Quote Originally Posted by PiobBear View Post
Wow; that's a great price for a balmoral,
Made in Pakistan and not quite to the same standard as those made in Scotland by the MOD contractors. There are vast differences and one should not compare them on price. Materials are different, design is different and workmanship is different. They also have different goals. MOD Balmoral bonnets are quite heavy-duty.
Beyond the comparison of products I do think one should support the Scottish and Irish cottage industries. The industry is not doing to well as they can't compete with slave labour from China and even in the niche markets the observation that the makers in Pakistan "export 80% of their products directly to the UK" ( http://www.glengarryhats.com/about.htm ) does not do well for its survival. We are looking at bonnets, sporrans and kilts. The Scottish companies are really quite small and many are family businesses. Leather goods maybe larger? How many sporran companies do you think are still in operation? And the "big ones" like Nicoll Bros or Janet Eagleton or William Scott? All really tiny shops. How many sporran makers are there in all of Scotland?

I vote with my purchases for fair trade and also to keep traditional companies going. Sure a lot of shops in Scotland and Ireland sell imports, often even as native products, but that's no excuse.

If you're thinking of a feather hackle, you might want to carefully consider that "Hackles are generally awarded to regiments for battle honours or a special reason.
Feathers are a long standing symbol of battle and not just among the Scots but throughout Europe and well into WW-II. When we see feathers in other styles of caps do we think of war? When we look, however, today at a Tirol hat with a feather we don't think war anymore do we? If one is, however, so worried about the language of hackles taken out of context as a fashion thing in civilian garb then what is your position on dicing? And, of course, that's only the start of where we'd need to look to remain careful and correct. I, personally, see less of a problem with a hackle taken out of context than dicing. Badges I see as "fan ware" and hackles as somewhere in between.