An April Fool joke goes mainstream

I had to grin at the self-inflicted plight of the folks at 5.11 Tactical, a well-known manufacturer and supplier of law enforcement and military accessories.  I'll let them explain for themselves.  From their Facebook posting:

About a month ago our lead designer, Cory Nykoluk, came to me with the idea to have some fun on April 1st with a 5.11 Tactical Duty Kilt. "We've had a number of requests for kilts, so why not make one?" Cory had enlisted creative services director Matt Frederick and director of ecommerce Brian Rogers. I gave the project a green light with the commander's guidance to make the "TDK" a true 5.11 product supported by a proper launch. Operational security was strict as only about 6 people inside 5.11 knew about this project. In fact, the only reference in meetings and e-mails was to "Project Caber."

Our close friend Kyle Lamb, President of Viking Tactics, was briefed and signed on immediately. It turned out he was about to attend a Dropkick Murphys concert. Perfect timing as band member, Scruffy Wallace, is a kiltsman who plays bagpipes and the tin whistle in a VTAC T-shirt. The final piece needed was an athlete/first responder to demonstrate the mobility of the TDK. Matt Frederick called Roman, a veteran duty sheriff and Parkour athlete and we were rolling.

Last week, when we reviewed the video footage of Roman leaping walls in the TDK - it was clear - we had achieved the goal of making a Kilt true to the 5.11 brand. There was a collective "uh-oh, we only have one kilt in inventory!" On Saturday, March 31st, I called 5.11 Tactical founder, Dan Costa, to tip him off. His response: "Be ready, you're going to sell some kilts!"

There's more at the link.  Here's the pseudo-advertisement they made for their April Fool kilt.

The inevitable happened, of course.  The company had intended its April Fool joke to poke semi-satirical fun at the 'über-tactical' among us.  Instead, they were overwhelmed with demand from their laughing customers, many of whom actually wanted to buy the darn thing!

Let it be said that the good people at 5.11 Tactical know when to give up.  They've agreed to make the Tactical Duty Kilt as a one-off gesture for their fans.  They've even priced it very reasonably!  If you want one, you can order it up to - but not after - Thursday, May 3rd.  Your order will (hopefully) ship by September 1st, 2012.  I say 'hopefully' because I have a feeling that demand is going to go through the roof for this product!  I'm certainly going to order one.  (No, 5.11 Tactical isn't paying me to endorse them - I simply like the product, and had a good laugh at the story of how it came to be.)

(In fact, for all those [men] planning to attend Blogorado 2012, why don't we all wear one?  Let's make it our Blogorado male uniform, and charm the ladies!  I've no idea what the cowboys of rural Colorado will think of a bunch of heavily-armed men in kilts in their midst, but it should be interesting, to say the least . . . )



Peter