Tech Packs
A factory can only quote what it can see. Here is exactly what to send, how to write the first email, and how to structure the request so the numbers that come back are real and comparable, not padded.
A quote is a factory doing arithmetic on your behalf. The more of the inputs you hand over, the less it has to guess, and the closer the number comes to what you actually pay when the run ships. At a minimum a factory needs four things: what the product is, how it is built, how many you want, and by when.
In practice, what to send a manufacturer for a quote is a short, specific package. A tech pack with a spec sheet, a bill of materials (BOM), graded measurements, and construction and stitch detail. A reference sample or clear photos of anything you want matched. Your target quantity per style and per color. Your target landed price if you have one. And your delivery window. If you have a physical garment you are copying or improving, say so and send measurements from it.
It helps to know what the factory is actually pricing. Fabric runs 40 to 60 percent of unit cost, labor 20 to 30 percent, then 3PL, sampling, and packaging fill the rest. Materials with trims are the largest and most sensitive line, roughly 60 to 70 percent of the garment. When your BOM is vague, the factory pads that biggest line to protect itself, which is exactly the padding you are trying to avoid. If you are still choosing a factory, our guide to finding a clothing manufacturer covers where MOQs and pricing land by region, and the tech pack guide covers what each part of the spec is for.
The honest answer to whether you need a tech pack to get a quote is that a factory can quote without one, but it will quote high, or quote a number it does not intend to honor. With no spec in front of it, the factory assumes the worst case on fabric, construction, and tolerance, and prices the risk into the unit cost. You get a big number, or a friendly small one that quietly climbs once the real spec shows up.
Either way, a no-tech-pack quote is a placeholder, not a price. When your actual spec arrives, the cost moves, usually up, and you have lost your anchor for the conversation. You also cannot compare two of these quotes against each other, because each factory quietly imagined a different garment.
You do not need a runway-grade tech pack to start, but you do need a factory-ready one: enough spec, BOM, and measurements that the factory is pricing your garment instead of its imagination. This is where Silhouet helps on the make side. The AI generates a factory-ready tech pack (spec, BOM, measurements, construction) in a fraction of the time it takes by hand, and you review and accept it before anything is final. The AI tech pack generator and the tech pack guide both walk through what a factory-ready spec includes.
Factories triage inbound the way you triage your own inbox. A vague "can you make hoodies, what is your pricing" reads as a tire-kicker and sinks to the bottom of the pile. A tight, specific first email to a clothing manufacturer signals that you have shipped a run before and are worth a sample slot. That is really what you are competing for.
Here is a template that answers a factory's first questions before it has to ask them: Subject: Production inquiry, [garment], [quantity] units, [brand] Hi [name], I run [brand], a [category] label selling on Shopify. We have produced [number] runs and are sourcing a factory for our next style. Details: [garment], [fabric direction], [quantity] units per colorway across [N] colors, target delivery [month]. The tech pack is attached (or linked below). Could you confirm: your MOQ per style and color, an estimated per-unit price at this quantity, sampling cost and lead time, and production lead time after sample approval? Happy to send anything else you need to quote accurately. Thank you, [name].
This works because it makes you easy to say yes to. It names the garment, the quantity, and the timeline, and it puts MOQ on the table up front so neither side wastes a round. Set your own expectations there too: domestic factories often run 50 to 100 units per style and color, premium small-batch in Portugal or Turkey 100 to 300, and China or Vietnam 200 to 500 and up. If a factory's floor is far above your test quantity, better to learn it in the first reply. The guide to finding a clothing manufacturer has more on matching MOQ to where you are.
An RFQ (request for quote) is the same spec sent to several factories so you can compare like for like. The trap is sending each factory a slightly different picture, then trying to line up numbers that priced different garments. The cheapest quote is often just the one that guessed lowest, and it trues up later once the sample forces the details.
So fix the variables before you send. Same tech pack, same quantities, same colorways, same target ship date to every factory. Then ask each one to break the quote into the same lines: per-unit price at your MOQ, price at the next tier up, sampling cost and lead time, production lead time after sample approval, and payment terms. Ask them to flag anything in the spec that would raise the price. Now the quotes are comparable, and a padded one stands out instead of hiding.
A tiered ask does double duty. Quoting, say, 100 versus 200 versus 300 units shows you where the price breaks are, which tells you how much a larger run genuinely saves per unit rather than in theory. That maps cleanly onto a sensible run model for a small brand: roughly 100 units to test a new style, around 200 once you are confident, and 300 to 500 on a proven reorder. A bulk run at these volumes is usually a 20,000 to 80,000 dollar commitment, so knowing the real per-unit curve before you pick a tier is worth the extra line in the RFQ.
