Sport Kilts
The lightweight apres-exercise wear offers loose-fitting comfort for athletes
By Katherine Feo, Special to the Press-Telegram
SPORT KILT
2815 Junipero, #102, Signal Hill, (800) 451-5458,
www.sportkilt.com. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Men's sport kilt $69.50; baby kilts from $24; women's mini kilt $49; women's long kilt $89. All kilts can be customized.
JAMES ANSITE says he was just trying to get comfortable.
The 29-year-old Long Beach native said he was cycling with the Long Beach bike club Velo Allegro in 1995 when, following the race, he wanted to change out of his bike shorts.
"You could use a towel, but they fall down," he said.
That's what gave him the idea for the Sport Kilt. "Plus," he adds with a smile, "I wanted to be different. Kilts are kinda funny.
"When I realized that kilts were very expensive to buy, I said to my dad, 'Let's make one.' The first Sport Kilt prototype was sewn in their garage, and debuted on the racing scene soon after.
Unlike the traditional wool kilt, the Sport Kilt is made from a special poly blend that is machine washable, Ansite said. Instead of belt and buckle fasteners, he uses velcro. And after a race in restricting Spandex bicycle shorts, the kilts offer loose-fitting comfort.
"All my cycling friends liked them," said Ansite. "They'd all wear them around, and people would ask where they got them."
Don Scales, a four-time master's world champion cyclist and nine-time national champion, was one of the early enthusiasts.
"When we saw that James had one, everyone at the Velodrome wanted one, too," he remembers. "I did a 24-hour bike race in Utah after that, and when we weren't racing, we were wearing the kilts."
Production continued casually for five years until Ansite realized how high the demand for an inexpensive kilt had become. In 2000, the company moved out of the garage and into a warehouse in Signal Hill to cope with the hundreds of kilts it produced a week.
"We realized there were other markets for kilts - like the Highland Athletes," Ansite says. "Then we started supplying Ultimate Frisbee guys and Rugby players. It just keeps growing every year."
Sport Kilt now sponsors the Scottish American Athletic Association, effectively changing the rules of play: "Now they can say that you must have a kilt to compete, where before it was too expensive an option," Ansite explains.
Sport Kilt even reaches out to the military.
"We send a lot over to guys on active duty," says Ansite. "If they log on and order stuff, we'll send it right to Iraq."
In addition to the popular men's kilt for cyclists at Sport Kilt, there is a lightweight microfiber kilt for hikers. And surfers can use a terry cloth version to absorb seawater after a session. A line of kilts for women was developed in 2004, and, to round out the trend, baby kilts have recently become a big hit.
"I never thought it would happen, but we have a lot of customer photos of people getting married in Sport Kilts," Ansite says.
Sport Kilt also draws followers from those who want to represent their personal heritage. Ultimate Fighter and reality TV star Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis outfits his entire mixed martial arts fighter team (named Team Irish) in Sport Kilts.
"My family comes from Waterford, Ireland. I wear the kilt to show pride in my family's history," he says.
Chris Harris, Davis' manager, says the gear helps him get into the fighting mind-set. "He thinks of it as putting on his war paint," says Harris.
Scottish vs. Irish
For those with Celtic roots, not all kilts are created equal. Scottish tartan patterns correspond to clan names (such as MacGregor, or Ferguson), while Irish patterns are by region.
"There are over 4,000 plaids; we can only keep about 50 at a time," says Ansite.
For himself and others who don't have a family association, the company stocks generic plaids as well.
"We even have a California plaid," he says. "The blue is for the ocean, and the green is for the forests."
Michael O'Toole, owner of the Irish bar Limericks in the Naples area of Long Beach, bought an all Ireland patterned kilt to wear for the pub's golf tournament at Little Rec a week ago. He became so enamored with the garment that he vowed to wear one every day during the week leading up to St. Patrick's Day, which is today, and even stocked a rack of about 30 kilts to sell at the bar as part of the holiday festivities.
"The general reaction has been unbelievable," O'Toole claims. "Before I wouldn't think about wearing a kilt. But it works! Everybody enjoys it."
O'Toole has embraced the entire look, claiming that the sporran (essentially a Celtic man-purse worn around the waist) is almost as addictive as the kilt itself. "It's amazing how often I've been using it. In the last few days I haven't lost my keys or my phone, and I usually lose them at least twice a day."
Ansite says that the apres-exercise gear is now being used by many athletes during actual competition, and others wear kilts to work, including a company of carpenters in Las Vegas.
The inevitable question
Which brings up the inevitable question of whether to wear underwear under your kilt.
"You're not supposed to," says Ansite with a smile. "That's part of the fun. You get asked all day long when you wear a kilt.
"I could see if you're climbing up a ladder all day you'd probably need to wear underwear, especially if someone is holding up the ladder for you."
Will kilts become a standard in men's clothing?
"I don't know if you'll see lots of guys walking around in Polo shirts and kilts," says O'Toole. "But look what we were wearing in the '70s - stranger things have happened."
Katherine Feo is a Long Beach freelance writer
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