Graphic designers employ fashion illustration tools for a variety of tasks ranging from fashion sketching to logo and packaging design. The development of powerful, cloud-based vector editors driven by AI technology has ushered in a new age, transforming the design process by increasing productivity, production, and customization options.

Notably, the availability of these online vector editors has not only changed the design scene but also democratized knowledge, allowing people with no formal experience to create outstanding images. This inclusiveness contributes to a diverse and imaginative design environment.

Our research for this article included methodically scouring the web, testing these tools personally, immersing ourselves in user evaluations, and eventually curating a short selection of the top six illustration tools. Each app on our list provides outstanding value and is geared to different design journeys, and we're excited to share our findings with you.

Top 6 apps for digital fashion illustration

1. Repsketch for repurposing premade sketches to create a variety of fashion products
2. Adobe Illustrator for drawing any type of sketch from scratch
3. Prêt-à-Template for drawing fashion illustrations on models
4. Affinity Designer for designing art prints, icons, and logos
5. Sketchbook for expressive drawing and concept sketching
6. Procreate for those who like drawing on iPad

Repsketch for repurposing premade sketches to create a variety of fashion products

Repsketch is a breath of fresh air in the world of product design! Driven by a community of fashion designers openly sharing and repurposing each other technical sketches, it is a brilliant app to help designers build on top of excellence. On their website, you will find a large range of designs divided into categories like outerwear, dresses, shirts, bottoms, accessories, shoes, and so forth. You may then choose the drawing and begin reusing it. Alter colors, add/remove design components, and adjust vector lines. Then you can save your design as a PNG or SVG file and use it in other graphic design tools.

Repsketch also offers a wide range of tech pack templates that you can use to begin creating your collections.

In addition, step-by-step video tutorials are available. You can learn how to draw a handbag for example:  

Features

• A large selection of vector graphics that are completely customizable.
• A community of fashion designers of expertise to show, like each other’s work, ask questions, etc.
• A big library of garment components like sleeves, pockets, collars, etc.
• A selection of graphics like prints.
• AI-powered sketch-to-image tools.
• Tech pack templates.
• Video tutorials.
• “Trend of the week” design inspirations.
• Export files in PNG and SVG formats.

Pricing

Basic account free. Premium account 19$ per month or $149 per year.

Summary

Repsketch is an excellent time saver for both novice and experienced fashion designers. Instead of beginning from scratch, reuse drawings produced by other graphic artists using a big Repsketch library. Repsketch, which includes video training, is also a wonderful tool for learning how to draw fashion flats. The platform may also be used to get involved with the community of fashion designers and exchange technical and product info.

Adobe Illustrator for drawing any type of sketch from scratch

Adobe Illustrator is one of the most versatile tools available. You may use it to draw fashion flats, tech packs, sketch images, design logos, and even create 3D effects. It's an excellent tool for creating fresh designs from the ground up. It requires some knowledge to use this platform but there are a variety of tutorials available online.

They have recently launched a generative Ai integration that can instantly convert a basic word prompt into a fully editable vector artwork.

Features

• Large selection of professional graphic design tools for any type of design.
• Advanced tools like textured 3D tools.
• Integration with other Adobe tools allows for quick and simple graphic creation.
• Ability to create ready-to-print continuous patterns.

Pricing

Free trial. Plans start at $22.99 per month.

Summary

Adobe Illustrator is an excellent tool for professional graphic designers. It takes some time to learn, but once you do, it is really simple to use. This software helps create a variety of graphic design projects.

Prêt-à-Template for drawing illustrations on models

Prêt-à-Template helps fashion designers quickly sketch fashion illustrations on models or develop new products on top of a variety of existing templates. The idea for Prêt-à-Template came from the necessity to illustrate the step-by-step process of fashion sketching to large groups of students in the classroom.

On Prêt-à-Template you can quickly create moodboards and color schemes.

And create an infinite number of template combinations by selecting from a range of body types, clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories. Personalized templates to assist you in improving your fashion drawing talents.

Features

• A big library of fashion design templates.
• Face charts for makeup look creation.
• A library of textures and prints that can be added to sketches.
• Folder organization for multiple projects.
• Tutorials.
• Inspiration library that can help start a project.

Pricing

Free trial. Then $13.99 monthly.

Summary

Prêt-à-Template is great for fashion professionals and lovers who need to quickly combine picture components into projects or build a mood board.

Affinity Designer for designing art prints, icons, and logos

Affinity Designer is a great tool for creating print projects, logos, icons, UI designs, and fashion mock-ups. It is responsive and fast and works great with large-scale files. Affinity Designer provides its users with both vector and raster workspaces and a load of tools to illustrate with.

It is also a great tool for designing catalogs and drawing logos. You can layout your designs across an unlimited number of artboards.

Features

• Fully featured vector and raster workspaces.
• Hundreds of design tools and functions.
• Option to view vectors in both standard and retina resolution for a completely live view of how every element of your design will export.
• An unlimited number of artboards.
• Typography options.
• Can be used on any device.
• Works with a variety of formats from PNG to DXF.

Pricing

Purchase either the Windows or macOS version for a one-off payment of $69.99 or get the entire suite on all platforms for $164.99 with the Universal License.

Summary

Affinity Designer is an excellent software for creating large-scale fashion graphics. In addition to designing goods, logos, and packaging.

Sketchbook for expressive drawing and concept sketching

Sketchbook is a sketching, painting, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw on the go. This sketching program is accessible via a variety of devices, including desktop, Windows 10, and mobile.

It has a similar appearance to Photoshop, but what distinguishes it from others is its greater emphasis on sketching and painting, as well as the convenience of generating artwork quickly. Furthermore, unlike Photoshop, this application is not intended for picture processing or photography; rather, it provides a wide range of tools geared for artists and designers.

Features

• A wide variety of highly customizable brushes supported by guides, rulers and stroke tools.
• Can be used on various devices.

Pricing

Sketchbook is currently available free for Android 5.0+ and iOS 11.0+

Summary

Autodesk Sketchbook is a sketching and painting application for architects, designers, and concept artists. It helps you to generate eye-catching graphics in a short amount of time while being productive across all major platforms and devices.

Procreate for those who like drawing on iPad

Procreate is a versatile and user-friendly digital illustration tool. It is designed to operate with the iPad, iPhone, and Apple Pencil, and provides you all the advantages of working digitally—the ability to easily make edits, create art on the go, and share your work instantly—while replicating the familiar sensation of using brushes, pens, and pencils on paper.

Features

• The artwork is organized in a gallery format.
• Import files from other devices and locations.
• Perform professional-level compositing and layer adjustments.
• Easy integration with existing workflows.

Pricing

One-time price of $9.99.

Summary

Procreate is a great affordable graphic design tool for those who like drawing fashion illustrations on iPad and want to quickly share their designs with the team.

