Tech pack template

1. Cover and revision control

One page, and the most-skipped page in the document. It exists so that the copy taped above the cutting table can be checked against the copy in your inbox.

Identity

Style name, style number, season or drop, category

Scope

Size range, colourway count, intended market

Version

Revision number, revision date, what changed

People

Brand contact, factory, date issued

The "what changed" line costs one sentence and saves a phone call on every revision. Without it, a factory receiving revision 4 has to diff it against revision 3 by eye.

2. Technical flat drawings

Proportional line drawings — front and back at minimum, plus a view for anything not visible from either. No shading, no model, no fabric texture, no styling.

• Front and back, to the same scale, with every seam, topstitch line and closure drawn.
• Detail views at larger scale for pockets, closures, cuffs, collars, attachment points.
• Interior views where lining, pocket bags or internal construction exist.
• Callout leaders numbered to match the construction section, so every annotation has a target.

3. Points of measure

The section people picture when they picture a tech pack. Four columns are mandatory and two of them are the ones most templates omit.

A worked example of the finished table, with method and tolerance columns in place, is in what is a tech pack.

4. Bill of materials

Every component that arrives at the factory as a separate purchase. The BOM is what the quote is built from, so a component missing here is a component missing from the price — and it reappears later as an increase you have no grounds to challenge.

5. Construction and assembly callouts

Numbered annotations pointing at the flat. For sewn goods: seam types, stitch class and density, edge finishes, topstitch distances, reinforcement at stress points. For assembled goods: assembly sequence, fastener schedule, torque or adhesive requirements.

The rule that matters here — specify the outcome and the tolerance, not the method. Dictating a technique the factory's equipment cannot hold gets it silently ignored or priced as a special operation.

6. Colourways and colour standards

One block per colourway, and within each, a colour called out per component rather than per product. The same reference on cotton and on polyester will not match, which is exactly why it is specified per material.

• Colourway name and code.
• Each component, with its colour reference standard — physical or numbered, not a hex value.
• Which components deliberately contrast, so a matched set is not "corrected" into one colour.
• Lab dip and strike-off approval requirement, if you want one before bulk.

7. Artwork and print placement

Skipped entirely by templates aimed at blank product, and then improvised badly when artwork appears.

• The artwork file itself, at production resolution, named and versioned.
• Placement measured from a named point — "3 inches below the high point shoulder, centred" — never "centre chest".
• Finished dimensions of the printed or embroidered area, per size if it scales.
• Method — screen print, DTG, sublimation, embroidery, heat transfer, woven patch — with colour count for screen and stitch count for embroidery, both of which drive price.
• Underbase and hand feel requirements where the method allows a choice.

8. Labels and branding

Every label gets artwork, dimensions, placement measured from a named point, and attachment method. "Neck label" is not a specification; "neck label, centred, 1 inch below the neckline seam, sewn on all four sides" is.

• Main or brand label.
• Care label, with the care symbols and wash instructions as final copy.
• Size label.
• Fibre content and country-of-origin copy, which in most markets is a legal requirement rather than a branding choice.
• Hangtag, tag attachment method, and where it attaches.

9. Packaging and shipping marks

The section left until it is urgent. A retailer that receives goods folded differently from the way its planogram assumes will charge you for it, and the chargeback will exceed what the section cost to write.

• Fold method, with a diagram if it is not obvious.
• Polybag size, thickness, and any required warning print.
• Barcode type, placement and whether it goes on the product, the bag or the tag.
• Inner and master carton dimensions, pack ratios and units per carton.
• Carton markings and any retailer-specific labelling requirement.

10. Compliance, testing and safety

What applies depends entirely on your product category and the markets you sell into, and it is a question for a test lab or compliance advisor rather than a template. What the tech pack does is state the requirement, so the factory quotes with it included rather than discovering it later.

• Required tests and the standard they are run against.
• Who pays for testing and at what stage.
• Age grading and any warning copy the category requires.
• Restricted substances requirements.
• Traceability or tracking label requirements where the category has them.

11. Sample and approval log

A running table, at the back, of every sample round: what was requested, what came back, what was wrong, what was approved. It is the section that makes the pack a record rather than a brief.

The four rows most templates leave out

Across free and paid templates alike, the same four omissions recur. Each is one column or one line, and each prevents a specific and expensive failure.

1. A how-to-measure column beside every point of measure. Prevents a sample that is to spec and visibly wrong.
2. A tolerance column. Prevents a spec that can neither be met nor enforced.
3. A revision number and date on the cover. Prevents two versions being in production at once.
4. The packaging section. Prevents retailer chargebacks on goods that were made correctly.

Adapting the template to your category

The eleven sections above hold for every product a factory builds to a spec. What changes is what goes inside them — a plush pack needs fill weight and pile direction where a garment pack needs grading and seam class; a moulded product needs draft angles and gate location where neither needs points of measure at all.

The failure mode when moving between categories is not a missing section, it is a field used for the wrong thing because that is what the template had. A row labelled "fabric weight" carrying a fill weight will be read as fabric weight. The category-by-category guide lists what each one adds.

Common questions