In brief
An apparel tech pack tells a factory how to make a garment. A good one includes flat sketches, a measurement spec with tolerances and measuring method, a bill of materials, construction details, colorways and label and packaging instructions, all under clear version control. SBS Fashion starts from your brand, your customer and your line, and translates them into a brief the supply chain can execute.
What happens when a tech pack goes quiet
A tech pack is read by people who weren’t in your design meeting, often in a second language and usually in a hurry. Wherever it says nothing, someone will make a decision, and that person’s priorities are reasonable and different from yours. An unspecified seam gets the construction that runs best on that line. An unspecified thread gets whatever is on the rack. Nobody has been careless. They were asked to make a garment and you didn’t say.
Most tech packs have a sketch and a list of measurements. The weaknesses are elsewhere.
Measuring method
This is the most common gap. A chest could be measured one inch below the armhole or at the underarm seam, flat or in the round, buttoned or open. Define every point of measure with a diagram and state the tolerance for each, or two honest people will get two different numbers and each will think the other is wrong.
Bill of materials
List the fabric by article, composition, weight and supplier, then every trim: thread, buttons, zips, interlining, elastic, labels, hangtags and polybags. Give color references against a named standard, such as a Pantone number. If a supplier is nominated, say so.
Construction
Specify seam types, stitches per inch, where the bartacks go, what is bound and what is overlocked. “Standard” means whatever that line sewed last. Drawings with callouts travel better than paragraphs, particularly across languages, and a photograph of the inside of a garment you admire says a lot.
Grading
A measurement chart for one size is not a spec. State the base size, the size range and the grade rule at each point of measure, and say which measurements change and which stay fixed. Collars, pockets and zip lengths shouldn’t always grow at the same rate as the body, and a factory left to its own judgment will apply the simplest rule. If the range is wide, you may need more than one base. A rule that works from a medium rarely holds as far as a 3XL.
Labels and packaging
These get left until last and cause the most panic. The requirements differ across the US, Canada and Mexico, and labels run on a trim calendar of their own.
Version control
Give each tech pack a version number and a date, send changes as revisions, and never bury a change halfway down an email. Keep a running list of what changed and when. When a bulk order comes out wrong, the first question is which version the factory had. The answer decides who is paying.
Send a garment as well
When a bulk order comes out wrong, the first question is which version the factory had.
Factories trust physical references, and they are right to. If you have a garment whose fit or hand you want, send it and mark it up. A tech pack says what to do, and a reference sample shows what you mean by it.
Have it read before it goes out
Give it to someone who wasn’t involved in the design and ask them to describe the garment back to you, from the inside seams outward. Anything they have to guess at, a factory will guess at too. A freelance technical designer will do this for a modest fee.
