A hoodie tech pack is the document that tells your factory exactly how to build your hoodie. Every measurement. Every fabric spec. Every stitch detail. Every label, print, and trim. Without it, you’re asking a factory to guess, and factories that guess don’t guess in your favor.
We receive hoodie orders every week. The ones with a complete tech pack go into sampling within days. The ones without a tech pack, or with a bad one, spend 2 to 4 weeks in back-and-forth emails while we try to extract the information that should have been in the document from the start. That’s not the factory being slow. That’s missing specs turning into missing time.
If you’ve never built one before, this is what goes in it and why each part matters. If you’ve seen hoodie tech pack examples online and thought they were complete, you’ll probably find a few things here that they left out.
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The Sections That Actually Matter
Most tech pack templates floating around the internet were designed by fashion school students or Etsy sellers. They cover the basics. They don’t cover what a production factory specifically needs to cut fabric and start sewing without asking you 15 questions.
Here’s what a real hoodie tech pack looks like from the factory’s end.
1. Flat sketches (front, back, and detail views)
A flat sketch is a 2D line drawing of your hoodie laid flat. Front view. Back view. Side view if there are side panels or unusual seam lines. This is not an illustration of someone wearing the hoodie. It’s a technical drawing that shows every design line, seam, and construction detail as if the garment were spread on a table.
If your hoodie has a kangaroo pocket, the flat sketch shows the pocket shape, the opening angle, and where it sits relative to the center front and the hem. If there’s a drawstring, the sketch shows where the cord exits the hood, what type of channel it runs through, and whether the cord tips are knotted, have metal aglets, or are left raw.
You don’t need to be an artist. Clean line drawings in Adobe Illustrator work. If you can’t draw, a freelance tech pack designer on Upwork or Fiverr will produce these for $50 to $200 per style.
2. Measurements (the spec sheet)
This is the table that makes or breaks the fit. Every size in your range, every measurement point, in centimeters or inches. For a hoodie, the minimum measurement points are:
Chest width (measured pit to pit, one inch below the armhole seam). Body length (measured from the highest point of the shoulder seam to the hem). Sleeve length (measured from the center back neck to the cuff, following the shoulder line and down the arm). Shoulder width (seam to seam across the back). Hem width. Cuff opening width. Hood height (from the neckline seam to the top of the hood). Hood width (laid flat, edge to edge).
Include tolerances. The industry standard is +/- 1cm on major measurements, +/- 0.5cm on small details like cuff openings. If you don’t include tolerances, your factory sets their own, and you might get a hoodie that’s 2cm wider in the chest than you expected and technically still “within spec” by factory standards.
Where do people get these numbers? Two ways. If you have a hoodie from another brand that fits the way you want yours to fit, buy it in every size you plan to offer, measure each one, and put the numbers in your spec sheet. That’s your starting point. Or tell your factory you want to base your measurements on their standard block pattern and adjust from there. Most factories have existing hoodie patterns in regular fit, oversized fit, and relaxed fit. Starting from a known block is faster and reduces sampling errors.
3. Fabric specification
Not “cotton.” Not “fleece.” Specific.
Fiber content: 100% cotton, 80/20 cotton-poly, 65/35 poly-cotton, or something else. Fabric type: French terry, brushed fleece, unbrushed fleece, waffle knit. Fabric weight: 280gsm, 320gsm, 360gsm, whatever you want. Fabric finish: brushed interior, garment-washed, enzyme-washed, raw.
If you have a Pantone color reference, include it. If you don’t, send a physical swatch or a photo with a note that says “match this as closely as possible, send strike-off for approval.” Don’t write “heather grey” without a reference. There are 40 shades of heather grey and your factory will pick whichever one their fabric supplier has in stock.
One thing most hoodie tech pack templates skip entirely: fabric direction. Fleece has a nap (the brushed fibers run in one direction). If all panels aren’t cut in the same nap direction, you’ll see a visible color difference between the body and the sleeves under certain lighting. Write “all panels cut in same nap direction” in your fabric notes. It takes three seconds and prevents a call from you after the sample arrives asking why the sleeves look darker than the body.
4. Construction details
This is where a factory-ready tech pack separates itself from a template you downloaded off Pinterest.
Stitch types. The side seams, shoulder seams, and sleeve attachment are typically done with a 4-thread overlock (safety stitch). The hem and cuffs are usually finished with a coverlock (coverstitch) that produces the clean double-needle look on the outside. If you want a different stitch, specify it. If you don’t mention stitching, the factory uses whatever’s standard for them, and that might not match what you assumed.
Seam allowances. Standard is 1cm for overlock seams. Some brands want wider seam allowances for durability or a specific inside look. State it in the tech pack.
