The Proper Care of Sporrans

Sporrans are very important if you wear traditional kilts (which for me is all the time except when I'm wearing my Amerikilt) as they don't have pockets. But how do you take care of one?

My second sporrant just fell apart. It lasted quite a bit longer than the last one, but had long since become somewhat of an eyesore in my wardrobe. The beautiful metal celtic knot on the top had fallen off. It was dusty and damged from 2 years of being worn. The final straw was when the leather hook on the back that holds the hooks for the sporran chain came off, the sporran became utterly unwearable.

There are some lessons I've taken from this sporran and my own lessons on how not to care for one. Here are the following tips that will help your sporrans fair better than mine have:

1) Pack the sporran lightly.

One of my great challenges is that I overfilled the sporran. In a sporran at one time, I had a wallet, a checkbook, my car keys, a cell phone, and a camera. Yikes!

A lot of your less expensive sporrans that have tassels on the outside are attached from the inside, so when you overfill the sporran, it causes problems with your tassels. In addition, sporrans were not made to contain 5 pounds of junk. They have a bad habit of malfunctioning when overfull.

Keep your sporran contents simple. The question you should ask yourself when packing it is, "What do I need?" Hint: Most of the things in your wallet aren't on the list.

With my new sporran, I'm travelling light. So what goes in there? Depends on the day of the week. Going to church on Sunday, all I really need is my car keys, debit card (to buy gas after church), one credit card for emergencies, my driver's license, my keys, and my gas discount card. If I'm going somewhere where I might to make a call, I'll pack my cell phone.

If I'm going to work, I need my badge, my driver's license, and my keys. Simplify your life in the sporran and it will last you longer. You can also carry some items inside jacket or shirt pockets.

2) Have a Nice Sporran and a Kick Around Sporran

If you're a full-time kilt wearer, you should have at least 2 sporrans: one for your everyday wearing and one when you want to dress up.

When all I had was one sporran, I looked at the beat-up one I had on and saw how it detracted from the nice shirt, the tie, and a pressed kilt.

You should have one sporran that stays in the closet except when you're really dressing up: meeting someone important, Easter Sunday, etc.

Now, of course, some people have needs that go beyond limited space of traditional sporrans. For them, there's a number of modern kilt options such as Utilikilts. But what if you want to wear a traditional kilt, but don't like the limitations that a traditional sporran could pose.

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