James Ansite runs Sport Kilt from his Heber City manufacturing facility. Credit: Galen DeKemper/For The Park Record In an alpine valley filled with Highland heritage, one of America’s top kilt-makers has found its home. Sport Kilt has been operating out of Heber City since 2019, employing a staff of 12 at its manufacturing facility near the airport. Hundreds of kilts hang from racks to the ceiling in the front, while the back is filled with rolls of tartan fabric and assembly line workstations. From cutting to finishing, each kilt takes an hour to produce, and Sport Kilt has sold over 200,000 garments during its 30 years in business. James Ansite, a Cottonwood Heights resident, founded Sport Kilt in southern California in 1996 when he was a national teenage cycling champion looking for post-race comfort and style. His Scottish heritage traces back to the Buchanan and MacGregor clans, so he and his father sat down at a ping-pong table using his grandmother’s sewing machine to channel their ancestors. “I thought it would be punk rock and cool to have, so my dad and I made one because they were really expensive,” Ansite said. “I would wear it around after bike races to change out of my bike shorts. All my friends thought that was really cool, so we made a few more, and then we got picked up by a cycling catalog called Velo News.”   Ansite also staffed a table at weekend Highland Games festivals along the West Coast and developed a devoted following among competitors and fans of primitive Scottish strength sports. The “Braveheart” movie brought kilts to a level of cultural saturation, and Sport Kilt being the first kilt company with a website placed them in a position to succeed in the niche market. “The thing about kilts is that they’re not for everyone,” Ansite said. “It takes a certain person to wear a kilt. I don’t think we would do well with a retail location. If it weren’t for the internet we wouldn’t exist. There’s just a handful of people in every city that would wear a kilt, but there’s hundreds of thousands of cities out there, and every morning 30 people wake up and decide they need a kilt in the world, so that’s how come we’re here.” The company’s signature product, its eponymous Sport Kilt, is a $70 entry-level product available in over 70 tartan patterns. “We were the first company to pioneer a casual kilt, just an everyday kilt for people,” Ansite said. “We took the centuries-old Scottish kilt and distilled it and used modern materials like Velcro, elastic and this machine-washable, hypoallergenic material.” Sport Kilts contain less fabric than the standard 8 yards, and some traditionalists have balked at his material updates, but Ansite has remained true to his vision.  “My response is, ‘If Velcro would have existed back then, they probably would have used it because it’s so practical. It’s easier to take on and off than leather straps or even a belt,’” Ansite said. “We wanted to make something that was comfortable, practical and stylish, and that’s just what we did.” Credit: Galen DeKemper/For The Park Record Credit: Galen DeKemper/For The Park Record Tartan rolls will become kilts at Sport Kilt in Heber. Continuing in business for three decades has meant adapting to change, which Ansite discovered on a couple of fronts when relocating his business and five of his staff from California to Utah for a chance to raise his children in the area he had grown to love. His only regret is not moving here sooner. “I had to bribe people, because they’d never been here,” Ansite said. “I’ve been coming out to Park City for vacations since ’05, and when I said it would be a good move to move out here, I had to convince everyone. It’s been a good move for everyone that came.” Hiring additional local workers took time and the Heber factory was ready to roll by early 2020. When COVID struck and upended plans, it found Sport Kilt particularly situated for a temporary pivot. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute. We’ve got elastic. We’ve got fabric. Why don’t we make some cool face masks that go around your head and don’t fall on your ears, and look good?’” Ansite said. “We sent out a newsletter the day there was a shortage of masks in America and sold thousands of these masks, and it kept us busy through that summer. When restrictions lifted and people started going out again, we pivoted back to kilts.”  Sport Kilt initially targeted male customers until women expressed interest in a shorter version, which now accounts for half the company’s sales. Additional styles include hiking kilts with a quick-drying fabric, comfy kilts made from soft flannel and ultimate kilts made to measure and children’s kilts. One local welder wears a spark-resistant kilt while working, and ultramarathoners have found the kilt helpful on their treks. While some customers are daily kilters, Ansite wears his on special occasions, including the running portion of the Echo Lake Triathlon.  “It takes some bravery. It takes some guts. It’s essentially a skirt. You get teased a lot. Women love it. I get more smiles, high fives and conversations started, and I’ve rarely had anyone say anything negative,” he said. “But for a guy to put on a skirt for the first time, it’s like, ‘Whoa, this feels interesting.’ My reaction was, ‘Wow, now I know why women like to wear skirts, because it feels good.’” Many of the tartan patterns are hundreds of years old, while others are Sport Kilt creations, including a Park City-inspired design. “Blue for the skies, yellow for the sunshine, white for the snow and red and black for the miners,” is how Ansite described the window-pane graphic he dedicated to his first hometown in Utah. The full line of Sport Kilt products is available at SportKilt.com The post Sport Kilt is right at home in Heber City appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less