A Tech Pack, also known as a specification sheet, is a collection of documentation designers generate to describe their design to a manufacturer. It functions as a blueprint for a finished product, containing information such as flat sketches, materials, measurement requirements, size gradings, colors, etc.

The ultimate purpose of a Tech Pack is to reduce the number of samples produced and get a product to market as quickly as possible. The Tech Pack is also a master document for tracking product development, such as comments, revisions, and last-minute modifications.

In this blog post, we will walk you through the process of creating a tech pack for a dining chair.

Sketches and construction details

Having detailed technical flat sketches before beginning your tech pack is crucial. Every design element must be shown in your fashion flats from several perspectives. We recommend providing a front, side, top, and back view in the dining chair tech pack.

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Bill of Materials

A well-defined Bill of Materials is essential to the creation of new products. It is the whole list of components needed to make a finished good that can be sold. BOM tables assist businesses in estimating material prices in order to plan purchases and avoid waste. It also ensures that you never miss anything when producing your items.

Chairs are complex products. They consist of many parts that need to be smartly engineered in order to function well for a long time. This includes different types of wood, screws, and upholstery supplies.

Make sure to include your supplier's information in the BOM table. It will save you a lot of time when it comes time to re-order materials.

Measurements table

A Measurement Table, also known as a specification sheet, is a technical document that includes all of the product's manufacturing data. With all of its measurements included, it resembles a technical diagram or a drawing of a product.

The measurements spec sheet for a dining chair consists of technical sketches with callouts and a measurements table. Arrow callouts (also called annotations) showcase how the measurements are taken to the manufacturer.

A tech pack for a dining chair should include the following measurements:

• Front view: full height
• Front view: full width
• Front view: distance from top of seat to end of front leg
• Front view: distance from one front leg to another
• Side view: distance from the front leg to the back leg
• Side view: apron width
• Side view: seat width
• Side view: arm width
• Side view: distance from top of the arm to the bottom of the front leg
• Side view: distance from top of the seat to the start of the arm
• Top view: distance from top rail to the end of the seat
• Top view: distance from one arm to another

Costing Sheet

Costing Sheets assist brands in determining the cost of a product. You will know how much it will cost to make one dining chair and the entire production run once you receive an estimate from your manufacturer. In general, the more chairs you make the lower the cost per chair would be.

The costing sheet for a dining chair will include:

• Labor cost;
• Materials costs, like wood, screws, padding, paint, etc. (basically everything from your BOM table);
• Labels and tags;
• Packaging materials.

On Techpacker, you can automatically generate a Costing Sheet based on your Bill of Materials.  

Share with the manufacturer

Once you've completed your tech pack, you can produce a PDF document with a single click and share the factory-ready tech pack with your manufacturer.

The sample-making procedure begins once you share the tech pack with your manufacturer and sign the manufacturing agreement with them. The tech pack may be updated several times during this procedure until you are pleased with the final output. As a result, it's critical to maintain each tech pack version on hand and compare them as needed.

A t-shirt is a versatile and popular piece of clothing that can be found in almost everyone's wardrobe. In the fashion industry, creating a t-shirt is a multi-step process that begins with conceptualizing the design and ends with the finished product.

Though a t-shirt design may appear straightforward at first glance, some important factors, such as t-shirt parts, seam constructions, and points of measurement, must not be overlooked.

In this ebook, we discuss the many varieties of t-shirts, delve into t-shirt anatomy, and provide tools to help you streamline your t-shirt product development.

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As a fashion designer and pattern maker, Kristina Shin has more than ten years of experience in the underwear and outerwear sectors. Kristina graduated from Chung Nam National University, Korea with a BA in Clothing and Textiles. Then she received an MA in fashion merchandising from California State University, Los Angeles, and a PhD in fashion design from the University of Northumbria, UK.

Kristina currently works as a fashion design lecturer at The University of Cincinnati. She was assigned to teach the "Apparel Analysis" course. Her course focuses on product development procedures such as technical design communication, material sourcing, testing, manufacturing, and production techniques. At the end of this course, students prepare a tech pack.

Finding a platform for students to develop their apparel design skills

Kristina's first responsibility was to choose a platform for students to learn on. She realized she needed a visual platform that would show students the product development process step-by-step. As well as a platform for them to communicate as a group in the future, much like a true design team.

On Techpacker her students can quickly and easily observe a product's whole lifecycle. It guides students step-by-step through the process of building a tech pack, starting with sketches, bill of materials, and finishing with measurement and fit sheets. Students may simply set up their own stages on Techpacker, such as design, sample, and manufacturing, and switch between them with ease. And once they return to their laptops, they have access to the most recent information right at their fingertips.

And if they had any questions, Techpacker support was always available to help.

Teaching students to work as a team

Apparel Analysis students were asked to create two tech packs, one as a group project and the other as an individual project. The ultimate purpose of a group project was to learn how to interact with a team and communicate directly with individuals. They needed a platform that would enable them to communicate properly without mistakes caused by data overwriting and other miscommunications.

The students really appreciated Techpacker's real-time updates when working with other group members. Every time one of the students made an update, the other students were notified. Techpacker totally removed the problem of data overwriting. When students worked together as a team, there was far less misunderstanding.

Streamlining the learning process with Techpacker’s quick design tools

For the students, drawing call-outs and annotations by hand on Illustrator was too time-intensive. They'd rather spend their time learning something more valuable.

Using Techpacker's quick design tools students were able to swiftly draw call-outs. This feature allows design teams to point out the design details for the manufacturers to ensure quality product development. Simultaneously, the students also downloaded Adobe Illustrator extensions to Techpacker to automatically sync their vector designs, eliminating the need to format the sketches every time they were created and changed in Illustrator.

Techpacker is also working on integrating the Repsketch plugin, which will enable the usage of premade technical sketch templates, making the job of fashion designers and product developers much easier.

We're thrilled to introduce new Techpacker improvements. Our goal? To enhance both brands' and manufacturers' experiences. We are rolling out features that will streamline brand and manufacturer collaboration.

Faster Manufacturers Onboarding

Our improved sign-up flow has made the procedure exceedingly simple. Brands can easily invite and onboard manufacturers, facilitating cooperation in ways that have never been possible before.

Through the "My Manufacturers" feature, brands now have the ability to easily add their vendors. The procedure is as simple as it gets: with just a few clicks, businesses may assemble their list of manufacturers and send invitations to sign up. Manufacturers receive a prompt email invitation as a result, and they may then log onto Techpacker to access pooled tech packs. This improvement promotes a more positive brand-manufacturer connection while also saving time.

Tech packs Organized by Folder for Manufacturers

Before, tech packs were simply arranged in the brand's folder without any further classification. Due to the time-consuming nature of sorting through an enormous quantity of tech packs, the visibility became quite tiresome.

