Whether you all know it or not you have probably the widest range of choice in cases of any sport out there for your gear.
You have a huge assortment of production cue cases from simple bags to well engineered tube cases. There are makers doing wood boxes, suitcase styles, using bamboo, and of course leather. In the past few years case makers are popping up everywhere.
My focus in case making has always been on how to make them better in terms of protection and construction.
So I thought I'd point out a few thing I have learned while making cases over the past 20 years and what we have come up with to make improvements.
Starting with the interior;
When I got started my goal was to find a way to add padding to the interior and keep the cue snug and safe until I wanted it out. So I put padding inside the tubes. This was good for it's time and was the foundation of Instroke Cue Cases.
Now I have developed/invented the padded fabric divided compartment interiors. I didn't invent the fabric divided interior. That's been around for at least 60 years. I created some that offer the type of protection I think a long thin instrument needs.
These come in several flavors but essentially they all do the same thing. They wrap the cues in soft fabric and let them sit snugly in between layers of foam rubber. This protects the parts from each other and from the wall of the case.
Working with Sterling I am able to provide this protection for inexpensive cases that anyone can afford as well as our custom cases.
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Next I tackled the latch problem. Specifically the problem that mechanical latchs and snaps are doomed to fail. They have moving parts and are made of thin metal and don't like the forces acting on them.
So the first thing I did in this direction was make a sort of bracer to take the weight off the closure,
I called this a Puzzle Snap Latch:
Then I decided to eliminate the snap and came up with the Magnetic Puzzle Latch - these have no moving parts to break, ever;
And finally kind of a hybrid for when we don't want to put in the magnetic Puzzle Latch I came up with the Puzzle Twist Latch - now this one isn't really a "new" invention but it is super strong and durable.
So now that I took care of the closures I moved on to the pockets and what we could do there;
People like the box pocket look but they hate the way that those pockets are hard to get into. So I invented the L-Zipper for 90 degree corner box pockets.
You have a huge assortment of production cue cases from simple bags to well engineered tube cases. There are makers doing wood boxes, suitcase styles, using bamboo, and of course leather. In the past few years case makers are popping up everywhere.
My focus in case making has always been on how to make them better in terms of protection and construction.
So I thought I'd point out a few thing I have learned while making cases over the past 20 years and what we have come up with to make improvements.
Starting with the interior;
When I got started my goal was to find a way to add padding to the interior and keep the cue snug and safe until I wanted it out. So I put padding inside the tubes. This was good for it's time and was the foundation of Instroke Cue Cases.
Now I have developed/invented the padded fabric divided compartment interiors. I didn't invent the fabric divided interior. That's been around for at least 60 years. I created some that offer the type of protection I think a long thin instrument needs.


These come in several flavors but essentially they all do the same thing. They wrap the cues in soft fabric and let them sit snugly in between layers of foam rubber. This protects the parts from each other and from the wall of the case.
Working with Sterling I am able to provide this protection for inexpensive cases that anyone can afford as well as our custom cases.
---------------------------------------------------
Next I tackled the latch problem. Specifically the problem that mechanical latchs and snaps are doomed to fail. They have moving parts and are made of thin metal and don't like the forces acting on them.
So the first thing I did in this direction was make a sort of bracer to take the weight off the closure,
I called this a Puzzle Snap Latch:


Then I decided to eliminate the snap and came up with the Magnetic Puzzle Latch - these have no moving parts to break, ever;


And finally kind of a hybrid for when we don't want to put in the magnetic Puzzle Latch I came up with the Puzzle Twist Latch - now this one isn't really a "new" invention but it is super strong and durable.


So now that I took care of the closures I moved on to the pockets and what we could do there;
People like the box pocket look but they hate the way that those pockets are hard to get into. So I invented the L-Zipper for 90 degree corner box pockets.

