Why can you get sone tartans in cheaper kilts/magerials and some not?

[Freebooter]

Hello all,
I have a Bruce "Ancient" wool tartan kilt I got from USA kilts. While I love it, I paid abt $500 for it and hesitate to wear it in dirty, nasty and/or sweaty conditions. I want one I can hike and camp in, hunt in, etc, and not worry about getting it dirty, stained or a slight tear, etc. I see cheaper kilts and materials you can get some clan tartans in but why not in Bruce Tartan? Just curious.
FB
Alabama

[California Highlander]

"Popular" and universal tartans are more likely to be available in poly-viscose (PV), poly-acetate, or acrylic in addition to 13 and 16oz wool. Sometimes the choices make no sense to people looking for certain clans which you would think would be better represented. Why Gunn or Dress Gordon but not Bruce for PV? Why not a Clan Chattan? There would be folks from several affiliated clans likely interested in that for a casual or summer kilt (Mackintosh, MacGillivray, MacBean, Shaw, MacThomas, Macpherson, Farquharson, Davidson, etc).

It basically comes down to what the mill thinks it can sell or what has been previously orders and sold.

[The Wizard of BC]

As said above, the primary differences are the composition of the fabric and the weight.

At the top of the heap are the 100% wool fabrics.
After that are the Polyester/Rayon blends called in the UK Poly/Viscose or P/V for short.
There are also Acrylics and Acrylic blends.
A few fabrics can be found in a Polyester/Cotton blend
Followed by the 100% Cotton fabrics.

Each of these have their good a bad points and are better or worse for an intended use.

Among the 100% wool you can normally find 16, 13 and 10 oz. A very few are available in 18oz and very occasionally 22oz.
True P/V is woven in a 12oz only.
Acrylics are usually lighter with the average about 4-8oz.
Cottons will usually be the lightest at around 4-7oz.

Then there is the fact that there are thousands of different Tartans. No one weaving company can afford to weave, and have sitting on a shelf, fabric in every Tartan so they choose those they can sell.

Add to this that there are only a handful of Tartan weavers. Lochcarron is probably the largest if you count yards woven per year. House of Edgar have perhaps the widest range of Tartans. There is Strathmore. Marton Mills weave wool and are the only producers of kilt quality Poly/Rayon fabrics.

And then there are the mills in Pakistan and China. Pakistan are perhaps the largest fabric weavers in the entire world. If you own a pair of blue jeans the fabric was probably woven in Pakistan. China are massive weavers also.

But Tartan is a very small niche market when compared to other fabrics. Solid colored and printed Cotton sheeting, broadcloth and quilting fabrics account for about 12,000,000 more yards per year than Tartan. Yes, you read that right, 12 million more yards.

So why you ask is your particular Tartan not available? Well simply put there is no market in it. Kilt fabrics are such a small, drop in the bucket, that many weaving mills don't even know it exists.

And your own Bruce Tartan - Well Bruce are not even a Highland Clan. They are a Lowland family. While they do have a representative on The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, even there they are called a family and not a Clan.

[Freebooter]

Thanks y'all.
That makes sense. I wanted a kilt related to families I descend from. My paternal grandparents are Edelen and Berry and maternal are White and Rodgers. They came fr England (before that 3 of them were Norman).

It is my great and gr gr grandparents that some come fr Scotland; Stenhouse, Barclay, and McDowell (my Montgomery ancester ws born in France in 1682 and eventually came t US). And going further back as far as my Scottish ones go; Trotter, Foster, Kelso, Campbell, Henry, Hamilton, etc

So I's trying t get a kilt in one them closer to me. I will try to keep my Bruce kilt f nicer things and het a cheaper one for hiking, camping, etc.
DE

[The Q]

BE thankful, in some ways as a Stewart, I probably have the most clan tartans easily available. It also Means because the most common are regarded rightly or wrongly as free to use by anyone a subject of Her Majesty that everyone and his dog Hires / or buys one!

[Barb T]

Just to add something. In contrast to the fact that almost every mill weaves the common tartans, the less common ones are typically woven by only one mill. There just isn't enough of a market to compete for sales in less common tartans.

And different mills also emphasize different weights of tartan. House of Edgar has a huge range of medium weight tartan and not as many heavy weight tartans. Lochcarron has just the opposite - a huge range of heavy weight tartans and not as many medium weight tartans (Lochcarron stocks 325 tartans, most in at least two of the variants Modern, Ancient, Weathered). Dalgliesh has a huge range of 11-12 oz tartans for dancers. HoE weaves regimental weight in 6 tartans - again, not enough demand to justify every mill weaving them.

It all boils down to economics.