Slanj - Tartan Runs in Our Blood

Scottish Company User Profile: Slanj

Slanj was founded in 1995 by Brian Halley. The idea came while he was day dreaming on a boring engineering job in Ghana. The vision was to make the finest quality Highlandwear of distinction. Early products include tartan trousers and shocking tartan suits as worn by Paul Gascoigne when he joined Rangers.

When tartan suits went out of fashion, if they were actually in fashion, Slanj moved into the kilt market and began revolutionising the very traditional highlandwear outfit. In 1999 Craig Halley joined after a spell with Vivienne Westwood. Nowadays Slanj have a large flagship store in Glasgow and a smaller store in Edinburgh. www.slanjkilts.com In 2007 they acquired ‘The Kilter Co’ a wholesale business importing special kilt and bagpipe cases and supplying kilt retailers all over the world www.thekilter.co.uk In 2009 the brothers acquired a kilt and trews factory and are now specialising in golf trews, shorts and plus 4s www.slanjtrews.com . The plus 4s and the flat cap are a modern ‘take’ on classic golfing gear and Slanj are hoping to follow the trend for more fun golf apparel set by Ian Poulter and Loudmouth.

Over the years the guys have designed 4 Slanj tartans and made tartans for the Kings of Leon, SNP, The Sun, the Tartan Army Childrens Charity and are currently designing tartans for Dundee United FC, the Parkinsons Charity- Wobbly Williams and Royal Blackheath Golf Club. Slanj currently have exclusive rights to the SFA, Celtic, St Mirren and Partick Thistle Nil tartans.

Over the years they have been great supporters of Dressed to Kilt, the New York glamour event of Made in Scotland week in the US. They have also been keen sponsors of the Miss Scotland competition over the last 6 years, following Brians divorce.

The Slanj Hall of Fame or in some cases Hall of Shame includes the likes of Sir Sean Connery, Billy Connolly, Mike Tyson, Ewan McGregor, Maradona, Jonathan Ross, Rupert and James Murdoch, Mike Myers, The Saturdays, Jermaine Jackson, Neil Diamond, Paulo Nutini etc etc http://www.slanjkilts.com/General/Slanj-Celebrity-s.html There are few celebrities that Slanj havent made for but they are still keen to make produce something special for The Krankies.

Last year the boys caused great controversy with their ABE World Cup tee shirt. ABE meaning Anyone But England. When a local bobby spotted the t shirt in the window they warned Slanj that the t shirt could be seen as offensive and when the story was mysteriously leaked to the papers, by the Slanj PR dept, demand for t shirt soared. The story was the most read on the BBC News site for almost 24 hours and as the BBC kindly linked on to the site the guys managed to sell around 5000 of the t shirts in the 3 months prior to the World Cup. Slanj have around 50 Slanj Original t shirt designs and are always keen to support local talented designers so their t shirt sales normally account for approx 15 % of group sales but they were more like double that last year with the success of the ABE tee.

By way of apology to the English, Slanj designed The St Georges Check, which although it is definitely not available for mens kilts, looks great in golf strides. It is registered on the Tartan Society for copyright purposes but it is not a proper tartan !

Brian Halley runs the factory and is building the Slanj Trews golf brand. The website is very busy with individual orders coming from all over the world. Through GlobalScot Brian is hoping to find distributors globally and is in the middle of planning a sales mission to Japan where Slanj already have two big customers.

One of Brian’s hobbies is creative writing and he is also keen to have his script ‘Action Clan’ produced into a full length feature film. He has 3 lovely daughters who say he is a workaholic. Although Brian takes the view of the ancient philosopher who said, ‘Find a job you love and never work another day for the rest of your life !’