Quote Originally Posted by Jock Scot View Post
I really have to ask and I ask out of interest and not for any other reason.

Do people really and how often, do they take that much bother over choosing the precise colours for their kilts? Particularly with established tartans?

Alright I can see if its a brand new, to the world, tartan has just been born, then care on choosing the right shades of colours might be an issue, but anything more?

From a production run point of view and the cost point of view, this sort of minute detail must have a huge inpact on the end price. I suspect that price is about to rise rather a lot in the near future.
I'd say you've answered your own question. Many people, rightly in my view, accept that tartans have always been of variable shades, and that's part of the joy. But others, rightly in my view, care very much about precise shades, for their own very good reasons.

Our job is to strive for consistency and clarity, and we'll be doing our best to put systems in place to achieve that. But once a routine system exists, there's no reason it should add unreasonably to costs. It's special non-routine work that really costs.

So my expectation is that we might charge a reasonable fee for thread samples, much as we do for swatches of stock tartans, but then make this refundable against an eventual order. Small hanks of the kind AKScott suggests is very much what I'd have in mind.

But otherwise whilst I've already said that prices will almost certainly have to rise, I don't at this point believe that such a rise will have to be enormous. At least I really hope not. But first we have to do the sums.