We're thrilled to introduce our new folder-wise view for techpacks. Manufacturers may now quickly explore and access the tech packs supplied by brands, which are neatly organized into folders. This degree of detail guarantees that manufacturers can easily access and interact with the tech packs they need at the time they require them.

Best fit - 6 cards per page view

Although we've always provided 6 cards for each page in our tech packs, we've been paying close attention to customer feedback. There were moments when it seemed like we could get more on that page. We're thrilled to provide the "Best Fit 6 Cards Per Page" option in light of this.

With this option, all six of your cards are automatically arranged on a single page in the best possible way. It works like a puzzle solver to make sure your cards fit perfectly and maximize the available space. The outcome? Fewer pages, less work, and a cleaner picture overall. Never before have your tech packs looked so good!

New Option To Pause Your Techpacker Subscription

At Techpacker, empathy is at the heart of all we do. Life may be erratic, and we understand that sometimes you may not require our platform for a while before the necessity reappears. We want to be sure that you can depend on us to make the most of every subscription day. This is where our newest feature—which was created with your requirements in mind—of stopping the subscription comes in.

You may pause your membership without missing any days, whether you're managing a busy time or exploring new areas. When you're prepared to get started again, your membership resumes without a hitch and is extended by the exact number of days you paused it for.

Mahra works as a designer and production coordinator for the Dutch company ThePropertyOf, which sells luggage. Mahra has almost 20 years of experience working in the fashion industry. She loves working in the fashion sector because of the global connections she makes and the satisfaction she gets from creating luxury goods for happy clients.

Mahra is thrilled to be working at ThePropertyOf because they have similar ideals. The focus of the travel gear company is on customer service; they want to be as environmentally friendly as they can while building a worldwide community.

During her career as a fashion designer and product coordinator, Mahra has experienced a variety of difficulties in developing new items and interacting with suppliers. We asked Mara to elaborate on these issues and how Techpacker assisted in finding solutions.

Materials management

Travel gear companies like ThePropertyOf manage a wide range of materials and interact with multiple suppliers on a regular basis. It is critical that they have all sourcing information structured, easily modifiable, and at their fingertips.

Mahra's use of Illustrator and Dropbox to organize design data did not provide her with a clear picture of materials management. There was no efficient method to keep track of all material details such as linings, hardware, and trims. It became far more difficult to share them with a manufacturer, or to change material selections as needed.

Mahra is now utilizing Techpacker's libraries to create a materials overview. She first produces a Bill of Materials for each product for herself as a visual reference, and then she distributes various BOM tables with suppliers to discuss different materials, textiles, and requirements.

This is especially useful when the brand begins working with a new factory and all of the data must be properly communicated. Techpacker's libraries are visual and simple to customize. Mahra can swiftly interchange cards to upgrade or downgrade materials, as well as delete or archive those that are no longer needed.

“Techpacker's libraries really improve our efficiency! They can be easily created, altered as necessary, and immediately shared in PDF format with our vendors. For our suppliers, they assist in developing a complete grasp of all the materials contained in a bag or a product. So that each of us may decide whether to upgrade or downgrade specific materials based on price and availability." - says Mahra.

Clear communication with suppliers

ThePropertyOf works with a variety of international providers. Global sourcing is used to get the many components of a bag, including leather, cotton canvas, hardware, and trims.

The process of manufacture and design is overseen by Mahra. Therefore, it is crucial for Mahra to have control over a variety of suppliers that offer materials of different quality. There were no effective ways to arrange the information by manufacturers and then share the list of components with particular suppliers when she used Dropbox for all of her data storage.

“In Techpacker, I can see a list of both suppliers as well as the specs for the materials used in the design. Techpacker's Materials Tables are my go-to method for organizing files before sharing them with manufacturers. It enables me to own the process and manage it in-house to ensure that the quality meets our expectations.” - shares Mahra.

Design optimization and quick updates

Mahra, like many other fashion designers, creates technical flat sketches in Adobe Illustrator. Mahra had to save her sketches in Dropbox folders before moving to Techpacker. Very often, design sketches in the fashion industry go through numerous variations before the product is finished. Mahra had to go back to Illustrator every time a single modification was made, revise the sketch, format it, and save a new version in Dropbox. When it came time to create a tech pack, Mahra had to find and compile all of the required sketches from two platforms.

Mahra took use of Techpacker's Adobe Illustrator plugin when her brand transitioned to the new platform.

“Using the Illustrator plugin and Techpacker together is the best of both worlds! A tech pack may be easily customized. It's fairly simple to make adjustments to the tech pack itself in Illustrator. As a result, the workflow is greatly increased. And it's providing me with a nice overview of new designs as well as altering existing designs. It's a really efficient manner of working!” - says Mahra.

The challenges of data management and sharing

In the design process, a lot of information has to come together, like Bill of Materials, specification sheets with design pictures and measurements. All of that needs to be combined and sent to the factory.

Previously, we used Illustrator and Dropbox for all of our data storage, and it required a significant amount of time and effort to compile all of this design data into an easy-to-read manner.

"Now, I can easily compile all the design information with Techpacker and deliver it to the factory in PDF format. In this manner, it is obvious what is expected of each party. Now that we can create tech pack papers and save all of our design data on a single platform. It is a huge time saver!" - says Mahra.

Slow time-to-market is a common problem in the fashion industry, and it can have a significant impact on the success of a fashion brand.

To address slow time-to-market in design teams, it's important to establish clear project goals and requirements, streamline design processes, improve communication, and manage scope creep.

Additionally, investing in the right software, tools, and resources can help the design team work more efficiently and effectively.

In this Ebook, we'll go through the main product development bottlenecks that affect time-to-market and how to solve them using modern PLM technologies.

As a bonus, we will discuss several sustainable product development techniques that a clothing line may use to lessen its influence on the environment.

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Sustainable product development in fashion refers to the process of designing and creating fashion products in a way that minimizes negative environmental and social impacts while maximizing positive contributions to sustainability. It encompasses the entire lifecycle of a product, from conception and design to sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life considerations.

In this blog post, we go through several sustainable product development techniques that a clothing line may use to lessen its influence on the environment.

Environment impact reduction

Environmental impact reduction in fashion refers to the efforts and strategies implemented to minimize the negative consequences of the fashion industry on the environment. It involves addressing various aspects of the fashion supply chain, from raw material extraction to manufacturing, distribution, product use, and disposal. The goal is to mitigate environmental degradation, conserve resources, reduce pollution, and promote sustainable practices.

Minimizing sample-making and production waste with clear PLM processes

Clear and effective product development methods can help to reduce sample-making and production waste. With the help of modern PLM tools, you can connect all team members and suppliers under one roof, collaborate in real-time and create a more sustainable product development process together.

