There's a specific email that costs buyers weeks.
It goes something like: "Hi, we'd like to make these T-shirts. Here's a photo. What's your lead time?"
Attached: one photo. Maybe two. Possibly a Pinterest link.
A factory receiving this has three options. Guess, and risk being wrong. Ask fifteen questions and wait for answers. Or quietly quote something safe and generic, hoping it's close enough.
All three waste your time. And none of them are the factory's fault — because the information needed to answer the question simply isn't there yet.
The document that fixes this has a name: the tech pack.
Most buyers have heard the term. Fewer have seen a good one. And almost nobody explains what actually has to be in it — which is why so many tech packs are forty-page documents that still don't answer the questions a factory needs answered.
This is what a factory actually reads for, in the order it matters.
What a tech pack is — and what it isn't
A tech pack is the complete written and drawn description of a garment, detailed enough that someone who has never spoken to you can make it, and someone who has never seen it can check whether it's correct.
Two tests. If your document passes both, it's a tech pack. If it only passes the first, it's a drawing.
What it is not: a mood board, a lookbook page, a photo of a competitor's product, or a design file with no measurements. Those are starting points, and they're genuinely useful — as the beginning of a conversation, not as a substitute for one.
The distinction matters because of who reads it. A photo tells a buyer what a garment looks like. A tech pack tells a pattern maker what to draft, a cutter what to lay, a sewer what to stitch, and an inspector what to reject. Four different people, four different sets of questions, one document. The stage that comes after all of this — how a garment actually gets made once the pack lands — is worth reading before you write yours, because it shows you where each specification gets used.
The ten things that have to be in it
In order of how much time each one saves.
1. Style description and reference
Start with a name and a short factual description. Not marketing language — construction language.
"We want a relaxed-fit crew neck tee in a heavier weight, similar to the attached sample but with a wider neck rib" tells a factory more in one sentence than a page of adjectives.
If you're working from a reference garment, say exactly which parts you want kept and which you want changed. This is the highest-value sentence in most first tech packs, and it's the one most often left out.
2. A technical flat sketch
Front and back, drawn flat — not on a body, not photographed. Flats show construction: where the seams run, how the neckline is finished, where the hems land.
You don't need to be a designer to produce one. A clean line drawing with labels is enough. If you have a reference garment, photographing it flat, front and back, on a plain background is a reasonable substitute at the start — but it must be paired with written construction notes, because a photo can't tell a sewer which stitch to use.
3. Fabric specification
This is where most quotes go wrong.
Composition, weight, and construction. "Cotton" is not a specification — a 140 GSM single jersey and a 240 GSM heavy jersey are different garments at different costs. "Poly-cotton" could be 50/50 or 65/35, and both behave differently.
At minimum:
- Fibre composition, with percentages
- Weight in GSM or oz/yd²
- Knit or weave construction — single jersey, interlock, French terry, poplin, twill
- Stretch, and whether it's mechanical or elastane
- Any finish, treatment, or hand-feel requirement
If you don't know the fabric you want, say so explicitly. "We're open to a stock quality in this colour and this weight range" is a legitimate and useful specification. Pretending to have decided when you haven't is what causes fabric to be substituted later.
4. Colour references
Name the colour system you're using, and be specific — Pantone TCX is standard for textiles.
State the number of colours, and state it early. Every colour is a separate fabric or dye batch, a separate cut, and a separate trim set. That means every colour carries its own cost and often its own minimum.
And here's the question most buyers don't think to ask: is the factory's minimum per style or per colour? Those are very different numbers, and the answer changes what you can afford to order.
5. A full measurement table, with tolerances
This is the part buyers most often skimp on, and the part that decides whether the order is accepted or rejected.
Two components.
Points of measure. A list of every place the garment gets measured, defined precisely enough that two people measuring the same garment get the same number. "Chest" is not precise. "Chest, one inch below the armhole, measured flat" is.
Tolerances. The acceptable variation, per point. No garment is made to the exact millimetre, and a spec that says "exactly 20 inches" is a spec that guarantees a dispute. Real tolerances, written into the document, are what let a factory know when it's within spec — and what let you reject something that isn't.
Write them by size, not just the base size. Grading comes from that table.
6. Construction details
Everything a sewer needs and a photo can't show:
- Seam types, and where each is used
- Hem finish
- Neck rib — width, composition, and whether it's the same body fabric
- Stitch type and density, where it affects durability
- Reinforcement — bar tacks, shoulder tape, side vents
- Whether a label is sewn into a specific position
This is also where you specify where construction can be simplified. A buyer who writes "keep the shoulder seam taped, but a standard hem is fine" has just handed the factory a decision it would otherwise make for you.
7. Trims and labels
Every non-fabric component, each with its own specification:
- Woven main label — content, position, and whether it's your existing label or one we make
- Care label — content, language requirements, and country-specific regulation
- Hangtags — size, artwork, placement
- Zippers, buttons, drawcords, snaps — size and finish
- Any decorative trim
Trims are the most common cause of an unnoticed delay, for a simple reason: each one comes from a different supplier with its own minimum and its own lead time. A tech pack listing ten trims is telling the factory to open ten procurement threads. A tech pack that says "use your stock trims" opens one.
