Building a Shopify Tech Pack for Chinese Factories
What a tech pack is, why Chinese factories rely on it, and how to build one that turns your product idea into consistent production without endless back-and-forth.
Published October 3, 2026
The fastest way to get inconsistent production from a Chinese factory is to brief it by conversation. Memory is not a specification. A tech pack is the document that replaces “you know what I mean” with exact numbers — and it’s the closest thing sourcing has to a contract for quality.
What a tech pack contains
At minimum:
- Materials — exact type, grade, source if it matters
- Dimensions and tolerances — measurements plus acceptable variance
- Colors — with codes (Pantone or equivalent), not “dark blue”
- Construction details — seams, finishes, assembly
- Labels and markings — placement, content, compliance
- Packaging — carton, insert, barcode
The more ambiguity you remove, the less the factory fills it with the cheap option.
Why factories depend on it
A factory quotes, samples and produces from the tech pack. Without it, every step is a guess. With it, three people in different cities can make the same object. It’s also your reference when a sample comes back wrong — you point to the line, not the memory.
Building it without overengineering
Start with what you can specify confidently. Photos of a reference product help. For apparel, flat sketches with callouts are standard. For hard goods, dimensioned drawings beat descriptions. You don’t need a fashion-degree document — you need unambiguous numbers.
Iterating on samples
Each sample round should update the tech pack: what changed, what’s now locked. By the approved sample, the tech pack and the physical reference should match exactly. That’s your production baseline.
The takeaway
A tech pack is the cheapest quality control you’ll ever buy. Write the spec once, clearly, and stop paying for the factory’s guesses.