What Does a Custom Handbag Tech Pack Actually Need to Include

What does a custom handbag tech pack actually need to include? Nine sections: dimensions with tolerances, a material specification by component, hardware by part with plating and salt-spray targets, construction and stitch specification, interior and lining layout, branding position in millimetres, packaging and barcodes, compliance by destination market, and quantity with a price ceiling and calendar. A tech pack is not a drawing with notes; it is the document a pattern maker, a cutting room and an inspector can each work from without asking a question. A complete one keeps sampling inside 6-10 working days and prevents the four revisions that cost the most.

Tech pack parameters

The Nine Sections and Why Each Exists

Every section below exists because its absence causes a specific, expensive failure. Nothing in a tech pack is decorative, and a pack that covers eight of the nine will produce exactly the failure the ninth prevents. Work through the list as a checklist before sending anything.

• Dimensions with tolerances. Without a tolerance, any measurement is arguable, and the argument happens after the run is cut.
• Material by component. Shell, lining, interlining, webbing and reinforcement behave differently; naming one leather covers none of them.
• Hardware by part. Each part has a base metal, a plating thickness and a finish; a photograph of hardware is not a specification.
• Construction and stitch. Seam allowance and stitch density are operations, and operations are 15-25% of unit cost.
• Interior and lining. Pocket count, pocket type and lining weight are where bulk drifts most, because nobody photographs it.
• Branding in millimetres. Near the top edge is not a position; 30 mm below the top edge, centred, is.
• Packaging and barcodes. A changed EAN discovered at the warehouse is a relabelling job, not a paperwork fix.
• Compliance by market. The requirements differ between the EU, California and children's products, and they are tested, not asserted.
• Quantity, ceiling and calendar. Without a target retail price, material selection is guesswork and the quotation is unusable.

Dimensions and Tolerances

Start with a front and side elevation and annotate every dimension that matters: width, height, depth at the widest point, depth at the base, handle height and strap drop. State the tolerance, because a bag is a soft object and no run of 500 comes out identical. A tolerance of plus or minus 3 mm on a 30 cm body is achievable and enforceable; no tolerance at all means the inspector has nothing to measure against.

• Strap drop measured from the top of the strap to the top edge of the bag, not strap length.
• Gusset depth at the base and at the top, where they differ on a tapered body.
• Handle height on a top-handle satchel, measured from the top edge to the underside of the handle.
• Closure position, dimensioned from a fixed edge rather than described as centred.

Material Specification by Component

Naming one leather is the most common weakness in a tech pack, because a bag is made of five or six materials and each one has a specification. The shell may be 1.2-1.6 mm full-grain, the lining 210D polyester, the interlining a non-woven stiffener, the strap a webbing core wrapped in leather, and the reinforcement a tapesewn into the seam. Material is 40-55% of unit cost, so ambiguity here is ambiguity in the price.

Two notes make this section work. Temper is as important as thickness: a soft hide at 1.2 mm drapes and a firm hide at 1.2 mm stands up, and a design drawn with a drape in mind cannot be made in a firm hide. And colour should be given as a Pantone reference or an approved physical swatch, never as a name, because tan means about six different colours across the trade.

Hardware, Specified by Part

Hardware is 15-25% of unit cost and the most visible part of the bag, and it is usually specified worst. Gold is not a specification. A plating thickness in microns plus a salt-spray target tested to ASTM B117 is, and it is the difference between a beautiful sample and a bulk run that dulls in a season. List every part separately: zip chain and slider, magnetic snap, turn-lock, feet, D-rings, strap sliders and any branded plate or puller.

• Base metal. Zinc alloy is the default for cast parts; brass for high-wear components.
• Plating. Type and thickness in microns, with a salt-spray target, typically 24 hours to first corrosion.
• Finish. Brushed, polished, antique or matte, and a reference sample if the finish is unusual.
• Colour. Light gold, gunmetal, nickel or antique brass, matched to a physical reference rather than a name.
• Branded parts. Drawing, dimensions, and the mould ownership arrangement in writing.

Construction and Stitch Specification

This section turns the drawing into operations, and operations are 15-25% of unit cost. State the seam allowance, the stitch density, the thread, the needle, and where reinforcement tape goes. None of these are visible in a design sketch, and all of them decide whether the bag survives a season of use.

• Seam allowance. 8 mm is the working default on leather and heavy coated fabric.
• Stitch density. 7-9 stitches per inch on leather; below seven is weak, above nine perforates the material.
• Thread. Bonded polyester or nylon, with a ticket number and a colour reference.
• Skiving. Folds thinned to 0.8-1.0 mm on a 1.2 mm hide so the turn lies flat.
• Reinforcement. Tape at the strap attachment and along the top edge, which is where bags actually fail.

Interior, Lining and Pockets

The interior is where bulk drifts, because it is the part nobody photographs and shoppers rarely see before buying. Specify lining material and colour, how many pockets, which are zipped, their dimensions, whether there is a key clip or a bottle holder, and where the woven label sits. A lining that fits badly — bubbling at the corners, caught in a zip — is one of the most common defects found at inspection.

Branding Position in Millimetres

Branding is where a run becomes your product, and position is where it goes wrong. Give the method, the artwork in vector form, the size in millimetres and the position dimensioned from a fixed edge, for every mark on the bag. Embossing and cast hardware need tooling made before sampling starts, so this section has to be settled at brief stage rather than after the sample arrives.

