A techpack is where a design either becomes real—or gets misread, mis-produced, and expensive.
If you’ve ever had a sample come back “almost right,” you already know what usually happened: the idea was clear in your head, but the instructions weren’t clear on paper.
In our latest YouTube Spotlight, we sat down with Miles Lawson, an LA-based fashion designer and creative director, to talk about what separates a nice concept from a garment that’s actually production-ready—and how he uses a techpack workflow to protect the details that matter.
Watch the video here:
From “wearing the art” to building garments with intention
Miles grew up in the South Bay and didn’t always have the budget for whatever was trending. Instead, he started wearing what he was already creating—his own digital artwork—like a walking gallery.
That mindset carries into everything he makes now: garments that are meant to be experienced, not just seen. In the video, he breaks down pieces from his brand No Waste of Motion and you can tell he’s not designing for a photo—he’s designing for real life.
He talks about:
- layering emboss + print so graphics have depth
- placement and finishing details like embroidery that make the piece feel complete
- construction choices on a leather jacket (lining, pockets, zipper pulls, hardware) that push it into “premium” territory
- even pushing a 600 GSM heavyweight hoodie—because weight, drape, and structure change how a garment feels
Why the techpack is the real product (especially when you’re scaling)
A lot of designers think the garment is the product. In production, the techpack is the product.
Miles explains this super clearly: you can make mockups all day, but once you’re handing something off to a factory, you need a clear instruction set that translates your intent into something repeatable.
Early on, he ran into the same wall most designers do—factories ask questions you didn’t realize you needed to answer:
- What material exactly?
- What color exactly? (not “cream,” but a real spec)
- What’s printed vs. embroidered vs. embossed—and where?
- What’s the finishing? Trims? Hardware? Stitching?
- What measurements matter, and what tolerance is acceptable?
And here’s the part people don’t say out loud: the first few techpacks are overwhelming. You don’t feel “creative,” you feel like you’re doing paperwork.
But that’s also the moment you level up—because once your techpack gets tight, you stop paying for confusion.
The workflow Miles uses to move faster without lowering the bar
Miles found AI Tech Packs while he was about to start another techpack for a client. He already knew how to build techpacks, so he wasn’t looking for a shortcut—he was looking for a cleaner, faster workflow that still holds up when the file gets handed off.
What he liked:
- Techpacks that used to take 1–2+ hours can drop closer to 30 minutes, depending on the piece
- Layout/alignment stays clean (small thing, huge impact when someone’s reading it fast)
- The output is easier for clients to understand and easier to pass to production
- He can export and open the file in Adobe Illustrator to do the last 5–10% of polish
He also points out something that matters if you do client work: clients often don’t know how to describe what they want. They’ll use vague language or the wrong terms. Having built-in help to interpret that language and sanity-check specs makes the whole process smoother—and helps with quality control before a mistake becomes a sample.
If you’re building your first techpack (or your 50th), this is the takeaway
Miles’ story isn’t “use this tool and everything is perfect.” It’s more real than that:
- Your taste matters
- Your details matter
- Your techpack is how those details survive handoff
If you care about getting consistent results from production, the techpack isn’t optional. It’s how you protect the design.
Watch the full Spotlight with Miles here:
Want to build a cleaner techpack faster?
If you’re trying to speed up your techpack workflow without losing the details that make your garment feel premium, check out AI Tech Packs here.
