New designers often question the value of this essential document. They think skipping out on techpacks will keep their development budget down. Maybe they are working directly with their pattern maker, or they send an inspiration sample to their factory and tell them what to change and think that will be sufficient. Working this way will set you up for failure and costly mistakes down the road. 

Techpacks are essential. Repeat that with me. TECHPACKS ARE ESSENTIAL. They will serve as the guide for your sample maker to know how to sew your garment, what materials and trims to use and where. This is where your size range will be recorded, your fabric details, your revisions, and much, much more.  

Now, you will likely not be able to finalize your Techpack in one shot. This will be a living, breathing document that is revised throughout the development process. It is only finalized before moving to bulk production. 

All Techpacks are NOT created equally

Depending on who creates your Techpack, the style of this document, and its contents, can vary greatly. We have seen the most basic of Techpacks to the most detailed and everything in between. What is most important is that your communication in this document is clear, understandable, and covers important details of your product. 

Over the course of my career, my Techpack set up and contents have changed. I have developed hundreds, if not thousands of garments and have spoken to countless factories about what information is really important to them. With all of this experience and data I have created the best, most comprehensive Techpack template you can find! Here I’ll share with you what you absolutely need and tips on making this your number one product development tool.

The Anatomy of a Great Techpack

MUST HAVES TO START DEVELOPMENT

• Style Cover Page

This is your intro. You want to give an overview of key details on this first page, so the viewer gets a quick understanding of your product. Be sure to include the below:

Brand name

Date

Contact information 

Style number

Style description 

Front and back view of your garment (and side or interior if necessary)

Written construction details including stitch methods, hem finishes, etc. 

Visual callouts of stitch lines and details shown on your sketch or product image

Sample size

Size range you will produce

Area to track revisions 

• Reference Sample Page

If you’ve got inspiration samples here is where you use them. Show photos of design details, construction methods, stitching, finishing, placements, etc. from existing garments if you can. This will help the sample maker know more what your expectation is for this garment. If you are using a reference sample as a starting point for your spec measurements, don’t forget to record your reference sample measurements before sending it off. 

• Bill of Materials (BOM)

This page will serve as a breakdown of each component needed in your product, where it is from, where it is used, even what it costs. Keep all sourcing details here including vendor name, article number, fiber content, fabric width, trim dimensions, and unit cost. Once you start sampling and approve your fit you’ll want to calculate yield per item and record that here as well. By the time you have a fit approved garment and yields you will be able to easily see a per garment cost of materials. Don’t forget a column to detail where each component is used and one for which color or print it should be. If your garment has a care label include it here. A hang tag? That, too. You can even add any known packaging here to track cost and ordering needs when you get to production. 

I also like to include images of each component in my BOMs for a quick visual reference as well as a written one. I also add a thumbnail sketch of each color way and the style and color number. 

• Swatch Library

This section is mainly for your factory and/or sample maker to ensure they are pulling the correct materials. Factories work quickly in order to stay efficient and profitable. They also are always working on numerous different programs at a time and many materials look very similar from a quick glance. Cut and tape or staple physical swatches to your swatch library page when sending your techpack to your factory. This will give them better guidance on which materials are correct to use for your product. You can also make a copy for your own records to for quick reference when you review your samples for quality approval. 

• Cutter’s Must

A cutter’s must is an itemized list of all the pattern pieces that pertain to a particular style. It should tell you how many pattern pieces there are, how many pieces to cut of each and which fabrics to cut them from. If possible, it is helpful to also give a visual representation of your pattern pieces here as well in small scale. 

• Point of Measure Diagram (POM)

Points of measure refer to the exact place you take a particular garment measurement. For example, the sweep of your garment is the measurement taken at the hem edge from side seam to side seam. Here, you will list each point of measure, and show a diagram on a garment sketch of exactly where/how to take that measurement. This gets everyone on the same page and measuring each garment consistently. Some areas of measure are less clear than others which can cause differences in how you measure compared to your factory or pattern maker. When measuring the armhole of a sports bra, do you measure straight across from shoulder to underarm or along the armhole curve? You will get two very different measurements depending on which you choose. Without a POM diagram, you leave your measurements open to interpretation to the reader. 

• Sample Measurements

Pretty straight forward here. This is where you will record the measurements of each of sample you receive. Remember to always measure your samples beforeyou trying them on. You want to have a column for your target measurements, sample measurements, and the difference for each sample. Record above that the date and which sample round it is. If you have a team where more than one person may be taking measurements, it can be helpful to add the initials of who reviewed each sample. Highlight any measurements that are out of tolerance to pay special attention to when you are fitting. 

