What goes into a tech pack

A tech pack is the document a factory works from when it makes your first sample. Anything it leaves out, the sample maker has to guess, and each guess is a reason the sample comes back wrong.

In a Roupalab project the tech pack is the last milestone of the design stage. It comes after the design call, the draft and the rounds of review, and nothing goes to sampling until it is finished.

What’s inside

Flats. Technical drawings of the front and back, drawn in CAD, with every seam, dart and pocket where it really sits. The factory measures from these, so they are drawn to proportion rather than for mood.

The spec sheet. Every point of measure for every size, each with a tolerance: chest width at 46 cm, give or take 1 cm, for example. Grading to the other sizes follows from it.

The bill of materials. Fabric, lining, thread, trims, labels and packaging, each with a colour reference and a supplier where we have one.

Construction notes. Seam types, stitch length and edge finishes, plus the things that are easy to get wrong, like which way a print should run across a seam.

Artwork and placement. For printed pieces, the artwork files and where each one sits on the garment, at what size. Custom prints also go through strike-offs: small printed swatches that show the colour on the real fabric before a full run.

What changes by product

A swimwear tech pack lists the elastic, its width and exactly where it is applied, because that decides how the piece sits on the body. Knit and crochet pieces specify the yarn, the gauge and the stitch, since the fabric is made as the piece is made. Merch and uniforms add logo placements and quantities per size.

Why it is worth the time

Every sample round costs time and money on both sides. A complete tech pack keeps the rounds down. When a fit session does find something, the change goes back into the document, so production is made from the corrected version.