I have wondered this my self (and asked here) on many occasions. The only conclusion that I can come to is that there is no money in kilts. Now I'm not talking about the individual kilt makers (sole propriator), but the box stores that hire kiltmakers, and marketing people and other staff. For instance, I took one kilt maker just now, and they will sell any tartan 8 yard, hand sewn, 16 oz kilt for $431.87. Now many of our esteemed kilt makers here have said that it takes 20+ hours to hand sew a kilt. A decent wage ($I'm going with $15.00/hr) means that the cost of a labor is at least $300 (leaving $132). Now I know kilt makers can get tartan much cheaper than us mere mortals, but just dividing the $132 by 4 (double width tartan) leaves $33/yard,or about 1/2 what I have ever seen tartan sell for. And still there has been no pay for the marketing, phone people, web site, utilities etc. So either, these companies are paying slave wages, or non kiltmakers are being taken to the cleaners on the price of tartan, or these companies make their money somewhere else.

While there are people like many here that are making kilts a more daily/casual item of clothing, most people that buy a kilt are still wearing it only for formal/heratage events, and a such want all the accessories. Jackets that cost 4 or more times the price of a non kilt jacket, make up the profit that is actually lost on the kilt. So do the $200 sporrans, and $25 flashes (I mean really do a set of flashes cost more that $3 to make?).

So that is why your jackets is so much.

Adam