A 12-30 page document that lets a factory produce your garment without asking a single follow-up question. The complete guide from a manufacturer that's spec'd 2,000+ styles.
Photograph: Unsplash
A tech pack is the document that translates your design into a manufactured garment. It's how factories know what to cut, sew, label, and ship. Without it, you don't have a brand — you have a sketch.
That definition is the surface answer. Everything underneath — what's actually in one, who needs one, when in the workflow, and what it really costs — is where founders get confused. This is the guide I wish existed when I started Fabrickly. We've spec'd over 2,000 tech packs for indie brands across the UK, USA, and EU, and the same questions come up every week. Here are the honest answers.
A tech pack is a 12–30 page technical document that a factory can use to produce your garment without asking a single follow-up question.
If you remember nothing else, remember the "without asking a follow-up question" part. That's the test. If a factory has to email you back asking "what stitch type?" or "what's the seam allowance?" — your file isn't a tech pack yet. It's a starting point.
Every real tech pack has nine components. We've published a 9-step walkthrough on how to build each one. The short version:
Anything calling itself a tech pack that's missing two or more of these is incomplete. We see this constantly — founders pay £80 on Fiverr and get a beautiful PDF with the flat sketch, BOM, and POMs, but no construction page and no tolerances. The factory then either guesses or asks questions, and either way the founder pays for it.
This is where most online advice fails. Let me name the things people confuse with tech packs:
A tech pack is not a sketch. A fashion illustration is artwork. A tech pack is documentation. The drawing inside a tech pack (the flat sketch) is one component, not the whole thing.
A tech pack is not a mood board. Mood boards inspire. Tech packs instruct. Different documents, different purposes, different stages.
A tech pack is not a spec sheet. A spec sheet is one section of a tech pack (usually the POM table). It's a subset, not the whole document.
A tech pack is not a Pinterest board with measurements. I get sent this monthly. A Pinterest board of references with three measurements written on top is a brief — not a tech pack. The factory cannot make a garment from a brief. They need a spec.
A tech pack is not a Canva file. Canva is a design tool. Factories don't accept Canva exports. The industry standard is Adobe Illustrator (.ai) plus a linked spreadsheet for tables. We covered the full software comparison in Post #2.
Three groups, and they need it for different reasons:
1. The first-time founder going into production. You sketched something, you found a manufacturer, they asked for "the spec." This is when you most need one and least know how to make it. You're also the most likely to pay too much for one that's done badly. Skip the cheap Fiverr lottery and either learn the craft yourself or hire a productized service. £349 from us, £30-200 from Fiverr if you can vet 3 designers first.
2. The established brand adding styles each season. You already have a manufacturer. You're producing 10-30 styles a year. The tech pack is your operational backbone — without one, every style is custom communication. With one, you have a template that scales.
3. The brand switching factories. Your existing factory raised prices, missed a shipment, or stopped accepting your size run. You want to shop your styles to three other factories for competitive quotes. You can't get apples-to-apples quotes without a tech pack. Two factories will quote on totally different specs unless you give them the same document to quote against.
If none of these is you — you're at sketch stage, you haven't designed the garment yet, you're still mood-boarding — you don't need a tech pack yet. You need the design first.
This is the question I get most. The order is fixed, but founders try to skip steps constantly.
Tech packs sit between design and sample. Founders try to skip them either way — either by going from design straight to bulk (disaster — you'll get garments you don't want and can't sell), or by trying to spec while still designing (also a disaster — you'll redo the tech pack three times).
The rule: lock the design first, then spec it. Tech packs document decisions; they do not make them.
This is the question with the most lies in the answers. Here's the real range:
| Source | Realistic cost (per style) | Speed | Production-ready |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiverr designer (bottom tier) | £30–£80 | 3–7 days | Sometimes |
| Fiverr designer (top tier) | £100–£200 | 5–10 days | Usually with 1–2 revisions |
| Boutique solo freelancer | £300–£800 | 2–3 weeks | Yes |
| Fabrickly (productized) | £349 basic / £549 pro | 7 days | Yes, with guarantee |
| Sewport (brokered marketplace) | £200–£500 | 1–3 weeks | Depends on matched factory |
| Tech Packs LA | $300–$700 | 1–2 weeks | Yes |
| Full-service manufacturer | "Free" (bundled with production) | 2–3 weeks | Yes |
| DIY with a template | £20–£45 | Your own time (~40 hours) | Only if you know the craft |
Read the full named competitor comparison for who each provider is right for and where they're not.
