50-mile races, Thomas said he has worn nearly every major running shoe brand on the market. But when he first tried the pneumatic insole prototypes developed by Wiggins, he immediately noticed a difference.

“The first time I ever put this in my shoe, I was blown away,” Thomas said. “It looks simple, but the technology that's being developed with this product is sort of otherworldly, and you feel it from the moment that you step on it.”

Convinced the technology had commercial potential, Thomas approached Wiggins about building a company around it. Over the past two years, the pair have worked together to refine the product, conduct beta testing and lay the foundation for the business.

A different approach to cushioning

Unlike traditional foam insoles that compress and lose effectiveness over time, Numadx uses air pressure as a cushioning medium. Thomas said the technology allows the company to better match cushioning levels to a user's weight, movement patterns and activity levels.

“The easiest analogy that I always use is that there's a reason bike tires have different pressures in them than car tires or truck tires,” he said. “Your body is the same way.”

By adjusting air pressure, the company aims to reduce what scientists call ground reaction force, the impact transmitted through a person's feet, knees and back with every step.

Ultimately, Thomas believes the technology can support a future in which footwear cushioning is far more personalized than it is today.

Finding a market beyond runners

Although runners helped inspire the company's development, Thomas said beta testing revealed the strongest demand among workers whose jobs keep them on their feet throughout the day.

“The primary and predominant benefit that we're seeing from folks is in healthcare, trades, logistics, blue-collar guys, people that just spend a ton of time on their feet,” he said.

That insight helped shape Numadx's growth strategy as it moved from product development toward manufacturing.

Scaling through Mississippi manufacturing

The company recently leased a facility in Hattiesburg and is installing equipment as it prepares to expand production. Numadx is currently accepting preorders and expects manufacturing to ramp up in the coming months.

For Thomas, the company's growth strategy is closely tied to Mississippi. Rather than outsourcing production elsewhere, he plans to build manufacturing capacity in the state while growing a Mississippi-based workforce and leadership team.

“Our labor force will be all Mississippians,” Thomas said. “The executive team is coming from Mississippi as well.”

The company hopes to increase production volumes, expand direct-to-consumer sales and eventually pursue broader distribution as operations grow.

For Thomas, however, the venture represents more than an opportunity to bring a new product to market.

He believes Mississippi possesses untapped talent and resources that are too often overlooked by investors and entrepreneurs.

After earning degrees from Millsaps and Columbia, Thomas could have taken his career almost anywhere. Instead, he sees an opportunity to create jobs, build advanced manufacturing capacity and demonstrate that innovative companies can succeed in Mississippi.

Part of that belief stems from what he sees as the state's greatest opportunity: turning overlooked potential into economic growth.

As Numadx prepares to scale production, Thomas hopes the company will become an example of what can happen when entrepreneurs choose to invest in Mississippi rather than leave it behind.

“It's home,” Thomas said. “But it's also a combination of unrecognized, under-resourced and underdeveloped assets.”

Ross Reily is a writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.