What is a tech pack? A plain-English guide

They are two stages of the same document. Most products start as a brief and grow into a tech pack during sampling.

You need a full tech pack when you are doing cut and sew or a custom product: your own pattern, fabric, trims or construction. You need less when you are decorating a blank. A blank already has fixed sizing and construction, so a decoration spec (placement, size, method, colors) plus label and packaging details usually does the job. Private label sits in between: you're changing an existing style, so you specify the changes precisely.

Formats vary, but a complete apparel tech pack covers ten things:

1. 01Cover sheet: style name and number, season, revision and date, stage, size range, sample size, contacts.
2. 02Flats and callouts: front, back and detail line drawings with numbered callouts. Technical drawings, not mood photos.
3. 03Bill of materials (BOM): every component, from shell fabric to thread, labels, trims and packaging, with content, weight, color and supplier.
4. 04Colorways: each color version, with a color reference for every component.
5. 05Points of measure and grading: how each measurement is taken, the target in every size and the tolerance.
6. 06Construction: seam types, stitch density, reinforcement and finishing.
7. 07Artwork and decoration: placement measured from a fixed point, size, method and file name.
8. 08Labels, packaging and cartons: care label content, folding, bags, barcodes, carton quantities and marks.
9. 09Quality and testing: wash tests, shrinkage limits and the sample bulk must match.
10. 10Revision log: every change, dated, so nobody builds from an old version.

Hard goods follow the same idea with different sheets: CAD drawings instead of flats, dimensions and tolerances instead of size grading, and material, finish and function specs. Our free tech pack template lays out all ten sheets with a filled example.

The measurement sheet is where most first tech packs fall short. It needs three things for every point of measure:

• How to measure it. "Chest" isn't enough. "Chest width, laid flat, 2.5cm below the armhole, side seam to side seam" is.
• The target in every size. You set the sample size from a fit you like, then grade up and down in steps.
• The tolerance. How far off a measurement can be and still pass. "About 10cm" is not a tolerance. "10cm, plus or minus 0.5cm" is.

Here's what a filled points-of-measure table looks like for a slightly cropped hoodie:

You can make a workable first tech pack yourself. Here's the order we'd do it in:

1. 01Start from your brief. The use, the customer, the target cost and the quantities don't change; the tech pack adds the how.
2. 02Measure a garment you like. If you have a reference with the fit you want, measure it flat and use it as your sample-size starting point. Note what you'd change.
3. 03Draw the flats. Illustrator is the standard. A technical designer can do this quickly if you can't, from your references and sketches.
4. 04List every component in the BOM. Walk through the garment from the outside in: fabric, rib, thread, labels, trims, hardware, packaging. If it's in the box, it's in the BOM.
5. 05Specify construction where it matters. You don't need to name every seam on a basic tee. You do on pockets, closures and anything that takes stress.
6. 06Place the artwork. Measure from fixed points like the high point of the shoulder or center front, give maximum sizes, name the method and the file.
7. 07Add labels and packaging. Care label content, folding, bagging, barcodes, cartons. These get forgotten and cause delays.
8. 08Version it. Put a revision letter and date on every page. When a sample changes the spec, update the tech pack and the revision.

If you don't want to draw flats and grade sizes yourself, hire a technical designer. Freelance marketplaces and design studios offer tech pack work, and some development-friendly factories and agents will build one as part of sampling.

Whoever makes it, ask for:

• Editable source files (Illustrator for flats, a spreadsheet for the BOM and measurements), not just a PDF
• Clear ownership: you own the files and the design
• Measurements with tolerances for every point of measure, in every size
• A revision log you can keep updating
• A paid test on one style before a whole collection

Our course includes a database of vetted tech pack designers, but the checklist above applies wherever you find one.

These are the ones we see most:

• Mood photos instead of flats. Factories see "make it like this photo" every day. Annotate references, and draw what you want.
• No tolerances. Without them, every measurement is an argument.
• Mixed units. Pick centimeters or inches and stick to it.
• Missing the small parts. Thread color, label placement, the polybag. Each one left out becomes the factory's choice.
• No revision control. Two versions in two inboxes means bulk gets built from the wrong one.
• Not updating after samples. The approved sample changed the spec; the tech pack has to change with it.
• Asking for a copy. "Exactly like Brand X" is not a spec, and it's not a business. Name the features you want and build your own combination.