Most first sends are a zip file: a PDF tech pack, a spreadsheet BOM, a folder of reference photos, maybe a sketch. The factory opens them on its side, one of them is a version behind, and the quote gets built on a stale file. You do not find out until the sample comes back wrong.
A link fixes the version problem. One URL that always shows the current spec, BOM, and measurements means the factory is always quoting the latest, and when you swap a trim the link updates instead of spawning another final_v4_REALfinal.pdf. When you are quoting several factories from one RFQ, a single link also guarantees every factory saw the same garment, so there is no drift between what each one priced.
This is where sending from structured production data beats sending files. With Silhouet you send a factory-ready tech pack as a link, and the AI factory-readiness check runs first and flags what a factory would ask about, so the first quote is built on complete spec rather than assumptions. If you are still visualizing the garment, the AI also turns a rough sketch into a clean mockup in minutes, which gives the factory something concrete to price against. The tech pack guide covers what belongs in that shared spec.
By the third round of quoting, the real spec lives in your inbox. A fabric weight sits in one reply, a revised sleeve measurement in another, a price break buried in a thread from two weeks ago. When the run finally goes, no single document reflects what you actually agreed to, and the version you send to cut the sample is not quite the version you priced.
The fix is to pull every decision back out of email and into the spec. Any time a factory answer changes the garment, a substituted trim, a tightened tolerance, a confirmed color, it belongs in the tech pack, not just the thread. Then the document you send to make the sample matches the document you quoted, and the sample matches the run.
Keeping that single source of truth is easier when the whole collection lives in one place. Silhouet manages every collection across the lifecycle, so the spec, the mockup, and the quote-driven changes stay together, and the in-app AI assistant can tell you what a spec still needs before it goes out. Because each product builds production memory, the structured data from this run carries into the next quote instead of starting from a blank inbox. The guide to getting a clothing sample made covers the next step, where spec gaps stop being email and start being physical.
A quote that comes back with questions is a good sign, not a setback. It means the factory read the spec closely enough to find the holes. The usual ones: fabric weight or composition, exact logo placement, a seam or hem construction the drawing did not resolve, tolerance on a key measurement, or packaging. Every one of those is a gap that would have surfaced in the sample anyway, just later and more expensively.
Answer each question once, in the spec, not five times across five threads. Update the tech pack, re-share the link, and every factory re-quotes against the same corrected version. This is also where a factory-readiness check earns its keep: catching the fabric weight or the missing tolerance before you send means fewer of these rounds, and a first quote that is closer to final.
Track which questions keep coming up. Recurring questions are your spec's weak spots, and fixing them once means your next style goes out without the same holes. That is what production memory is for, so the second run reaches factories cleaner than the first. If a question can only be settled by touching the fabric, that is the moment to move to a sample, and the AI tech pack generator can regenerate the corrected spec so the sample request carries every answer with it.
No, a factory can quote without one, but the number will be padded or provisional because the factory is guessing at fabric, construction, and tolerance. Once your real spec arrives, the price usually moves up and you have lost your anchor. You do not need a perfect tech pack to start, only a factory-ready one with enough spec, BOM, and measurements that the factory is pricing your garment instead of its assumptions.
Send a tech pack, your target quantity per style and color, your delivery window, and one clear ask for per-unit price, MOQ, sampling cost and lead time, and production lead time. Asking for price at two or three quantity tiers shows you where the cost breaks are. Keep the request identical across factories so the quotes come back comparable.
Lead with who you are and that you have produced before, then the garment, the quantity per colorway, the timeline, and the tech pack attached or linked. Close with a short list of exactly what you want confirmed: MOQ, per-unit price, sampling cost and lead time, and production lead time. Specific first emails signal a real brand and get a sample slot faster than open-ended ones.
A tech pack with spec sheet, BOM, graded measurements, and construction detail, plus a reference sample or photos, your quantity per style and color, a target price if you have one, and your delivery date. The BOM matters most, because materials with trims are 60 to 70 percent of unit cost, so a vague materials list is where quotes get padded.
Three to five is a workable range for a first sourcing round. Send every factory the exact same tech pack, quantities, and ship date, and ask for the same quote breakdown, so you are comparing like for like. Sending a single link rather than a zip of files keeps every factory quoting the current spec instead of a version that has drifted.
Usually because the factories were not actually quoting the same garment. Loose specs let each factory guess differently on fabric, construction, and tolerance, and each pads its own way. Some quote high to be safe, some quote low and true up after the sample. Fix the inputs across the RFQ and the spread narrows to real differences in the factories, not in their guesses.
Silhouet syncs your Shopify catalog, generates a factory-ready tech pack you review and accept, and runs a factory-readiness check so the first quote comes back accurate instead of padded. It is free to start. Request beta access below.