Tech Pack Prices
How Much Is A Fashion Tech Pack ?
(33-08-30). Prices for tech packs can vary enormously. For small volume production, using a fairly basic fashion design, a tech pack can cost anything from £100 – £1500 each.
Tech pack fees can mount up if you dont plan carefully. To keep costs down may mean grouping similar styles together, and deciding on priorities.
Our standard four page tech pack costs £220. This should be fine for most basic styles. It includes a garment spec, plus a front and back technical sketch, with any relevant information regarding construction – seams, darts, pockets, stitching, etc. For more complicated styles we provide a six page tech pack costing £320. This also includes a size chart.
Do It Yourself.
The only way to substantially cut tech pack costs is to do it yourself. But that is only possible with plenty of expert guidance from an experienced tech pack designer. If you try to it without help, you will likely encounter all sorts of communication problems and misunderstandings.
If you are interested in learning how to make your own tech packs, then we can provide expert tuition from one of our fashion professionals.
Specialist Tech Pack Designers.
We use a number of very experienced tech pack designers, specialising in their own fields. Each area of clothing requires specialist knowledge in order to produce an accurate tech pack. Swimwear is vastly different to tailoring for example. And menswear is totally different to childrenswear.
Few tech pack makers have have knowledge spanning all aspects of clothing. That is why we use experts in their own field.
Size Specs.
A size spec is not provided as part of the standard tech pack, as the sample needs to be approved before the size chart is made.
If a size spec is required, this would add to the cost, but it can be very useful. It can be cheaper to allow the factory to do the physical grading, but dont rely on them doing so without a size chart.
Size charts for Childrenswear can cost more as there are so many more sizes, but few graders understand childrens grading, so need to be provided with a chart from an expert.
If there are large production runs at stake, then this is definitely a worthwhile investment. Even for small production runs, I would recommend having a professional tech pack created, but it would be worth considering the tech pack workshop as an alternative cost effective solution.
In these 1-1 workshops we sit down with you and go through your designs, providing you with the information for you to complete the tech pack, using our tech pack templates.
The London Pattern Cutter is here to help you decide on the best approach through a cost benefit analysis. Whatever the price of the tech pack, make sure that it is fit for purpose.
If you are manufacturing small runs in the UK, then you may be able to get away without a tech pack by choosing a good factory with excellent pattern cutters. A good pattern cutter knows exactly what information they need to interpret your designs accurately first time round.
A poor factory will probably insist on a tech pack anyway, but beware of the poor factory that mistakenly thinks they can manage without. You may find that you are having to pay for multiple samples.
If you are manufacturing abroad, then a tech pack is pretty much essential. Offshore manufacture can be far cheaper than domestic manufacture, but far more risky. You need to be making significant numbers for it to be worthwhile, but NEVER do this without expert advice and a professional tech pack. To do it any other way virtually guarantees disaster in our experience.
Detailed Tech Pack.
How much a tech pack costs depends on the depth of detailed required, and the complexity of the design. This page should tell you more about tech pack design if you need more information.
Technical garments tend to require more detailed information than general fashion garments. Technical garments are more complicated, more expensive, and require more development.
The garments can be around for a long time. So it can be cost effective to spend more on detailed tech packs. It is also more vital that technical garments are made to exact specifications.
Startup Workshop.
If you are new to the fashion industry, or would like to know how to set up and run a fashion business, we highly recommend our Fashion Startup Workshop, run by our senior business adviser, Emile Carr.