Sasha, Alex, and Meatball in a field

How Meatball Started (And Why We're Obsessed)

A story about pet parents who built the tag they wished existed

How Meatball Started (And Why We're Obsessed)

In January 2025, we adopted our dog, Meatball. He's a French Bulldog with the biggest personality—and from day one, we were terrified of losing him.

We tried everything: basic ID tags (useless), microchips (only work at vets), and existing QR solutions (they shared our phone number with strangers and charged for features).

Nothing felt right.

So we did what slightly obsessed pet parents do: we bought a 3D printer and started making our own.

After months of testing and tweaking, Meatball was born.

Sasha, Alex, and Meatball together

The Problem We Couldn't Ignore

Expensive pet tags with zero customer support

Privacy concerns (sharing phone numbers with strangers)

No real-time way to reunite with lost pets

Big corporate brands with zero human touch

Why Choose Meatball

Before Meatball

  • Expensive pet tags
  • Privacy concerns
  • No real-time reunions
  • Corporate, impersonal

After Meatball

  • Affordable, transparent pricing
  • Privacy-first design
  • Instant reunions
  • Real human support

Why We Make Every Tag at Home (On a 3D Printer)

3D printer timelapse

Tag-making process timelapse

We could outsource production to a factory overseas. We could mass-produce tags and make more profit.

But we don't.

Instead, every Meatball tag is 3D-printed and hand-checked in our UK workshop. Here's why:

Better quality control — We inspect every single tag
Faster replacements — We make them on demand
Real human support — We're not hiding behind a corporation
We stand behind our product — Because we made it ourselves

It also means we can offer free lifetime replacements without going broke—because we're not wasting money on mass production and corporate overhead.

It's not the most efficient way to do business. But it's the right way.

What We Believe In

Privacy First

Your data is yours. We don't sell it, share it, or exploit it. Period.

Real Human Support

No chatbots. No automated responses. Just real people who care.

Quality Over Scale

We'd rather make 100 perfect tags than 10,000 mediocre ones.

UK-Made, UK-Proud

Every tag is made in the UK, by UK-based pet parents.

Pet-First

Everything we do is for one reason: to keep your pet safe and bring them home.

Meet the Humans Behind Meatball

Sasha

Sasha

Founder & Support

Handles customer support, app development, and keeps everything running smoothly. If you email us, there's a good chance Sasha will respond.

Alex

Alex

Founder & Production

Focuses on product design and production, ensuring every tag is handmade with care and meets our quality standards.

Meatball

Meatball

Chief Quality Tester

Our inspiration, our quality tester, and the reason this whole thing exists. French Bulldog with the biggest personality.

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