> About Spornette
OVER 60 YEARS OF SUCCESS IN PROFESSIONAL SALON INDUSTRY
My
Father, Walter Sporn, came to the U.S. as a German refugee in 1936. His
first job was working in New York in a Macy department store’s sub-basement
hauling merchandise around to the various departments. In 1942, after
moving to Chicago, Walter started calling on beauty salons in the greater
Chicagoland area selling such exotic things as beer shampoo, egg shampoo,
human hair nets, glitter, ear warmers for under the dryer and wooden handled
brushes.
My Father, and Mother, Fern, went to New York City in 1944 to go on their
honeymoon. Ever the work-a-holic, Walter incorporated the International
Beauty Show into his honeymoon and my Mother worked by his side.
Spornette International was founded by Walter Sporn as The Walter
Sporn Company in the very early 1950’s. One of Walter’s
first ideas came after meeting an engineer who was making eye liner and
lip brushes for a major cosmetic conglomerate. My Father convinced the
engineer that if he could implant plastic handles with nylon bristles,
then making professional hair brushes should be a snap. The engineer took
his suggestion and several months later, The Walter Sporn Company introduced
2 items – the no-name 5 row and 7 row nylon bristle, plastic-handled
brushes – to the professional beauty supply/distributor industry
which was still in its infancy. “The Little Wonder”, “The
Petite”, “The Continental”, “The Duette”,
and many other original brushes were soon introduced and made Spornette
brushes the industry’s standard.
My Father visited Europe several times in the late 50’s and came
back with items he developed into very popular hair brushes for stylists
nationwide. Cushion brushes, round boar and round nylon brushes that had
been sold by the piece were now sold in attractive point-of-purchase displays
designed by Walter. This helped sales spike from individual pieces to
thousands of dozens—literally overnight.
I remember working the Midwest Show on weekends at the tender age of five.
I remember meeting the then “giants” of the industry. However,
I was too young to appreciate the significance of some of these people
regarding the beauty supply industry. I also worked summer jobs at The
Walter Sporn Company. As you can see, brushes have always been a part
of my life.
I graduated Bradley University in 1967. After completing my Air Force
and National Guard responsibilities, I went to work full-time for my Father
while going for my Master’s Degree from DePaul University at the
same time. In 1969, I married Barbara, completed my Master’s and
started traveling to accounts around the country. Some of these accounts
were those that my Father set me up with so I would not get disappointed
or discouraged on those early calls. The first call I made on my own was
a three-store chain owned by Ray Farber and named after his daughter,
Sally, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In the early 1970’s, the name of the company officially became Spornette
International, Inc. and I began to take over more and more of the day-to-day
operations. In 1985, I purchased the company from my parents.
Our oldest daughter, Laurie, joined Spornette in 1994 upon graduation
from Kansas University. Laurie has taken over the brunt of running the
day-to-day business of Spornette. In 2004, our youngest son, Jeffrey,
who graduated from Boston University, joined Spornette. Jeff has spent
a lot of time on the road working with our reps and getting to know, on
a first hand basis, many of our distributors. Jeff has been to Asia several
times and is beginning to know our partners in manufacturing on a better
basis. This will ensure that the relationships I’ve built will continue.
Our other children, Bonnie (Indiana University) and Gary (Lynn University),
have decided to pursue other goals but are still familiar with many long
time customers who have become personal friends of ours. The welcome mat
is always open to them in case they want to work with Laurie and Jeffrey.
On December 17, 2005, Laurie and her husband Arlyn presented us with our
first grandchild, Brayden William Tratt (the “W” in William
is in honor of Walter). On February 22, 2008, Quinn Tyler Tratt was born
and we are so excited with our second grandchild. Fourth generation brush
salesmen?
In 2006, my sister, Rebecca, who joined Spornette in the mid 90’s,
decided to relinquish her day-to-day activities at Spornette. She will
still be a source of inspiration and information to all of us.
So... we are a well-established, third-generation company entering the
future with knowledge that we will be keeping the Spornette tradition
alive. Everyone at Spornette knows that we can only survive to ensure
another generation by keeping the users of our hair brushes happy and
well groomed.