8. Packing
How the garment is folded or hung, whether it's poly-bagged individually or in bulk, how many per carton, and the carton configuration.
Also, and often forgotten: the assortment ratio — how many of each size go into each poly bag or carton. That's the difference between goods that can be received and goods that have to be repacked at destination.
9. Size and colour breakdown, with quantities
Not the total. The breakdown.
"500 pieces" gives a factory nothing to plan with. "500 pieces — 100 black, 150 white, 250 navy, in sizes S–XL at the ratio below" lets a cutter build a marker and a planner build a schedule.
10. Your target delivery window
State it, and state whether it's fixed or flexible.
A fixed date and a flexible window produce very different schedules — and very different levels of risk. A factory that knows you're flexible can fit your order into a gap. A factory that believes the date is immovable will build in slack you don't need.
The three things most often left out
If I had to name the omissions that cause the most trouble:
Tolerances. Without them, "correct" is undefined, and every inspection becomes an argument.
The colour count, decided late. Every colour changes cutting, trims and minimums. Deciding it during production is the most reliable way to delay an order.
Anything about packing. Buyers treat packing as a detail to sort out later. It isn't — it affects the schedule and whether the shipment is usable when it arrives.
Why a complete pack pays for itself
A tech pack isn't paperwork for its own sake. It changes three things.
It removes the back-and-forth. Every clarification round costs calendar days, and those days come out of the same window as production. A complete pack can remove a week or two from a first order.
It reduces the risk the factory has to price in. A factory quoting an ambiguous spec has to assume something. Sometimes that assumption is generous and the quote looks high. Sometimes it's optimistic and the order disappoints. Neither helps you. Precision is what lets a factory quote the product you actually want.
It lets a factory make decisions on your behalf, correctly. Once the spec is complete, a good factory stops asking and starts solving — proposing a fabric that's in stock, adjusting a seam to cut time, flagging a construction detail that won't hold up. That collaboration only happens when the foundation is unambiguous.
If you don't have a tech pack yet
Most first-time buyers don't have one. And the idea of building a ten-section document before you've even spoken to a factory can feel like a reason to delay.
It shouldn't. You can build a working tech pack in an afternoon, starting from a garment.
Start with a garment you already like. Buy a sample, or use a piece you own. This becomes your physical reference, and it answers more questions than any written description could.
Measure it, point by point. Lay it flat. Measure every dimension that matters — chest, body length, shoulder, sleeve, neck opening, hem width. Grade the other sizes from the base size using your size chart, or ask the factory to grade it for you.
Photograph it properly. Flat, front and back, on a plain background, in good light. Not a styled shot on a model.
Write down what you want to change. This is the step people skip, and the one that matters most. Longer body. Wider neck rib. Heavier fabric. Different stitch at the hem. Be specific about intent and let the factory propose the technical solution.
State your tolerances. If you don't have standard tolerances, ask the factory for theirs and accept them as a starting point. They will be reasonable — and having them written down is dramatically better than having none.
Fill in trims, packing and quantities. Then send it.
That document won't be as polished as a designer's tech pack. It doesn't need to be. It needs to answer four questions — what to draft, what to lay, what to stitch, and what to reject — and a measured reference garment plus specific change notes does exactly that.
You don't need forty pages
The tech packs that work best are often six to ten pages. What they have in common isn't length. It's that every question a pattern maker, cutter, sewer and inspector would ask has been answered somewhere in the document.
Write the ten sections above. Fill in what you know. For what you don't, write "open — please advise" rather than leaving it blank. That single phrase turns an omission into a conversation, and it's the difference between a factory guessing and a factory helping.
A complete pack also makes the next step much easier — vetting the supplier you're about to send it to. And if you're curious what we can actually make from a pack like this, our embellishment and custom work is the place to look.
If you're preparing a pack and want a straight answer about whether your order is realistic at your volume, send it to lemon@mtdmj.com — or find the answers to the questions buyers ask most on our FAQ page. You can also start at mtdmj.com.
MTDMJ (Senhean Garment Co., Ltd.) is a custom apparel manufacturer in Guangzhou, China. We have been making garments since 2003 — twenty-three years and more than 900 clients later, in our own factory, with our own sample room, cutting room and export team. We work on a quote basis, with a minimum of 100 pieces per style and 30/70 payment terms. We make custom T-shirts, dresses, shirts and hoodies.
If the rest of the sourcing sequence is still unsettled, the complete buyers' guide to custom T-shirt wholesale covers what to decide before the tech pack — and what to do with it afterwards.
Keep the conversation going. We share sourcing notes, factory-floor detail and buyer guides on LinkedIn, Facebook and Medium. If you're planning an order, write to lemon@mtdmj.com.
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