With the help of PLM systems your design team can:

1. Foster effective collaboration and communication among the product development team, including designers, engineers, and manufacturers. Clearly communicate design concepts, specifications, and any updates to minimize errors and reduce the need for multiple iterations.
2. Involve suppliers early in the product development process to leverage their expertise. Collaborate closely with them to ensure that materials, components, and manufacturing processes are optimized for efficiency and waste reduction.
3. Standardize sizing and fittings as much as possible to reduce the need for multiple iterations and samples. This approach streamlines the production process and minimizes waste associated with customizations or alterations.
4. Establish a structured sample evaluation process to ensure clear and constructive feedback. Provide detailed feedback to manufacturers regarding any required modifications or adjustments, helping to minimize errors and rework.

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3D prototyping

Before going to tangible samples, use digital tools such as 3D software to develop virtual prototypes and iterate on concepts. This method provides for faster iterations, less material waste, and more efficient design refinement.

Implement 3D printing and rapid prototyping technologies to create physical prototypes quickly. These technologies enable the production of functional prototypes with reduced material waste, time, and cost. They also facilitate iterative design improvements.

Sustainable packaging

In fashion, sustainable packaging refers to the use of eco-friendly supplies and procedures for the packaging of clothing, accessories, and other fashion items. Brands are becoming more aware of the significance of reducing the environmental effect of their packaging across the full product life cycle as the fashion industry has become more and more concerned with sustainability.

Below are some ways that fashion brands can reduce the negative environmental impact with the help of packaging:

1. The use of recycled, recyclable, or biodegradable materials is common in sustainable packaging. Options include recycled paper or cardboard, organic textiles, biodegradable polymers, and even novel materials such as mushroom-based packaging.
2. Many fashion brands are attempting to decrease the number of packaging materials needed, with the goal of creating simple designs that sufficiently protect the product. Less waste is produced by removing superfluous packaging, inserts, or needless layers.
3. Some fashion manufacturers are creating packaging that can be reused, such as boxes that can be used for storage or shopping bags that can be reused.
4. Using environmentally friendly printing procedures, such as water-based or soy-based inks, eliminates the usage of toxic chemicals while also minimizing environmental effects.

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Optimizing manufacturing processes

Optimizing fashion manufacturing processes is essential for improving efficiency, reducing waste, and minimizing the environmental impact of the industry. Here are some strategies to optimize fashion manufacturing processes:

Clear collaboration with manufacturers

Incorporate lean manufacturing principles into your production processes. This involves identifying and eliminating waste at every stage, optimizing workflows, and continuously improving efficiency. Implement techniques such as value stream mapping, Kanban systems, and Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing.

Involve suppliers early in the product development process to leverage their expertise. Collaborate closely with them to ensure that materials, components, and manufacturing processes are optimized for efficiency and waste reduction.

Use PLM systems to stay in touch with your suppliers and communicate in real-time. On Techpacker you can keep your conversation with the manufacturer on hand and refer to it as needed. This illuminates miscommunication, and unnecessary rounds of sample-making and therefore reduces waste.

Reducing paper waste by utilizing online technologies

With the help of PLM systems like Techpacker, you can store digital versions of your tech packs on hand and share them with your factory. This significantly eliminates paper waste when it comes to printing out tech pack sheets.

Even if the factory is not part of your Techpacker account, they can see your tech pack in a PDF format without the need to print it out. Even after multiple rounds of sample reviews, the manufacturer will clearly see all updates and edits. This significantly reduces miscommunication issues.

On-demand manufacturing

In contrast to traditional mass production, when things are built in large quantities ahead of time, on-demand manufacturing, sometimes referred to as made-to-order or bespoke manufacturing, is a production strategy in which products are only manufactured when an order is received.

There are several ways that on-demand manufacturing can support sustainable product development:

1. Reduction in overproduction: Overproduction is a major problem in the fashion business, resulting in excess inventory and waste. On-demand manufacturing reduces the need to produce large numbers of clothing in advance, lowering the danger of overproduction and eliminating unsold inventory that might otherwise wind up in landfills.
2. Efficient use of resources: On-demand manufacturing allows for more exact production planning, which leads to more efficient resource usage. Based on the precise amount of orders, manufacturers may optimize their material procurement, production processes, and energy usage, reducing waste and environmental effects.
3. Customization and personalization: Fashion goods may be customized and personalized thanks to on-demand production. Customers may select certain designs, colors, and sizes, as well as customize their outfits. This method decreases the chance of customers purchasing many goods in order to get the right fit or style, hence lowering total consumption and waste.
4. Reduced transportation emissions: With on-demand manufacturing, products are produced closer to the point of sale or delivery, reducing the need for long-distance transportation. This can result in lower carbon emissions associated with shipping, as well as decreased reliance on air freight, which is more carbon-intensive than other modes of transportation.
5. Extended product life cycle: By producing garments on demand, brands can avoid the need for excessive markdowns or sales to clear out excess inventory. This helps maintain the value and desirability of the product, extending its life cycle and reducing the pressure to constantly introduce new collections.

Designing products for energy efficiency and recyclability

Designing products for energy efficiency and recyclability is a crucial aspect of sustainable product development. It involves materials selection, design optimization, and avoiding hazardous substances.

Sustainable product design

Sustainable product design involves creating products with ease of disassembly in mind, allowing for efficient separation of components at the end of the product's life. Use fasteners, connectors, or adhesives that can be easily removed, and avoid irreversible bonding methods.

Other practices include: selecting materials that are recyclable and have established recycling processes. Avoid using complex or mixed materials that are difficult to separate and recycle. Design with mono-materials or easily separable components to facilitate recycling.

Sustainable fabrics

Choosing sustainable and responsibly sourced materials is crucial to reducing the environmental impact of fashion. This includes using organic, recycled, or regenerated fibers, such as organic cotton, recycled polyester, or Tencel®. Additionally, avoiding materials associated with deforestation, excessive water usage, or hazardous chemical treatments helps protect ecosystems and conserve natural resources.

Some of the top sustainable fabrics of 2023 are:

1. Recycled plastic bottles.
2. Cork leather
3. Pinatex.
4. Microfibrillated cellulose from Spinnova.
5. Econyl.
6. Qmonos.
7. Sateri’s Lyocell.
8. Recyclable cotton.
9. Linen.
10. Tencel.

Bonus: Free ebook

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How To Avoid Product Development Bottlenecks

Learn how to streamline time-to-market with clear product development processes.

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Fashion product developers play an important part in the changing world of the fashion business, yet they frequently spend the majority of their work time on boring redundant tasks. Fortunately, the development of specialist technologies such as Techpacker has resulted in a transformational shift in the garment business. This robust PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) software platform has changed the design process, making it simpler for designers to focus on innovation.

In this blog post, we have curated a list of quick and user-friendly design tools available on Techpacker. Whether you are a seasoned fashion product developer or a newcomer in the industry, these tools will enhance your design capabilities and enable you to create stunning designs without depending solely on your design team's availability.

