Any sportswear or fashion brand that wants to develop new styles need to create a design and tech pack to present to their manufacturer. The tech pack (short for “technical package”) is your production blueprint. It’s the document that tells your manufacturer exactly how to bring your vision to life point by point. Yet, many emerging designers (freelancers) and even experienced brands overlook just how powerful-and cost-saving-a well-prepared tech pack can be.
Investing time and effort into a comprehensive, accurate tech pack isn’t just a design best practice-it’s a strategic financial decision that formalises the quality and price, dictating these elements to any factory.
At Blue Associates Sportswear, we receive tech packs from brands and start-ups that just don’t cut the mustard. Most of these are created by freelancers without the required souring experience or contacts, so the main aspect that drives the costs are totally ignored.
Fabrics, trims, accessories and trims are generally described rather than nominated and this aspect alone leave the final cost of production totally exposed. Imagine building your own house and asking the builder to select and buy the windows, tiles, bricks, and kitchen! I doubt you would be happy with the quality and the final price won’t align to your budget. This is what 99% of freelancer designers present as a finished tech pack!!!
What Is a Tech Pack?
A tech pack is a document that communicates to any factory all the necessary details for creating a garment or product. It usually includes:
– Technical CAD sketches (flat drawings)
– Bill of materials (BOM)-fabrics, trims, and components which have been costed and sourced.
– Measurements and spec sheets with full grade
– Construction details
– Colorways and labeling
– Packaging and shipping instructions
– Costing targets or approved budgets
When done right, the tech pack acts like a production GPS: it guides manufacturers step-by-step to deliver the exact product you’ve envisioned. It dictates the cost of the ingredients so the only aspect outstanding to cost is the labour to construct the garment.
The High Cost of Vague Instructions-:
Before we dive into how a tech pack saves you money, it’s important to understand what happens when you don’t provide one-or when the one you provide is vague or incomplete.
Imagine giving a chef a recipe that simply says “make a lasagna,” without specifying the ingredients, portion sizes, cooking method, or dietary requirements. You’ll likely end up with something completely different from what you wanted-and probably far more expensive.
The chef will need to use their initiative and make decisions along the way that may not marry with your vision. The meat, cheese, pasta and sauce won’t align with your expectations, and you are completely out of control in terms of taste, quality and price.
The same goes for apparel manufacturing. An incomplete tech pack leaves too much room for guesswork. And guesswork leads to:
– Multiple rounds of sampling because nothing is right
– Unintended use of expensive or unsuitable materials
– Fit issues that require costly revisions
– Performance issues as wrong fabrics, trims, components, or manufacturing techniques have been used.
– Delays in production
– Additional fees for sourcing fabrics and components
– Spiraling costs due to poor planning
- Accurate Tech Packs Minimise Sampling Mistakes
Sampling is one of the most expensive stages in the product development process. Every iteration cost time and money-not just in materials and labor, but also in freight, customs, and lost calendar time. It costs to manage the process too.
A complete and accurate tech pack eliminates ambiguity. When your factory understands your expectations from the start, you avoid unnecessary sample revisions and the delays that come with them.
Let’s compare two scenarios-:
Sampling without a solid tech pack-:
– The factory guesses how you want the construction.
– The fit won’t work as they don’t know who the consumer is, how the fabric stretches and what the end use is.
– The factory source the fabrics, trims, components, and accessories with no idea how they should perform or what price each of these should hit.
The conclusion will be months of wasted time and multiple samples that are expensive.
You will probably lose the trust and enthusiasm from the factory as sampling costs the factory time and money too and many factories will pull out of the development.
Sampling with a great tech pack-:
– The BOM clearly lists the approved fabric, components and trims.
– Measurements are detailed and based on the target consumer taking into account the fabric attributes.
– Stitching and construction notes are clear and easy to follow.
At Blue Associates Sportswear, we generally require 2 samples before the bulk production is ordered and some projects we can go straight to bulk after only 1 sample, saving money and months of wasted time.
You can easily imagine which scenario saves more money and launches faster.
The design and tech pack need to be created by an experienced designer that understands budget and sourcing so they align with the brands target price.
All brands have a target retail price and standard margin they want to achieve. These need to be determined at the start of the process so the designer creates a design that fits within this budget. The tech pack also needs to conform to these budgets and the fabrics trims and components need to be selected to hit the budget for these aspects.
Too many times, we receive designs and tech packs from freelancers that look great but have no relation to the brands RRP. Designing something that costs 3X the target price isn’t answering the brief and ultimately will cost the brand time and money adjusting samples and sourcing new materials.
Example-:
If your target FOB (freight on board) price is $20 per unit, your tech pack might list-:
– Fabric: $5.50
– Trims: $3.00
– Labor/Assembly: $7.00
– Packaging: $0.50
– Profit margin for the factory: $4.00
By defining this structure, both you and your supplier can make informed choices that respect your bottom line.
It’s very easy to create a design with too many features, use luxury fabrics and trims and construction methods that look great on paper as a design, but cost 3X the target FOB cost.
Nominating Fabrics and Trims Prevents Cost Surprises
One of the most common (and expensive) mistakes brands make is failing to nominate their own fabrics, trims, and components in the tech pack. If you leave it to the factory to choose, they will often select materials based on availability or ease of sourcing-not necessarily cost-effectiveness or suitability.
Giving a simple description such as 80% Polyester and 20% spandex is like asking a chef to cook using meat. Do they use Chicken, Steak or Pork and what cut or quality do you require?
We also suggest that the samples are produced by the factory you want to produce the products. We have worked with entrepreneurs that have spent 4 figures on each sample made from a sample or pattern cutting studio, to only end up with a poor fitting, low quality sample that is completely useless.
Sampling in the final factory will mean you can tap into the final machines and technology they will use for the bulk.
It’s important to understand where the factory is based and how they want to work. If the factory is based in China, then look to source the trims, fabrics and components locally rather than shipping these from Europe.
Understand their skill base and machinery so you only sample products that they specialise in. There are too many factories that sub out products they don’t have experience in and this adds time and costs.
Make sure the factory have experience importing fabrics and trims from your nominated supplier as there are often restrictions or issues with terms and payment methods when the nominated supplier isn’t typical to how the factory work.
When you pull your tech pack together, you also need to think about tax and duty. Importing and shipping fabrics and trims from country to county cost time and money. When the goods are finished and shipped to you, there will be tax and duty applied to these goods which effect cashflow and budget.
Understanding these elements will limit the choice of where the goods are produced but also where your source and nominate the fabrics, trims and components from.
If you want to develop product and haven’t started the design and tech pack stage yet, please get in touch.
