Whilst the newspaper reporter picked on a wee gift shop as an example, the company that the guy from the Tartans Authority was really talking about is well known to everyone in the trade in Scotland. And X Markers should really know all about them too.

They are the infamous Gold Brothers, an Asian family with no roots in Scottish heritage at all, but plenty of links to sweatshops overseas. They sell both from tat shops all over Scotland, and advertise heavily online. For example, key 'kilt' into google and their ad will probably be top of the small ads.

They operate under names like "Heritage of Scotland", "ScotlandShop Direct", "KiltsWorld.com", and their new 'luxury' brand "John Morrison" kilts. They also recently bought up the great old firm of McCalls in Edinburgh.

The reason they can afford to advertise so heavily is the ludicrously high margins they make from selling rubbish on the high street, and also selling forgeries as the real authentic thing. Almost every genuine producer in Scotland has suffered from their unscrupulous practices, whereby they get someone's copyright designs reproduced overseas for a fraction at the price, at rubbish quality. They sell these online even using the genuine producer's own photographs, and with forged labels in many cases. That's not just rumour, it's fact.

There have been countless complaints to Trading Standards, but they won't go near because they're afraid of being accused of racism. And before I'm accused of being racist myself, I'm not. I just hate the disgusting practices of these ruthless b*******s that are driving authentic producers to the wall. Cheap production overseas is one thing. Theft is another.

Here for example is an article from years ago when they first started to appear on the scene:
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1208732003

It's a really serious issue for the future of this industry, as it's destroying the industry so fast there will soon be little left in Scotland itself. If you know anyone who unwittingly has a link on their site to any of the above shops, please tell them! I've suffered from them in the past, but I'm saying no more than that!