How to Read a Tech Pack: What Manufacturers Actually Need to Start Production
Published by Agile Apparel Source | July 2026
Most emerging brands know they need a tech pack. Fewer understand what manufacturers actually do with one — and which missing details cause delays, sampling errors, and cost overruns before a single stitch is made.
This guide breaks down a tech pack from the manufacturer's perspective: what each section communicates, what happens when information is missing, and how to tell whether your tech pack is actually ready to send.
What a Tech Pack Is (and What It Isn't)
A tech pack — short for technical package — is the complete set of documents that communicates your garment design to a manufacturer. It's the single source of truth that a pattern maker, sample room, and production team work from.
It is not a mood board, a reference image, or a sketch with notes. Those are useful starting points. A tech pack is a manufacturing document — precise, complete, and unambiguous enough that someone who has never spoken to you can build your garment correctly.
The distinction matters because a lot of brands send documents that function as the first category and expect them to be treated as the second. The gap between what was intended and what gets produced is almost always traceable to information that existed in someone's head but never made it onto the page.
The Core Sections of a Complete Tech Pack
1. Technical Flat Sketches (CADs)
The foundation of any tech pack. A technical flat is a two-dimensional drawing of the garment — front and back — showing every seam, stitch line, pocket, zipper, label placement, and construction detail. Unlike fashion illustration, technical flats are proportionally accurate and drawn without a body.
What manufacturers use it for: pattern making, sample construction, and production QC. If a detail isn't visible in the flat, it effectively doesn't exist from a production standpoint.
Common gaps: decorative stitching not shown, pocket depth not indicated, collar construction ambiguous.
2. Measurements and Grading
A size spec chart with precise measurements for every point of measure (POM) — chest width, body length, sleeve length, armhole, hem width, and so on — for every size in the run.
Grading rules specify how measurements change between sizes. Without grading, a manufacturer can only produce one size correctly; every other size is an approximation.
What manufacturers use it for: pattern construction, sample evaluation, and production QC. Measurement specs are the document that determines whether your size M is actually a size M.
Common gaps: missing points of measure, inconsistent units (mixing inches and centimeters), grading rules absent entirely.
3. Bill of Materials (BOM)
A complete list of every material in the garment — main fabric, lining, interlining, thread, zipper, buttons, elastic, labels, hang tags, and any other trim or hardware — with specifications for each.
For fabric, a complete BOM entry includes: fiber content, weight (GSM), construction (woven, knit, jersey, rib), finish, and color reference. For hardware, it includes dimensions, finish, and material.
What manufacturers use it for: sourcing materials, costing the garment, and ensuring construction matches specification.
Common gaps: fabric listed by color only ("black fabric") without weight or construction spec, thread color not specified, label content missing.
4. Colorways
A complete list of every color the garment will be produced in, with standardized color references — Pantone codes, physical fabric swatches, or approved lab dip references.
Color descriptions alone ("dusty sage," "warm white") are not sufficient for production. Without a standardized reference, color matching is subjective, and what a manufacturer interprets as "warm white" may not match what you visualized.
What manufacturers use it for: fabric dyeing or sourcing pre-dyed fabric in the correct colorway, thread matching, and trim sourcing.
Common gaps: Pantone codes missing, no physical swatch provided, colorway list incomplete.
5. Construction Details and Stitch Specifications
Seam types, stitch types, stitch density (stitches per inch), seam allowance, and finishing method for every construction point in the garment.
This is the section most often missing from brand-produced tech packs and the one that causes the most production variation. A manufacturer left without stitch specifications will use their standard construction — which may or may not match your quality expectation.
What manufacturers use it for: setting up machines, training the production line, and QC inspection.
Common gaps: stitch type not specified (overlock vs. flatlock vs. coverstitch), seam allowance inconsistent, finishing method for raw edges not indicated.
6. Label and Packaging Specifications
Content and placement for every label in the garment — care label, size label, brand label, country of origin label — plus packaging instructions if relevant (hang tag placement, poly bag dimensions, folding method, carton specs).
What manufacturers use it for: sourcing or producing labels, placement during assembly, and export documentation.
Common gaps: care instruction symbols not specified, label content missing required regulatory information, packaging spec absent entirely.
What Happens When Information Is Missing
A manufacturer receiving an incomplete tech pack has three options: stop and ask, make an assumption, or produce to their standard. In practice, all three happen — sometimes within the same order.
Stop and ask adds time. Every clarification request extends your sampling timeline, and if you're working across time zones, a single question-and-answer cycle can cost two to three days.
Make an assumption produces a sample that may or may not match your intent. If the assumption is wrong, you're into a revision cycle — another sample, another review, more time.
Produce to standard is the most common outcome for minor gaps. The manufacturer uses their default construction — which is optimized for speed and cost, not for your specific design intent.
None of these outcomes are the manufacturer's fault. A tech pack is a communication document. If the communication is incomplete, the output reflects that incompleteness.
How to Tell If Your Tech Pack Is Actually Ready
Before sending your tech pack to a manufacturer, run through this checklist:
Sketches: Can someone who has never seen your garment understand every construction detail from the flats alone?
Measurements: Is every point of measure specified for every size? Are grading rules included?
Materials: Is every component specified with fiber content, weight, construction, and color reference?
Color: Does every colorway have a Pantone code or physical swatch reference?
Construction: Are seam types, stitch types, and finishing methods specified at every construction point?
Labels: Is every label's content, placement, and size specified?
If the answer to any of these is "no" or "I'm not sure," that gap will surface during sampling — usually in the form of a question, a revision, or a sample that doesn't match expectations.
One Practical Note
At Agile Apparel Source, we review tech packs before confirming a production quote. This review is specifically to identify gaps that would cause sampling issues — not to critique the design, but to flag the information we'll need before production can begin accurately.
For brands with existing tech packs from previous manufacturers: the review also identifies whether specs translate cleanly to our production environment, or whether adjustments are needed before sampling begins.
If you have a tech pack ready and want a review, contact us to send it over.
