Henry Hotze & Sons 1862 - 1962

by Bent Hotze

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We repaired all bags, no give always, or replacements. Hot-Z bags were valuable; even traded by some pros. I spent time detailing repair instructions and sending a copy to the pro, with the bill. To do repair work out of the factory, I set up a repair shop; also covering top rings there to give the shop an income; they also dressed leather bags. I also set up a luggage shop to make weekend bags and soft side two suitors. John Reiss was a genius and developed and patented the soft side two suitor. It was probably the finest piece of hand luggage on the market at that time. A very fine Swedish gentleman, who was in St. Louis to buy carburetors (Carter Carburetor) for Volvo, visited our factory at 4th and Washington for several years; buying our two suitors and over -niters in Durotan for the Swedish royalty. He also gave us an order for golf bags with shipping instructions for his Gothenburg store. We shipped the order, and it came back a month later - seems and import visa was required. Sweden has a very tight economy.

A few other high-lights: The imported English Pro, Alex Ayton, at the St. Louis Country Club told me that the Prince of Wales (At that time Governor of the Bahamas) had come to Miami and bought a Hot-Z Durotan golf bag. One day, in the late forties, I got a call from Eisenhower's personal Sergeant for a golf bag for a birthday present to Ike. I have a snapshot of Ike and the bag. I also had a personal friendship with Horton Smith who visited the factory every fall on his way to visit his mother in Springfield, Missouri. He was PGA president at that time. A very likeable, down to earth , person. Unfortunately he died with a lung cancer. He had a very fine country club on the lakeside at Detroit.

We also made golf bags for Spaulding and later for Golf Craft of Chicago. Spaulding wanted to buy us indirectly - hiring me to make their bags - My answer was "no".

As to the business - Henry Hotze & Sons net worth had dropped from $50,000 in 1920 to $25,000 in 1930,; the year I came in. Dad gradually dumped the business on my shoulders - first the catalog, next the line, and the sales. Thanks to Erhart Seibert, sculptor and artist, who made several 1/4 size model bags for us, the pockets were coordinated, and a feeling of complete harmony given to the bag. I became fairly proficient at buying leather by trial and error. Production was a problem. Design and workmanship were of the best, but the assembly line was inefficient. I had no mechanical know how but I went to a machine shop and had two long-arm sewing machines extended - one to sew on bottoms (off the arm) and one to close the bag (on the arm) - that eliminated a lot of back and forth movement from the riveter of handles and yokes to the body and the stand up, finish machine line.