New Merchandise

Since 1996 the Kilt & Thistle has built it’s reputation on importing and selling Scottish Quality merchandise at reasonable prices. This establishes the main premise for our business “ true value” . Over the years the introduction of Scottish style merchandise imported from China and Pakistan entered the market. The worst proliferation being in Scotland itself. We were not unaware of this merchandise, but the quality remained well below the standard we set for you, our customer. Junk is still junk at any price. However this last year because of the economic downturn we listened to you, asking for merchandise that fit the tighter budget. We went in search of merchandise that we would wear and be proud to sell. We found our Great Value Line and our new Halifax Line of merchandise.
I am the first to tell you that this merchandise is not from Scotland. Much of the merchandise now sold in Scotland was not made in Scotland. Some companies will present it as Scottish, or companies over here say “ imported from Scotland”, but imported from Scotland is not “made in Scotland”. Just as many will describe their kilts as 100% wool, but miss telling you what weight of wool it is.

Our three lines are as follows, our Kilt & Thistle Premium Line, comprised of merchandise actually made in Scotland or of Scottish quality such as L&M Highland Outfitters the makers of our Premium Line of sporrans and leather items. This merchandise is made in Nova Scotia , but is frankly as good or better than anything any Scottish sporran maker ever put out.

Our Halifax Line is imported at our request and to our specifications. The closest to Scottish quality we could get outside of our Premium Line suppliers. The quality is a high quality product that competes with our Kilt & Thistle Premium Line , but with a more favorable price.
Our Great Value Line is exactly that , a great value. A budget line that looks to solve the budget problems of the young gent just getting started in life, or the budget minded individual that wants to wear Scottish apparel , but just does not have the budget to step up to premium Scottish merchandise.
What ever line you choose , we will work with you on your purchase as if it was us or our best friend, because the goal is to have you as a “customer for life”.

Single Malt Scotch

As a novice drinker I will approach this topic , not as a self proclaimed expert, but rather a learning enthusiast. I have spent most of my life a as a very light drinker. At Christmas time I would buy a bottle of 12 year old GlennFiddich and it would last me the year. Since I very rarely entertain male friends at home , I drank at home only occasionally. My Scottish roots have had the sad catch 22 of being both , too cheap to spend good money on Scotch, and the other, if your going to spend good money, what better to spend it on. I also figure that I am old enough to do a few gentlemanly things that my Forefathers enjoyed. So at the young age of Fifty I started the educational process of learning the time tested tradition of drinking Single Malt Scotch. If I was not so picky and were to drink just anything, one might be accused of being a drunkard. My understanding is that to truly be called Scotch, that it has to be distilled in Scotland. That may no longer be true as I seem to see Scotch from other lands these days. There are a number of blended whiskeys out there and from time to time , I will try these just to make the comparison.

Gentlemanly Pursuits

This starts an area of my bog www.plaidtothebone.wordpress.com that will feature all those things natural to real men, smoking, drinking, and women. I will also occasionally talk about other manly pursuits like hunting, fishing, and building. I am not sure why these things are no longer considered proper pursuits, because you can not ignore these natural laws any more than the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. Anyone that knows history will know the Founding Fathers originally intended it to say “pursuit of property” instead of pursuit of happiness. But was rewritten to avoid the slavery issue. I consider this an important part of a man’s pursuit of his Scottish heritage. These are the very things our Forefathers fought and died to defend and protect. It all boils down to freedom, and the freedom to do what you want as long as you are not hurting anyone else. I will cover the above natural laws to man one at a time in future blog posts.

