DETROIT, MI - Terry Johnson and some friends had an idea: They would use heavy machinery to press and mold hockey sticks into iPhone cases. The problem with that idea was almost immediate.

“These new sticks are made of composite materials,” Johnson said. “They have memory to them.” He and his friends were able to flatten one stick, and less than 10 minutes later it eased back to its original form.

As with all things entrepreneurial, some failure is inevitable.

Johnson and his friends kept experimenting, and, with a little help from experienced automotive engineers, the first retail-ready batch of Original Stix phone cases emerged from production on Monday.

Now, The Detroit-based Original Stix is trying to sell their cases for iPhone 5 and 5-s in local hockey pro shops. The cases are already available online at originalstix.com.

"Our strategy is to try to sell them inside of every youth hockey rink

shop within the arena," Johnson said, adding that he's in discussion with several potential buyers.

“We definitely have plans to go elsewhere locally,” he said. “Ideally we’d like to get in to some of the more national stores down the road.”

Forgive the hockey metaphor, but for Original Stix to get to where they are now has been a bit like a forward meandering through several defenders on the ice.

At one point, the Original Stix team took their idea Birmingham-based IncWell, a venture capitalist firm run by former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda. “(LaSorda) really liked the idea but said it was just an idea,” Johnson said. “Not a developing business trying to grow.”

Nevertheless, LaSorda helped the group develop a business plan and put them in touch with people from Osirius, a Troy-based engineering firm that has personnel well-versed in developing parts for major automakers. A trio of Osirius engineers, including P.T. Muldoon, Roger Paquette and Tim Smith, the owner of Osirius, embraced the idea and took it to the next level. The three now have a stake in the Original Stix venture.

From there, the Original Stix team was also put in touch with Disabled American Veterans, which gives jobs to disabled veterans returning home from U.S. military conflicts. Veterans have been helping to produce Original Stix cases at an Osirius site in Metro Detroit, Johnson said.

Original Stix gets the used hockey sticks from the NHL, the NCAA and minor hockey leagues. The pieces used for the phone cases do not denote a certain player or team. The sticks are blemished and broken, and many could be repaired, but Johnson said at the higher hockey levels the teams instead just want to replace the equipment.

The idea to make used hockey sticks into phone cases did not just hit Johnson all at once. "It was kind of a combination of things and experiences, growing up and playing hockey in Metro Detroit,” he said.

Johnson, whose partners include Michigan State University friends Mario Dimercurio, A.J. Mestdagh and brothers Evan and Mike Dremluk, said he got further inspiration from a table he saw that was made entirely of hockey sticks. He was further pushed toward starting Orginal Stix when he saw Pure Detroit's car seatbelt belts.



"I just thought it was really cool how something that was intended for an entirely different purpose was used a new way," he said.

David Muller is the business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.