A tech pack has different names, such as technical specification, specification pack, spec pack, BOM (bill of materials), or GWS (garment worksheet).
A Tech Pack is a must if you wish to create your exclusive fashion products, whether you’re an entrepreneur, fashion designer who wants to build a clothing brand or just someone who wants to make unique designs.
We will show you how you can easily create your own professional-looking Apparel Tech Packs! You need Adobe Illustrator, some inspiration & some patience.
Tech Packs are the backbone of every fashion product, as it is the ultimate visual combination of drawings, mood boards, and design ideas. Sometimes it’s tough to explain your concepts regarding tailoring, fabrics, and colors to suppliers, other designers, or major brands. To produce fitted samples, the manufacturers, in particular, need to know every little detail about your clothing product.
Let’s show you how you can create your Clothing Tech Pack.
1. Tech Pack Dimension and Layout
We recommend creating Tech Packs in an A4 horizontal dimension (11.69×8.27 inches) because you can convert them into printable PDFs easily. Moreover, you can choose any size of your choice, but be aware that higher resolution results in larger file sizes.
After you create a new document, we begin with a simple layout. It includes your official Brand logo and all relevant design information.
Keeping the legend as short and accurate as possible is crucial since any needless addition can create confusion. So what exactly are we using in our Tech Pack legend?
- Logo – The official logo of the Brand
- Name – The label of the Tech Pack (It helps to keep everything organized!)
- SKU-ID – The Tech Pack ID of your product (You may also call it as an ID. We use the SKU-ID later in the shop)
- Collection – Is it a part of the collection or just a creation? (Again, very important for a clean organization structure)
- Designer – Who designed this piece of art? (In case you hand it over to other designers or brands)
- Body-Fabrics – What is your fashion design made of? (Of course, if you’ve different garments you need to create additional pages and point the garments out, but for simple designs like a T-Shirt it’s not a problem to state it in the legend)
- Size – What’s the finished product’s size?
- Design – Do you have a logo or an artwork that needs to get printed on your sample? (If you wish a Logo on your sample, keep in mind to use the same name on the Techpack you used to name your Logo-file. It can save you a lot of troubles when you’ve multiple designs)
- ID – The ID of the design (We use Excel-Spreadsheets to manage all our designs)
- Size – The size of your artwork (With the size we mean the dimension of artwork-file our manufacturer should use)
- Print Technology – Which print method should be used on fabrics? (Screen printing, DTG (Direct to Garment), Dye sublimation, Heat press, Vinyl cutting)
2. Tracing Of a Clothing Product / Sketch
After setting up the Layout, it’s time to build your Tech Pack’s core feature. Most of the time, fashion designers already have some drawings of their design, so they have to search it with Adobe Illustrator and trace it. For all of you who are not good illustrators, flat sketches, or new designers, there is no need to be discouraged. In our example, we used a prototype of our Sample T-shirt.
Use the Pen-Tool and trace half of the T-shirt. Take your time and make sure to have a nice shape. You only need to trace half of the T-shirt because we are going to duplicate and reflect the path to merge them in a selection/path.
Now it’s time to add some design details like the seams, the joints, the neckline, and your artwork. We also recommend changing the color of the paths to black. (later, when you add a different length specification, you will need a red color)
3. Fashion Tech Pack Measurements
One of the essential parts of a Tech Pack is the measurement of your designed Fashion product. There are thousands of t-shirts on the market, but tailoring and measurements are the difference between a regular and a great t-shirt. We at Wannaink use a measuring tape and a mannequin to make or unique signature fits. Use the Pen-Tool and the signal color (we recommend red) to create measurement paths for your design.
Let them feel like they belong; they give a part of their time and soul to the same task as the employees in the office.
Be aware that your Tech Pack is like a plan for manufacturers and brands because, based on your measurements, a sample or product gets produced.
Also, don’t forget to use the correct measuring unit. Most manufacturers and brands work with inches, not centimeters.
4. Final Checklist
In the end, you should know how to create clothing tech packs properly.
It’s good to review everything before you send your completed tech packs to manufacturers.
Is your tech pack in clear and understandable format that any manufacturer in the world can understand?
Have you included an introductory page on the front of your tech packs that shows different pictures of your clothes?
Did you highlight the quantities you’re looking to produce and the size breakdowns for each item of clothing?
Have you included your choice of fabric for each tech pack?
Have you mentioned and provided examples of the Pantone color of each fabric and the materials you want to use for each garment?
If you are printing or embellishing your clothing, have you included the correct examples and specifications in each of your technical packs?
Have you correctly included your seam-to-seam measurements for each item of clothing in your specific technical pack?
Have you provided examples and specifications for all of your care labels, woven labels, and hang tags?
If you answered ‘YES’ to all of these questions, then you’re ready to send your completed tech packs to the manufacturers.
Speak to our team if you need a tech pack for your apparel. We will love to help you get started. Our Tech Pack Design Service allows you to create tech packs for knitted t-shirts, tops, hoodies, etc. We create and develop factory ready tech packs ensuring optimized production levels. Our Pro Clothing Designers are skilled in each of the segments and help many customers with apparel design and tech pack creation.