outfitting an entire band??

[highland mafia]

So... After many years of playing in several pipe bands myself and 11 other like minded players are finally in a position to start a new band. We will be focusing nearly entirely on competition. We'll be starting in grade 3 this summer but hope to move to grade 2 the season after. We need to outfit 6 pipers and 6 drum corps (3 sides, 2 tenor and a bass). But we want to do it a wee bit away from the norm. Firstly we want a nice daywear outfit. We're thinking isle of skye tartan, a nice earth tone tweed vest with a bit of a pattern (maybe a brown with a purplely line?). A brown daywear sporran, white shirt, and striped tie to pick up a few of the common colours in the tartan etc. But we don't have a ton of sponsorship funds. Especially after drums and chanters. So we need to keep the uniform costs down as much as possible. Also we have all roasted in the humid south western Ontario summers over the years. So after much thought I am leaning towards USA kilts. But I'm curious if you think a 5 yard kilt would hang well for a pipe band? Or should we really stay with an 8 yard? What weight cloth would be best for a 5 yard and be cool enough for our summers? To be honest we'd even consider PV cloth if it was cool enough and still looked good! But man.. That seems too extreme. If there's any other ideas from anyone to keep cost down, look great, and stay comfortable I'm all ears!
Thanks

[OC Richard]

How about this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-7-Yard-I...item234164d000

And this?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISLE-OF-SKYE...item5d5105ea38

I'm in a new startup band myself. What we did, to keep costs down, was to buy an entire band set of kilts (from the Regina Police Pipe Band). The kilts had been well maintained and came in excellent condition. We've had to order a couple new kilts to cover sizes we didn't have, but overall it was a very cost-effective approach.

Everybody in the band already had black waistcoats and glengarries, and most had the typical pipe band sporrans.

So all we had to buy new was capbadges, shirts, neckties, hose, and flashes.

The bagcovers were provided by McCallum when we ordered a band set of McCallum chanters. We all already had black cords.

[Sir Didymous]

I'm trying to find a lot of twelve sporrans that were on Ebay. They looked decent and the price was around $200. Looked like a pipe band was unloading some old kit.

[RockyR]

We actually have a bunch of Ex Rental kit on sale right now for a VERY good price and its in great condition. Call me at the shop Monday if interested... 610.948.4110

I can also go through different kilt options and other options to keep costs down for you.

[OC Richard]

One thing to keep an eye on are all the ex-hire kilts that come up for sale after the New Year... if I recall, these sales kick off in February? In January?

The zillion kilt hire shops in Scotland clear out old stock and bring in the new, in preparation for all the Spring weddings coming up.

Google "kilt hire" and you can see all the Scottish places. Only a few shops list everything on their web sites; you have to get on the phone and inquire.

Up until recently this was a no-lose thing, getting nice handstitched 8-yard wool kilts made from tartan from the leading Scottish mills in a wide range of sizes for reasonable prices.

But beware! Be sure to check each shop's hire prices... recently kilt hire shops have sprung up in the UK which hire Pakistani tat. These can be easily and quickly identified by their hire prices which are literally 'to good to be true'.

[RockyR]

For the record, all of our hire kilts are traditional 8 yard wool kilts and all of our accessories are made in Scotland.

[Blupiper]

There is a site out there: exhirekilts.com that seems to be strictly in the business that Richard mentions above. Their website shows a couple of tartans that fit into the earth-toned palette that you mentioned and maybe they would offer a bulk rate for a dozen at a time. Who knows? Good luck.

JMB

[OC Richard]

For the record, all of our hire kilts are traditional 8 yard wool kilts and all of our accessories are made in Scotland.

Yes that's the way it was always done in Scotland, and you got high quality kilts, jackets, and accessories if you bought ex-hire. I think the vast majority of the kilt hire shops in Scotland are still like that, however the last time I was closely scouring all the Scottish kilt hire shops I came across a few using stuff that had to be, let us say, from 'overseas' sources.

Note this place offers Prince Charlie outfits for only 29 pounds

http://www.a1kilthire.co.uk/about-us.cfm

Here is McCalls which makes their own kilts

http://www.mccalls.co.uk/kilt-hire-o...-packages.html

http://www.mccalls.co.uk/kilt-hire-o...ackages-1.html

Here are high quality ex-hire kilts. The thing about the hire industry is that certain tartans will be in vogue at certain times, meaning that loads of different hire shops will have the same tartan (the fabric often from the same mill) at a particular point in time. Douglas is extremely popular now and a band might easily outfit itself with that tartan from various hire shops. Ditto Isle of Skye and various other tartans. For some reason grey tartans are very popular now.

http://www.macgregorandmacduff.co.uk...lts/kilts.html