History of Spats
Spats started in the early 1970's when football players would tape the outside of their cleats for ankle support. Although players continued to 'spat' their shoes on into the 80's, doctors and athletic trainers, who felt that they did not provide adequate support, frowned upon taping as a means of ankle support. In fact, so much tape would be needed on the cleat to insure support, that it would resemble a cast! This became obvious as many players continued to have ankle sprains. Athletic Trainers came up with a saying, "If you want ankle support tape your ankles not your shoes".
By this time, however, 'spatting' or getting 'spatted' up before games had become popular, giving the players the perception of having a new pair of cleats on at every game. Taped cleats were seen on football players from little leaguers to professional players. Athletic Trainers came up with patterns to apply the tape so that it would give some support as well as keep shoestrings from coming undone.
The Innovation of Spats
Rodney Hall, an assistant football coach at Ferndale High School, was familiar with the process of taping cleats, since he had taped his cleats in high school and in college. Rodney came up with an innovation to replace the taping of cleats. The idea came from the problems that taping and re-taping the cleats were causing. The biggest problem he noticed on the team and through out his own football career, was lost time.
Trainers were using an excessive amount of time to tape up the shoes before the game and after the game to cut the tape off. Consequently, players would miss pre game meetings, and trainers would be swamped with a lot of extra work. Since most high schools don't allow cleats to be worn inside the building, athletes would have to crawl to and from the locker- room while their shoes were taped!
Spatz Inc.
In order to alleviate the problems associated with taping, Spatz were developed by Rodney Hall. Rodney, a Detroit native, is a veteran football player since he began his football career with the Detroit Cobras Little League team at the age of seven. As a high school player he earned All State honors from Ferndale High School in 1989, and was heavily recruited by several colleges and universities. He went on to play four years of collegiate football and later earned his BS., Administration, from Central Michigan University. While completing his degree, Rodney coached football at his high school alma mater. It was during this time he was revisited with the problems involved with taping cleats. He developed a form fitted shoe covering designed to function in the same supportive and protective capacity as taping. Yet, Instead of the hassle of applying and removing tape, his zippered design enables easy on and off that saves time.
Spatz are made of the same durable uniform fabric and are available in many of the same colors. Rodney Hall not only makes the athletic shoe covers for football; they are made for all field sports. The goal of Spatz Inc. is to have their product a part of every field sports uniform from little league to professional.
