New Registered Tartans

[The Wizard of BC]

Simply beautiful!

I have just one question.

Who the heck is this William C. Roeger III? And why is he trying to pass himself off as my friend Rocky?

[RockyR]

WCR3 is my evil twin. He's the one that designs tartans for me to crave and lust after so that I must spend money to register and weave.

The resons behind the tartans... I'm more than 1/2 German and we only had 1 tartan (to my knowledge... the German National). While I had that tartan woven for me and think it's OK, it never really moved me as something "beautiful" or cool in design. I decided that us Germans need some more choices... hence the 2 different designs with darker colors.

The American Heritage tartan... I felt the same way about the "American" tartans that are out there now. The American and the Bicentennial tartans (to me) are OVERPOWERING in the "red white and blue"-ness. I wanted a darker, more somber "American" tartan, so I designed mine with a lot of black as the base and darker reds and blues in it.

Hope this info helps understand the reasoning behind them.

[RockyR]

Also... a BIG thank you to Matt Newsome for letting me know how the registering process works. He laid out the general process of registering so I knew what to expect. He's truly a Scholar and a Gentleman (how many people can you say that about and mean BOTH?).

[A Hay]

I want to publicly thank Rocky for the privilege of being the owner of the First German Heritage kilt. (That's me and my wife, in Germany, in the pictures) All the credit goes to him for designing and making the kilt.

I had contacted him a couple of months ago and he told me by PM that he was getting these fabrics woven. He offered me the opportunity to buy the first one, and I took him up on it. He got the fabric in just before Christmas and I told him there was going to be a New Year's afternoon Reception on base (a military tradition) on 7 January. There would be a lot of German officials there and it would be a chance to build some German-American relations if I had the kilt to wear. Well, he must have started on it Christmas night, because it was ready and in the mail about two days afterwards. It arrived on 5 January and I indeed wore it to the reception. I spoke to many Germans, and several of the Americans, and all were complimentary of the kilt.

I intend to wear it often and take more pictures in authentic German scenarios.

All three of the tartans are great. I chose the German Heritage because I expect to be in Germany another 2-4 years.

Rocky has truly been great to work with. It was hard to keep my mouth shut, but he deserved the right to make the announcement at his own time and I hope all of you with German heritage will support his efforts.

Sincerely,

Tom Hays

[RockyR]

Here are 2 pics of my American Heritage tartan... excuse the wrinkles and whatnot. I've not ironed it in a few days and I wear it a lot now...

[Panache]

Rocky,

I love the German Heritage tartan!

Too many tartans, so little money, sigh

Cheers

[RockyR]

While it's not in my hands yet (well... the 5 yard samples are), I had to order "a good sized quantity" of each tartan and Marton Mills agreed to add it to their permanant range. These tartans will all be available on a regular basis through ANY kiltmaker that gets material from Marton Mills (not just USAK).

If you want Matt Newsome to make you a 4 yard box pleated American Heritage, he can! If you want Barb to make you an 8 yard hand sewn kilt in the German American tartan, she can! If you want to order a 5 yarder or a Premier from us, we can make it!

Hopefully the tartans will catch on and American and German Americans will "step outside the Family tartan box" and get a kilt! I also hope that this will help some people overcome fears of "I can't get a kilt b/c I don't have a family tartan" by adding to the "universal tartans" that ANYONE can wear.