What Is a Tech Pack? What to Include Before You Brief a Clothing Manufacturer

What a Tech Pack Is

A tech pack, short for technical package, is the document a clothing brand hands to a manufacturer to explain exactly what to make. It replaces the conversation you would otherwise have to hold across dozens of messages: what the garment looks like from every angle, what it is made of, how it is constructed, what every size measures, where the labels go, and how the finished piece is packed. A factory reads it to quote, to cut a sample, and later to check its own production against what was agreed.

It is worth being precise about what a tech pack is not. It is not a mood board, a sketch with a few notes, or a link to a similar product on a competitor's website. Those are useful references, and a good sourcing partner can work from them, but they leave the factory guessing. Every guess becomes a sample round, and every sample round in an overseas program costs at least a week of production time plus 5 to 7 days of courier transit each way. A complete tech pack is the cheapest way to shorten the path from brief to approved sample.

This guide explains what goes into a tech pack for clothing, how detailed it needs to be at each stage, how it differs from a spec sheet and a pattern, who makes it, and what to do if you do not have one yet. It is written for private label and DTC brands ordering a first or early production run of 300 to 5,000 units, whether from a factory you found yourself or through a sourcing partner such as SourceBridge, which works with clothing and home-textile manufacturers in Turkey.

Why a Tech Pack Matters More When You Source Overseas

A domestic sample room can walk over to your desk and ask what you meant. A factory in Istanbul, Dhaka or Guangzhou cannot. It works from the document, and where the document is silent it applies its own default: its usual stitch, its usual label position, its usual poly bag. Those defaults are rarely wrong in an absolute sense, but they are frequently not what you had in mind, and by the time you see the difference a sample has already been made and shipped.

Three consequences follow for buyers sourcing from Turkey or anywhere else outside their own country.

The Nine Sections of a Clothing Tech Pack

There is no single mandated format, and factories will accept a tech pack as a PDF, a spreadsheet, a slide deck or an export from tech pack software, as long as the content is complete and unambiguous. The sections below are what a manufacturer looks for. Cover them all, even briefly, and the factory can quote and sample without a follow-up call.

1. Cover Page and Style Summary

Style name and number, season or collection, the date and version number of the document, your brand contact, and a one-line description of the garment. Version control matters more than it looks: once samples start moving, both you and the factory need to know which revision of the tech pack a sample was cut from. A style number that appears on every page, every sample tag and every email subject line saves a surprising amount of confusion later.

2. Flat Sketches

Technical drawings of the garment from the front and the back, plus side or detail views wherever the construction is not obvious from the front. Flats are drawn without a body and without shading, so that seams, topstitching, pockets, closures and trims are visible and countable. A photograph of a similar garment is a helpful reference but does not replace a flat, because a photograph hides the back, the inside and the details you want changed.

Number each callout on the sketch and describe it in a legend: "1: 1 cm single-needle topstitch along neckline", "2: kangaroo pocket, bagged, 2 cm topstitch at opening". This is the part of the tech pack the sample room reads most closely.

3. Bill of Materials

A list of everything the garment is made of, with a specification for each line. For the main fabric that means fiber composition, construction (single jersey, French terry, 2x2 rib, twill and so on), weight in grams per square meter, finish, and colour with a Pantone or lab-dip reference. For trims it means thread, labels, zips, buttons, drawcords, eyelets, elastic and interlining, each with a size, material, colour and, where you have one, a supplier or reference code.

The bill of materials is where two things you care about are actually enforced. Certifications such as OEKO-TEX Standard 100 or GOTS attach to specific materials, so if your brand promise depends on them, write the requirement against the fabric line rather than mentioning it once in the brief. And Amazon or retailer packaging rules, such as a poly bag with a suffocation warning, are a bill-of-materials line as well.

4. Construction and Stitching Details

How the garment is put together: seam types, stitch types, stitches per inch or centimeter, seam allowances, where seams are overlocked, coverstitched or bound, hem depths, and any reinforcement such as bar tacks at pocket corners. If a detail is standard for the garment type you can say so, but say it. "Standard construction" without a reference invites the factory's default.

5. Measurement Specification and Grading

A table of points of measure for the base size, with a tolerance for each, and the grade rule that produces the other sizes. Typical points for a T-shirt are chest width, body length from high point shoulder, shoulder width, sleeve length, armhole depth, neck width, neck drop and hem width. For trousers they include waist, hip, thigh, front and back rise, inseam and leg opening.

State clearly which sizing system you are using. A US medium, a UK medium and a Turkish medium are not the same garment, and a factory that assumes its home market's convention will grade correctly to the wrong base. If you are selling on Amazon, your size chart in the listing and your measurement spec in the tech pack should come from the same table.

6. Colourways

Every colour combination the style will be produced in, with the body colour and each trim colour specified per colourway, ideally as a small table of component versus colourway. Minimum order quantities in Turkey are set per style and per colour, commonly 300 to 500 units per style-colour for basics, so the colourway page is also where your order structure becomes visible to the factory.

7. Labels, Branding and Decoration

Main label, size label, care and content label, hang tag and any woven or printed branding: the artwork for each, the material, the dimensions, and a placement diagram with the exact position and attachment method. Care and fiber-content labels are a legal requirement in the US and the wording must match the bill of materials.

