Found Surface scales textile manufacturing with Katana

From chaos to clarity in custom apparel production

Cleveland-based Found Surface is redefining what modern textile production looks like in the United States by blending heritage cut-and-sew craftsmanship with advanced German knitting technology. Specializing in small-batch custom garment production, Found Surface partners with emerging brands to bring their apparel visions to life through a fully managed design-to-production pipeline.  

The challenge: no system, no structure, and $40K in forgotten inventory 

When Gianmarco Rinaldi joined Found Surface as Director of Business Development, the company was transitioning from a fashion brand to a full-service manufacturing operation. What he found was promising potential — and a lack of processes and systems that was holding back growth. 

• No inventory management or manufacturing system 
• No visibility into materials or finished goods 
• No structured quoting or sampling process 
• No central source of truth for production workflows 

The team was managing critical operations manually, leaving tens of thousands of dollars in raw material sitting unused. With expansion on the horizon — including a move to a 20,000 sq. ft. facility and a multi-million-dollar investment in new machinery — Found Surface needed a reliable, scalable system to serve as its operational backbone.

Katana quickly became the solution that allowed Found Surface to organize operations, support growth, and unlock $40,000 worth of misplaced materials — all while laying the foundation for their 5× scale-up. 

The solution: a unified platform with flexibility and depth 

Found Surface chose Katana for its intuitive interface, flexible manufacturing flows, and seamless integrations — especially with Shopify and QuickBooks Online. Within weeks, with the help of Katana’s onboarding service, they transitioned from a fragmented workflow to a fully connected operation.

Why Katana? 

• Full-stack production management: From quoting to sampling to full production 
• Streamlined sales order management: Sales from all channels are automatically reflected in Katana, triggering the right manufacturing workflows. 
• Shopify and QuickBooks Integrations: Streamlined order to cash process  
• Material tracking: Raw materials linked to specific customers and orders 
• Guided onboarding: Katana’s onboarding team made the transition easy, ensuring the platform was configured in the right way and that users were comfortable running it.   

A great onboarding experience led to successful implementation

Gianmarco’s aha moment with Katana came when he started working with the onboarding team to get things up and running. “Yeah, it was your onboarding phase. Any time I sent an email or made a call, I got someone immediately. They were fast, and it just worked. With other providers, a lot of times you pay all this money for onboarding, and it’s a joke — but Katana’s support team knew the product inside out. That’s when I realized we made the right decision.” 

Results: operational control and a foundation for growth 

Since implementing Katana, Found Surface has gained immediate visibility into its inventory, workflows, and customer projects — laying the groundwork for rapid scaling. While the team is still in the development-heavy phase, the benefits are already measurable. 

Business Impact 

• $40,000+ in recovered inventory during onboarding 
• Real-time visibility enables quicker decision-making and quoting 
• Streamlined sampling-to-production pipeline cuts down manual work 

Katana streamlines operations and provides real-time insights, empowering Rehmann to deliver more valuable financial guidance to its clients. With greater visibility and automation, businesses can optimize their purchasing, production planning, and financial strategy, allowing them to scale efficiently and sustainably.

What’s next: a bigger facility, more machines, and Katana at the core 

With a new 20,000 sq. ft. facility launching soon and 42 new sewing machines on order, Found Surface is preparing for serious growth. Katana will continue to support the company’s increasingly complex production workflows and expansion.