What Is a Tech Pack? A Beginner's Guide for Clothing Brands

A tech pack is the blueprint for your garment: one document that tells a manufacturer precisely how to make it. That is the whole meaning of the term, and there is nothing more technical hiding behind it. It removes guesswork, so the sample comes back closer to what is in your head, and bulk matches the sample.

You will see the same document called several things, and they all mean this. Tech pack is short for technical package; British brands and UK factories more often say technical pack, and you will see techpack written as one word and spec sheet used interchangeably. If a supplier asks for your technical packages for a range, they mean one of these per style. None of it signals a different or more formal document — only a different habit.

What goes into a tech pack

• Technical sketches, usually called flat sketches or CADs — front and back, with callouts.
• Measurements — a size chart with key points of measure and grading across sizes.
• Materials — fabric type, weight (GSM), and composition.
• Trims and components — labels, drawcords, zips, threads.
• Colours — with reference codes (e.g. Pantone) where possible.
• Construction details — stitch types, seam finishes, print or embroidery placement.
• Branding — where labels, tags, and packaging go.

Do you need one to get a quote?

No. This trips up a lot of first-time founders. A sketch, a reference photo, or a clear paragraph is enough for a good manufacturer to come back with fabric options and an indicative price. The tech pack gets built and refined during sampling — and a strong partner will help you create one.

For what it's worth, from our side of the table: when a tech pack (or even a rough sketch) lands with us, the first things we check are the ones that most affect fit and cost — the fabric weight in GSM, the points of measure, and the trims. Get those three clear and we can usually turn a first sample around in about ten days. If they're not nailed down yet, that's completely normal — we fill the gaps together during sampling, and because we make from 100 pieces per style, you can start small while you learn.

That is the optimistic version, and it is genuinely how most first orders go. But it is worth knowing where the cost of a thin tech pack actually lands, because it is not drama — it is rounds. Every field left open is a decision somebody has to make without you, and if it gets made differently from what you pictured, the correction happens in the next sample rather than this one. One or two extra rounds is a few more weeks and a few more couriers, which is undramatic enough to be easy to underestimate. That is the whole reason the three fields above are worth an afternoon of your time now rather than a revision later.

You don't need a finished tech pack to start. You need a clear idea and a manufacturer willing to help you shape it.

What a factory does with each page

A tech pack can feel like paperwork for its own sake until you see how it is used. Different people on the floor read different pages, which is why completeness matters more than polish.

• The sketch and construction notes go to the pattern maker, who turns them into the pieces the garment is cut from.
• The measurement chart goes to the sample room and later to QC, who check finished garments against it.
• The bill of materials goes to sourcing, who buy your fabric, thread, labels and trims — usually weeks before sewing begins.
• The artwork and placement page goes to the print or embroidery unit.
• The label and packing page goes to finishing, and it is the page most often missing, which is why orders sit completed but unshipped.

The fields most first tech packs leave out

You do not need a professional document to start — but these omissions cause real delays, and all of them are quick to fix.

Fabric weight in GSM, not just fibre. Thread colour, which is assumed to be obvious and frequently is not. Which measurements are critical versus which can vary within tolerance. Care-label wording, based on your own wash test rather than the mill’s generic advice. And the packing specification: folded or hanging, polybagged individually or in cartons, how many per carton. That last one holds up more finished orders than any construction detail.

If you have none of this, send a reference garment instead. A factory can measure a physical t-shirt and build the spec from it, which is usually faster than a founder guessing at numbers.

Tech pack, spec sheet, BOM: which is which

These four words get used interchangeably and they do not mean the same thing. Knowing which one a factory is asking for saves a round of confused emails.

Do you need a separate one for every style?

One tech pack per style, yes. Colourways — colorways, if you or your supplier spell it the American way — do not each need their own — a single pack can carry a colour page listing every variant, with the Pantone reference and the matching thread and label for each. Sizes work the same way: one graded measurement chart covering the full run, not a document per size.

Where new brands over-produce documents is by writing a fresh pack for a style that is really a small edit of an existing one. A long-sleeve version of a tee you already make is a note on the existing pack, not a new project. Factories would far rather receive one pack marked up with changes than two nearly identical files, because near-identical files are how the wrong version reaches the cutting table.

How to make a simple tech pack

• Start from a reference garment you like and note what to change.
• Sketch front and back (even by hand) and label the key features.
• List fabric, weight, colours, and trims as specifically as you can.
• Add your measurements, or ask your manufacturer for a base size chart to adjust.
• Keep it in one shareable file (a PDF or a Google Doc link works).

If you would rather not start from a blank page, our tech pack checklist walks through each section and says what goes wrong when it is left empty, and the free tech pack template gives you the document itself — no sign-up, no email wall. We are a clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh making cut-and-sew knitwear from a 100-piece minimum, so a first tech pack does not have to carry a large order behind it. Or send us your sketch or a reference garment and we will help turn it into a proper spec: start here, or read how to start a brand with 100 pieces.