The Northwest Kilt Exchange
The most important project to me personally that was brought to fruition during my time with Utilikilts, was the Northwest Kilt Exchange, also known as the Community Kilt Exchange.
In November 2003, I implemented a program in the Seattle area that awarded five to ten utilikilts a month to people who chose to donate their skills to one of a list of chosen non-profits. The impetus for this program came from the following facts:
*Utilikilts were being made in Seattle. That was very expensive. After three years, the company needed to raise the prices, marginally, in order to keep manufacturing in Seattle and be able to stay in business. This meant that some people could have a hard time affording them.
*it was important to me to come up with a way to benefit others on a community level without giving away money, which we did not have.
*Celebrities would call on a regular basis, hoping and expecting that their being famous would merit a complimentary Utilikilt. Instead of constantly disappointing them, or laughing in their faces, I wanted to come up with a way that their celebrity could work for us, and the rest of our community.
*The press was still interested in us on a consistant basis, but for the usual reason.. titillation. I wanted to give them stories of customers, stories of non-profits, aspects of life to write about that would interest people, direct people towards volunteerism.
The Answer: Thus, the North West Kilt Exchange was born. In creating this program, we were able to harness, for labor, the enormous support of our customer community, who had always shown themselves to be a diverse group of people from around the world, many of whom share a sense of fellowship towards each other and towards us simply because they wear the garment that we produce.
30 hours of community service at a Seattle non-profit, was the answer for anyone who didn't want to pay money for a kilt, either because they couldn't afford one, or in the case of the rich and famous, because they didn't want to use money.
The press had new causes to write about while interviewing our customers. Our customers became familiar with non-profits and volunteering. Non Profits became familiar with Utilikilts. It was a win/win situation.
The program became very popular, helping the company win two major awards, and drawing people from all over the world wanting to offer their skills, so many that I had to temporarily shut it down in order to reform it into a global access program, rather than just a local program. Since leaving the Utilikilts Company, this program has unfortunately not been continued.
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