Kilt Discussion Panel

[Zardoz]

Well, I just got home from the Sci-Fi con, I had not been online all weekend but I see this thread had a lot of reponses.

The con in general was great, and there where at least 8 or 10 guys there who where kilted full time. Mostly in UK's but a couple of traditionals too. I was wearing my USA Caledonia or SWK Nightstalker most of the time, casual, but with appropriate accessories, etc. The fellow who MC'd the show and awards was wearing a UK during the day and then that night for the show had on his family tartan and a full-on Prince Charley rig, a real crowd pleaser!

I constantly heard "There sure are a lot of guys in kilts at this deal" as I would pass by hallways and rooms, and my favorite; women asking their mate:"why don't you get one of those?" All reactions I got where 100% positive, everyone at the con, other guests at the hotel, the maids in the halls, all ages and sexes, all very complimentary! Honestly, if I wasn't married my 'dance card' could have been full!

The Kilt panel went well too, all the panelists were kilted in UKs except me in my USA and one guy in pants! We had a good turnout too, about 40 or 45 people in the audience, almost a full house! Several guys in kilts in that crowd too, but our audience was about 70% female! In the end we concluded that based in part on the crowd at the con, kilts must be making headway, but apparently mostly UKs. Most of the UK owners present got their first one at celtic or rennie festivals or even other Sci-Fi conventions, and most owned at least a couple, one fellow had 10. I gotta hand it to UK, they are marketing outside the box, and it shows. If they had a booth at our deal, their sales would have been worth the trip! I bet any store with off the rack tradional style kilts would do well too. These Sci-Fi crowds range from 7 to 70, and they have money, we had an art auction were folks bid up to a couple hundred bucks for original works.

There was so much UK talk, I sort of went into salesman mode for USA and Stillwater! Quite a few of the kilted folk at the panel were unaware of reasonably priced 'traditional' kilts, they are now! I handed out a bunch of fliers I made with info and some links to various online kilt sources. I think I may have got Rocky at least a couple of customers. So while I still think there is a long way to go, I left the con feeling pretty good about the future of kilt wearing!