Packaging, Labelling and Barcodes

Packaging is 3-8% of unit cost and the source of the most avoidable costs in a programme, because artwork setup and printing plates are fixed charges discovered late. Specify each item: dust bag material and print, care card content, hangtag size and string, barcode symbology and numbers, polybag specification, carton marks and how many pieces per carton.

• Barcode symbology required by your channel, with the numbers re-sent on every order.
• Carton marks: style reference, colourway, quantity and destination, printed to your artwork.
• Pcs per carton, which decides both freight cost and whether goods arrive retail-ready.
• Country-of-origin and fibre content marking, which differ by market and are checked at customs.

Compliance by Destination Market

Compliance belongs in the tech pack rather than in an email after the order, because it constrains material and hardware choices. The EU, California and children's products each impose different requirements, and each is tested against a standard rather than asserted. Naming the market at brief stage lets material be selected to pass rather than substituted later.

• EU. REACH Annex XVII: chromium VI, azo dyes, nickel release and phthalates, with test reports from a recognised laboratory.
• California. Proposition 65: a warning where a listed substance exceeds the safe-harbour level; exposure points are hardware, coated trim and dyes.
• Children's products. CPSIA: lead and phthalate limits, tracking labels, and testing by a CPSC-accepted laboratory.
• Leather traceability. Leather Working Group audited tanneries, named rather than described.
• Recycled content. Global Recycled Standard transaction certificates for recycled linings and canvas.
• Social compliance. BSCI or Sedex / SMETA audit references for the production site, requested before the order.

Quantity, Price Ceiling and Calendar

The final section is commercial, and it is the one most often missing. State the quantity per style and per colourway, the target retail price, the destination market and the preferred trade term, and give an honest launch date. With a price ceiling, material can be engineered to a number rather than quoted blindly; without one, the first quotation is a range too wide to plan against.

How Much Detail Is Enough

A tech pack should be complete enough that nobody has to ask a question and no longer than it needs to be. Nine sections on a handful of sheets beats forty pages nobody reads. The test is simple: hand it to a pattern maker and see whether they can cut without calling.

Send the pack with the enquiry and the first reply is a number you can plan against. The custom handbag route shows where the pack sits in the wider programme, the drawing-to-sample sequence is set out in sketch to sample, and if a sample does come back needing changes, the sample revision process is what governs the next round. Day counts for every stage are in the production timeline.

Version Control: Numbering a Pack So Reorders Do Not Drift

A tech pack is read three times: at quotation, at sample approval and again on the first reorder, and the third reading is the one that goes wrong. Give every issue a version number and a date, list what changed since the previous issue, and name the person who signed it. Without that, a 15 mm strap drop correction made in round two quietly reverts to the round one figure, and the difference is discovered on 500 units rather than on one. Two rules keep it honest: nothing changes verbally, and every issue supersedes the one before rather than sitting beside it.

• Issue numbering. Version 1.0 at quotation, 1.1 after a sample correction, 2.0 when a dimension, material or hardware part changes.
• A change line. One row per revision: what changed, from what to what, on which date, and which units it affects.
• Two signatures. One on the brand side and one on the production side, because a pack with a single author has no witness.
• Superseded files marked. Earlier issues stay findable but labelled, so an old PDF cannot be mistaken for the current one.
• A freeze line. State that the specification freezes at deposit, which is the moment a change starts costing days rather than arguments.

The Pattern and Yield Numbers Behind the Drawing

A drawing says what the bag looks like; the pattern numbers say what it costs. A pack that stops at dimensions leaves nesting yield, panel count and grading to be discovered at cutting, which is where a 12% material shortfall appears. Four numbers belong in the pack: how many pattern pieces the style has, what panel tolerance applies, what seam allowance the panels carry, and how the pattern grades if a 3,000-piece run follows. The custom handbag route is where those figures turn into a quotation.

Physical References the Pack Should Attach

Every line in a pack resolves to something a person can hold. Attach the approved swatch card, the retained hardware reference and the signed counter sample, and give each one a number the pack cites. A colour named on a screen is the most common cause of a shade dispute at inspection, because two people can look at the same photograph and agree on different colours.

• Swatch card. One card per colourway, cut from production material rather than a lab dip, signed and dated.
• Retained hardware. One component per part, kept in a labelled bag, used as the reference for shade and finish.
• Counter sample. A unit sewn from bulk material rather than a prototype, referenced by its approval date.
• Light source. Shade compared under D65 at a Delta E tolerance of 2.0, not under warehouse lighting.
• Photograph set. Six views of the approved unit with a scale bar, so a later question is answered from a file.

Care, Spare Parts and Repair: The Section Most Packs Omit

A tech pack also decides what happens after the sale. State the care wording that goes on the card, which parts are replaceable, and how many spares ship with the order. A zip slider that can be swapped in two minutes turns a return into a repair, and the parts cost cents at 500 pcs. Naming them in the pack is what makes them exist at all.

• Care wording. Conditioning interval for leather, cleaning method for coated fabric, storage guidance, printed on the card.
• Replaceable parts. Slider, puller, magnetic snap and feet, each listed with its size in millimetres.
• Spare allowance. Two per cent of the unit quantity in spare components, packed separately and shown on the packing list.
• Repair window. A stated twelve-month service period, with the return address printed on the care card.

Frequently Asked Questions

People Also Ask