Speaking of Brogues

The Ghillie Brogue is the standard shoe to be worn with the kilt. I do not always follow the rules. The real problem I have had with ghillie brogues is that almost all of the shoes are what I call a “novelty shoe”. Nothing more than a cheap product to fill a need. Then again many people treat the kilt and the Highland attire nothing more than a costume. I do not look at the iconic image of my Forefathers as a costume, and I certainly do not wear it on Halloween. I am also a person, and I hope you are to, that wants to purchase quality. There are many reasons to buy quality product, as in the long run, they end up costing you less than if you purchase a cheap product and then have to buy it again and again. It also may seem odd, since I own a retail business, but I do not like to shop. No, not even for stuff I like. I research my purchase and then make a purchase, done. I buy the best I can afford and that way I have to shop less by not having to buy it again latter. Ghillie brogues are one of those excellent examples. For the first few years we were in business, I did not carry brogues in our shop, because the quality of the shoes out there was so poor. After a while and many, many requests by customers I broke down and bought the best we could find at the time. Naturally I bought a pair for myself and went about wearing them. It was not a dozen wearings and the upper leather cracked at where my foot bends. So here I am buying another pair of ghillie brogues. We recently renewed a relationship with a popular dance shoe company that has come out with a new premium line of shoes. Six options in all from an economy brogue to a high end military shoe and everything in between. My purchase will be a pair of the Premium Dress Leather Sole shoes, because I wear leather sole shoes for all dress occasions, and predominantly I wear my kilt in dress situations. I am so impressed with this line of shoes that we are producing videos of the benefits and differences in each of the models offered. For those who purchase a pair of brogues from you will receive a demonstration video on how to tie your ghillie brogues.

http://www.kilts.com/ghillie_brogues.htm 

If the Shoe Fits

Over the many years we have been in business finding quality product should have been easy. Just buy everything from Scotland, and that is all you need to do. Well , I wish it was that easy. From our main page of our web site many of you are aware that, just because it is sold in Scotland, does not mean that it was made there. Much of Princess Street and the Royal Mile is full of merchandise that is knocked off in Pakistan. There are many manufacturers in Pakistan and everything made in Scotland has been ripped off by somebody in Pakistan. Now they have every right to make products there, and retailers in Scotland have the right to sell them. As long as they honestly present them as a product that was not made in Scotland. But that is not always the case and in fact we have received product from a distributor that was made in Pakistan , but promoted as made in Scotland. That said one of my biggest disappointments has been the shoes worn with a kilt , ghillie brogues. There are no shoes actually made in Scotland. The shoe business left there years ago. There is one manufacture left in England that produces a high quality ghillie brogue. The retail is near three-hundred dollars and that scares most customers away. So most ghillie brogues are made in Brazil , China, or some other third world country. The majority are nothing more than a poor quality novelty shoe and I was very hesitant in promoting the shoes. That has all changed with our new shoe company. Made in North America, these are a top of the line quality shoe and I could not be more pleased. Take a look at these new shoes as well as the videos for them. It only took thirteen years to get to this point.

http://www.kilts.com/ghillie_brogues.htm 

Sacramento Highland Games

This was our first year as Vendors at the Sacramento Highland Games. Other Vendors had spoken highly of the event and I did as much research as I could about the event before applying. We applied for the 2008 Season only to be turned down. The Sacramento event organizers it seems have their standards. However it was not to do with our reputation , but more to do with theirs. This year as usual I contacted the Vendor Coordinator and as fate would have it, that a vendor had canceled for this year. Leaving a space that we were allowed to fill. For those of you not in the business, the number of vendors at an event is very important. If an event has more vendors than the attendance can support, then all of the vendors do poorly. Far too often the event organizers feel that the more the merrier, as they say. However for those of us in business, the key is a balance between too many and for the attendees having too few to select from. Many events even include vendors that are not even Celtic related. If for no other reason , it confuses those that attend a Highland Games as to what is Scottish and what is not. Having someone there that sells sun glasses for instance just does not make any sense. But you see all vendors pay for the space at these events, and the greed of the the event organizers takes priority over the purity of the event. If you are ever in the Sacramento area the last full weekend in April then I highly recommend this event. I was amazed at the number of displays and the entertainment available to the public. For the $12.00 entrance fee , there is more than a full day of things to see. Especially interesting in the military unit display. Scottish related military units from the era of the Romans to World War Two are there. Well displayed and outfitted , the camps were set up in period settings and there was over a dozen different units to take a look at. Several of them even had heavy canons that they fired off to the amusement of the crowd. The event is also blessed with a wide variety of musical acts. From a Grade Four Pipe Band Competition to well known acts such as Molly’s Revenge and even a punk Celtic group to round out the venue. A huge selection of food items were available from the traditional haggis to a modest selection of foods that anybody can eat. The only thing I was taken aback on was the prices of everything. Apparently in California they used to paying higher prices for just about everything than we are. This event is a two day event and even though it can be seen in one day, plan on two and really take all of it in.

Video project update

 

My adventure in a video project is an eye opener. Why are there a dozen different types of players to here music or video on the web? They all play the video, why can’t we have one player so I do not have to have a dozen icons on my desktop?

