Specification Sheet vs Tech pack — What is the difference?
Do you confuse with specification sheet and tech pack terms? Here is a brief explanations for you.
Specification Sheets and Tech Packs are both very important documents for those in the fashion industry, when working with factories to turn your designs into finished products. These documents ensure that your product looks, feels and fits the way you want it to. Without clear information, your vision could get lost in translation.
Because both specification sheets and tech packs do very similar things, it can be hard to tell the difference between them. However, with some datasheet design help and a better understanding of the two, you can make sure your designs look good and and your products even better. Read on to find out more.
Specification Sheet
A specification sheet describes your product in technical detail. It shows a flat drawing of your product, a technical drawing for the manufacturer, all relevant measurements, and technical details on the type of materials used to create the product. This document essentially gives all the relevant data on what makes your product unique and how it should look. An error here could be very costly. This is a key point to note for SMEs or new companies just starting out, check once, check twice and check again — if your specification sheet gets sent to the atelier or warehouse with the wrong measurements not only will you have a product you can’t sell, you won’t be able to reclaim the loss, the fault will rest with you alone.
Tech Pack
A tech pack on the other hand is a collection of documents that you will submit to the manufacturer to make your product. It includes a specification sheet but also has a cover sheet and a grading sheet. A cover sheet shows a non technical polished drawing of your product. A grading sheet comes at the end of the pack and gives the measurements for your sample piece but also gives measurements for scaling up and down for other standard or custom sizes. This is also a critical document to the entire line of the product. Messing up the grading sheet could change the way the piece fits between sizes and portray your brand as inconsistent. This means the tech pack is an essential tool in manufacturing and marketing, when you show your designs and newly made samples to buyers, they’ll also be looking at various sizes to see who you cater to and whether or not you can be an exciting new additional to their store.
The difference
A specification sheet (spec sheet if we’re getting into the jargon) is a detailed, visual product description with a specified intended audience, that is: the manufacturers.
A tech pack is an essential tool in the representation of your designs and their transition from sketches to a wearable, marketable product, however its audience is more varied. Branding, garment measurements, information and descriptions of materials used should be included, useful for both the manufacturer and potential distributor.
Ultimately both tech packs and specification sheets help fashion designers fabricate their products. Tech packs include specification sheets but also include a more comprehensive set of documents to give a full picture of the product — you can’t have one without the other.
Improving Designs
To improve specification sheets and tech packs, we at TDSmaker suggest creating a template. This will give your brand consistent representation and form across tech packs and, at the same time, save you time spent creating and designing the document so your time can be spent on next season. Because you’ve saved time in creating and formatting a template, you’ll be able to use the extra time to double (or triple) check your specifications and confirm the data in your specification sheet. TDSmaker’s design templates save you time and money through the user friendly interface, practical design and editing tools and options for both online sharing so you can confer with colleagues before sending off the hardcopy spec sheets to the warehouse. All of this without breaking a sweat or losing valuable time, seems like a no-brainer, click here to check out our design templates or here to create your own.
This piece was written by Andrew Twining and originally published at blog.tdsmaker.com.
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