A stitch in timelessness: Heart and soles

Beeeep. Tuesday, that tone signaled another customer opening the front door at George's Shoe and Skate Repair on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Beeeep. The equipment manager for the Gophers men's hockey team had stick bags and goalie gear to be repaired. Beeeep. A woman came to pick up a sheepskin jacket. Beeeep. A dad walked in with a hockey helmet and a pair of skates that needed fixing.

As St. Paul starts its Winter Carnival festivities today, and with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in town, the action at George's was heating up. Owner Jerry George had just finished making a pair of shoes -- with curled-up toes and a ball at the tip of each -- for the carnival's Prince of the East Wind.

He's fabricated elbow-length black leather gloves, complete with a red "V" for the Vulcans. "They had me get on my knees and tapped with a sword," Jerry George says of the Vulcan who dubbed him "Prince of Stitches."

But, really, it's always busy. While old-time skate- and shoe-repair places fade to black across the country, George's has continued into its fourth generation, with Jerry's sons Brian and Dan taking the business onto the Web and, as a result, around the world.

They now fix hockey pads, gloves and skates from 47 states and from as far away as Australia. Yet, they still hustle to the front counter to greet customers with a smile.

Beeeep. Nancy Kelly had a few pairs of shoes to be fixed. "We've been coming here for as long as they've been open," she said. "My husband is cheap. He doesn't want to go out and buy new shoes. So he buys quality shoes and then brings them in here. They get it done real quick. And they're nice."

For nearly a century, a George has been fixing shoes and boots in the United States. Brian and Dan's great-grandfather, Joseph, came from Lebanon, settling in McIntosh, S.D., in 1916. His son, Said, later came to McIntosh to join his father. Said eventually took his craft to St. Paul's West Side. And, in 1963, Said George opened a shop in the brand-new Har Mar Mall in Roseville. Jerry George and his brother Ron learned alongside Said, their father. In 1977, Jerry George bought an old shoe repair business on Grand Avenue.

Then, he chuckled. "That's one part of the business I don't think I'll show my boys how to do."

Beeeep. Another set of goalie pads. They need new straps, the woman said. Could they be done today?

Dan George, 27, a former high school goalie at Roseville, works on those. He and brother Brian enjoy the business, he said. They hung out at the store when they were young, doing little jobs to keep busy. Now, cobbling is in their blood as well. "We wanted to figure out ways to make it grow," he said of their www.hockeyrepair.com website.

"We've ended up doing a lot of emergency repair work, like during the Minnesota state hockey tournament and the WCHA Final Five," said Brian George, 30. "It's a dying trade. They don't teach this anymore. But we love it."

Said Jerry: "Did you meet my sons? These guys are good. Better than I was at their age."

"I was in Vietnam," Jerry George said. "It's something I felt I had to do."

Beeeep. A man paid for boots his dog chewed but that the Georges repaired. Beeeep. A woman dropped off some skates.

Beeeep.

James Walsh • 651-298-1541