How to build a tech pack your decorator can actually use

Every production problem we see traces back to the same root cause: information that lived in someone’s head instead of on paper. The brand knew the logo goes “a little left of center.” The designer knew the navy was a specific navy. Nobody wrote it down, and now there is a box of 300 hoodies that almost match the vision.

A tech pack fixes that. It is a single document that tells your decorator — us, or anyone else — exactly what to make, in enough detail that nobody has to guess. The brands that send us complete ones get faster quotes, cleaner samples and fewer revision rounds. Here is what yours should contain.

• 4

  Sections a decoration tech pack needs

• 1–2 h

  To build the first one by hand — minutes from a template

• 0

  Clarifying emails on a complete pack

What a tech pack is — and what it is not

A tech pack, short for technical package, is the master specification for one product. For a cut-and-sew garment made from scratch it runs deep: pattern measurements, grade rules, seam construction, fabric mill sources. If you are working with an overseas factory on original garments you need all of that.

Most brands working with a decoration shop are doing something simpler — printing or embroidering on an existing tee, hoodie, cap or bag. Your tech pack is simpler too, and that is good news. It needs to nail four things: the garment, the artwork, the placement and the finishing. Get those four right and the order is effectively guess-proof.

Same job, both columns. The left one produced two sample rounds and a reprint. The right one went to press off the first proof. Every section below is about getting from the left column to the right.

1. Specify the garment precisely

“Black hoodie” is not a spec. Two black hoodies from different mills will differ in weight, shade, fit and how they take a print or a needle. Your garment section should list the brand and style number — a specific mill style, not “premium tee” — the exact color name as the manufacturer lists it, and the full size run with quantities per size.

If you are supplying your own garments, say so, and include the fabric content. Fiber matters more than most brands realize: DTF transfers behave differently on 100% cotton than on a poly blend, and embroidery on a lightweight tri-blend needs different backing and digitizing than embroidery on a 14-ounce canvas jacket. Your decorator makes better decisions when they know what is coming before it arrives.

• Brand and style number — e.g. a named mill style, not a category
• Manufacturer’s exact color name
• Full size run with quantity per size
• Fiber content, especially if you are supplying the goods
• Whether we source it or you ship it in

2. Get the artwork files right

This is where most orders stall. For DTF work we want vector artwork — AI, EPS or PDF with fonts outlined — or, failing that, a PNG with a transparent background at the actual print size, 300 dpi minimum. A screenshot pulled off your website will not survive enlargement to a 12-inch chest print.

Color needs to be named, not described. Assign a Pantone reference to every color in the design. “Our brand blue” means nothing to a printer; Pantone 2935 C means the same thing in every shop on earth. If an exact match is critical — and for brand work it usually is — flag which colors are must-match and which have tolerance.

For embroidery, your artwork becomes a stitch file through digitizing, and not every design translates. Fine serifs, gradients and text under roughly a quarter-inch tall all fight the medium. Include thread color callouts — Madeira or Isacord numbers if you have them, Pantone references if you do not — and say whether you have an existing digitized file from a previous run. If you do, send the stitch file, not just the source art. It saves you a digitizing fee and guarantees consistency with past orders.

3. Define placement like an engineer, not a stylist

“Left chest” covers a lot of territory. A proper placement spec gives a measurement from a fixed reference point on the garment: a 3.5-inch-wide left-chest logo positioned 7 inches down from the shoulder seam and centered between placket and side seam. For a full front: the width of the print, and the distance from the bottom of the collar to the top edge of the design.

Do this for every decoration location — front, back, sleeve, hood, cap front. A simple annotated mockup helps enormously: a flat photo or drawing of the garment with the art dropped in place and dimension arrows marked. It does not need to be pretty. It needs to be measurable.

Include the decoration size for each size range if it changes. A youth small and an adult 3XL should not carry the same 12-inch print, and your tech pack should say where the break points are. A common starting point:

4. Spell out finishing and delivery

The last section covers everything after the ink cures and the last stitch lands. If garments need to be folded, polybagged, size-stickered or tagged, write it down. If neck labels are being printed in, include that artwork and its placement spec like any other decoration. Note how the order ships — bulk cartons to one address, or split shipments — and the in-hands date, especially if there is an event on the other end of it.

• Fold and polybag — yes or no, and per piece or per dozen
• Size stickers, hang tags, printed-in neck labels (with artwork)
• Ship-to: one address or a split, and whether it ships blind under your name
• In-hands date, and the date that actually matters behind it

Sample first, always

Even with a flawless tech pack, approve a physical sample before a full run. A pre-production sample confirms the color on the actual fabric, the hand of the transfer and the density of the stitch-out — things a PDF cannot show you. When it arrives, check it against the tech pack, log any deviation, and update the document with a version number.

Version 1.1 beats a thread of texts as your source of truth. Every reorder afterward runs off the approved file with zero re-explaining.

If keeping versions straight in a folder of PDFs sounds like the part you will drop, that is the problem The Studio was built for: the four sections above as a structured document, with the sample approval and every revision logged against it, and a reorder that pulls the approved version rather than whichever file is on top.

The payoff

A tech pack takes an hour or two to build the first time and becomes a template for every product after. What you get back: quotes that do not need three clarifying emails, samples that are right the first time, reorders that match the originals exactly, and the ability to hand production to any shop without losing fidelity.

And if you would rather a person looked at it first: send us what you have, even if it is rough, and we will review it before you commit to a run — or build it with you. That is what the trade side of the shop is for. We would rather answer questions at the spec stage than at the reprint stage.