Sourcing Manager

FutureStitch; San Clemente (CA); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

FutureStitch is seeking a Sourcing Manager to own materials and manufacturing sourcing, building a scalable supply chain from first sample to production. You’ll source yarns, knits, wovens, trims, and recycled inputs, and manage supplier relationships across Asia and domestic partners, including our Oceanside facility.

You’ll collaborate with design and product teams to define materials, run cost models, and optimize lead times, pricing, and certifications while ensuring compliance and quality

Qualifications

• 3+ years in materials sourcing, development, or supply chain within apparel, footwear, or soft goods.
• Deep, demonstrable textile and materials knowledge — fiber, yarn, fabric construction, knit and woven structure.
• Experience taking a material from first sample to established, repeatable supply.
• Established mill and supplier relationships; ability to build new ones from nothing.
• Direct experience managing overseas partners; Asia required, Central America or domestic a plus.
• Costing and negotiation experience across both materials and finished goods.
• Working knowledge of trade compliance and material certification standards.
• Strong Excel — cost models, scenario comparisons, and sourcing trackers you built yourself.
• Knit experience is a significant advantage.

Responsibilities

• Find and qualify sources for yarns, knits, wovens, trims and hardware, reclaimed inputs, and industrial or non-apparel materials.
• Build the supply chain behind a new material: confirm capability and capacity, establish minimums, lead times, pricing and terms.
• Partner with design and product development while a material is still defined—feasibility input and cost reality in the conversation.
• Assess whether a material can be made at volume—consistency, capacity, minimums, and cost at scale.
• Coordinate material testing with suppliers and labs, ensure timely results to the team.
• Build and maintain material and supplier master data: composition, source, pricing, minimums, lead times, certifications.
• Source reclaimed, recycled, and regenerative inputs in support of Seconds goals.
• Identify, evaluate, and onboard new factory partners across Asia, Central America, and domestic.

Skills

Materials sourcing

Textile knowledge

Material development

Unusual substrates

Supplier relationships

Overseas partnerships

Costing & negotiation

Trade compliance

Excel skills

Knit experience

Tools

RFQ processes

Cost modeling

Job description

FutureStitch is a fully vertical knit manufacturer. We design and build product for the brands people know — and increasingly, for ourselves. We own the machines, the factory floors, and the process end to end, which means the distance between an idea and a real, finished product is shorter here than almost anywhere else in the industry.

We are building a company where product is made with intent: better construction, less waste, and a point of view about what deserves to exist. That work runs across our licensed programs with New Balance and the NFL, our B2B partnership with FootJoy, our domestic manufacturing facility in Oceanside, and SECONDS — our own regenerative design collective.

THE ROLE

We’re looking for a Sourcing Manager to own materials and manufacturing sourcing for FutureStitch — finding the right sources for what we’re making, and building the supply chain that gets those materials from a first sample to reliable, repeatable production. Materials are the center of this role. Our teams develop the material; you make it possible — you find who can make it, prove they can make it consistently, and put the commercial terms, timing, and supply behind it. You’ll be in the conversation early, when a material is still being defined, bringing supplier options and a real read on what is feasible before the direction is locked.

What we source goes well beyond knit. Knits and yarns are our foundation, but the work also spans wovens, trims and hardware, reclaimed and recycled inputs, and industrial and non-apparel materials that don’t come with an existing supplier list. We want someone whose textile and materials knowledge is deep enough at the fundamentals — fiber, structure, construction, finish, performance — that it travels across all of it, and who is comfortable sourcing something they haven’t sourced before. Alongside materials, you’ll manage our finished-goods factory partners across Vietnam, China, Mexico, and our own domestic floor in Oceanside, and help us expand into new regions.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

Materials Sourcing & Supply Chain

• Find and qualify sources for the materials our teams are developing — yarns and knits, wovens, trims and hardware, reclaimed and recycled inputs, and industrial or non-traditional materials
• Build the supply chain behind a new material: confirm capability and capacity, establish minimums, lead times, pricing and terms, and carry it through to repeatable supply
• Partner with design and product development while a material is still being defined — bringing supplier options, feasibility input, and cost reality into the conversation early
• Assess whether a material can be made at volume — consistency, capacity, minimums, and cost at scale
• Coordinate material testing with suppliers and labs, and make sure results get back to the team in a timely manner
• Build and maintain material and supplier master data: composition, source, pricing, minimums, lead times, and certifications
• Source reclaimed, recycled, and regenerative inputs — including materials with no established supply chain behind them — in support of our Seconds goals

Factory Sourcing & Regional Footprint

• Identify, evaluate, and onboard new factory partners across Asia, Central America, and domestic — socks, apparel, base layer, and accessories
• Maintain a supplier scorecard covering capability, capacity, quality history, compliance standing, minimums, and responsiveness
• Run factory visits and capability assessments, and come back with a clear point of view
• Model duty, tariff, and trade-agreement exposure by origin and destination market
• Run the RFQ and quoting process for both materials and finished goods
• Build and maintain landed cost models covering material, FOB, freight, duty, and tooling
• Negotiate pricing, minimums, payment terms, and cost reduction programs
• Build margin bridges that separate cost reduction, price change, and mix so the team can see what moved
• Support target costing at the front of development, so material choices are made with the cost picture in view

Compliance & Traceability

Ensure material and factory partners meet customer audit standards and track certifications — GRS, OEKO-TEX, bluesign, and equivalents — across the material and supplier base.

WHO YOU ARE

• Deep in Materials — you can hold a yarn, a fabric, or a component and speak to composition, construction, hand, performance — and you know why one option works where another won’t
• Comfortable Outside the Catalog — when there’s no existing supplier list, you go find one — cold outreach, trade shows, adjacent industries, whatever it takes
• Fluent in the Supplier Conversation — you know enough about how things are made to ask a mill or a manufacturer the right question and read the answer
• Organized Across Many Open Threads — dozens of sourcing efforts across multiple suppliers and time zones
• A Translator — you can turn an abstract creative direction into a material spec, and turn a supplier constraint into a design conversation
• Persistent With Follow-Up — an unanswered email overseas doesn’t sit for a week; you close the loop and keep the calendar honest

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• 3+ years in materials sourcing, development, or supply chain within apparel, footwear, or soft goods
• Deep, demonstrable textile and materials knowledge — fiber, yarn and fabric construction, knit and woven structure, dyeing, finishing, and performance testing
• Experience taking a material from first sample to established, repeatable supply
• Track record sourcing materials outside a standard category — unusual substrates, reclaimed inputs, or industrial and non-apparel suppliers
• Established mill and supplier relationships, and experience building new ones from nothing
• Direct experience managing overseas partners; Asia required, Central America or domestic a plus
• Costing and negotiation experience across both materials and finished goods
• Working knowledge of trade compliance and material certification standards
• Strong Excel — cost models, scenario comparisons, and sourcing trackers you built yourself
• Knit experience is a significant advantage — circular knit, seamless, base layer, or socks
• A textile or materials science background is welcome but not required if the experience is there

THE DETAILS

Full-time, Hybrid — San Clemente, CA, with regular time at our Oceanside manufacturing facility with international travel to mills and factory partners. Salary range is $85-100K based on experience and skill set.