diff --git a/spine-libgdx/spine-libgdx/src/com/esotericsoftware/spine/SkeletonBinary.java b/spine-libgdx/spine-libgdx/src/com/esotericsoftware/spine/SkeletonBinary.java
index 9dbf3c6ac..76ceaf43d 100644
--- a/spine-libgdx/spine-libgdx/src/com/esotericsoftware/spine/SkeletonBinary.java
+++ b/spine-libgdx/spine-libgdx/src/com/esotericsoftware/spine/SkeletonBinary.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 package com.esotericsoftware.spine;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 
 import com.badlogic.gdx.files.FileHandle;
 import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.Color;
@@ -104,8 +105,9 @@ public class SkeletonBinary {
 		SkeletonData skeletonData = new SkeletonData();
 		skeletonData.name = file.nameWithoutExtension();
 
+		final Charset utf8 = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
 		DataInput input = new DataInput(file.read(512)) {
-			private char[] chars = new char[32];
+			private byte[] bytes = new byte[32];
 
 			public String readString () throws IOException {
 				int byteCount = readInt(true);
@@ -116,33 +118,9 @@ public class SkeletonBinary {
 					return "";
 				}
 				byteCount--;
-				if (chars.length < byteCount) chars = new char[byteCount];
-				int charCount = 0;
-				for (int i = 0; i < byteCount; i++, charCount++) {
-					int b = read();
-					switch (b >> 4) {
-					case 0:
-					case 1:
-					case 2:
-					case 3:
-					case 4:
-					case 5:
-					case 6:
-					case 7:
-						chars[charCount] = (char)b;
-						break;
-					case 12:
-					case 13:
-						chars[charCount] = (char)((b & 0x1F) << 6 | read() & 0x3F);
-						i++;
-						break;
-					case 14:
-						chars[charCount] = (char)((b & 0x0F) << 12 | (read() & 0x3F) << 6 | read() & 0x3F);
-						i += 2;
-						break;
-					}
-				}
-				return new String(chars, 0, charCount);
+				if (bytes.length < byteCount) bytes = new byte[byteCount];
+				readFully(bytes, 0, byteCount);
+				return new String(bytes, 0, byteCount, utf8);
 			}
 		};
 		try {