Tie Rack & Pinion, Kinnoull Street (1979 – 2026)
Sold ties to Perth men who did not want them, for 47 years. Closed when America made it official.
Ties on display. Tie Rack & Pinion sold most of them as Christmas presents to men who never wore them. Photo: Tomwsulcer, “Ties with different colors on display in a mall in New Jersey”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Tie Rack & Pinion, the Kinnoull Street tie and engineering-supply shop, has closed after 47 years, shortly after US midterm candidates declared that “the necktie is dead”.
The shop was opened in 1979 by a man who wanted to sell ties and also gears, and “couldn’t decide”. It sold silk ties at the front and industrial cogs at the back. Staff said the two sides of the business “rarely met, except at the Christmas party, where they did not get on”.
The shop’s ties were mainly bought as presents by mothers, wives and daughters for Perth men who did not want them. One customer from Scone is believed to have received more than 200, none of which he has worn.
“We knew it was coming,” said the last manager. “Every year fewer men wore ties. Then the Americans said it was over, and it felt like a proper funeral. I wore a black tie to close up. It was the last one we had.”
The gear side of the business will move to an industrial unit in Inveralmond, where nobody has ever worn a tie.
Tie Rack & Pinion is survived by 400 boxes of novelty Christmas ties and a single cog.
The real story: US midterm candidates' style (BBC News)
Letters to the Editor
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I went in for a tie and came out with a gearbox part. Never did get the tie. The car’s still going though.
— Ian S., Bridgend, 1 November 2026 -
I bought my husband six ties there over the years. He’s worn none. I should have bought the cogs.
— Joan M., Perth, 1 November 2026
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