I have no problem paying up front for quality.

I have no problem paying up front for reasonable shipping time (4-5 weeks for a kilt, contemporary or Traditional with allowance for seasonal rushes and special situations like a lone tailor working on kilts for a band that reveals that at the time of ordering)

Kathy Lare at Kathy's Kilts in Albuquerque took 1/2 down, 1/2 when ready to ship and she special ordered the tartan from the 1/2 down.

That's a lot more customer friendly than taking 100% down on a stock kilt and shipping 11 weeks later.

Is economics a great sport or what? Will be most interesting to see how this current boom in kilts plays out.

In six months I've gone from naive first time buyer, and through extensive market experience become much more savy about where I do business. In the process I've had some aggrevation, frustration, and extensive jonesing. But, I've also met great people like Mike at AmeriKilts, Steve at Freedom Kilts, Jeff at Pittsburgh Kilts, and Kathy at Kathy's Kilts. All have treated me with dignity and respect, shipped as promptly as one would expect for a kilt, been upfront about any potential problems, and delivered quality products.

I have strong hopes for Utilikilts, I hope the do well, they are refreshing in their marketing, and I'm very greatful to the extensive work they've done to bring kilts mainstream. I even sometimes wish I could dust off all my old cut and sew training and find a way to work for them. They are exciting.

But its really sad when I've had more quality problems with Utilikilts than I have with SportKilts.

When I first ordered, one of the reasons UK gave me for the 11 week jones was that one of their production moguls had "fried." I don't doubt it. I know that pressure because I lived it for five years in the 70s in another clothing fad/boom era. But today I'm a consumer. I expect my Levis not to be defective off the shelf. I expect my Pendleton shirts not to be defective off the shelf. I expect quality for my hard earned dollar.

Like someone else said, my father taught me to pay extra for quality to achieve value, particularly when buying clothing. My hope is that UK can do that and overcome instances of "bad Karma" like me.

I also agree it would be "suicide" to post all this on the UK board. I'm not anti UK, I'm for them. That's why I wrote Stephen with my concerns - so they'd know and can tighten up inspections.

If UK succeeds, kilts succeed. If UK keeps having production problems the boom in contemporary kilts may fade unless the quality houses can step in with the marketing ompf that UK has.

We shall see what we shall see.

Ron