Michigan-based Original Stix bringing hockey stick iPhone cases to reality

Photos provided by Original Stix founder Terry Johnson

By Michael Caples –

Hey hockey players (and fans), meet your new phone case.

Hockey stick phone cases are about to hit the market, and they’re being made right here in Michigan.

A new company called Original Stix, created by 24-year-old St. Clair Shores native Terry Johnson, is taking broken hockey sticks and turning them into phone cases, starting with the iPhone 5/5s/5c.

“In college I saw a table built out of hockey sticks, and online I saw other pieces of furniture made out of sticks, whether it was chairs, lamps or a lot of other things,” said Johnson, who played for St. Clair Shores and De La Salle Collegiate High School before majoring in marketing at Michigan State University. “I just thought that was pretty cool. A few weeks after that, I just kept thinking about that and I saw someone with an iPad case that was carved out of wood. Even though hockey sticks aren’t made out of wood anymore, it clicked, and the idea just kind of hit me and I knew that it was something that might have potential and that I should pursue a little bit.”

The cases, which feature a plastic shell and interchangeable pieces of game-used sticks, are in the final testing stages before being released to the public later this month.

Turning his vision into reality took longer than expected, however. In what could be a commercial for stick manufacturers, Johnson’s first attempt at making a hockey stick phone case was to flatten out a Bauer stick, only to find out that ten minutes later, it sprung back into rectangular form.

That meant some more time and work – and finding investors to help with the engineering costs.

“The next thing I did was that I started calling around, talking to engineering firms around Detroit, and they all wanted tens of thousands of dollars to work with me, and that’s something I didn’t have,” Johnson said. “I started looking for investors, investment funding, and pitched my idea to a group that liked the concept, but didn’t want to invest in an idea, but wanted to see some progress. They hooked me up with an engineering firm called Osirius, and these guys worked with me. We ended up setting up a partnership.

“This was around the fall of 2013, I started working with Osirius (based out of Troy) in a partnership-like deal, they would do the engineering and all the things I don’t really know how to do, and I would take care of the business, marketing and website with a few close friends.”

The design of the cases, which turned into an evolving process after Johnson first came up with the idea, has finally been settled. While he has made sure that the cases aren’t too bulky, he is excited about a design feature that allows for users to change the stick pieces that are inserted in the case. After all, Johnson – who played high school hockey for De La Salle – understands the extent of brand loyalty players feel towards their sticks.

“An important part of the design was the feature that would allow people to change the sticks out with different sticks from different brands or different teams,” Johnson said. “We wanted to make it so it was a smaller, thinner case while still being protective and while still giving people the opportunity to swap out different sticks. That makes it easier on us, makes it easier on the pro shops who are selling our cases, and it makes it easier on the customer, so you’re not stuck with sticks that you don’t necessarily like. It kind of makes it easier all around. When we finally got that design all together, got all the features on the same case, we knew we had it right.”

The process of acquiring the sticks turned out to be one of the most difficult things Johnson faced in the early stages of the company.

“At first, I thought we would be using brand-new sticks or wooden sticks, because we weren’t having much luck with that,” Johnson said. “Eventually, I found this guy up in Canada who receives broken sticks from more than 40 professional and college teams, and he basically supplies them to us.

“We’ve also been in touch with a couple of NHL equipment managers to get ahold of NHL sticks, a consistent supply of NHL game-used sticks, we’ve got a couple right now, but we’ve been in touch with a couple different equipment managers, and that’s something that we’re continuing to work on. Hopefully in the future, people will be able to select not only their favorite model or brand, but even their favorite player or team from the NHL.”

And who will be cutting and trimming the sticks for the cases? Veterans. Original Stix is working with the Disabled American Veterans, and organization that helps former soldiers find jobs.

“Two of the engineers that I was working with at Osirius brought up the idea to work with these guys, cutting the sticks and assembling them for the cases. As production has been starting, we’ve got these guys who we are working with to do that kind of stuff. It provides them with employment opportunities, where it’s not always easy due to the injuries they are suffering from. The DAV is a support organization for veterans, suffering from both apparent and invisible injuries.

“It really wasn’t my idea, Osirius just had everything in place, and when I first heard about it, it was something that was awesome and we had to do it.”

The first batch of Original Stix cases are being finished today for the final stage of testing. Johnson said that by the end of the month, the first hockey stick iPhone cases will be available to the public.

He has already seen a great deal of interest from the hockey community.

“On Instagram, Twitter, we’ve got a lot of high school and youth players following us. It’s funny to look at and think that the 13-year-old version of me would have loved this thing as well. It hasn’t just been young kids or high school kids, though. A lot of my friends and older adults have given us tremendous feedback. The first person to purchase one was a female in Florida. That was something I wasn’t really expecting when I looked at the order on the website.”

And he’s proud to say that Original Stix is a Michigan-made and Michigan-based company.

“It’s one of those things where it made sense for us to use some of the same manufacturing methods used in the automotive industry,” Johnson said. “We understand that for some companies, it doesn’t always make sense – you can’t blame other companies for outsourcing certain things for whatever reasons. For us, it made sense to do pretty much most of our manufacturing in the Detroit area, and I think people will appreciate that, as well.

“I guess compared to what other alternatives there are for hockey fans and hockey players, they’re mostly just mass-produced cases stamped with a team logo that looks exactly like the other 20 sitting on the shelf next to it. With our cases, each one will be one-of-a-kind, you know you’re the only person with that case. When you’re grabbing for your phone over 100 times a day on average, every time you grab for your phone, it reminds you of hockey. That’s what it’s all about.”