Service Tartans

[Mr. MacDougall]

After the discussion of the USA Casual in another thread, I wonder why it is that it only comes in US Army of the service tartans? There are four other armed services, and each has its own tartan. I know three of them are available in PV, as another company offers them... so why not USA?

[Riverkilt]

Really? Boy, I'm confused. Know we had to do a special run at the mill for the Army tartan. Thought there was talk of doing a leatherneck tartan run too, but it didn't take.

Know Alexis Malcolm has the tartans in wool and thought she controlled the producation of those fashion tartans.

SportKilts are in cotton/poly rather than viscose/poly...

Hoping an expert jumps in.

Ron

[billmcc]

Mr. MacDougall,

Ron is correct. USAK tartans are polyviscose which is much better than the poly-cotton used by Sport Kilt. All polys are not the same.

[RockyR]

Hi Mr. MacDougall,

That's a good question! I hope I can explain the answer...

The Army tartan is a privately owned tartan (jointly between Alexis Malcolm and Strathmore) that I had to pay to use. Well, I didn't HAVE to pay them if I could find a mill that didn't respect the rules of the Scottish Tartans Authority, but I wanted to keep everything on the "up and up". I only did this special run of Army tartan for members of XMARKS and once it's gone, it's gone.

Other military tartans are woven (with or without permission, I don't know) in Cotton Poly, not PV. Even if a company SAYS it's PV, many times it's not. The other military tartans are not available in PV (unless someone else had a special run done of another military tartan that I'm not aware of).

I hope this helps explain why we only have the Army tartan and NOT the Coast Guard, Leatherneck, Air Force or Navy (or thurso, or SeaBees or armed forces, or...).

[Tattoo Bradley]

Rocky nailed it...

[Dirk Skene]

...... There are four other armed services, and each has its own tartan. ...

actually 5, do not forget the Coast Guard

[Mr. MacDougall]

First of all, thank you very much for the explanation. I went and looked at that other kilt maker, and do indeed see that it just says "poly blend," and not "polyviscose." My mistake, thank you for correcting me.

While the answer is disapointing, I do understand it, and agree that it something of a difficulty to anyone who would want to offer all the service tartans to the public.

actually 5, do not forget the Coast Guard

I wasn't. The puddle pirates feature in my answer. Five armed services means four besides the Army that Rocky already offers on the website... temporarily offers, that is.