Kiltmart: a naive review

[Ayin McFye]

Does anyone have a chanter from KM? Becuz I'm thinking of buying one to start learning the pipes.

I was planning on picking one up also from there here soon. I live in Arizona where they have their shop and I was going to swing by there here soon and pick one up. If I purchase one before you do, I'll shoot you a PM to let you know how it is.

[glenlivet]

I was planning on picking one up also from there here soon. I live in Arizona where they have their shop and I was going to swing by there here soon and pick one up. If I purchase one before you do, I'll shoot you a PM to let you know how it is.

I hope I don't open a can of worms by telling you both to save your money. You'd be better off going to the http://www.bobdunsire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php forums & looking in their Trading Post forum for a used practice chanter.

I was curious to see what wares were for sale, bagpipe-wise, at KM, and about spewed my Isle of Jura on my keyboard when I saw the oxymoronic statement " Our pipes are specially made for us by a prestigious 50 year old company in Pakistan." The company may have some prestige in Pakistan, but everything I read on every bagpiper's forum says no playable pipe has ever come out of Pakistan. Just do a search on the forums, or google "site:bobdunsire.com" +Pakistan."

Get a Dunbar, or Naill, or McCallum, or Gibson PC. Used, if you're not sure you're committed to learning the pipes. I hate to see a Scot waste his money, lads!
-Mark

[ardchoille]

Nice review. I've not shopped at Kiltmart, but I have made purchases from SWK and I have to agree that their shipping, support, and products are great.

[CDNSushi]

Just remember that people who have tried to deal with KM in person have had limited success... Just do a forum search for Kiltmart... It seems that dealing with them over the Internet gets you the best customer service.

An update: I took my KM Affordable kilt to my favourite seamstress. Took the SWK Standard along to show them exactly what the issue was and what I wanted them to do to fix it.

They looked at how SWK sewed down the pleats and said they would do the same thing on the KM kilt. However, the two kilts are pleated differently, which caused a bit of discussion... On the SWK, the very top edge of the kilt, the sewed down pleat measures about 1.5cm across. At the bottom edge of the sewed down portion it measures 2.5cm, so instead of being like a stright, round pipe, the kilt flares out some. They asked me if that's what they should do on the KM kilt, but I told them no -- it's hard to explain exactly why in this thread but I had a good reason when I was looking at the kilt. I think it had something to do with the fact that the SWK is an 8 yard kilt, but the KM is only 6, so the pleats on the KM are already starting at 2.5cm near the top and I don't know (or trust them) enough to flare it out at the bottom appropriately. Remember, I live in Japan and the locals only know kilts from movies and books.... Or the kilted skirts that the high school girls wear... Heaven forbid that they should think that it's a high school girl uniform and sew it to look like one....

Anyway, we'll see what I end up with. They are only charding me $15 to sew down all the pleats and to remove and re-stitch the lining back on when they are done. I'll post a final update (and maybe some pics) when I get my kilt back in two weeks.

[CDNSushi]

Hooray! I got my kilt back today! Happy me! And the quality of workmanship is fantastic. If only everyone had a Japanese tailor like mine! LOL!

So, as promised, they sewed down the pleats on my KM Affordable. I tried it on as soon I got home and difference is AMAZING! It looks better in the mirror because it sits properly now. It's still a lightweight kilt, so a kilt pin and sporran are pretty much necessary but other than that, it's going to be a fun kilt to wear!

They sewed everything down in similar style to my SWK Standard, to the same length even. They took time to line up the sett as well as was possible and did a fantastic stitch job all the way to the waistband, at which point they stopped (good thinking -- you don't want to sew down the waistband too) and added a permanent basting stitch along the length of the waistband, in the middle so as to keep everything flat and straight. My belt will cover most of this anyway... They also removed the lining on the inside and after they sewed down the pleats, stitched it back in by hand (much more carefully than it was originally).

Total cost: $15. Result: a very low cost kilt that feels like and wears like one that costs much more. I would definitely buy one like this from KM again, but only if I had a seamstress fix it when it arrived.

Here are a couple of closeup pics of what they did. (Second pic is a bit blurry. Sorry!) Pics of me wearing it will follow but not tonight. Soon! I promise!

[BearMinister]

Do you remember how much the SWK international shipping costs were excatly? I'd like to buy my next kilt from them (SWK standard), but since I live in Finland, I'd like to know the shipping costs, so I can calculate the taxes and customs duties...

[CDNSushi]

Do you remember how much the SWK international shipping costs were excatly? I'd like to buy my next kilt from them (SWK standard), but since I live in Finland, I'd like to know the shipping costs, so I can calculate the taxes and customs duties...

Roughly $50 if I remember correctly (or a bit less). But don't forget, I ordered more than just a kilt so that could affect the shipping rate. They send out using USPS priority so I suppose if you went to usps.gov you could do the rough calculations yourself if you knew the weight of an average kilt.

[English Bloke]

Hooray! ... Total cost: $15. Result: a very low cost kilt that feels like and wears like one that costs much more. I would definitely buy one like this from KM again, but only if I had a seamstress fix it when it arrived.

At that price and for that quality of work, perhaps you should get your Japanese Seamstress to have a bash at making you a kilt. That would be an interesting experiment.

[kakkui_1037]

I'm glad to hear you like your newly altered kilt. It seems a bit unfair to compare shipment times, that is mostly the carrier's issues. I have ordered over the internet a lot, and you could send two different packages to the same address, and they probably won't be delivered at the same time.

I've also heard the old employee that other customers dealt with before March 08 has left the company, so naturally the customer service is going to be more prompt and polite as you said.

Thanks for taking the time to let others know of your experiences.

[CDNSushi]

I agree for the most part -- but some companies, especially when it comes to international shipping, know how to "optimize" their package and make it post-friendly. This includes but isn't restricted to: large, professionally printed address labels placed in the right location that are unobstructed, using an accepted format and font, having the package properly sealed and wrapped, filling out customs forms and item descriptions properly (and sometimes creatively) so that it passes through unmolested (for the most part -- no one has any control over which boxes the border guys decide to pick through), having a clear, understandable return-address...

Those are just some of the factors that a company does have direct power over. But, you are right -- sometimes two packages from the same source may not arrive on the same day...

I'm glad to hear you like your newly altered kilt. It seems a bit unfair to compare shipment times, that is mostly the carrier's issues. I have ordered over the internet a lot, and you could send two different packages to the same address, and they probably won't be delivered at the same time.