It was a Czech accent, no two ways about it.

But this had to be a gag. The long-distance caller identified himself as a National Hockey League scoring champ, shopping for a new set of blades.

“Yeah, right,” muttered Dale Morriseau, manager in charge of custom pro skates for Calgary manufacturer Graf Canada Ltd.

Against his better judgment, Morriseau didn’t hang up. And by the time he finished his conversation with Jaromir Jagr, Graf Canada had landed a high- profile customer whose purchase helped catapult the company into the big leagues.

Mike Sturk photo, Business Edge
George Rocks uses a shaping tool on one of Brett Hull’s skates at Calgary’s Graf Canada plant.

That’s an important distinction, by the way.

Jagr, now with the New York Rangers, still pays cash for his 700 Series custom skates. So does everyone else. Unlike other Canadian skate vendors, Graf Canada doesn’t do freebies.

“We’re the only guys that don’t pay pro players to wear our skates,” said company president Mike Hill, an ex-oilpatch lawyer who also coached current NHLers Brad Stuart of the San Jose Sharks and Bryan McCabe of the Toronto Maple Leafs as they came up through Calgary’s minor hockey system.

The fact that such NHL superstars as Peter Forsberg, Sergei Fedorov and Jagr gravitated to Graf skates during the late 1990s lent a cachet to the product that other players picked up on.

When word spread that the league’s greatest marksmen were spurning cash endorsements from other manufacturers to go with Graf, it was a marketer’s dream.

It’s one reason why Graf Canada, which runs a 36,000-sq.-ft manufacturing plant a few blocks east of Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome, rarely advertises.

“We spend the money on making our product better,” shrugged Hill. “We feel if we build the best product, the end-user will find it.”

It seems to be working.

After grossing $2.4 million in its first year (1997), the company now generates revenues of more than $20 million.

Olympic champion figure-skater Alexei Yagudin prefers Grafs. So do Brett Hull and Robert Lang (Detroit Red Wings) and Brad May of the Vancouver Canucks, though their deluxe blades couldn’t help either team get past Calgary’s Flames in the playoffs.

Among the Flames, defenceman Robyn Regehr is the best-known Grafs user. Goaltender Eugeni Nabokov and defenceman Mike Rathje of the Sharks are hoping Grafs make a difference against Calgary in the Western Conference final.

Meanwhile, Hill estimates that product penetration at the Triple-A midget level of Calgary Minor Hockey is close to 70 per cent.

“Wearing our skate is a bit like a rite of passage for kids who grew up using Bauers or CCMs,” theorized Hill, a one-time quarterback for football’s Regina Rams who spent years coaching elite minor hockey teams in Calgary.

After accepting a buyout from Gulf Canada’s legal department in the mid-’90s, Hill found himself in the skate business when he hooked up with an ex-partner who held North American distribution rights for Graf International, out of Switzerland. “But he couldn’t make money on solely a distribution basis. He had to pay duties to import the product into Canada while dealing with high transportation and Swiss manufacturing costs,” Hill recalled.

So, after raising $3.5 million from private investors, Hill successfully pitched proprietor Charles Graf on a new Canadian manufacturing division, in return for five per cent of the company plus a six-per-cent royalty on skate sales. Since then, Graf International has added to its Canadian holdings, currently retaining about 12 per cent interest. Hill and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, which bought out his original backers last year, own the remaining shares in Graf Canada.

The Calgary operation soon began producing a patented, high-end professional skate made from 14 separate pieces, including Cobra blades fashioned from aerospace-quality stainless steel.

Sales escalated after Forsberg and Jagr bought skates (retail price range: $350 to $650 Cdn a pair). Then the company got an unsolicited boost when Detroit equipment manager Paul Boyer publicly proclaimed Graf skates “the highest-quality skates on the market.”

A prudent business plan took care of the rest.

“We grew this business out of internally generated cash flow and our operating model. We didn’t take on long-term debt and we didn’t go back to our shareholders for more money,” said Hill.

Today the company, which also sells hockey sticks, gloves, bags, pads and pants, is talking growth.

Hill hints that corporate acquisitions may be on the horizon, as well as a move to capitalize on broader markets by lowering the price point for Graf skates.

Looks like that phone call really started something.