So here I am , just a average guy. I want to make a movie and show it to people on the web. How hard can that be? Well just like the music and video players, and sure enough the video camera I bought records in DVD, but will not show up in my video editor. I need to convert it to another format before I can edit it, then convert it to another format before I can show it to you on the web.

I have wrapped my head with duct tape at this point, because when my head explodes, and it will, I will have the pieces to start over.

Video Project

 If any of you try to edit music or videos using your computer, you know there is a steep learning curve. I have found that the older you are , the steeper the curve. After building my own website , and yes I know it shows, but I have a very limited number of Geek genes. I have now started on a video creation project for the Kilt & Thistle web site. I am using Windows Movie Maker, as it is free and there is some support involved. I see many free movie edit available on the web, but between spyware and the fact that they have very limited support, I am hesitant to try them. If you have any good suggestions, please leave a comment. I am not looking for fancy, just easy. I am also looking for a video decoder to change the video format. For those of you that have way to much common sense to try this sort of stuff, let me tell you this is a great deal more complicated than it needs to be. Just like there are many video players. Quicktime, Realplayer, Windows Media Player, and a few more, are just the main ones out there. The other thing I am trying to accomplish is to get videos on the blogs. I am using a Canon mini DVD camcorder and then need to decode the format to .avi files to work in Windows Movie Maker. Still working on getting it all to work. I had a great idea for a Valentine project, but could not get it together fact enough.

A feather in our bonnet

Every once in a while you get something that happens in business that helps you keep up your spirits. Being in business is not all glamorous as it may appear. Especially in hard times like these. Most businesses are having a hard time, and a nonessential business like ours is hit even harder. So when we have something good happen, I like to enjoy the moment. We just had another one of those moments. Let me start at the beginning. We have had some well known people as customers. You can see the short list at http://www.kilts.com/customers.htm from well know weatherman Willard Scott to the New York City Ballet. A year ago Cheryl picks up the phone and a costume company in Hollywood needs a kilt and accessories. The kilt and accessories is going to be worn by one of the stars in High School Musical 3 , Lucas Grabeel.

High School Musical 3

Frankly , it’s not my kind of movie so I did not see it. We just recently received another call from the same costume company and they need a few more things. We find that the kilt and other accessories will be used in one of the upcoming episodes of Fox’s Sarah Conner Chronichles. We should see it in the 2009 season.

Trouble in the kilt trade

Some might think I would be happy that one of my competitors was having a spot of trouble. But it could happen to any of us. In my post, Glimmer of Hope, I brought up a situation of fraud in the selling of Scottish goods in Scotland. And when it hurts the consumer, it gives the entire trade a bad name. I have recently been made aware of a bit of trouble for Celtic Craft Centre in California. How and why the Celtic Craft Centre was targeted I have no idea. The story in The Desert Sun Newspaper in Palm springs has me asking more questions than it answers.

 Desert Sun

Apparently the N.O.A.A. raided the Celtic Craft Centre looking for seal fur. The NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is in charge of the importation of marine wildlife, alive or dead. They have an enforcement arm that looks into the illegal importation of marine animals that are not supposed to be imported into the United Sates. The first question I had , was why does a bunch of weather guys , that keep track of hurricanes, also keep track of marine animals? And more importantly, why dead ones? You don’t call the FBI asking for weather information. It is also not surprising in the story that the reporter has no clue what the seal would be used for referring to it as, “kilts made from seal fur”. For those of you that are not Scottish, the seal fur is commonly used for the front of sporrans, the pouch that is worn in the front of a kilt. It is illegal however to have seal fur here in the United States. There is a large market for it in Canada and the United Kingdom. Here , in the U.S. you are required to use a substitute or Faux seal. Against much world disagreement in the use of seal fur, Canada has been able to keep the seal fur trade open. The providers are the Inuit Eskimo tribes, and is one of their major sources of revenue NOAA is a federal agency, and with everything else they could be doing, why are they after a small provider of Scottish merchandise? Also in the category of priorities , the U.S. Government is beyond broke and printing, and spending, money we don’t have. I understand the need to enforce the laws we have on the books, but in the grand scheme of things, there has to be bigger fish to fry. Sorry that one just slipped right out there. I will keep you posted on any further developments.