What Is a Tech Pack? A Complete Guide for Fashion Brands

A tech pack (technical package) is the specification document for one garment design: technical sketches, measurements by size with tolerances, fabric and trim details, construction instructions, and artwork placement — everything a factory needs to price the garment accurately and manufacture it without guessing.

A tech pack is the single document a factory quotes from; an incomplete one is the most common cause of sampling delays and wrong quotes we see in our own operation. It is also the contract that protects you: when a delivered garment doesn't match the spec, the tech pack is what "doesn't match" means.

Why does a tech pack matter so much?

Three jobs, all of them expensive to do badly:

1. Accurate quoting. A factory prices labour by counting operations — every seam, hem, pocket, and print is a cost line. No spec means the quote is a guess, and guesses get revised upward after you're committed.
2. Manufacturing without improvisation. Whatever you don't specify, the factory decides — thread colour, seam type, neck tape, button attachment. Each improvised detail is usually resolved in favour of whatever is fastest to produce.
3. Quality control with teeth. Sampling and pre-shipment inspection both work by comparing garments against the spec. No spec, no objective standard, no recourse.

There's a fourth job people forget: the tech pack makes you finish designing. Most first-time founders discover their design is 80% done only when the document demands the missing 20%.

What goes in a tech pack?

Six core components:

1. Technical sketches (flats)

Flat, two-dimensional line drawings of the garment — front and back at minimum — with construction details called out with arrows and notes. Not fashion illustration; think engineering drawing. This is the page factories look at first.

2. Measurement specification

Every point of measure (chest, shoulder, sleeve length, neck width, and so on) for your base size, each with a tolerance — the acceptable variance, commonly ±0.5 to ±1 cm depending on the point. Tolerances matter: fabric is not sheet metal, and a spec without tolerances is either unenforceable or unmanufacturable.

3. Bill of materials (BOM)

The complete ingredient list: shell fabric (composition, weight in GSM — grams per square metre, the standard weight measure for both knit and woven fabrics), lining, threads, buttons, zippers, elastics, labels, hangtags. Each line carries its specification and placement. The BOM is also where per-piece cost visibility lives.

4. Construction details

How it's actually sewn: seam types, stitch classes, stitches-per-inch, hem finishes, reinforcement points. On a basic tee this is a handful of lines; on a jacket it's the bulk of the document.

5. Artwork and print placement

Print, embroidery, or applique artwork at real scale, with position measured from fixed reference points ("28 cm from HPS" — high point shoulder), colour codes, and the technique specified (screen print, DTG, embroidery).

6. Size grading

How each measurement changes per size — the grade rules that turn your base-size spec into an S-to-XXL size set. Grading errors are the classic source of "the M fits but the XL is weird" reviews. If you're building for both Indian and international customers, decide your size chart deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the factory uses.

Common additions: colourway pages, packaging and folding instructions, and a wash-care specification.

Who makes the tech pack?

Three realistic routes:

Route	Cost	Right when
DIY (templates + spreadsheet)	Time	You know garments and have one or two simple styles
Freelance fashion technologist	~₹3,000–15,000+ per style	Complex constructions, or you want it done right the first time
Guided builder software	Low to moderate	You want structure and completeness checks without hiring

We're biased on the third route — SampleKaro's platform includes a guided tech pack builder precisely because incomplete specs were the #1 problem in orders coming to us — but any route that produces a complete document works. What doesn't work is a mood board and a WhatsApp voice note.

If you're at the very start of this journey, the tech pack is step three of the full sequence — see our complete guide to starting a clothing brand in India.

What happens if you skip it?

The failure sequence is predictable enough that we can narrate it:

1. You send a reference photo and a verbal description. The factory quotes low — they've priced their easiest interpretation.
2. The first sample arrives wrong in ways you never specified: different neck, lighter fabric, print too small. Technically, nothing was violated — nothing was written.
3. You correct by chat, a round at a time. Each round costs 1–2 weeks. Your 4–6 week sampling timeline doubles.
4. In bulk, ambiguities you never caught in the sample surface at quantity, and you have no spec to inspect against.

The tech pack doesn't eliminate sampling rounds — it collapses them from "discovering what you want" to "refining how it's made." That difference is usually a month and a relationship.

What does "good" look like?

A quick self-test for any tech pack, whoever made it:

• Could a stranger price this without calling you? (No unstated decisions.)
• Does every measurement have a tolerance?
• Does the BOM name compositions and weights, not just "good cotton"?
• Is artwork positioned from fixed reference points, at scale, with colour codes?
• Do grading rules exist for every size you're selling?

Five yeses and you're ready to find a manufacturer and get quotes worth comparing.

Have a design and want the spec done properly? Upload it — or build it in our guided builder — and we'll review it before it ever reaches a factory: get started.