At Bridge & Stitch, we know that the journey from concept to finished garment involves many crucial steps, and one of the most important is the tech pack. Our expertise ensures that your designs are translated seamlessly into high-quality, production-ready garments.
What is a Tech Pack?
A tech pack is a comprehensive blueprint for your garment—a detailed document that provides manufacturers and suppliers with all the specifications they need to bring your design to life. It includes technical drawings, materials, colours, sizing information, and construction details. Essentially, it’s an instruction manual that minimises miscommunication and ensures consistency throughout the production process.
Benefits of Using a Tech Pack
- Saves time and money by reducing errors during sampling and production
- Improves fit quality and acts as a reference for quality control
- Enhances collaboration between designers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders
Why is a Tech Pack Important?
Translating a design from concept to reality can be challenging without a tech pack. Even the best manufacturers need precise guidance to achieve the correct look, fit, and feel. A well-structured tech pack:
- Ensures accurate garment construction
- Saves time and money by reducing errors during sampling and production.
- Acts as a contractual reference for quality control
- Helps maintain consistency across multiple production runs
Components of a Tech Pack
Technical Drawings
Front and back views with detailed close-ups of key features
Design Specification Sheets
Outlining garment construction, key features, overview of sizing breakdown and components
Points of Measure (POM)
Critical for ensuring correct fit and proportion
Sizing Charts & Grading Sheets
Defining size variations for different customer profiles
Colour References & Fabric Composition
Specifying materials, textures, and finishes
Prints, Logos & Labels
Ensuring branding elements are correctly placed and proportioned
Packaging Instructions
Guidelines on how the final product should be presented and shipped
What Do We Need From Clients to Develop a Tech Pack?
Often the client has been through an initial stage of visualisation independently if they have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. They may approach us with:
- Mood boards—featuring colours they like, current styles that stand out to them, visuals of the fit of the garment they are trying to create, and/or close-ups of key features they like. In the past, we have found clients use methods such as sketchbooks, PowerPoint, Canva, and Pinterest, to name a few.
- Sketches — of the ideas they have. We are happy to receive anything from stick men through to detailed CAD sketches.
- Sample garments — as a starting point for developing their design. It is common practice that the client has a garment they are happy with the fit of, for instance, that needs just a few tweaks, which they would like us to use as a starting point for their measurements. Having a starting point for measurements, a reference to fabric you like, or a visual guide of a specific feature you are trying to achieve, can be really helpful in speeding up the process.
How to Create a Tech Pack
Our Tech Pack Case Studies
Find out how we helped Smoc Smoc, a family business and global ethical brand, develop their eco-friendly smoc change robes.
Tech Pack FAQs
Do I need a tech pack if I already have sketches?
Yes! Sketches inspire, but a tech pack ensures accurate execution and production consistency.
Can I make changes after the tech pack is completed?
Small adjustments are included, but significant revisions may incur additional charges. We’ll always discuss these with you beforehand.
Can I use the same tech pack for different manufacturers?
Absolutely. A properly structured tech pack is universal and can be used across multiple production partners.
Do I need a tech pack to start clothing production?
Yes, without one there will likely be discrepancies during the process. The tech pack acts as a quality control document as you track your garment through sampling, size sets and production. It also acts as a contract between client and factory, as it sets the standard expected in production and can therefore be referred to if quality does not meet the outlined expectations.
What should be included in a tech pack?
A tech pack should include:
- Name and or code of the style
- Brand name/logo
- Copyright symbol to help protect design
- Date that the style was started
- 2D flat CAD drawing of the front and back of the garment, and any close-ups as required.
- Construction details of the garment such as types of seams, hems and any features.
- Types of stitch required where necessary.
- Fabric quality/composition and weight
- Trim details
- The range of sizes in the style
- Colours, preferably specified in pantone reference
- Colourway sheets
- Pictures where necessary to visualise key details
- Label artwork as required
- Embellishment artwork as required
- Trim artwork as required
- Packaging artwork as required
- Master garment size for sampling
- Sizing chart with breakdown of increments between size grades.
- Accepted tolerances should be included.
- Quality control pages to track garment changes and comments through multiple rounds of sampling, size charts and production
How much does it cost to create a tech pack?
Tech packs are quoted per design and vary in cost depending on the complexity of the style and the number of elements on the garment. A basic plain t-shirt for instance may take us 2.5 hours to do the design, construction, sizing, artwork for the brand label, care label, swing ticket however if the client then wants a front embroidery, a back print, a hem label and custom back neck tape, packaging these elements may add 2-3 hours to the time it takes to complete the tech pack. Our time for tech packs is charged per hour, so please get in touch for a bespoke quotation for your design.
How long does it take to create a tech pack?
It depends on our workload but we usually aim to have these completed within 1-2 weeks of receiving all information from the client.
Is the tech pack the only element used to develop a garment?
A tech pack is all you need to start the development of a garment. However, it is common practice that garment samples or quick mock-ups may be sent with a tech pack to the pattern cutter or factory as a reference for a specific aspect of the garment construction or fit, for example. This can speed up the process and reduce the number of sample rounds needed.
Industry Standards and Intellectual Property
At Bridge & Stitch, our tech packs are produced to industry standards, ensuring that your garments meet quality expectations. Upon completion, clients receive a PDF digital copy with full rights to use it for manufacturing worldwide. However, we retain the original raw files as part of our expertise and intellectual property protection. Our tech packs also include a copyright notice to help safeguard your designs from unauthorised replication.