Utilikilts vs. KiltThis!

[Superspence1]

Big time improvement on the photo handling for KiltThis.com! My one suggestion would be to shorten the time till the "control bar" fades away. It tends to hide the photo description. That aside... BRILLIANT!

Thank you! It's a weird thing, I went to change the template and the one that I really wanted ended up having a technical problem, which I wish I would have known before I worked on it for 2 days....however I had to pick another one (that had the navigation on the left). The first one I picked showed that it had the navigational bar on the left, but after laying out the format of the site, it kept loading the navigational bar on the right, so I had to call tech support and they said, "Choose another one, that one is not working." So, I ended up the the final product, which, I'm pretty happy with. I'll have to see if I can adjust the timing on the slideshow menu. I imagine I can.

Thank you for all your suggestions

[Superspence1]

[QUOTE=QdBrown;861475]
The Kilt This Kilt has punk attitude all over it.QUOTE]

When designing the kilts, I kinda think more along the lines of Roman feel using snaps and straps to almost intimidate, no give a very (undeniable)masculine feeling. I s'pose it does come off as a punk style. Mainly, I want it to be a strong look. A kilt on testosterone, if you will.

[Superspence1]

[QUOTE=Kilt This!;862027]

The Kilt This Kilt has punk attitude all over it.

When designing the kilts, I kinda think more along the lines of Roman feel using snaps and straps to almost intimidate, to give a very (undeniable)masculine feeling. I s'pose it does come off as a punk style. Mainly, I want it to be a strong look. A kilt on testosterone, if you will.

[The Barry]

[QUOTE=Kilt This!;862027]

A kilt on testosterone, if you will.

Is there any other kind?!?!

[morrison]

Heya Barry,

2 things drew me into UK's;

1st; it's made very close to home, convenience is HUGE.

Then, all the materials are American manufacture, right down to the threads in the stitching.

At least that's what Steve says was an impetus in starting up the project. Something like providing a completely American product at an affordable price.

I don't know anything about KILTTHIS mantra.

Seems that everyone is looking for a profit. For instance, some SWK's come from Either India, Pakistan, some Indonesian or SoutheastAsian place where labor is virtually free by America's standard. Therefore, "big profit."

UK's cost a lot of dollars to manufacture because they're entirely American materials produced with American labor in Seattle

[seanachie]

I bought an Argyll jacket from MH Geoffrey & Company in Sialot, Pakistan.
I got good service and a nice Argyll. For what is worth I think generalizations are not a good thing. His company which is family owned has been making Scottish ware since 1912 when Scottish troops were garrisoned there. Much as there is badly made American goods there can be badly made in other countries. I also have a few Stillwaters and my latest, the heavy weight solid green shadow tartan is very nice. Sure if I had the funds I could go towards an RKilt or more finely crafted modern kilt, (I'd love one of Robert's hemps in blue) they are just not in my budget.

[Superspence1]

UK's cost a lot of dollars to manufacture because they're entirely American materials produced with American labor in Seattle

It's not just that they are manufactured entirely in America and use labor in Seattle, it's also the mass production costs; wharehouse storage, employees, employee benefits, advertising, the store location in Pioneer Square (some of the most expensive real estate in the country, I grew up there) and then there's attorney fees to maintain their patent. All of that is very expensive and there's only one way to cover those costs, in the price. It's unavoidable to raise prices if you want to expand, that goes for any business. Nature of the beast.
Right now, it is very hard to hire. I'm crossing my fingers that the Healthcare reform will make it easier to hire and take care of employees. It takes a long time to make a completed kilt without hiring cutters and additional seamstress' so, it's a "for profit" business like any other, but there are some who make sacrifices to bring you inexpensive kilts. They just won't be caring the weight of being a business that mass produces and has a lot of overhead which means, if YOU want a less expensive kilt, you should be willing to pay for a good kilt and not just the name. Times are hard and people are poor. The contemporary kilt is probably more popular now than ever and people are not as concerned with the name on the label as they are with #1 can I afford it? and #2 will it look, feel, right? But, like anything else, if you want it bad enough, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

[vorpallemur]

It's not just that they are manufactured entirely in America and use labor in Seattle, it's also the mass production costs; wharehouse storage, employees, employee benefits, advertising, the store location in Pioneer Square (some of the most expensive real estate in the country, I grew up there) and then there's attorney fees to maintain their patent. All of that is very expensive and there's only one way to cover those costs, in the price. It's unavoidable to raise prices if you want to expand, that goes for any business. Nature of the beast.

That's simply not true.
There are substantial quantity of scale savings possible in the manufacture of sewn products. For instance, multi-layer cutting can reduce per piece labor input by an order of magnitude or more. Since cutting is the highest skilled (and, thus, highest wage) part of most garment construction, that's a substantial per-garment savings. Specialized equipment, such as folders to put put properly sized pleats in, machines to attach pockets, kick presses to attach snaps and studs, or just regular single needle machines dedicated to particular operations, with a suitable guide/attachment accessory, can reduce the labor input in the sewing process. Sure, there are capital costs for this, and maybe operational costs (you need more space), but allocated per garment produced, the costs are lower.

There are other savings that come with scale. If you can buy a few thousand meters of fabric at once, you can save a substantial amount. There are substantial savings in some findings, too.

[MacFett]

As RiverKilt stated, Utilikilts were once a new company too. When I got my first (only and last) UK my wife purchased it in July or August and it barely arrived in time for Winter Solstice.

If I wasn't about to order a Gunn PV from Rocky within the next month I'd give kiltthis a try and may still do so this summer.

[MacFett]

Nothing really wrong with UK's, but I've had bad experiences with their company (attitude, etc).

Same here, in the store and in email. Was very happy when I found alternatives to them.