Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
I have read here that Nicoll Brothers make fairly good sporrans,
They MADE the best commercial (in contrast to bespoke artisan) sporrans but no longer.
so was surprised that these brogues of such poor quality would be sold under their name.
The shoes and other bits were from a different bit. Piob Mhor is still around.
I don't know the shoes but one needs keep in mind that they are low priced shoes. I unfortunately don't know ANYONE making good quality ghillie brogues. The market is set on cheap shoes. Can't expect a good shoe for 45 GBP (not even 100). Good (but not excellent or even "really good") English shoes start at around 200 GBP--- and face it even good American made shoes (which where always a better bargain) are $300 USD and well beyond (Allen-Edmonds, Alden).
The sporrans had prices starting at around 100 GBP. What could one expect in a shoe for under 50 GBP?

I googled for them and found that "nicoll-brothers.com expired on 11/19/2006 and is pending renewal or deletion."
After 170 years they folded last Autumn. Margaret Morrison Ltd took over a bit of the sporran business but I don't know what we'll see.

Is Nicoll Brothers no more? Is this another case of a well-known name being bought by unscrupulous people who use it to sell shoddy merchandise?
Margaret Morrison makes good sporrans.

Janet Eagleton is another maker in that corner and her stuff is really good--- at least as good as Nicoll Brothers even if I tend to have preferred the Bankfoot sporrans.