Adobe Illustrator extension

If you're used to sketching fashion flats in Illustrator, Techpacker's Adobe Illustrator extension can help you save time on formatting. You may smoothly incorporate your design data into your product development program with this plugin. With the Techpacker annotation tool, you can rapidly add call-outs and notes to your drawings and produce a tech pack PDF with no formatting.

Auto-sync all design changes

Auto-sync is undoubtedly the most useful function of Adobe Illustrator for any fashion designer. All of your Ai modifications are automatically synchronized with your Techpacker drawings. This alone saves you a significant amount of time! Because, as you are aware, sketches are frequently revised during the product development process.

Simply make an edit in your Illustrator workspace and it will be automatically reflected in your Techpacker account.

Build tech packs in Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is often used by designers to create technical flat sketches. So why not make a full tech pack in it? And save time on formatting while you are at it.

Techpacker's Adobe Illustrator extension allows you to create tech packs directly from Illustrator. And there's no need to build tables for your design data. Techpacker has everything set up for you. Simply design your drawing, import it into your Techpacker account using the Adobe Illustrator plugin, and synchronize as you modify.

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Annotation tool

Excel does not support callouts, and with Adobe Illustrator, you must make callouts by hand and format the sketches afterward. It also takes extra time to reorganize callouts if you need to reorder them later.

To eliminate all of this repetitive work, Techpacker developed its own annotation tool within its platform. Simply upload the sketch (or sync it with your Illustrator workspace) and begin drawing call-outs straight on it.

It simply takes one click to modify your call-outs, choose a type of call-out, or alter their color. When you create a call-out, an annotation row appears where you may enter any sort of design information, such as construction details, fabric placement, or measurements.

Re-ordering callouts is also quite simple with Techpacker and saves a lot of time!

Create points of measurement (POM)

You can use the Techpacker annotation tool to create Points of Measurement (POM) and include notes to your manufacturer about how to take these measurements.

Write design specifications

In addition to the points of measurement, you can use the Techpacker annotation tool to add construction details or fabric placement to your garment.

Organize your sketches in a tech pack PDF

Once you add your call-outs and annotations, you can generate a PDF tech pack and pick the most comfortable layout for your sketches. You can pick from one to six cards per page.

In-app vector editor

It takes a lot of time and work to draw fashion flats from start to completion. All of the seam lines, topstitching, and other design elements. While every skilled designer may have a library of fashion sketches saved in computer files, individuals who are new to fashion design do not.

When drawing a fashion sketch, it is very helpful to have a starting point. Repsketch, for example, provides its users with a large collection of flat designs done by expert fashion designers. The drawings may be repurposed into anything. Colors, sleeve types, pockets, and even prints may be changed.

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We've released some wonderful new features and upgrades this month. For better organization, we added a sorting function to libraries, an email grouping tool for tech pack sharing, and an option to create sub-folders within folders. Furthermore, with the updated access method, your Techpacker data is now much more secure!

Sub-folders within folders to improve file organization

Our consumers have shown a strong need for sub-folders within folders in order to better manage their data. In response to this input, we devised a novel solution. With our most recent version, you may now build filters within a folder, and these filters are immediately saved locally. Once you return to the tech pack board, your tech packs will be precisely where you left them since the filters you applied will be preserved. You no longer have to go through the trouble of reapplying filters each time you visit the board.

By using these filters within a folder, you may quickly sort and find the appropriate styles depending on sub-folder criteria.

Easier and better-organized correspondence with manufacturers

We've made substantial enhancements to Techpacker's sharing functionality, making it easier and faster than ever before. Sharing tech packs with manufacturers formerly required manually choosing individual email addresses from the list of added manufacturers. However, thanks to our most recent upgrade, exchanging tech packs with manufacturers is now a breeze. The system now automatically groups the email addresses of the manufacturers by their respective business names. This means that when you choose a certain company name, all of the corresponding email addresses are automatically auto-filled with a single click.

Instead of looking for and choosing each manufacturer's email address, you may now choose the business name, and all relevant email addresses will be auto-populated when delivering tech packs to your manufacturers.

Organize your libraries with the new sort function

The addition of the sort function improves the structure of libraries. With this new sort by library type option you can arrange your library based on their types - sketches, materials, measurements. Even custom libraries can be neatly sorted into their appropriate domains. Once selected, your library dropdown is sorted by type, ensuring a consistent and straightforward user experience by displaying them in a logical sequence that corresponds to their distinct categories.

Improved secured access to Techpacker data

We place a high priority on teamwork at Techpacker. However, we recently became aware of several situations in which certain businesses were abusing Techpacker by revealing their access information. This caused concurrency problems, which resulted in data and log overwriting. To address this worry, we have included a new functionality in our most recent edition. Concurrent usage on several devices is now prohibited when using the same credentials.

As a result, Techpacker recognizes that you have exceeded your device restriction if a user checks in on one device and then attempts to log in on another. In such cases, the situation will be immediately informed to you. Additionally, you will have the option to log out of any additional devices that you are currently logged in on.

Users can now change the login email id by themselves

Previously, changing or updating a user's login email ID on Techpacker required the assistance of a member of our Techpacker staff. We understood the need of allowing users to alter their login email IDs directly, as there are a variety of circumstances that may demand such a change.

This enhancement allows users to manage their own account information and provides a more seamless experience by reducing the need for manual intervention from our staff, saving users time and effort.

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While a trench or blazer looks great with the right styling, a bomber jacket completes any look. Throwing one of these over anything that feels a bit too formal will quickly solve it. A bomber jacket will undoubtedly be an excellent addition to your next collection.

Introduction

We used a technical flat sketch from Repsketch for this template. You may quickly update, add, or delete design details, alter colors, and even upload artwork such as patches or prints over there.

Our measurement template for the bomber jacket includes technical sketches with how to measure callouts.

The measurement table also includes all essential POMs (Points of measurement) to build a jacket for sizes Small through Large. Measurement tolerances have also been provided that you can use as quality control with your factory.

What's included in this template

1. All essential Points of measurement
2. High-quality sketches for each POM
3. Instructions on how to measure each POM with callouts
4. Measurements specs from size Small through Large
5. Size gradings

There are a few ongoing challenges that have been prominent in the fashion industry and are likely to continue in 2023-2024.

The fashion industry is known for its significant environmental footprint, including carbon emissions, water usage, chemical pollution, and waste generation. Ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and ethical treatment of workers throughout the global supply chain is an ongoing challenge.

While the new technology presents opportunities for innovation and efficiency, it also poses challenges for the fashion industry. Brands must adapt to changing consumer behaviors and leverage technology for sustainable production, supply chain management, and engaging customer experiences.

