Maltese migrant makes skating boots for the stars

Until the recent opening of the ice skating arena in Paceville, the words ‘ice-skating’ and ‘Maltese’ were rarely to be found in the same sentence.

But Maltese emigrant Joseph Spiteri, who has hand-crafted over a million pairs of ice skates for some of the biggest ice skating stars, has changed all that. In fact, this man, one of the many Maltese people who emigrated to the States in the 1950’s, has succeeded in turning his livelihood into a definite success story.

Mr Spiteri, who is now 79, has been stitching and styling hand-made skates at his San Francisco factory ever since he arrived in America at the age of 23. He had hoped to leave his shoe-making days behind in Malta when he and his new wife had first arrived in San Francisco. But he quickly returned to the trade he had learned in Malta, as it was practically the only way of getting bills paid.

In 1963 Mr Spiteri started his own business, which he named SP-Teri because he thought it would be easier for people to pronounce and remember that version of his last name.

The business grew, and in time, his family became involved in the business. His son George, 52, married a skating coach and is now president of the company. Daughter Tessy Lencioni and her mother are in charge of lacing the boots, fitting them with custom insoles and packaging them. George's oldest son, Aaron, works at the company too, so there are three generations working at SP-Teri now.

Sp-Teri skating boots are amongst the most highly requested in their genre. His clients include current US Olympic figure skating favourites Michele Kwan and Timothy Goewbel.

A pair of SP-Teri boots can cost more than $1,000 once the blades are attached, especially since workmanship is long and laborious and everything is completely hand-made. From the initial pencil tracing of the skater's bare foot, to the intricacies of designing scalloped lacing holes or creating special shapes for skaters with missing toes or physical abnormalities.

Mr Spiteri’s workshops in San Francisco produce skating boots to cater for all tastes and fashions. From the simple and traditional white boots to zebra-print boots and on to purple and pink suedes which are perennial favourites. Some customers have even asked the Spiteris to sign the bottom of their skates or autograph the box holding their brand-new boots.

Which proves just how appreciated this Maltese man’s work really is. And it is quite interesting really to think that somebody who comes from this island in the sun is creating works of art to glide on ice.