Periodically we get an inquiry, often from mothers, asking why our boys tzitzit cost a whole lot more for Sephardic tying.

Here's how it works in the tallit and tzitzit industry: The major manufacturers somehow are able to tie on machine-spun tzitzit at a very low cost, far lower than it costs us to tie tzitzit in-house. 

They find people willing to tie on in very large quantities, but, you know -- you get what you pay for. Their standards are not very stellar.

Recently we came across a manufacturer that started offering Sephardic tying for just a bit more than the standard with Ashkenazi tying. I was a bit skeptical, but I ordered a small quantity to get an impression. When it was delivered and I opened it up, I found the tying to be way below my low expectations.

When the manufacturer ties on tzitzit, for 95% of tallit and tallit katan products it's always the same: thin machine-spun tzitzit strings, tied according to the Ashkenazi custom. If a customer wants anything else -- different tzitzit strings, different tying -- the standard practice in the tallit industry is to just snip them off with scissors and do the tying in-house (unless the customer wants to tie himself).

Our in-house tying costs a lot more. The strings cost us more, the tying is done by kollel scholars, the caliber of the tying is a different league, the knots are tight and ends are trimmed.

We looked into ways to offer Sephardic tying for kids at a lower price, but after all these years have yet to find a solution. So essentially when you select Sephardic tying, you're getting much higher standards.