tried another Wisconsin shoe company but had quality issues.
Finally, Kento and Mark found a person whom they thought would be the answer: Noel Ash, owner operator of B & A Boot Shop in Paris, Arkansas. Ash was excited about the project and in order to ramp up production, hired additional help. He looked early in the process for early payment to cover expenses. Unfortunately, cash was once again an issue for Oberhamer Skates and production stopped. According to Kento, Roy had a favorite saying, “Money is not the problem… it’s the solution.” Mark Cockerell decided to move on and Orwoll and Roy moved production back to Minnesota, giving one last effort. Renting a small space, Kento and Roy added the quad roller speed skate to the line; they even tried an inline boot for Rollerblade in 1995. While making custom boots in Minnesota, a recreation and rental line was being made in Mexico. At the end, SP-Teri was making custom Oberhamer boots using the Oberhamer last. The lasts and equipment was slowly sold off or given away. Randy Nelson, who worked for SP-Teri, moved to Chicago along with two former SP-Teri boot makers to start a new boot company called Legacy using the Oberhamer patterns and lasts. Oberhamer finally closed its doors for good in October of 1997, an end to one of the most popular and well-made boots of the 20th century.
The Olympiad Skate Company was established in St. Paul during the 1930s by William Blochinger and Almond L. Colbiornsen, who operated out of a small shop at one period located across the street from the old St. Paul Auditorium. Most notably, Mr. Blochinger patented the first “zigzag” toe rake which he claimed were “self-cleaning” in 1936, describing the issue with previous designs in his patent description as, “… construction of skates and particularly figure skates, the practice has been to provide prongs at the toe end of the skate arranged alternately along the corners of the toe end. Such construction is disadvantageous in that the spaces between prongs readily fill up with ice, thus lessening the usefulness of the structure for the desired purpose.” The Olympiad and Zephyr designs were very popular in the day, with five-time U.S. Men’s champion, Robin Lee of St. Paul endorsing the product. An interesting side note involving the Olympiad Skate Company and former International Olympic Committee President, Avery Brundage, was an incident that happened in 1950. Brundage was a fierce opponent of the commercialism of the Olympics and the financial corruption of amateur athletes. After learning of the existence of the company, Brundage fired off a letter demanding that Olympiad change
their name.
EXTENSIVE COLLECTION:
WORLD FIGURE SKATING MUSEUM By the mid-fifties a new style of boot making was introduced & HALL OF FAME by manufacturers Harlick & The World Figure Skating Museum Co.(1937), Arnolds Authentics & Hall of Fame’s collection includes (1944), Riedell (1945), and nearly 1,500 pairs of skates that Klingbeil (1950). The height of document the development of the the boot had been reduced and blade and boot dating back to the the heel increased. The blade 8th Century. stanchions height increased to PSA extends special thanks to the Museum for allow for deeper edges. In the graciously sharing photographs from the collecsixties, boots began to adapt to tion. the needs of the skaters. Skaters began to jump more and one of the first changes made, according to the history of Harlick, was their new design of a much lower boot. A consistent complaint by skaters was that the laces would work loose. The cause for this was immediately recognized. The old styling was designed for the boots to go all the way up past the calf of the leg where the leg muscles were the strongest, and as soon as one began to skate, the calf muscles would expand, making the lacing work loose. As soon as the new design was made and the height of the boot cut down three to four inches the problem was eliminated. This low cut design became so popular, all of the boot manufactured were copying the low cut design. Modern skating boots, on the other hand, are extremely rigid to support the foot and ankle in jumps, and are cut much lower—just over ankle height—to allow the foot to flex. Because the stiffness of the boots makes good fit essential, many skaters either order custom boots or have their boots "bumped out" over pressure points by a skate technician. The Golden Era of skating saw a great boom in manufacturers post World War II. Overall the boots changed little until the need for more support dictated the transformation. In the next issue of PS magazine, the story continues with the Great White North; boots from above the border. In the next issue of PS Magazine Part IV - The Great White North SOURCES The Art of Skating. Irving Brokaw A System of Figure Skating. H. E. Vandervell & T. Maxwell Witham Wonderful World of Skates. Arthur Goodfellow Ice Skating. Nigel Brown Artistic Skating in the International Style, George H. Browne, The New York Times, November 28 1909 100 Years on Ice. Time magazine. February 10, 1941. Retrieved 2013/08/26
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