The OUTRAGEOUS Price of kilts!

[Alan H]

I keep reading about how *some* kiltmakers are out there to strip your pocketbook bare..HAHA!!!

I think it's time for my semi-quarterly review of "let's get real".

AKA..."Why Alan didn't become a profesional kiltmaker".

I can hand-make an eight-yard kilt...32 pleats in about 30-34 hours of work. I can seethat if I get really good at it and did a few of the seams (like in the waist band,for example) by machine, I could turn one out in about 24-28 hours. I can machine-sew a box-pleat kilt in about 15 hours.

OK, so what is a "reasonable" working hourly wage for a trained, professional kiltmaker? Five dollars an hour? Ten? Fifty? What does your plumber make? How about your electrician? How about your computer repair guy? When I do call-out computer repair, I charge $40 an hour. Is it unreasonable to suppose that, say, your trained kiltmaker could make $15 an hour? Is that SO unreasonable?

OK, then so if I got really fast and really good I could hand-make a kilt in about 28 hours of work. Let's say I get really good and it's 24 hours. 24 hours times $15/hour equals $360.

Three Hundred and Sixty Dollars....that's just the labor.

Now let's say that the cloth I'm working on retails for about $60 a yard. Now, we'll assume that since I'm "in thebusiness" I get a break on that price. Let'spretend that it's 50%. OK, so I'm paying $30 a yard for my cloth. I'm still buying 4 yards of cloth,though. That's $120

one hundred and twenty dollars

Then there are straps, buckles, hair canvas, lining, thread and the semi-annual maintenance call on my sewing machine. Let's say that's another $20 for the cost of each kilt.

twenty bucks

Add it up and what do you get? Five Hundred Dollars

THAT is what a primarily hand-sew, hand pleated, properly-done kilt made out of top-flight material should cost. The logic is simple, the costs are reasonable. NO KILT-MAKER IS RIPPING YOU OFF, HERE.

Now, mind you....let's think about thtat kiltmaker. Not only does that poor person haveto sew kilts,but he/she has tomaintain aweb site, because Oh-my-goodness, it's the internet age, get WITH it! And they have to bill for kilts made,receive material, BUY material, goto to the bank, order bucklesand straps, answer the phone, answer the e-mail etc. etc. etc. Of course none of that PAYS anything does it? The only timehe makes money is when he/she is actually sewing. If that kiltmaker can spend 30 hours a week actually SEWING, it'd be a miracle.

Have you everspent 30 hours a week sewing? I haven't, either. But I've spent 20 hours a week sewing and I got cranky and bored,fast.....But I digress.

OK, but let's say they do it. Let's say our kiltmaker actually spend 30 hours a week,sewing. Well, 30 hours a week times $15 an hour is $450.

Is our kiltmaker allowed to take two weeks of vacation a year? Seems reasonable to me. OK,so that measn they're working 50 weeks out of the year.

50 weeks times $450 a week equals $22,500 a year, annual income. Mind you, that doesn't include any benefits like health insurance, or a retirement plan.

Now, there are places in the USA where you can live on $22,500 a year, where that's a decent wage, even. But I have to tell you, it's not gonna cut it here in the the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

So much for our kiltmakers "ripping us off"....laughing all the way to the bank.

[kevinkinney]

Bravo.

I don't even make Kilts, and I feel the need to drive to Alan's house and shake his hand. Well said. < he's not even mentioning all the extra costs that come with running a sewing business>.

Kevin.

[mddock58]

Unfortunately that's the reality of "hand-made" garments. We don't want to pay the price of the craftsmanship and quality that we receive.

We would rather complain and go to anyplace that can offer a cheaper option.

We have many kiltmakers on this board, most offer a beautiful garment in comparison to the cost.

Alan is correct, don't assume that you are getting your pockets (or sporran) turned inside out just because of the cost. How many people spend $4-7 for a "Starbucks" when they could just get a "coffee" at a deli for $1-2, but they complain about the price of everything around them. It's a matter of what you want.

