What are Product Specifications in the Clothing Industry?

If you are a clothing company that needs to manufacture the products you have designed, you need to know the most important product specification terms in the clothing industry: The tech pack and the cut sheet. These two items are often times mistaken for each other due to the fast-paced world of clothing manufacturing wherein industry professionals do not have the luxury of time to explain such lingos and technical terms to newcomers. In this article, we will briefly explain everything you need to know about these product specifications in the clothing industry. You can also เช็คพัสดุ.

1. Getting to Know the Tech Pack

The technical pack or commonly known as the tech pack (also known as the specification sheet or spec sheet) is the blueprint of your clothing product. It contains all of the vital information and details regarding your product including drawings, step by step instructions on how the product design is put together and manufactured to become a piece of clothing. The tech pack is the master file of a clothing product and without it there is no project to work on.

The tech pack is not only used in clothing manufacturing. Similar design files with different names exist for every product category. They serve as the blueprint for all products in the manufacturing industry. From clothes, plastics, garments, apparel and even chemicals, all of these products have their own distinct tech packs out there. There may be confusion based on terminologies since some garment factories and companies prefer to use the word technical pack or spec sheet when in fact both of them are actually the same and can be used interchangeably.

There is no universal standard or format on how a tech pack must look like. However, the information inside a tech pack particularly for standard clothing items must always cover the same key points. A regular tech pack consists of six sections which are the drawings, grading sheet, sewing details, bill of materials, comment section and (sometimes) cut sheet specification or sizing. These items are the normal components of a tech pack and it is up to the client on what format to use to present these details clearly.

2. Getting to Know the Cut Sheet

The cut sheet specification can be a sub-file inside the tech pack or a separate document. It contains all of the measurements, dimensions and sizes available for the clothing product. Proportional 2D flats or technical drawings of the product are the actual cut sheet files, so that these can be printed and the fabric can be cut according to these patterns. The cut sheet heavily focuses on the measurements but may also include other technical information such as fabric type, trims, colors and any other aspects of the clothing design.

The most noticeable part inside the cut sheet are the actual and proportional dimensions of the clothing product. These cuts are the basis that is used to sew the product and all of them are done in their right measurements. Depending on the complexity of a clothing product, each clothing type is composed of at least 4 or more parts to be cut out. Basic cut sheet dimensions are contained within the tech pack and must not be confused as the cut sheet itself. There are times when the manufacturing company only asks for cut sheets instead of the entire tech pack but this is only the case for very simple items where they know all the other specifications anyway.

The cut sheet can be seen as a part of the tech pack and not the tech pack in general. It is the master file when it comes to measurements and dimensions of the product. The tech pack consists of a many more other details and the cut sheet is only one of them. You must not get confused between the size grading sheet and the cut sheet since the former is a different document focusing exclusively on measurements of available sizes of the clothing product.

Conclusion

Both the tech pack and cut sheet are highly important product specifications in the clothing industry. It is impossible to start a clothing project without any of them. They are used as product specifications in the industry and are the prerequisites to any clothing manufacturing project. Now you understand the difference between the two, and you won’t get intimidated when hearing these words thrown at you in the industry. Also check for professional tech pack companies if you need help starting out.

You’d get to hear a lot of lingos, jargons and technical terms thrown around the clothing industry as you gain more and more experience working in it. It is a must for you to learn all these to avoid communication issues with potential clients and manufacturers. It may take a while before you get the hang of things but it is advisable to use these terms on a daily basis and when dealing with your suppliers and manufacturers. The best way is to look at examples and start working with them.