Embracing sustainable practices, promoting transparency, and fostering innovation are essential for the fashion industry to move towards a more ethical and environmentally responsible future. In this post, we will discuss the top eight fashion industry challenges that we are facing in 2023.

Sustainability, greenwashing, and textile waste

Sustainability, greenwashing, and textile waste are interconnected issues in the fashion industry.

Greenwashing exacerbates the challenge of sustainability in fashion. False or exaggerated claims can mislead consumers into purchasing products that they believe are sustainable but are actually contributing to environmental harm.

While textile waste is a consequence of unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Fast fashion's emphasis on low-cost, disposable clothing leads to shorter product lifecycles and increased waste generation.

Sustainability

According to the UN, the fashion industry is one of the most environmentally destructive, producing 8–10% of the world's carbon emissions. Businesses must switch to recyclable, regenerative, and responsibly sourced sustainable materials.

According to a poll done by First Insight, two-thirds of worldwide customers are prepared to pay more for sustainable items. This shift in customer behavior poses both problems and possibilities for clothes merchants, underlining the need to embrace sustainable methods and offer eco-friendly design alternatives.

There are a few trends in sustainable fashion that companies should take into account in 2023:

• Transparent supply chains: Consumers will continue to seek greater transparency into the sources of their apparel in 2023. Fair labor practices and safe working conditions should be prioritized by apparel sellers.
• Less is more: In 2023 consumers will prioritize quality over quantity.
• Innovative sustainable materials: Brands should prioritize materials with lower environmental footprints require fewer resources, and reduce the reliance on traditional, resource-intensive fabrics.
• Virtual fitting technologies: Virtual fitting rooms enable shoppers to digitally try on garments and find the best fit without having to physically put them on. This decreases the environmental impact of several shipping and return cycles.

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Greenwashing

Consumers, regulators, and other stakeholders increasingly scrutinize how businesses communicate about their sustainability credentials as the sector grapples with its adverse environmental and social effects. To prevent "greenwashing," businesses must demonstrate that they are making real and legitimate changes while adhering to increasing regulatory obligations.

Textile waste

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, fashion generates 40 million tons of textile waste globally each year, much of it unneeded – despite cotton's recyclable nature, fewer than 1% of cotton materials were recycled in 2020.

Closed-loop methods that keep clothing in continual circulation will be required if fashion wants to decrease its volume of trash. To accomplish this, improvements in garment design will be needed, with an emphasis not just on recyclability but also on ease of collection and sorting.

Supply chain bottlenecks

In 2023, supply chain operations will continue to be disrupted by a variety of factors, including ongoing or emerging geopolitical conflicts, inflationary pressures, a deflationary environment, extreme weather related to climate change, and additional problems that have not yet surfaced. They may all affect how products are accessed and how they are transported to their intended locations, as well as cause port delays, decrease the availability of containers and ocean freight, and increase pricing, among other issues.

In the upcoming year, managing how your business responds to these situations might be a crucial opportunity. There are three main components that you need to set up:

• Capability: The capacity to organize the supply chain effectively, stay one step ahead of potential problems, and seize opportunities.
• Agility: Making sure your supply chain is responsive and agile can help you handle the unexpected and respond to risks and disruptions effectively, profitably, and efficiently.
• End-to-end visibility: Real-time communication with your ecosystem of supply chain partners, having a “bird-eye” view on important real-time indicators, and being able to move your supply chain outside of your own company's boundaries will likely be essential. All of these things can be done utilizing digital capabilities. The ultimate objective is to improve cooperation throughout the whole supply chain ecosystem.

Product lifetime management

Product lifecycle management (PLM) has grown in significance over the past two decades. It ensures not just the efficiency of a company's supply chain management but also the final success of its goods in the marketplace. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-based PLM digital solutions are anticipated to play a significant role in fostering product innovation and optimization in the coming year, particularly in light of the ongoing economic challenges.

PLM solutions are being effectively used for a variety of use cases:

• Creating a comprehensive product development strategy by seamlessly integrating data and procedures with supply chain systems.
• Enhancing the design, development, and management of new product launches and engineering modification needs to accelerate innovation to launch.
• Enforcing product conformity and monitoring modifications throughout a product's lifespan to accommodate altering international requirements.

There is a variety of PLM solutions, learn how to select the right one for your fashion business.

Fit issues and changing consumer desires

Fit and style issues are two of the most common causes of high return rates. According to recent surveys, shoppers favor gender fluid fashion and gender neutral fit. Fashion businesses must make adjustments in order to meet the needs of the new clientele if they want to remain relevant.

Fit issues

Customers are returning a more significant proportion of their purchases than ever before, with the National Retail Federation reporting that 20.8% of items are being returned on average - a 96% increase since 2020. Poor fit or style accounts for up to 70% of all returns. PwC estimates that 30-40% of online fashion purchases are returned.

To overcome this issue, fashion designers may use 3D technology to quickly identify fit problems before manufacturing physical samples. Miscommunication with the manufacturers might also have a detrimental impact on the fit. Here's how Techpacker can help you communicate more accurately with vendors.

Changing consumer desires

Millennial and Generation Z customers are predicted to fuel the industry's revival, with fashion being one of the top three sectors where they want to spend.

Attracting these clients, on the other hand, will need a commitment to innovation. According to Context Consulting, 50% of consumers would prefer increased technology use in retail over cheaper pricing.

As interest in fashion NFTs and virtual worlds rises, leading companies are beginning to investigate options such as blockchain and digital fashion. With 71% of consumers wanting to spend more money with businesses that include augmented reality in the customer journey, merchants must think about this as well.

Gender-fluid apparel is gaining popularity as consumer attitudes on gender identity and expression shift. The blurring of the distinctions between menswear and womenswear will need a rethinking of product design, marketing, and in-store and digital shopping experiences for many companies and retailers.

Cyber attack resilience

According to IBM, retail is the fourth most targeted industry, with the average breach costing $3.28 million. The loss of customers’ trust might cost millions more.

Brands must actively manage cyber risk throughout the value chain, taking into account how data is handled from collection through use and disposal.

When creating fashion goods with a PLM system, you want to ensure that all of your design data is secure. Check to see what security standards the new system adheres to. You must also be able to access your work files from any location, anytime. For security, a PLM system should include data backup and recovery and data encryption.

Inflation and raw materials prices

The impact on the global economy is already obvious: the 6.1 percent GDP growth reported in 2021 will likely fall below 3 percent in 2022 and to about 2.5 percent in 2023. The uncertainty surrounding these prospects is quite high, reflecting the global economy's continued instability.

Inflation

The market will split in response to inflation and macroeconomic instability. On the one hand, the wealthy class is likely to remain wealthy and continue its spending in a roughly similar manner; on the other hand, the rest of the population is expected to not only limit purchases but also by flooding the secondhand market, outlets, and discounting and thus abandoning the primary luxury market.