[Hamish]

Bravo, Alan. Very well stated indeed.

[cavscout]

I'm so glad you re-posted this Alan. I went to look for your original breakdown a few months ago and couldn't find it. Excellent breakdown.

[arrogcow]

It's not the price of the kilt per se. If anything kilt makers charge way too little for their time. the problem is the tartan. $60/yd is outrageous. Most fabric is under $15/yd. Yes $60 might have been reasonable when tartans were woven by hand, I can see how big a pain that would be, but it's all done by machine today. There is no reason for tartan to be more than $20/yd (if that), but the cost will probably never come down, which is sad, because cheaper fabric means more people buying kilts and the mills selling more fabric.

Adam

[mddock58]

While I agree that it's the cost of the fabric, and that the weaving is automated, the set-up is not, and that is where the time consuming part is. Add to that the number of different tartans, and how much demand for each is involved, the warehousing of the anticipated need, it all adds up to more money. You cannot expect something that is as unique as many tartans are to have the demand so that the price can come down to the level of most "standard" fabrics.

[starbkjrus]

Alan ! You've got to stop this now.

If the kiltmakers figure this out they're all going to quit and go get jobs as boring IT Project Managers. (I can say that because I ARE one.) If that happens then all the sewingly challenged folks like me will just be out of luck.

Seriously, I don't know how they do it.

[RockyR]

Alan ! You've got to stop this now.

If the kiltmakers figure this out they're all going to quit and go get jobs as boring IT Project Managers. (I can say that because I ARE one.) If that happens then all the sewingly challenged folks like me will just be out of luck.

Seriously, I don't know how they do it.

Remember Pittsburgh Kilts? Jeff was a GREAT guy and from what I have seen, a very solid kiltmaker (pun intended), but he threw in the towel a couple years ago to go back to HIS I.T. job. The money just wasn't there to support his family.


Thanks Alan for the "non-biased" breakdown of how long things take.

TO clarify 1 little point, it takes ME 20 to 26 hours to get a Premier kilt done, and that's WITH machine sewing the pleats "inside out" so you don't see stitching. How any traditional kiltmaker says s/he can get 2 OR 3 done in 1 day is full of it... unless they have 5 or 6 people working for them. Then MAYBE they can geta a few done in a day.

[Alan H]

What would I charge for a machine-sewn (you can't tell it's mostly machine-sewn until you take it apart) four-yard box-pleat kilt?

Well, I made my Calfiornia Tartan box-pleat kilt in about 14 hours of work. With practice I can probably whack that down to about 10.

I'm not a pro, yet, though I'm getting better. I figure my time is worth at least $10 an hour for one or two more box-pleats. After that, the rate goes to $15...

'cause I'm really not in this to make any money at it, see?

So I figure I'll take about 12 hours to make those next two box-pleats...at ten bucks an hour, that's $120.

Now, I'll need 2 yards of material, double-wide. 16 ounce stuff is best for a box-pleat IMHO cause you really need the weight. Well, that's gonna be $60 a yard, at least so there's another $120.

I'll buy the buckles from Stillwater for $12 and the lining material and hair canvas online or from JoAnne's...that'll run me about $8-10, roughly.

OK, so an Alan H sewn, machine-sewn (a few pieces are hand-sewn, inside) box-pleat kilt will run you roughly $260...plus or minus $20-$30.

If I hand-sewed it all, it'd take me another 8 - 10 hours ($80 - $100 more at ten bucks an hour) and it'd cost another $100....just about exactly what Matt Newsome charges for his hand-sewn box pleat kilts.

If you want to buy Pakistani kilts sewn up by workers making five dollars a day, and made out of Pakistani material which costs six dollars a yard, then that's fine. I own some of those, too, and I enjoy them. They have their place. I still wear my black Stillwater Standard. But let's not knock the poor sod who's barely making a living, sewing up traditional kilts,and charging an entirely reasonable price for them.