PAGES TO BUILD THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT CYCLE

• Grade Spec/Grade Rule

Once you have an approved sample in your fitting size you will need to grade your specs and patterns for the rest of your size range. Your Graded Spec sheet should have the target measurements for all sizes.  The best practice would be to establish your grade rule and add it in here as a formula if you are using excel. Doing this allows you to update your specs when needed for your base size only and the rest of your sizes will auto-populate. Easy!

• Fit Comments

Record all fit comments here. Again, keep in mind that you want to use both written and visual communication here for changes needed. You will likely have more than one round of fitting. Add a new page for each set of fit comments. You can do the same for your pre-production and top of production samples as well. 

• Colorways

You may not have your exact production colors and prints all confirmed when you start development. That is ok. Before you move to production complete a page that shows a rendering of each style and each color way in front and back view, side if necessary. This is especially necessary when you are working with a style that has many components. Showing each color way will ensure your bulk gets the correct color combinations whether you are using contrast details or all dyed to match. 

• Label Placement/Packing Method

Show the factory where to place brand and care labels, heat transfer, embroideries, hang tags, and any other items your garment needs. Again, showing visually where things goes works best. Get specific. For example, don’t just say, “place at back.” Say, “place at inside, center back neck seam.” Or, place at hem, 2” out from side seam on wearer’s left. 

If you are using an individual poly bag (or better yet, an eco-friendly paper-based bag), you can show images here as to how the factory should fold and pack your garment. This is important if you want to have your hangtag or other branding visible when packed. If you are unsure how to pack your garment, just ask your factory to suggest a folding method. Once you approve that packing method add those images to this page before passing your final production techpack to your manufacturer. 

You do not need fancy software to create a techpack!

Don’t worry. Chances are you have the tools you need to build a great techpack right now! You could even build a techpack with pen and paper if needed. Don’t forget, there was a time when this is all designers had in their toolbox. If you have a computer, though, the two most common programs to build techpacks in are Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft Excel. 

Garment sketches will likely be done either by hand and scanned in, or directly in Illustrator. Your techpack though will be most efficiently created in Excel. I prefer this method for numerous reasons. The number one reason: formulas! In excel, you can take advantage of being able to formulate your pages so that information that is repeated in more than one page only needs to be entered once. This is really helpful to save time and avoid mistakes of not updating every area. It also allows you to not have to do so much math when you are figuring out graded specs or the difference between your target measurements and sample measurements. Secondly, not everyone knows how to use Illustrator, but most people know how to use excel. In short, creating tech packs in Excel allows you to work smarter, not harder.

Whew! That seems like a lot, right? It can be! Don’t forget though that this is an evolving document throughout your development. Start with pages 1-7 in your early development phase. Build out the rest of this document as you move through fitting and confirming style details. 

Manufacturing is an imperfect process. Human error is extremely hard to avoid completely. Having a complete techpack for each style will keep you organized and will help to avoid mistakes from your factory in sampling and bulk production. It will also help to provide consistency in your product from season to season. 

Remember, even if you are producing domestically, there is often a language barrier between the person preparing the Techpack and the sample maker. Keep this in mind while you are building your Techpack. Use clear language. Avoid being overly wordy. Use visuals to communicate wherever you can.

Do not skip this important step in your product development. You cannot expect quality control in your bulk production if you do not even have a standard to check back to. 

Thanks for stopping by! As always, and especially now, we love to hear from you. Read more helpful posts like this one on our blog and be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

The post How to Turn Your Techpack Into Your Most Important Tool appeared first on Suite Creative Studio.

Fashion Revolution started as a reaction to the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh on April 24^th, 2013. 1,138 people died in that horrific tragedy and another 2500 injured. It became the deadliest garment industry accident in modern history. Most of the workers, and victims, were young women. 

Bangladesh is the world’s second largest apparel manufacturing center, after China.  Many major brands produce there because of their cheap labor costs. They have more than 3,000 factories and employ over 4.4 million people in the garment industry. Their economy is dependent on this industry with the vast majority of their foreign currency coming from the garment sector. The Bangladeshi government would like to double their apparel manufacturing to bring in even more revenue for their country. 

As with most any industrial country, there are factories there that produce great product. However, they also have loads of sweatshops, some of the worst in the world it, it is said. This is a major factor in why the Rana Plaza collapse happened, as well as other deadly industrial accidents over the years. For a long time, people outside of Bangladesh just did not pay attention to the tragedies that were taking place in order to provide consumers their goods. Just prior to the 2013 collapse, there were NGO’s that were working to improve standard factory safety by enlisting brands to sign a legally binding agreement to take action on this issue.  Only two brands signed. After the collapse, more than 250 brands signed initiatives including the legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety and a nonbinding Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. 

