Outback Leather; Kroop in Laurel MD; boots and leather

[Query]

I just visited two businesses in Laurel, MD, associated with leather and boots (both probably got their start in the heyday of the Laurel horse racing days), looking for info on reinforcing the toe box of my 12 year old (several thousand skating horus) Klingbeil skate boots - when I jump they are broken down enough that the top of the tongue and toe box sometimes come down on my toes. This was discussed around figures 9-24 - 9-26 of "Anatomy of a Figure Skating Injury", by John Hermata. I also wanted to know if either could rebuild my boots.

1. I first spoke to the guy on duty at Outback Leather - I didn't get his name, but it was probably Ron Sargent. He often makes and repairs saddles, which can be thicker and maybe as stiff as figure skating boots, as well as other leather goods.

Their shoe repair person sometimes repairs ice skates, when it comes to things like lace holes, eyelets and lace hooks, soles and heels. But he wasn't sure their sewing machine would fit inside the toebox of my boots, and he was doubtful that sewing stitches like that would successfully reinforce the toe box. He discouraged me from talking to the shoe repair person directly, because he speaks broken English. He also offered to buff and shine my boots.

He didn't have experience rebuilding skate boots. He didn't have on hand any of the materials used to stiffen boots. He would have been happy to open up the stitches, but was also concerned that it might be hard to get the old stiffening elements out, and put the new ones in. He said if I wanted to cut the stitches myself, and take the old stiffeners out and put the new ones in, he would restitch the boot together for about $20 - but he sounded discouraging.

I wound up buying 3 small pieces of scrap leather with, at about $5/piece. Two were large enough to make blade guards from, one was small but stiffer, so I can use it to play with my edges.

In any event, it is nice to know there is someone in my area who works on skate boot repair, and who sells leather.

2. He referred me to Randy Kroop, who runs A.M. Kroop & Son, a couple blocks away, where she makes various types of custom boots. She is a very interesting person to talk to, and the website has an interesting video about the business (she is a 4th generation boot maker), but doesn't have any experience dealing with skates. In any event, she doesn't have a strong enough sewing machine to sew the toe box, and said it would be too hard to do hand stitching inside the limited space of the toe box.

She has a wall and a half of custom lasts - they used to build 36 boots / day. When I told her that my custom Klingbeils had cost about $650 when new, she said she charges about $1200 even for custom fashion boots - i.e., boots that look like riding boots, but aren't. She says they don't make much money even at that, because it takes about 16 hours for the 125 step process, spread out over many days.

She had known Bill Klingbeil fairly well. (I guess custom boot making is a small world.)  She praised the manufacturing quality of my boots - she said no one makes boots using 24 stitch/inch stitches like those boots have. She said that the Klingbeils hadn't charged enough for current boots by current standards.

She also said that boot makers have to have fairly small hands (hence the legends about elven and leprechaun boot makers), because they have to work in small spaces inside the boots - and it is very common for them to develop repetitive motion problems in their hands that require surgery.

She sells leather too.

[Casey]

Neat! I wonder if she would have the same high opinion of Avanta's new boots...