Activewear Tech Pack Guide
A tech pack is not paperwork. It is the document that decides whether bulk matches the sample. Every field you leave out becomes an assumption the factory has to make on your behalf.
The eight sections that matter
Flat sketches, front and back, with seam lines and topstitch positions marked. Not a photo of a similar garment — the actual construction you want.
Measurements, as a points-of-measure table with tolerances. Chest, waist, hip, inseam, rise, thigh, leg opening. Without tolerances the factory cannot know what counts as a pass.
Construction and seam types, named. Flatlock, overlock, coverstitch, bonded. This single section drives both the durability and a large share of the sewing cost.
Fabric specification: composition, GSM, knit structure, stretch direction, and the reference swatch. "Nylon spandex, soft" is not a specification.
Colour references with Pantone TCX numbers per colourway, plus a note on which panels take which colour in a colour-blocked style.
Trims and hardware: elastic width and type, drawcord, zipper, moulded parts, with placement callouts.
Label and packaging: woven label position, care label content per market, hangtag, polybag, carton markings.
Size grading rules, or an explicit instruction to grade from a base size using the factory's standard rules for your market.
What happens when a field is missing
A missing tolerance means the factory applies its own, and your bulk arrives within a window you never agreed to. A missing seam type means the factory picks the one it runs fastest, which is rarely the one you wanted. A missing care label spec means the label is written for the factory's home market and may not be legal in yours.
None of these failures look like failures at sample stage, because a sample is made by a technician who fills the gaps correctly by instinct. They appear at bulk, when a different line follows the written document rather than the instinct.
If you do not have a tech pack
Two workable routes. Send a physical reference garment and we reverse-engineer the pattern, measurements and construction, then send you the resulting pack for approval before sampling. Or start from one of our existing blocks, adjust fabric, colour and trims, and let the pack be built from the block.
Both routes end with a document you approve. The difference is how much of the design is yours versus ours, and that difference also decides whether the style is exclusive to you.
The pre-production sample is the real lock
The tech pack states intent; the approved pre-production sample states fact. Once you sign that sample, its measurements become the reference for bulk inspection, and the signed sample stays with us as the physical standard the line is checked against.
Sign it with the date and any handwritten amendments. An unsigned sample that "seemed fine" is not a standard anyone can inspect against.
Need this answered for your specific product?
Send the product type, the destination market and your target price. You get a straight answer on what is workable and what is not, before you pay for anything.
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