Different Routes Same Goals

By: Fiorenzo Arcadi, Toronto Hockey Repair

19th century English poet William Butler Yeats, wrote in The Winding Stair, "Life is a journey up the spiral staircase, as we look down on the winding stairs below, we measure the progress by the number of places where we were, but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive. We go both round and upwards".

If 31 year old Jerry McSorley was to stop on a landing on his staircase, he would look back and see a life that showed courage and determination formed out of a shattered dream that lead him on a round about route to his original goal.

Jerry, known as a rebel in school because of his uncompromising honesty and originality, has been involved in hockey all his life. With his nine siblings, Jerry spent a lot of his formative years inside a hockey arena, like so many other Canadians chasing a dream to one day play in the National Hockey League.

The closest Jerry, got was a stint in the Colonial Hockey League. Having an older brother in the NHL made the expectations and demands ever higher. Jerry looks at his career with his characteristic frankness.

"Everybody was alway asking me what it was like to have Marty in the National Hockey League and why I'm not in the NHL. People forget to realize how small the percentage of Canadian kids make it in the NHL. When I got the opportunity to play for the Brantford Smoke, of the Colonial Hockey League, I thought it would be a lot of fun. I played roughly twenty games. I was going to play until Christmas, which I did. It was a thrill. People can talk about it, but to get an itinerary to fly to the games and to have pre game meals, the morning skates, it was something that I always looked at, saw other players do it, but never experienced it myself."

Jerry realized his career was limited. He was working for an environmental company in Brantford, when he decided to buy a new pair of skates. It was a purchase that changed his life.

"For a lot of years, I had skates given to me. Marty would go through a pair. Mary was using a different brand of skates but I didn't like the style, so I went over and bought my own skates and paid $280 some years ago. I thought it was a lot of money. I joked with the salesman, Look can you throw in a stick? He said no. If I throw in a stick I wouldn't make any money. I said I just paid $280".

Jerry thought that someone was making a lot of money if the dealer couldn't afford to throw in a hockey stick. He went to a friend who owned a boot manufacturing company and Flite Skates were born.

"We took different companies' skates apart. We came up with costs and figures. Then we came out with a high quality skate at a reasonable price where a dealer could make money. I did some sourcing out and I ordered 12 pairs. I gave a couple of pairs away so people could try them. I wasn't sure, how the public would take to a new skate, but I sold the other pairs and from there I've rolled over my pairs ever since."

Flite Skates has grown from a one man, 12 pair operation in the beginning, to a company with 50 employees that now sell, 10,000 skates annually.

But Jerry still isn't completely satisfied. "We spent two years in research and development basically taking skates apart and seeing how we could make a better skate, a lighter skate, with different materials, and I feel that now we are really happy with our skates."

The research and development is constant, but Jerry jokes about the size of his R & D department. "People ask me about how big my research department is and I tell them it is 95 by 185. You can do all you want in the boardroom, but you have to get the product on the ice. You have to give them to the players and find out what they like and don't like."

His brother Marty, according to Jerry plays a large role in research and development. "He's always coming back to me. He'll wear them in an NHL game then tell me what he needs. Obviously at that level, where he wears them every day, and he's a big fellow at 225 pounds, that puts a lot of pressure on the skates. It's good. He gives me a lot of feedback and talks to the other players."

The other major part of the Flite market is In-Line skates. The quality of the Flite boot opened up a whole new world for Jerry McSorley. "I have a warehouse in California and a lot of people were buying my boots, knocking off the blades and putting in-line chasiss on them. So I offered a boot only program. I was the only person offering it at the time and my sales went right up. Then I tied in with an in-line manufacturer LABEDA. We now offer LABEDA chassis and wheels on all our skates."

McSorley sees nothing but a steady growth for roller hockey in Canada, a vision based heavily on simple economics. "In the summer, it is very expensive for the parents to go out and put kids into leagues for ice hockey, when the cost for an hour is so high. Inline hockey is a pretty inexpensive way because people are using tennis courts, arenas that take the ice out, and it is pretty inexpensive to play because the parents don't have to share the $200 or so an hour that it costs for ice. I know of a league where the registration for the summer is $75. That's pretty inexpensive for an hour a week throughout the whole summer."

The other reason for the growth, according to McSorley are the players themselves. "They're out in the open and the kids love it." If the kids are already playing hockey, starting out in roller hockey they really don't know who is good and who isn't. Everybody gets to create their own little niche and now some of the kids are really good. I've quite a few calls from kids in Canada asking if I direct them to teams in the RHI."

Roller Hockey International is a professional roller hockey league. Another of Jerry's brothers; Chris, is President of the league.

Jerry is firmly committed to launching and keeping his skates in smaller venues. "I am focussing on putting my skates in the specialty stores, because they take the time with the individuals to teach them about the skate. It is a new product so people are going to be hesitant about buying the skate, so we really rely on the specialty stores. We spend a lot of time with them , just to teach them about the skate."

Jerry exemplifies the new breed of CEO in the sporting goods trade. He's easily accessible to the buying public. "The great power of a company's vision and imagination makes the old world new again." Jerry says "When you have quality and compassion, you have existence. It is a vision for a company that will outlive his generation."

McSorley is looking to the summer of 1997 to launch his next line of roller hockey products and still looks forward to work everyday. "I enjoy Monday mornings. I enjoy dealing with people and getting the product out. It is a great thrill to have kids write you letters say it (Flite) is the best skate they have ever worn. I keep letters like that and one day I am going to put everything together."

Credibility extends when someone besides the manufacturer's brother wears the product, although Marty's influence is noticeable. "At the end of the season, Marty was showing the skates to Mark Messier and Mark called and has requested some pairs be made up for the Canada Cup." Jerry knows that quality comes from having skates that can stand up under the punishment dealt out by his brother and Messier. "Our goal is to continue building a high quality skate. We've had the National League exposure already, but we want to integrate more into that, we want more players on our skates."

If Jerry McSorley was to pause for a moment, to look around, instead of down, from his landing on the spiral staircase, he may just see his two brothers on the other staircases. Just like in the poster, Marty, resplendent in his Los Angeles Kings gear, holding a Flite hockey-skate and brother Chris holding a Flite In-Line skate. Jerry could reflect for a second. All of them have made it to the big time. They just chose different routes.