An X Marks tartan

[Alan H]

Ah, gents, this is swatches of stuff that they already make, not swatches of the X Marks tartan!

I'm gonna send the package around to a few of the kiiltmakers on X Marks and see what they say. If they all give the stuff the nod, then I have a plan for making this stuff available to anyone on X Marks whlo wants to order it. Then they take it to the kiltmaker of their choice. This way, no one kiltmaker has to try to stock 20-30-40 yards of both PV and wool. That's not right, and they most probably won't do it, anyway.

Looking at it another way, it's not fair to have one kiltmaker order the material and then basically have a lock on all the kiltmaking. Can you imagine the ruckes and shouting aroundhere if that were to happen? I sure don't want to be the guy that sets off a huge fight within the X Marks kiltmaking ranks!

My goal...and this is all subject to approval by our chief, Highlandtide, is to make arrangements to get the material available for the lowest price I can in the USA and Canada. I can't re-sell it, because I live in the USA and I don't have a retail license. Se we need someone who's NOT a kiltmaker themselves, but with a retail license who can import the stuff and re-sell it (with a little bit of markup to cover their expenses, of course. That's only fair.).

X Markers pre-order cloth and send in a deposit for the material. When the stuff comes in, it gets distributed out to the people who ordered it and then they put in an order for a kilt with the kiltmaker of their choice. Anyone from X Marks can pre-order and receive any amount of cloth that they want and can go to the kiltmaker of their choice. I HOPE, I very much hope that X Marks participants will go to X Marks kiltmakers for their kilts.

If it's all a huge, rip-roaring success it may well be that the "importer" may elect to do a second run of fabric orders, perhaps with tartan #2. We just don't know, yet.

[Alan H]

Remember, weaving mills have minimum yardages required for custom orders. Smaller mills require 20 - 30 yards/meters. Prices vary from $24 - $50 a yard (or meter). These are the basic costs we're working with.

I can't just **go order* 30 yards of 16 ounce wool. Neither can any of the kiltmakers or retailers that happen to participate here. That would mean up-fronting maybe as much as $1,000, eh? What if the stuff is crap? What if all the kiltmakers here see it and retch and refuse to work with it? What if I order it and all you X Markers who want kilts talk real big, but somehow the money never seems to appear for the fabric? Then I or whoever else takes this on is out $1,000.

NOT!

Patience, gentlemen. We're working on it. It's going to take a while to get material at an affordable cost that kiltmakers will work with. Get used to the idea that you're going to have to pre-pay for the material. Nobody is going to buy this stuff so that you can sort of "think it over". You'll have to take the word of the kiltmakers on the board that the quality of the product the mill turns out is nice, AND unless someone up-fronts the money to pay for the run, you're not going to get to see a picture of the cloth before you order it.

Ten seconds thought will tell you why that's the way it has to be, eh?

We'll make sure the material we go with is of good quality, OK? I'm putting in time and research for you all to make sure that's true, and it won't just be MY word, it will be the word of several experienced kiltmakers who participate at X Marks.
You won't get crap, here. It won't be made in some desperate sweatshop.


BTW, I'm not willing to chase down stuff from two suppliers. There are two "candidates" right now, but as far as I'm concerned, we'll pick one and go with it.