Hello from the smokey Pacific Northwest!

[KennethSime]

My usual wear 99% of the time is black Carhartt jeans (Cuz Carhartt jeans are the only thing that fit me) and a t-shirt, so the black kilt fit right in.

If you haven't seen them yet, Utilikilt makes a model they call The Workman. It's made of the same cotton duck cloth Carhartt jeans are. I don't wear mine much anymore, but definitely put it through its paces over the past 15 years or so.

[MrScott]

The Workman, that's a tough looking kilt and sharp too. I will keep my eye on that.

What are your guy's thoughts on the hybrid tartan utilikilts? I think they look cool, but Eric said he has yet to see one made well. Considering some of them run $200 or more, that makes me leery. Also wasn't sure on that particular style of kilt. Using the tartan in that way. Breaking from tradition too much? Disrespectful?

[KennethSime]

The Workman, that's a tough looking kilt and sharp too. I will keep my eye on that.

What are your guy's thoughts on the hybrid tartan utilikilts? I think they look cool, but Eric said he has yet to see one made well. Considering some of them run $200 or more, that makes me leery. Also wasn't sure on that particular style of kilt. Using the tartan in that way. Breaking from tradition too much? Disrespectful?

I wouldn't call it disrespectful. In the same way that Utilikilts are a totally different think than a traditional Kilt, they're American: not Scottish. That said, I personally think that the Tartan utility kilts are trying to do too much. Rocky & Eric often talk about honoring one thing at a time.

For example, if you have two clans you can claim, that's fine: but don't try to mix their tartans. Dress as a MacGregor on Monday, and a Stewart on Tuesday. Similarly, I'd personally encourage you to treat the Utilikilt and a traditional kilt as two separate things.

To explain my bias a bit, my heritage was the first thing that interested me in kilts. When I was younger, I really felt like Utilikilts were super badass, and more practical to boot than a normal kilt. I also felt like they blended in to society a bit better. Nowadays, I find myself more attracted to traditional kilts than anything else. It's a bit more of an investment, but companies like Sport Kilt and USA Kilts that work with high-quality P.V. help keep the price fairly reasonable. Honoring my heritage is more and more important to me, and it turns out that even traditional kilts are pretty darn practical as long as you accessorize appropriately. Also, I care less about blending in now. :-)

At the end of the day, you're the star of your show. If you like the tartan utility kilts, then do the damn thing and make it look good!

[MichiganKyle]

What are your guy's thoughts on the hybrid tartan utilikilts?

I've never been a big fan - I tend to think they look a little over-the-top flashy compared to a straight-up tartan kilt. But that's more of a fashion choice.

One of the functional problems I have with them is that the tartan part kind of defeats the point of the indestructibility of a utility kilt. But it depends on what you're going to do with it. My clothing applications tend to be either "office wear" (I work in IT) or "grungy mechanic work" (fixing equipment on my family's hobby farm and fixing up old cars) with little to no overlap, so a hybrid kilt would not work well for either extreme for me. It wouldn't suit my fashion preferences for office work, and would be too likely to show oil/paint stains for mechanic work. Or the P/V or acrylic tartan would melt if I'm welding (my DNKE Highlander is a heavy cotton) - I wouldn't recommend welding in a kilt, but I can't say I haven't done it.

But, again, that's a "right tool for the job" thing, and they might work perfectly fine for you. That's just something you'll need to decide for yourself.