Raw materials prices

Meanwhile, the industry's transportation and raw material price crises are far from ending. The Harpex index for the cost of container ship charters is still about 100% higher than it was in January 2020.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted significant price changes in 2022. Synthetic fibers now account for about two-thirds of worldwide textile fiber output, having dominated since the cotton crisis of 2010-11. While prices have steadily declined again, the majority of them have returned to pre-crisis levels.

Lack of qualified employees

The ongoing hunt for skilled staff, challenging for years, will be the key problem of the coming year.

To recruit talent, the garment business must raise the minimum wage, abolish unpaid internships, and employ from a broader range of backgrounds. LVMH, for example, pledged last year to teach 25,000 young people from diverse backgrounds through internships, apprenticeships, and permanent positions.

Time-to-market

Time-to-market refers to the speed at which a fashion product goes from concept to being available for sale.

Developing a new fashion product involves various stages, including design, prototyping, sampling, and testing. Each step requires time and coordination among different teams, including designers, pattern makers, and manufacturers. Delays or inefficiencies in any of these stages can impact the overall time-to-market.

For example, technical sketches. From start to completion, creating a technical drawing takes a large amount of time. You may save time by using an online vector editor like Repsketch. It offers a large collection of fashion flat drawings that can be altered and reused for a wide range of fashion projects.

We're kicking off the sandal season with a wedge sandal Bill of Materials! Our Bill of Materials provides all of the main components needed to design a pair for your summer collection.

Introduction

If you can't decide between stilettos and flip-flops, wedges are the way to go. Comfortable wedges are an excellent alternative for individuals who desire the height benefit of a heel during the summer. They provide greater stability and support than slender heels. The strong bottom, arch support, foam footbed, and adjustable ankle strap make walking longer distances or standing around much more comfortable. As a result, wedge sandals are usually a good choice for summer activities.

What’s included in this template

1. Part names. Like main fabric, thread, insole, etc.
2. Materials’ composition.
3. Color reference, including Pantone colors.
4. Placement and position of each part.
5. Materials’ supplier contacts.

Due to a variety of factors, creating and managing tech packs can be time-consuming. First of all, the tech packs have many data files within them, such as sketches, measurements, BOM tables, Costing Sheets, and so on. It takes time to collect all of these specs, ensure their accuracy, format them, and generate them in one document.

Aside from that, product development is a continuous process. Tech packs frequently go through several iterations and modifications. Maintaining version control, monitoring changes, and ensuring that everyone has access to the most recent version can take time, particularly in bigger teams or complicated projects.

In this blog post, we will introduce Techpacker’s tools that will significantly simplify the process of generating and managing tech packs for your design team.

Instant formatting and easy updates

Fashion designers spend too much time on formatting. First of all, it takes some time to create a tech pack layout with the cover page, font sizes, and types, image size and quality, logos, tables, etc. Then you would have to format everything over and over again if even a small adjustment was made.

Creating tech packs on Excel is extremely time intensive. Although it is a fantastic tool for calculations, it is not meant to be used for sketches or images of materials. The same is true with Illustrator; this graphic design program was not designed to hold tech packs.

One-click PDF

Techpacker provides its users with pre-set layouts and fonts. The system simply takes care of this for you. With one click, your product development page will turn into a PDF, where all information is laid out in an easy-to-read format.

In just one click you get a PDF doc with:

1. Cover page. Including the main image, product name, sizing info, and brief description.
2. Your company’s logo is on every page.
3. Sketches and annotations layout.
4. BOM table, Measurement table, Costing, and other tables are laid out in a readable format.

It will save you a lot of time when you need to make changes to the tech pack since every time you amend something in the tech pack, you will format a final document with one click!

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Tech pack versions and update highlights

Many modifications occur during the product development process, particularly during the sample-making phase, in the design idea, materials, or measurement sections.

If the design team is using spreadsheets for product development, they would need to manually highlight all the changes in different colors to keep records. This only adds unnecessary time and effort to the whole product development process.

In order to easily make updates and later on highlight these changes, the process needs to be automated.

Tech pack versions

Techpacker’s solution is the tech pack versions. It is fully automated and requires minimal effort from you. Here is how it works:

The version is logged on Techpacker every time you make a modification in the tech pack and save it.

Then, you may compare different versions of the tech pack to track changes and minimize unnecessary delays or miscommunications.

The system will highlight all the changes in red and green for you.

Versions' history

It is challenging to preserve the version history of documents for monitoring and accountability when there is a lot of design data that needs to be managed on a daily basis.

With the versions’ history, you will be able to track who saved a version and when it was saved.

Are you still creating tech packs in Excel? That comes as no surprise.

Excel has been the de facto tool to create tech packs for the fashion industry. And for a good reason. It’s versatile, jam-packed with features, and based on something very familiar: spreadsheets.

But this is the crux of the problem.

Spreadsheets are static

Your product info is divided into tabs. Your tech packs are spread out inside different files and folders. Your communications and comments are spread out between emails and multiple spreadsheets. And you’re spending an uncanny amount of time copy-pasting.

Techpacker takes a different approach

It still has that similar tabular structure where data is laid out in rows and columns, but is far more flexible.

Each row that could be a sketch, material, or a measurement of your design is a Card, that houses all its related images, comments, and files.

And at any time with just one click, you can turn this visual board into a PDF-ready tech pack. Exactly how you print your spreadsheets on Excel.

But here’s the kicker.

Unlike Excel, this visual approach gives you a big-picture snapshot of your entire product development process in one glance. You don’t have to switch between tabs when double-checking or editing different sections in your tech pack.

Sketches, Bill of materials, Measurement Specs, Costing Tables, etc. - everything is visible on a single page. And that’s not all. Cards let you zero in on each design detail and manipulate them individually.

You can collaborate with your team directly on these Cards by adding comments and tagging each other.

The ease of getting started on the app without much training. The experience is very intuitive and very visual and makes a designer feel closer to their designs instead of spreadsheets. Whereas the usual technical complexities too like gradings, costing can be easily handled from one page. Seems like they have struck the right chords on what fashion creatives want from their PLM. -Capterra review

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Here are 8 ways Techpacker outperforms Excel when creating a tech pack

Reusing design details

Your product information on Excel is not only static - but also disconnected. In other words: your tech packs are fragmented, making it hard to reuse design details across multiple tech packs. Result: a lot of data entry.

For instance, how would you repurpose your design info using Excel spreadsheets? You'd start by copying entire tech packs. Then edit them one by one to salvage what’s needed. The mundane repetition doesn’t stop there.

You have to copy-paste design specs that repeat for every tech pack, across different styles, season after season. And you have to make sure all your measurements are consistent. Plus you have to double-check for any mistypes, formatting, formulas, the list goes on.

These are instances where Techpacker really shines.