Ribbing. For the cuffs, hem band, and hood opening (on pullovers). Specify the rib pattern (1×1 rib, 2×2 rib), the fabric weight, and the width of the rib piece. A 7cm wide 1×1 rib cuff looks and feels different from a 4cm wide 2×2 rib cuff. If you don’t specify, the factory defaults to whatever they have.
Pocket construction. Kangaroo pocket? Patch pockets? Zippered pockets? Interior media pocket? Each one needs dimensions, placement (measured from center front and from the hem), and construction notes (bartacked, topstitched, welt opening width).
Hood details. Lined or single layer? Drawstring or no drawstring? If drawstring, flat cotton cord or round polyester cord? What diameter? What tip treatment? Cross-stitched at the center front or free-hanging?
5. Trims and branding
Every label, tag, and add-on:
Woven neck label (your brand label): artwork, dimensions, material (satin, damask, woven cotton), placement position, fold type (center fold, end fold, Manhattan fold). Care label: fiber content, country of origin, wash instructions. Size label: if separate from the neck label, position and format. Hang tag: artwork, dimensions, attachment method (string, plastic fastener, safety pin). Drawstring cord: material, color, length, tip treatment. Zipper (for zip-up styles): brand (YKK, SBS, unbranded), type (coil, molded, metal), length, color. Eyelets, grommets, cord locks, toggles: material and finish (matte, polished, painted).
6. Print and embroidery specs
For every print location: artwork file (vector for screen print, 300 DPI raster for DTG), placement position with measurements from reference points (e.g., “center chest, 10cm below collar seam, print width 20cm”), print method (screen print, DTG, puff print, heat transfer, sublimation), ink colors with Pantone references.
For embroidery: stitch file (DST or EMB format), thread colors with Pantone or Madeira references, stitch count estimate.
Zip Up Hoodie Tech Pack: What Changes
A zip up hoodie tech pack has everything above plus several specifications that a pullover doesn’t need. This is where a generic hoodie tech pack template usually fails, because it was built for a pullover and the zipper section is either missing or a single line that says “add zipper.”
Zipper spec. Brand (YKK is the industry default for quality; SBS and others are cheaper alternatives), type (nylon coil for lightweight hoodies, molded plastic for midweight, metal teeth for heavy/premium), size (#3 for lightweight, #5 for standard, #8 for oversized/heavy), length (typically measured from the bottom of the collar to the hem, minus 1 to 2cm), color (matched to body fabric, contrasted, or custom), and whether it’s separating (opens fully at the bottom, standard for hoodies) or non-separating (stays connected at the bottom, almost never used on hoodies but I’ve seen it requested).
Zipper tape width and slider style. The tape (the fabric strip that the zipper teeth attach to) has a visible width on the finished garment. Standard is about 2.5 to 3cm total visible tape width. If your design calls for a “chunky” or oversized zipper look, specify a wider tape. The slider (the pull piece) can be standard, auto-lock (stays where you stop it), or custom-molded with your logo. Custom sliders have a mold fee of $100 to $300 and a minimum order, usually 500 to 1,000 pieces.
Front panel split. A zip-up hoodie’s front is cut in two pieces instead of one. The tech pack needs to specify the overlap (how much the left panel overlaps the right when zipped), the facing (a strip of fabric behind the zipper that prevents the zipper from catching skin or the underlayer), and whether there’s a chin guard at the top (a small fabric flap that sits between the zipper pull and the wearer’s chin). Include these on your flat sketch.
Pocket access. On a pullover, the kangaroo pocket is a single opening. On a zip-up, you typically switch to two separate hand-warmer pockets, one on each side of the zipper. Specify the pocket bag dimensions, the opening width and angle, and whether the pockets are zippered, welted, or open.
Free Templates and Why They're Not Enough
If you search “hoodie tech pack template free” or “hoodie tech pack PDF,” you’ll find downloadable templates from fashion schools, Etsy sellers, and a few garment industry blogs. Some of them are fine starting points. Most of them are missing at least three of the six sections above. Almost all of them were designed for fashion portfolios, not for sending to a production factory.
The most common gaps in free templates: no tolerance column in the measurement table, no fabric nap direction note, no stitch type specifications, no trim details beyond “add label,” and no zipper spec section for zip-up styles.
You can absolutely start with a free template. Just know that your factory will come back with a list of questions that the template didn’t cover, and those questions will take 3 to 10 days of back-and-forth emails to resolve. That’s time your competitors who sent a complete tech pack didn’t spend.
We put together a hoodie tech pack template that covers everything in this article, including the zip-up specs. If you want a copy, request it here and we’ll send the PDF. It’s free. We’d rather you show up with a complete tech pack and place a clean order than spend two weeks emailing about seam allowances.
If you already have a tech pack and you’re ready to get a quote on production, send it through here or browse our hoodie range to see what we work with. We also covered the full production timeline and custom hoodie ordering guide if you want the bigger picture before diving into the tech pack details.
