Did a little digging. As far as Harlick and SP-Teri being based in San Francisco ... purely serendipity.
(a) Harlick
http://www.harlick.com/about/index.phpExcerpt from Harlick History:
The year was 1935, Oscar Johnson and Eddie and Roy Shipstad were readying the debut of their ice-skating road show, Sonja Henie was putting the finishing touches on her Madison Square Garden ice show, indoor ice rinks and dazzling ice carnivals had spread across the country.
In San Francisco, home of Shipstad and Johnson, Louis Harlick, a Custom Footwear Maker (English Riding Boots, Ballet Shoes, Orthopedic Shoes) from Russia, was making his first pair of Custom Skating Boots.
Harlick Skating Boots Began.
(b) SP-Teri
http://www.manleywoman.com/episode-42-george-spiteri/Excerpt from interview with George Spiteri:
On the history of SP-Teri boots: My father was a shoemaker on the isle of Malta, and he migrated to San Francisco, because he had an aunt that lived here. This was right after World War II, and Malta was bombed very heavily by the Germans. So a lot of buildings were destroyed and apartments were hard to find. And my mother’s father required that my mother and father have a place to stay before they got married. So my father’s aunt said that she had a place for him to stay in San Francisco, and she knew a guy who made shoes, so my father could probably get a job there. So they put in their papers to get immigration to the United States, and when they got that, they were able to get married, and they came here to the States.
And my father, Joseph, started working for a company that was part-owned by a Maltese guy, making ballet slippers, flamenco shoes, riding boots, that sort of footwear. By 1948 the two gentlemen had the opportunity to make some skating boots for local skaters, and it became a lucrative business. One partner bought out the other partner, and that company became Harlick. Then in the 1950s Joseph became a partner with Louis Harlick in making the skating boots, and then by the early 60s Mr. Harlick found that he had cancer, and so he wanted to sell his interests in the business. And two gentlemen, Jack Henderson who was already in the business and his brother Bob Henderson, bought out Mr. Harlick’s ownership, and they had 80% ownership of the company. And then six months after that Joseph sold his share of the company to the Hendersons, and in 1963 he started the SP-Teri company.
It’s amazing because nobody had planned to make skating boots, or that there would be a business making skating boots in San Francisco. Back then they were just shoemakers and there was an opportunity, and they made them basically because it was a job and they were making money and they were able to raise families. None of them had anticipated becoming large companies or expanding, and they just grew and just added workers to their locations. And we are where we are now because of the skating market of the 1970s through the 1990s.
Topic: Is there a boot factory in Los Angeles? (Read 3584 times)