So how exactly did this tragedy at Rana Plaza come to be? Well, if you ask around Bangladesh if people were surprised to hear about the Rana Plaza tragedy, you would likely have difficulty finding a “yes”. According to The New York Times, workers and supervisors knew the buildings that housed these factories were unsafe. Just the day prior to the Rana collapse, a wall on the third floor of the building had split open like a fault line. The building was evacuated. However, workers were told to return to work at the factory the next day. For fear of losing their jobs, most of them did even though they were panicked and scared to re-enter the hazardous building. 

On the day of the collapse, there was a power outage in the building around 8:45 am. Management turned on the generators to get the factory back up and running. Then it happened. The rumbling of the generators shook the compromised building and suddenly, the floor collapsed. 

People were pinned under the rubble. Some died there. Others were in a coma for weeks. To say the lucky ones survived is even difficult because the trauma they endured, both mentally and physically, has left many of them disabled. Interestingly, the brands that were employing this factory did not provide any aid to the workers that were affected by this tragedy. The lives of these workers will never be the same. 

The five years after the collapse lead to the government shutting down hundreds of factories that did not get up to standard of the newly placed Accord, and resolved 97,000 hazards in 1,600 factories. These changes undoubtedly have saved some lives. However, oversight will soon be placed back into the hands of the local government, causing many to fear that factory practices and negligence will return to how it was prior to the Rana Collapse.

According to fashionrevolution.org,“Fashion Revolution is a global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry.

We want to unite the fashion industry and ignite a revolution to radically change the way our clothes are sourced, produced and purchased, so that what the world wears has been made in a safe, clean and fair way.”

Although the Rana Plaza tragedy was covered worldwide by news outlets and media, many people still don’t recognize, or even know about the severe problems that plague the garment industry, since for many of us, these factories are such a distant thought, located in such foreign places, that it is not a reality we face every day. Fashion Revolution Week aims to change that reality. It is one of the largest movements in the fashion industry that is gaining more and more recognition by the industry as a whole and by individual consumers. Consumers are learning to ask questions like “Who made my clothes” and to seek companies who stand behind their manufacturing practices and impact on the world around them. 

It’s an interesting coincidence that Fashion Revolution week also happens to occur during Earth Month. As individuals and companies, it is our responsibility to care for both the earth that we inhabit and the people that we share it with. Fashion brands can make changes today both big and small in order to lessen our impact on the world. Paying fair wages and pricing product appropriately so that factories can pay their workers fair wages is a great start. Women make up the majority of the world’s factory workers, which means paying higher factory wages improves the lives of women and their societies around the world. We’ve spoke more about women’s rights and how to support them in a previous blog highlighting female founded brands.

Other ways that brands can lessen their impact on earth’s resources is by choosing recycled materials over virgin yarns, using less packaging and recycled packaging materials, being mindful of choosing eco-friendly dyes, producing products with less waste, finding uses for scraps and overstock materials, and producing garments that last. Retraining consumers to pay for these changes is always undoubtedly a major hurdle. Continuing to be vocal about these issues and as transparent as is possible for your brand are great ways to keep the momentum going. 

If you want to get involved in Fashion Revolution Week, here are some events happening around the country: 

CHICAGO

The Road to an Ethical and Sustainable Fashion Brand

April 22 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

358 W Ontario 3W, Chicago, IL 60654 

Chicago’s 6th Annual Fashion Revolution & Fair Trade Fair

April 22 @ 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm

2250 North Sheffield Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614 

Chicago Ladies Clothing Swap

April 23 @ 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

20 N. Upper Wacker Drive, #1200, Chicago, IL 60606

Moving Fashion Forward – From THE TRUE COST to a Sustainable Future

March 30 @ 5:00 pm – April 23 @ 8:30 pm

4245 North Knox Avenue, Chicago, IL 60641

LOS ANGELES

An Evening To Wear Your Values

April 24 @ 6:30 pm

900 North Broadway Suite 1070, Los Angeles, 90012

MIAMI

Antidote Fashion Clean Up

April 22, 2019 @ 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Soho Beach House, Miami

4385 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33140

MINNEAPOLIS

Sustainability in Fashion – Fashion Group International Panel

April 24 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

823 Fifth Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404

NEW YORK

Fashion Revolution USA Roundtable Discussions

April 23 @ 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

60 Furman St, Brooklyn, New York 11201

SAN FRANCISCO

ECO Fashion Week SF + Green Fashion Network Meetup

Events throughout the week, various locations

For more events near you, visit the Fashion Revolution events page. If you have an event not listed, or are attending an event this week, we’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts and take-aways in the comments! 

The post The Story Behind Fashion Revolution Week appeared first on Suite Creative Studio.