Started as whim, kilt firm skirts bad times.JAMES Ansite manages his kilt-making business from an office and warehouse in Signal Hill. Sport Kilt kilt Knee-length, skirtlike garment worn by men as part of the traditional national garb, or Highland dress, of Scotland. It is made of permanently pleated wool and wrapped around the wearer's waist so that the pleats are in the back and the flat ends overlap in front. operates with a three-person staff, including himself and his dad, and sells a lightweight, machine washable machine washable adj → lavable a máquina machine washable machine adj [garment] → lavable en machine machine washable machine kilt made of a wool and polyester blend. The kilts sell for $70, and with accessories like sporrans (similar to codpieces) and caps, many sales exceed $100. Demand for the clothing, which started when Ansite and his father made their first kilt on his grandmother's sewing machine sewing machine, device that stitches cloth and other materials. An attempt at mechanical sewing was made in England (1790) with a machine having a forked, automatic needle that made a single-thread chain. In 1830, B. , now comes from as far as Fiji and Nigeria. "My dad and I started this business in 1996. One day I just thought it would be cool to have a kilt. My friends saw me wear mine and all wanted one. "I was on the U.S. National Cycling team A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races of any kind - whether they are recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel. . My friends were cyclists. They started using kilts for changing out of their shorts and we realized this could be a huge business. Now it's off the hook. And it started mainly as a joke. "It's a strong grassroots movement. Word of mouth has been our biggest marketing tool. Most of our business comes from the Internet. Catalogs buy from us, and we have been one of the Top Four selling items in VeloNews, the cycling journal, for the past five or six years. Eighty percent of the Highland athletes at the Scottish Festival and Highland Games Highland Games Athletic games originating in the Scottish Highlands and now held there and in various parts of the world, usually under the auspices of a local Caledonian society. wear Sport Kilts. "We did $250,000 (in business) last year and are on the track to do $500,000 this year. That's about five thousand kilts sold. "A lot of guys are tired of the fact that women have so many colors and choices in their dress. We offer mostly plaid, but we also have solid colors and even Hawaiian prints. Some guys wear kilts because they like the attention. A lot do it for their heritage. "It was only a few years ago that wearing cargo pants cargo pants or trousers Noun, pl loose trousers with a large external pocket on the side of each leg was considered rebellious. It's my prediction that kids are going to start wearing kilts because it's something that their parents won't be caught dead in. "There's never a wrong occasion to wear a kilt. I have a customer who wears a kilt everyday to his business in Costa Mesa Costa Mesa (kŏs`tə mā`sə), city (1990 pop. 96,357), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific south of Santa Ana; inc. 1953. It is a transportation, residential, and light industrial center. . A lot of people think that you have to hold a certain title to wear a kilt, but that's not true. You just put one on. Anyone can do it." |
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