Katherine Homuth once gleaned this nugget of wisdom from a podcast: Improving a company by 5% a year causes everything to break internally. “And when you’re trying to grow like us—100%-plus every year—you break everything all the time,” she says.

Homuth is founder and CEO of Sheertex Holdings Corp., which is trying to break a lot of things with its flagship product: unbreakable sheer pantyhose. They’re not made from nylon, but rather the same tough polymer used in bulletproof vests and climbing gear. Sheertex’s revenues were US$5.6 million in 2019, US$11.8 million in 2020 and US$26.8 million in 2021. The forecast for 2022 is to more than double sales again.

So what’s breaking right now? “The way we operate this part of the warehouse will break this summer,” says vice-president of operations Gordon Hensley during a visit to Sheertex’s headquarters in Montreal’s Saint-Michel neighborhood. He’s pointing at a second-floor space stacked with boxes of product, ready to ship. It’s as full as it was during the peak season in October.

“The space for raw materials is currently breaking,” chimes in chief operating officer Zak Homuth, the CEO’s husband, adding: “Knitting is going to break soon.” The company has 96 machines on order to bolster the 116 already in operation one floor below. The 60-person head-office part of the building is full, and Sheertex is hiring, “so we’ve currently broken that,” says Katherine. The studio near reception—where at this very moment a model in the company’s signature sheer black tights is posing for photos that will likely end up in one of the company’s ubiquitous Instagram ads—is booked solid. The parking situation, adds Zak, “is painful.” He needs to…