For decoration, specify the method (screen print, DTG, embroidery, heat transfer, sublimation), the artwork file, the print size, the placement measured from a fixed point on the garment, the number of colours, and the ink or thread references. Decoration is a frequent source of sample rework because a logo that looks right on screen is often too large or too small on the body.

8. Packing and Shipping Instructions

How each unit is folded, bagged and labelled, what goes on the hang tag and the poly bag, the barcode or FNSKU placement, the carton size and the units per carton, and the carton marking. If the goods are going into Amazon FBA, the FNSKU label, the suffocation warning and the carton content limits are requirements rather than preferences, and the factory needs them in writing before production, not at the packing stage.

9. Sample Request and Approval Record

A short section stating which sample stage you are requesting, the quantity and sizes, the ship-to address, and a space to record comments and approvals per round. The proto sample tests the factory's reading of the tech pack; the fit sample tests the measurements on a body; the pre-production sample, made in production fabric, colours and labels, is the one whose approval commits both sides to the run. Recording each round against the tech pack version keeps the whole history in one document.

How Complete Does It Need to Be at Each Stage?

Not every stage needs the whole document, and asking for a fully finished tech pack before a first quote is one reason brands stall for months. A practical sequence for a first order is as follows.

The usual timeline in Turkey is 7 to 14 days per sample round in the factory plus 5 to 7 days by courier to the US, with two to three rounds before pre-production approval, followed by 4 to 8 weeks of production. A complete tech pack does not shorten the factory's time per round, but it very often removes a round.

Tech Pack, Spec Sheet, Pattern: What Each One Is

The three terms are used loosely, and clarity about them prevents a common misunderstanding with factories.

Who Makes the Tech Pack

Four options exist, and they are not mutually exclusive.

Whichever route you take, keep the tech pack in your own possession and in a format you can edit. It is a brand asset. A style that lives only in a factory's files is a style you cannot re-quote elsewhere.

Common Mistakes in First Tech Packs

The following come up repeatedly in tech packs from first-time buyers and are worth checking before the document is sent.

What to Send If You Do Not Have a Tech Pack Yet

A missing tech pack should not stop a first enquiry, and it is better to send a clear partial brief than to wait. What a manufacturer or a sourcing partner can work from is a reference garment or reference images with the changes you want marked, a fabric description at the level of fiber, construction and weight, the number of styles, colours and units, your target retail price or target unit cost, any certification or packaging requirement, and your delivery date. The guide on how to find a clothing manufacturer includes an enquiry template built on exactly these items, and the guide on clothing manufacturers for startups covers how to structure a first order so that it clears a factory's minimum.

From that brief, the tech pack gets built before the first sample rather than before the first conversation. Either you commission it, the factory develops it during sampling, or a partner develops it as part of the program. The step-by-step guide to launching a private label clothing brand from Turkey places this in the full sequence from product definition to shipped goods.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a tech pack and a spec sheet?

A spec sheet is the measurement section of a tech pack: the points of measure for the base size, the tolerances and the grade rules for other sizes. A tech pack contains the spec sheet plus everything else a factory needs, including flat sketches, the bill of materials, construction details, colourways, label and decoration placement, and packing instructions. Sending a spec sheet alone tells a factory what size to make, not how to make it or what from.

What is the difference between a pattern and a tech pack?

A pattern is the set of cut pieces, paper or digital, from which the fabric is cut, graded to each size. A tech pack is the document that describes the finished garment, from which the pattern is made. For a first order with an overseas factory, the factory's pattern maker usually produces the pattern from your tech pack during sampling; many domestic sample rooms expect you to bring a graded pattern with you. Ask which the factory expects before you send the brief.

Who uses tech packs?

Brands use them to brief manufacturers; factories use them to quote, to make patterns and samples, and to check production; technical designers write them; sourcing partners use them to get comparable quotes from several factories on the same basis; and quality inspectors use them, together with the approved pre-production sample, as the standard a finished order is measured against. Any brand ordering a custom garment, rather than decorating blanks, will need one at some stage.

How much should a tech pack cost?

There is no standard price. The cost of a tech pack made by a freelance technical designer depends on the complexity of the garment, the number of styles and colourways, whether grading is included, and how many revision rounds are covered, so any quote should state those four things. A simple T-shirt is a very different job from a lined jacket. Some factories and sourcing partners develop the tech pack as part of the sampling process instead of charging for it separately; SourceBridge does this from a brand's design references as part of its Turkey sourcing service.

Do I need a tech pack to get a quote from a manufacturer?

Not a complete one. For a first quote a factory needs the style, a sketch or reference images, the fabric specification, the decoration method, the number of styles and colours, the quantity per style-colour, any certification requirement and the delivery date. That is enough for a price, a minimum order quantity and a lead time. The full tech pack is needed before the pre-production sample and the production order, when every detail becomes binding.

Can a manufacturer make a tech pack for me?

Some can, particularly when they expect a production order, and they will build it from your reference garment or images during sampling. The document will then follow that factory's construction habits and available materials. That is efficient for that order but makes the style harder to move to another factory later, so ask for an editable copy and keep it. A sourcing partner can also develop the tech pack from your references so that the brief is complete before the first sample is cut.

What file format should a tech pack be in?

Any format the factory can open and you can edit: a PDF exported from a spreadsheet, a slide deck or a design tool is the most common, and tech pack software exports to PDF as well. Send artwork for prints, embroidery and labels as separate vector files in addition to the tech pack. Whatever the format, put the style number and the version number on every page, and keep the editable source file yourself.