Starting with Card Libraries - a vault for you to save all your specific design details. You can then reuse any of them by dragging Cards and dropping them in your tech packs.

Often specific design details are repeated across multiple tech packs. During design updates, you have to go inside each tech pack and change the same info over and again.

But on Techpacker you can update multiple tech packs in one go by connecting Cards together. Any change on a Connected Card will instantly apply to the same Card across all selected tech packs.

Formatting images and text

Excel sheets can be very messy. Formatting images, tweaking tables, and aligning visuals with text is a real hassle. And stay vigilant. Any missteps with your spreadsheet print area will chop important info out of your PDF. Don’t expect much help from Excel.

Ever browsed through their help and support? This is what the instructions look like just to insert page numbers on your worksheet. It’s 5 pages long!

With Techpacker, all it takes is one click to generate a clear, detailed, and perfectly formatted Techpack PDF.

Simply drag in your sketch images as is, add your material and measurement Cards - click one button, and Voilà!

Images, font sizes, alignments - everything is automatically adjusted for you. You can rest easy knowing that every single one of your tech packs will come out flawless.

BONUS: You know those style info you’re adding in your header and footer for every single page? We got that covered as well. Your style info is instantly displayed on each page of your Techpack PDF, as well as a cover sheet with your most recent style information.

Adobe Illustrator integration

The Adobe Illustrator plugin is another essential Techpacker tool that may drastically minimize the time you spend formatting. Techpacker's Adobe extension is an excellent way for designers to keep their design sketches synchronized with their tech packs.

Whenever there's a change in the image, it automatically updates on Techpacker. So there's no need to manually re-upload your files to Techpacker anytime you make changes to your Illustrator sketches. Sync it to a certain tech pack cover picture, a tech pack card, or even a library card with a single click.

Adding annotations on images

You have to show and explain the exact design requirements to your manufacturer if you want your samples made without mistakes. Each stitch, each seam, and each label placement has to be thoroughly specified and illustrated.

To do so in Excel, you have to include 4 things:

• A diagram of your technical sketch
• An easy-to-read table with all your construction information laid out
• A number or letter for each row in your construction table.
• Labeled arrows to show where each number/letter designations are on your sketch.

Tedious right?

Now, here’s how it’s done on Techpacker. You simply drag your technical sketches on your tech pack board. Open the image and start drawing lines and add comments on the specific details of the design you want to highlight.

Each line is labeled with a callout number to easily identify its corresponding comment listed on the right. And don't worry about formatting any of this, all your annotations will be neatly organized and presented in your Techpack PDF.

Now tell me, which one sounds easier?

Creating measurement specs

In Excel, you have to create a table and add each and every point of measurement. This table can span dozens of rows and columns that you have to format manually.

On Techpacker, this entire table practically creates itself. How?

Simply drag and drop your how-to-measure images into your measurement section.

And again, don’t worry about formatting. Your table columns are automatically set up based on the sizes you provided in your settings.

There’s more. Each point of measurement is just a static row in Excel. Whereas on Techpacker, each POM is a Card. Each one can store related information like how-to-measure images, comments, files, etc. You can move them around your table, copy them to other tech packs and even save entire measurement tables as templates.

Adding sample fit sheets

Once the first fit sample arrives from your manufacturer, you make sure that it meets all necessary measurements and detailed specifications to achieve the desired fit.

To evaluate and suggest any revisions, you create a sample fit table.

In Excel, you have to manually create a table and list out all your POMs again and add the specs of the sample received. Then you have to calculate if the specs of the sample are within your tolerance range and if not then have to highlight it in a separate column.

Teckpacker automates it all for you. There’s a ready-made template that you can generate in one click. It extracts measurement specs from your Measurements table to create a FIT sheet like this:

As you enter your sample specs in the FIT column, the table auto-monitors them with your provided tolerance range, and if any differences are found it instantly highlights them for you. This comes in really handy when you have to reassess your specs during multiple sample reviews.

BONUS: You can also add costing sheets, quantity breakdowns, delivery tracking, and much more on Techpacker. Discover the new custom sections feature.

Setting up the grading rules

In Excel, you have to manually set up grading rules formulas for each cell. Nothing complicated...but still mind-numbing. It’s the sort of repetitive task that is easily streamlined on Techpacker.

On Techpacker you can use our intuitive grading function to speed up the sampling process. It lets you toggle between measurements and gradings in one click. And it auto-calculates your grading specs (based on your measurements) without the need to enter Excel formulas for each cell.

Everything is already built-in.

This makes it easy for you to adjust your sample size measurements on the fly.

The feature has simplified the process for sizing complex garments for my clients. It has also allowed for consistency in sizing. Once I save a card, the grading is also saved. Resulting in better sizing consistency for your brand. -Katherine Schildmeyer, Freelance Apparel Manufacturing Consultant

Communicating with team members and files sharing

On Techpacker you can communicate with other team members through the files and comments tab inside any card. All conversations and file-sharing histories are automatically organized for future reference.

On a card of your choice (whether it is a sketch, BOM or measurement card) you can tag a team member, and add your message or a file if needed.

Sharing tech pack PDFs and requesting changes from manufacturers

If you’re using Excel, you’re probably using emails to share your tech packs with your team and your manufacturer. Chances are, you’re also using emails to track revisions and request changes. This creates extra work for both you AND your manufacturer.

You have to make sure your instructions are ultra-specific. Can’t afford to have anything lost in translation here. And they have to dig through email threads and scour files to make sure of what you’re talking about.

All this back and forth gets increasingly worse with every round of revision. You can make it far easier for both of you.

On Techpacker, all communications happen in real-time and stay right inside the platform. Your comments, updates, and files are right next to your designs - not lost in emails.

Instead of manually shoving a comment form or boxes in your tech pack for every new revision, simply add your comments directly inside your tech pack Cards. Each Card is assigned to a specific part of your garment. And once you are ready to share the comments, Techpacker will consolidate them all from each card and list them all on a separate page of your PDF.

It’s now far easier for you to track everything from design decisions to fit change requests.

Tracking tech pack versions

In Excel, You need to save a copy of your original tech pack for every round of revision. All these versions have to be labeled and organized in a folder somehow.

You have to keep track of the dates, names, whether the sample matches your spec, the action you want the manufacturer to take, and so on. Soon enough, your folder will be full of numerous Excel files.

On Techpacker, one click lets you create a new tech pack version.

These versions are organized in chronological order and stored in the cloud. This lets you revisit any previous version without digging through folders. You can also share a link to your Techpack PDF version so anyone with the link can see it.

Cross-referencing changes with your manufacturer and keeping them accountable has never been this simple.

Oh, and one last perk. In case team members leave, there’s absolutely no risk that your designs leave with them. Your record is kept safe.

Convinced enough to give Techpacker a try?

Sign up for a free 7-day trial now.