If you're spec'ing one style and you have technical knowledge, a Fiverr top-tier designer is fine. If you're committing to production at scale, you want a real service or a manufacturer who bundles it. The marketplace model (Sewport) has the most variable quality because the platform doesn't control the spec.
Misconception 1: "I can spec it myself in a weekend."
You can spec a bad one in a weekend. A first-time founder doing their own tech pack averages 40 hours of work and still misses 2–3 critical pieces (usually tolerances, grade rules, and seam finishes). The factory then bills you for the gaps. Time vs money trade-off — your call.
Misconception 2: "All tech packs follow the same template."
False. Activewear with four-way stretch has different construction callouts than woven outerwear. Knitwear needs a knit chart. Swimwear needs lined gusset and bonded-seam specs. A generic template will not produce a production-ready spec for a fit-critical category.
Misconception 3: "The factory will fix the tech pack."
Some will. Most will quietly substitute and bill you. We've seen factories swap a £6/m woven for a £4/m woven without telling the brand. The tech pack is your defence — if you didn't spec the fabric weight, you don't have a complaint when it comes back lighter.
Misconception 4: "AI tools can write tech packs now."
Not yet, and the gap is bigger than people think. AI is genuinely useful for the text parts of a tech pack — construction callout descriptions, labelling spec language, the design summary. It cannot produce the technical flat sketch (a vector drawing with specific line weights), the graded POM table (requires factory-grading expertise), or the construction page with proper SPI/seam-allowance specifications. Use AI to draft the prose, not to replace the spec.
Misconception 5: "Tech packs are only for big brands."
Inverse. Big brands have in-house technical designers who can talk to the factory directly. Indie brands need tech packs more, not less, because you don't have a factory liaison on staff. The tech pack IS your liaison.
Three checks that separate a great tech pack from a mediocre one:
1. The "no follow-up" test. Can the factory pick up your file and produce a sample without emailing you a single clarification question? If yes, you have a tech pack. If no, you have a draft.
2. The "second factory" test. Can you give the same file to a second factory and get a quote within 24 hours? If yes, the spec is portable. If no, your first factory has been mentally filling in gaps you don't know about.
3. The "two-year-later" test. If you reproduce this style two years later with a new factory, will the file still produce a garment that matches the original? If yes, the spec is durable. If no, it relies on undocumented knowledge.
Our £349 tech-pack tier is designed to pass all three. The £549 pro tier adds an extra construction QA pass for fit-critical styles.
Q: Do I need a tech pack before I have a manufacturer?
Yes. The tech pack is what you USE to find a manufacturer. Without it, factories quote based on guesses and you can't compare quotes. Get the tech pack first, then shop it to 3 factories.
Q: How many pages should a tech pack be?
A simple t-shirt: 8–12 pages. A jacket with lining and trims: 18–25 pages. A swimsuit with bonded seams and lined gusset: 12–16 pages. Anything under 6 pages for an apparel item is probably missing components.
Q: Should the tech pack include a price quote?
No. The tech pack is the spec. The quote is a separate document you get back from a factory after you send the tech pack. Don't conflate them.
Q: Can I use the same tech pack for multiple sizes?
The tech pack covers ALL sizes. Size grading (component 8 in the list above) is the section that handles how each measurement scales. One tech pack = one style across all sizes.
Q: What software should I use to make a tech pack?
Adobe Illustrator for the flat sketch and labelling layout. Google Sheets or Excel for the BOM, POM, and grading tables. That's it. Don't overbuy on PLM software until you're at 30+ styles per season. Read the full software guide for the deeper dive.
Q: How much does Fabrickly charge for a tech pack?
£349 for the basic tier with 2 revisions. £549 for the pro tier with 4 revisions plus a production-fit guarantee. We deliver in 7 days. Get a quote.
Q: Can I see what a Fabrickly tech pack looks like before I buy?
Yes — we publish anonymised real client tech packs. And we publish a free 14-page template with the exact structure we use for paying clients. Both are free.
If you're at the stage where you need a tech pack, three paths from here:
Do it yourself. Download our free 14-page tech pack template, read the 9-step how-to guide, and budget 40 hours. Cheapest in cash, most expensive in time.
Hire a freelancer. Vet 3 Fiverr top-tier designers with a single-page test (just the flat sketch) before committing to a full project. Budget £100–£200 plus 1–2 revision rounds.
Hire a service. Send us a brief and we'll send back a finished tech pack in 7 days from £349. No revision lottery, no quality variance, with a production-fit guarantee.
Either way — start before you find the manufacturer, not after. The tech pack is what gets you to a real quote.
— Hasebul, Fabrickly