Sourcing textiles in China: from tech pack to bulk approval

The tech pack is the contract

A tech pack is not a sketch. It is a document with the measurements at every point of measure, the tolerances, the fibre composition, the fabric weight in gsm, the trims, the stitch types, the labels and the packing.

If it is not in the tech pack, it is not in the garment, and the factory will make a decision on your behalf. That decision will be the cheaper one, and it will be reasonable from their side.

Lab dips, then bulk fabric

A lab dip is a small swatch dyed to your colour reference. You approve it under a defined light source, because a colour approved under a factory fluorescent tube will not be the colour you saw on your screen.

Then, critically, you approve the bulk fabric. The roll that will actually be cut. Weigh it for gsm, check the shade against the approved lab dip, check the hand feel. A factory will happily proceed on the lab dip alone, and the bulk roll will be a slightly different shade, and the difference will be visible when two garments sit next to each other on a rail.

The sealed sample

The pre-production sample, made on the actual line with the actual fabric, is what you seal. It is photographed, it is referenced in the contract, and it is the object that any dispute is measured against.

A sample made in the sample room by the best machinist in the building is not a pre-production sample. It is a sales tool. Ask which one you are looking at.

Inspection points in apparel

Inline inspection during cutting and sewing, because a systematic sewing error found at 20 percent of output is recoverable and the same error found at the end is not. Then a pre-shipment AQL on the finished, packed goods: measurements against the tech pack, workmanship, labels, packing.

Measurement is the one people skip. Take the tape to the garments. A shirt that is two centimetres out at the chest across the whole run is a return rate, not a variation.