Tech Pack 101: What Indian Apparel Manufacturers Actually Need to Quote You
A practical guide to building a tech pack that an Indian (Gurgaon) garment manufacturer can quote and produce against — units, sizing, fabric specs and Indian sampling realities.
The single biggest cause of slow Indian apparel quotes is incomplete tech packs. After 20 years of buyer onboarding at The Attire, here is the spec sheet we wish every brand sent us on day one.
1. Use metric — and be explicit about it
Indian factories work in cm and grams per square metre (GSM). Imperial inches and ounces require conversion at every step and create rounding errors in patterns. Convert before you send.
2. A real size chart with POMs
Bust, waist, hip, shoulder, sleeve length, body length, neck opening, hem — all in cm, all in finished-garment measurements (not body measurements). Indian pattern-makers grade up and down from a base size; without a complete POM table the base is a guess.
3. Fabric specification
- Composition: e.g. 100 % GOTS-certified organic combed cotton
- Weight: GSM (e.g. 200 GSM)
- Construction: single jersey, interlock, French terry, etc.
- Yarn count: e.g. 30s, 40s
- Finish: bio-washed, enzyme-washed, mercerised
Without these five lines, an Indian mill cannot quote a fabric price — they will ask, and you will lose a week.
4. Colour with pantone references
“Olive green” is not a colour. Pantone 18-0420 TCX (Cypress) is. Indian dyehouses match against the Pantone TCX (textile) library, not Pantone C (coated). Provide TCX codes.
5. Print/embroidery artwork in correct format
- Vector files (.ai or .pdf) for logos and screen prints
- 300 DPI raster (.png or .tif) for photo prints
- DST files for embroidery
- Placement diagram with cm measurements from collar/hem
6. Trims & labels
Main label, care label, hangtag, polybag, master carton. Indian buyers commonly forget the care label content in the language of the destination market — UK English ≠ US English ≠ EU multi-language. Specify upfront.
7. Quantities by colour and size
| S | M | L | XL | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cypress | 50 | 120 | 120 | 50 | 340 |
| Stone | 50 | 120 | 120 | 50 | 340 |
This is the format Indian merchandisers paste directly into the costing sheet — providing it in this layout shaves 1 – 2 days off the quote turnaround.
8. Tolerance & AQL
Specify acceptable measurement tolerance (typically ±1 cm on body lengths, ±0.5 cm on neck/sleeve). Confirm AQL inspection level (2.5 is standard for organic apparel exports from India).
The Indian-specific bonus: target FOB and Incoterm
Tell the Indian factory your target FOB Mundra and your preferred Incoterm (FOB Mundra, CIF Hamburg, etc.). Indian merchandisers cost backwards from the target — sharing it lets them flag impossibility on day one rather than sending a quote you cannot use.
If you want a tech pack template adapted for Indian manufacturing realities, drop us a line — we send a free Excel template that pre-fills the fields above.