=m Part III
Modert Times – The Golden Era
In the heart of America, skating was one of the most popular forms of winter recreation. On Chicago's ponds, rivers, lagoons, it was no different. The city was home to three major skate manufacturers: F. W. Planert & Sons, Nestor Johnson Mfg. Co., and Alfred Johnson Skate Company. By 1923 the Chicagoland winter landscape was sprinkled with more than six hundred outdoor rinks (more than in any other city).
The Planert Skate Company was founded in the Chicago area in the late 1890s by Fred W. Planert, who made figure, hockey, leisure, and speed skates, providing competition for another Chicago-based company, the Johnson Skate Company run by Nestor and Alfred Johnson. Nestor Johnson, inventor of tubular ice skate was born in Christiana, Norway. He won several skating and rowing championships, which include being the Illinois Skating Champion from 1901 – 1908, and made bicycles and ice skates before he retired in 1917. Due to family difficulties, Alfred withdrew from the Nestor Johnson company and formed his own company, the Alfred Johnson Skate Company that manufactured the same type of ice skate. The Nestor Johnson Co. brought suit in an effort to keep Alfred’s company from using "Johnson Skates". In 1924, Nestor Johnson Manufacturing Co. v. Alfred Johnson Skate Co. made it all the way to the Illinois Supreme
Court. Nestor and Alfred had together formed the company which manufactured a specific style of ice skate. The Supreme Court found that "Johnson" had acquired a distinctive name as to ice skates. The court would not order Alfred from using his surname in promoting his own business. Yet, the court held that when the use of one's name on goods would lead the public to believe that it is the product of a well-known competitor, the law required that reasonable precautions be taken to prevent deception. The court allowed Alfred to use "Johnson" in promoting his ice skates if "not connected with the Nestor Johnson Manufacturing Co." was also used in distribution and advertising. After the Illinois Supreme Court decision both plants continued to operate until 1950, when Alfred Johnson went out of business. In the meantime, the Bauer family, owners of Western Shoe Company, established the Bauer Company (1927), as it is known today, in Kitchener, Ontario. Another iconic manufacturer, the Canada Cycle and Motor Company (CCM) in Toronto, started manufacturing skates in the 1930s. Nestor Johnson stopped production during the 1960s. When the Planert Company was put up for sale in 1960, Bauer purchased the racing department only, thereby shutting down the figure skating line and ending skate production in the city of Chicago.
A fourth Chicago skate manufacturer was sporting goods magnate A.G. Spalding. Albert Spalding was a famous baseball player in the 1870’s and opened his first sporting goods store in 1876 to capitalize on that fame. Early on, Spalding recognized the benefits of owning not only the factory that made the merchandise, but also the stores that sell the merchandise. Today that is in violation of anti-trust laws. Spalding made their skates in Hastings, Michigan and at its peak in 1916, world famous skater, “Charlotte,” was wearing and endorsing her own signature Spalding Skate. A.G. Spalding also owned the American Sports Publishing Company. American Sports published The Art of Skating by Irving Brokaw, also known as the skater’s bible, in 1910. Brokaw had returned from Europe in 1904 bringing two altering innovations with him. The first was Jackson Haines’ International Skating Style and the second was Haines’s skate design which included the Swedish toe rake. A. G. Spalding and Brokaw created a signature boot and skate that was promoted within his book that was a copy of the Haines design. Among the boots from the early 1900s that would survive to the 1980s were Hyde Athletic Shoe Co. of Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Stanzione Company (1908) of New York City. Cobbler Abraham Hyde immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1890 and by 1912 established A.R. Hyde and Sons. His first products were carpet slippers, so called because they were crafted from carpet remnants. The small company's product line grew to include women's and children's shoes. By the 1930s, however, ice skates, ladies' figure skates, and roller skate boots figured strongly in the company's sales. By the 1970s, the Hyde company's product line had expanded to include footwear for ice skating and roller skating, bowling, soccer, football, track, tennis, jogging, and other sports. Products were sold under the Hyde, Spot-Bilt, and Saucony trademarks. Over a period of PS MAGAZINE
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