SP-Teri: A Family Affair

By Terri Milner Tarquini

Joseph Spiteri was both a product and the embodiment of The Greatest Generation. Known as such because the men and women born in 1900 through the 1930s did not set out to seek fame or recognition, The Greatest Generation believed that whatever they chose to do should be done well.

These are the values that make up the fabric of a man who founded and built a company that is still one of the leading custom boot manufacturers in the U.S. and the world.

“Once my dad became committed to making skates, he believed they should be the best skates they could be,” said son George Spiteri of Joseph, who founded SP-Teri Boots over five decades ago. “He believed in working five, six, seven days a week—whatever it took— to satisfy the customer.”

Joseph had been a cobbler in his native Malta, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, before migrating to San Francisco in 1946 as a newly-married 23-year-old. He soon heard of Joe Galdes, also from Malta, who owned a shoe shop and was partners with Louis Harlick.

“He thought he would work there for a little while, get some money in his pocket and move on to other opportunities,” George said of the shop that constructed such offerings as riding boots, ballet slippers, flamenco boots, and dance shoes.

But fate intervened in 1947 when some ice dancers who were in need of skates approached Harlick.

Back then, skating boots were really only available in Minnesota, Chicago, and New York and were essentially two layers of leather—basically a riding boot, but cut lower and with laces.

Harlick saw an opportunity in the industry.

In short order, Joseph became the head designer of skates for the company and, Galdes having been previously bought out, a partner of Harlick’s in the 1950s, along with Jack Henderson.

“During this time, they developed one stock boot and one custom boot for figure skaters,” George said, “and they stopped making all other lines of footwear. So, skating was it.”

Those were the years when George was putting in time at what would one day be his future—although he didn’t know it then.

“I wasn’t even a teenager yet and my dad was still with Mr. Harlick,” George said. “I’d go sweep the floors and empty garbage cans for four hours and Mr. Harlick would give me a dollar—which was a big deal back then.” In 1960, at a time when there was no cure, Harlick

Photo collage: Joseph and Carmen Spiteri pictured with granddaughter Jenise (George's daughter) circa 1999; SP-Teri booths at various trade shows; the Prime Minister of Malta, (second from left) Dr. Lawrence Gonzi, visited the SP-Teri factory show room in 2009 and visited wtih from left to right: George, Joseph Spiteri, and company VP Joseph Falzon.

was diagnosed with cancer. He decided to liquidate his ownership, selling to Henderson and his brother, Bob, thereby giving them 80 percent of the company. In 1962, Joseph sold his 20 percent to the Hendersons, resulting in what is still Harlick Skate Company, and in August the following year, Joseph started his own business. “My dad never thought about making skates for Olympic and World skaters; he just knew that there were skaters out there who needed skates,” George said. “And he had a wife and four kids to provide for. My dad had spent 15 years making skating boots, so that’s what he knew how to do—and he knew how to do it well.”

What those humble beginnings ended up growing into was something that always boggled the mind of Joseph, the one-time cobbler from Malta.

“We were making boots for the Santees when they were 10 years old; we didn’t know what they would go on to do, we just knew that there were these two brothers out there who needed skates,” George said. “Paul Wylie, Charlie Tickner, Dorothy Hamill, Nicole Bobek, Christopher Bowman—they were all just kids who needed skates. You don’t know when they’re young that they’re going to go on and become these big names.”

While George’s path to the world of skating manufacturing might seem more predictable than that of his father, it actually was not.

“My dad told me throughout high school to go work for the government,” George said. “’You’ll have insurance. You’ll have vacation time.’ So that’s what I did.”

But it was while working at a naval shipyard as a draftsman in 1969, George had a low draft number and knew the Vietnam War was about to come calling, that he enlisted. When he got out of the service, he went to college, while working at the family skate business, and graduated with an accounting degree in 1978.

“By then, we had moved to a bigger location and we were one of the boot makers for higher level skaters,” George said. “I was running a lot of the business because I understood finances and we were growing and growing—we had 10 to 12 weeks of back logs for orders. It hadn’t been the plan, but I decided to stay with the family business.”

In a facility they have inhabited for the last 30 years, and after more than a half-a-century as a family-owned and operated business, George made the call earlier this year to sell the manufacturing assets of SP-Teri Co. Inc.

Now SP-Teri LLC, the manufacturing operations have moved to Tennessee under new president Bill Fauver. George has been traveling to the new site to aid in the transition and will continue as a consultant for the company.

In addition, the formerly SP-Teri Co. Inc. will be renamed to A & G Skate Shop, run by George and his son, Aaron. Located in their same location in south San Francisco, they will continue to sell skates and accessories and provide sharpening services.

“I have files going back 15 years of custom boots with patterns and instructions,” George said. “My goal is to aid Bill, who I have known and worked with for a very long time, to have everything he needs and to establish wonderful relationships with the dealers and the coaches.”

Fauver, a five-time national pairs skater, with four silver medals and one bronze medal, and a two-time Olympian, was also a dealer of SP-Teri boots, worked closely with George through the years, and knew a good product when he saw it.

“The number one thing is that the materials used are the highest quality possible and none of that is going to change,” Fauver said. “Each recipe, if you will, for each boot is slightly different, but the materials and craftsmanship is unparalleled. The boots are made from leather, which articulates with the foot and has a natural return to it. While we plan on marketing it in a more expansive way with a new website and expanding into social media, the base of the company is the same and we are carrying on the heritage.”

Part of that heritage, and the success that SP-Teri has continued to enjoy, is grounded in evolution.

“My dad started with two models: a stock boot and a custom boot,” George said. “Now SP-Teri has 10 models. We have always developed through the years, while maintaining the quality, and I know that that will continue.”

Fauver, a Level V ranked and master-rated coach, is keenly aware that injuries are becoming more frequent in figure skating and that it needs to be a priority for skate manufacturers to address these concerns.

“We will be stocking the same core quality products, but we are looking at introducing some additional offerings that will still be manufactured using the same equipment and the same materials, but have some additional benefits,” Fauver said. “If we can introduce a product that increases safety and improves performance, it would do so much for the sport.”

Fauver, founder and president of Avanta Skating Boots from 2012-2014, was at a U.S. Figure Skating boot summit about 10 years ago where the major boot companies put their heads together.

“Following the summit, U.S. Figure Skating came out with four recommendations they were looking for in skates,” Fauver said. “A slightly lower heel, more flexibility, lateral support and shock absorption on jump landings.”

Almost a decade later, a unique idea from 2010 might now come to fruition: Fauver holds a patent on the Variable Flexion Resistance Sports Boot.

“The patent is for a boot design that has the first three things that U.S. Figure Skating was looking for,” Fauver said. “Additionally, I designed an air bladder for inside a skate that is also covered in the patent and it would address the fourth.”

Fauver likens the air bladder to the air discs inside football helmets—an addition that, when the player is hit, the disc compresses, lengthening the shock absorption process. “This would eventually be another offering in skating boots,” Fauver said. “I think there is more than an itch for an increasingly well-made, high quality boot that can do even more for the skater.”

As George Spiteri, 70, is helping in the transition, and is eyeing some time to spend more time fishing with his son, go swing dancing and ballroom dancing with his wife, and continue in local community theater, the future of the company his father started 56 years ago is still at the forefront.

“The most important thing, and I do not doubt this, is that I know the new company will maintain the quality and fit of the current models, while developing new models that will continue to move the company, and what it can provide the skating world, forward,” George said. “It’s still the SP-Teri name; that’s our family name. What that name has meant to skaters through the years—all of that will continue.”