| The Original SKATE MATE skate
guard has certainly come a long way. It all started back
in 1988 while I was the owner of asporting goods store
in my hometown of Aurora, Ontario. The skate sharpening
business was booming and the store was selling quite a
large number of skate guard but nothing that truly kept
the blades moisture free. After having seen the skates
come in for sharpening time and time again, I noticed
that the blades inevitably would have signs of rusting
or corrosion. I thought there must be a better way to
protect the skate blade from the moisture inherent with
the product.
 One
of the people that I refereed hockey with suggested
to me that we develop a product using high tensile strength
nylon with a liner of some sort to act as a moisture
absorbing product. We experimented with many different
products and after about a year and a half of product
evaluation came up with the combination for the Original
SKATE MATE. This same combination of high quality materials
is used today although many improvements have been incorporated
into the product. A testament to the Original SKATE
MATE is the number of manufacturers who have tried to
copy the SKATE MATE only to make a cheaper product not
a better one. If you are purchasing a webbed skate guard
product for your retail outlet be sure to investigate
the products thoroughly; the cheapest is not the best
in this case. The old saying goes like this “you
only get what you pay for”.
We sold our first order, on consignment, to a hockey
specialty store in Toronto called The Hockey Shop. The
owners of the store felt that the suggested retail price
of $14.00 CDN for a skate guard was outrageous. They
felt that nobody would dare spend that kind of money
to protect their skates. I told them that if they hadn’t
sold the 100 pair within one month I’d take them
back no questions asked. Well guess what within two
weeks they had sold out and needed more. The SKATE MATE
was truly on its way to being accepted in the market
place. The Hockey Shop is to this day a valued client
of our company and we appreciate their loyalty to our
SKATE MATE skate guards.
Up to this point we had been attending the CSGA Hockey
Shows in Montreal but only as a buying member. We decided
to take the plunge and exhibit at our first trade show
in 1990 at the Place Bonaventure in Montreal. We had
a small booth in the lower basement and to find it was
truly an adventure. The first day we had one order but
the next couple of days were very exciting as we came
home with about 50 orders for our SKATE MATE skate guards.
Yes, the SKATE MATE skate guard has come a long way.
Along with the first trade show in Montreal we hired
sales reps and sent out mailers to selected retailers.
We slowly grew our business and were ready to try our
hand at selling our product to a buying group. After
contacting the head buyer it was agreed that if we could
print their logo on the SKATE MATE it would be a product
to show the buying committee; who had the final decision
of whether to include on their dealers recommended list.
That year we made it to the recommended list and have
been proudly supplying skate guard products to Sports
Distributors of Canada dealers since 1993. We are proud
of our association with such a great organization and
would like to thank all the dealers and head office
personnel that make our product the success it is within
Sports Distributors of Canada.
After joining the CSGA in 1990 as a supplier company
to the industry we have exhibited at every trade show
put on by the CSGA. In 1997 we were approached by a
group of people looking to start a hockey only trade
show in the United States. As a company wanting to expand
our market we felt this was the perfect opportunity
to show our products to the hockey market there. We
have been exhibiting at the Lets Play Hockey Show now
since its inception. We now have many loyal customers
in the United States as well. But our travels do not
stop there; in 2002 we exhibited at ISPO2002 in Munich,
Germany for the first time. What an experience it was
to meet dealers and distributors on the other side of
the world. We are very happy with the amount of business
generated with both these trade shows outside our Canadian
borders and will continue to support these two shows
and the dealers and distributors we met.
While our SKATE MATE has been widely accepted by our
customers we have had to evolve as a company and were
approached by one of our largest customers in Canada,
National Sports, about the possibility of purchasing
all
their skate guard products from one source. That source
was HMF Enterprises. This coincided with our plans to
expand our line and the decisions were made and allegiances
made with suppliers to offer our customer base skate
guards of all types, sizes and colours. National Sports
is another valued client of HMF Enterprises and we thank
you for your continued support.
We are now producing not only our own SKATE MATE product
but also all our own terry cloth skate guard products
(soakers in the US). We have also been developing our
synthetic skate guard line up and have made strategic
partnership alliances with a world leader in injection
molding products. This alliance allows us the flexibility
of having new and exciting products and colours to supply
to the skating industry while keeping our Made in Canada
policy intact.
This year we are proud to introduce a new and very
exciting product. The new SKATE MATE Matrix (2 Piece)
synthetic skate guard is sure to be a winner in comparison
to the existing two piece skate guard styles on the
market. Please see the feature page later in this catalogue
for further information.
We are constantly adding new products to our line up.
Please browse through this web site, if we can be of
any assistance please contact us.
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