Former Michigan State football player turns inventor after NFL stint

EAST LANSING - Justin Kershaw's college football career at Michigan State University had been over for three years, his brief stint with the Carolina Panthers long gone, before he came to grips with stepping away from playing the game for good.

In 2011, he was sitting in a room at a skating rink in Cleveland, Ohio watching game film on a 35-inch television before yet another tryout for an Arena Football League team, this time the Gladiators. And he recognized nearly every other face in the room. 

When Kershaw was a defensive tackle with MSU from 2004-08, he played against some of the people in the room. They were former players from Big Ten teams, just like him, and now they were desperate for the same thing he was – a way, any way, back into the sport.

That's when it finally hit Kershaw.

"That’s when I kind of realized, ‘You know what? Nobody’s calling me anymore. No Canadian teams. No Arena teams. No NFL teams. Do I want to continue trying to do this, or do I just want to go work?'"

Kershaw, now 32, went back to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio and started building a career in business.

This month, he launched a new online start-up selling a product he invented – the Hanga, a unique take on traditional clothing hangers that's easy to use and durable. It comes after a month-long crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $26,000 for the production of the first 1,500 Hangas, pronounced "HONG-uh." More than 800 are already sold.

Kershaw's dreams for his new company are as grand as the ones he had for his football career, and he credits his time as a Spartan with giving him the "mental toughness" he needed to turn a disappointing turn in the NFL into fuel for his career as an inventor and entrepreneur.

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Letting go of football

Kershaw played football at Michigan State with Kirk Cousins, quarterback for the Washington Redskins, and Brian Hoyer, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

He was a team captain, and by the time he graduated with a degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2008, Kershaw had started 27 consecutive games and made 28 tackles his senior year with the Spartans.

Kershaw thought it was just the start of a promising football career. He signed as a free agent with the Carolina Panthers and gave his all at the NFL team's training camp.

“For four months in the summer of 2009 I was living the dream," Kershaw said. "I was practicing with the team. I was in the locker room and on the field with guys I had watched.” 

It was fleeting. The Panthers released him at the close of camp.

“I knew there was a chance, but I didn’t think it would end that early," Kershaw said. "Being at Michigan State with the coaches I had, I was prepared to know plays, to know what to do. I knew my role as a rookie ... I really did think I could at least try to grind out three or four years in the NFL, even if I was bouncing around from team to team.”

Chaquerra Kershaw, 31 and an MSU graduate herself, said eight years ago her husband's identity was intertwined with football, and he had trouble seeing beyond the sport.

"That was his dream," she said. "Nobody can play football forever, and I knew he had a lot of talent, but I think he needed a little bit more time to see that."

Kershaw spent three years working sales jobs while he went to as many Canadian and Arena League team tryouts as he could. 

"Part of what you struggle with is, when you’re playing at Michigan State your picture’s on the program, you’re playing in front of 100,000 people, you walk on campus, everybody knows who you are, but that’s not really reality," he said. “Your day comes and goes around whether or not you get a sack in a football game and then it’s over. You don’t know what to do."

Kershaw said his daughter, Nyah, now 7, was two when he stopped pursuing football, and taking care of her was motivation enough to find another path.

At 25, Kershaw started his own small medical equipment company, Venia Medical Supply, servicing three area hospitals. He still runs the business.

Then, about a year ago, Kershaw stumbled into an idea. He was visiting a friend in California who was “particular” about his clothes, hanging every T-shirt he owned in his closet. Getting them off their hangers without stretching the neck of the garment was a struggle, he told Kershaw. And he was tired of the "dimples" they left in the fabric.

"I wondered if I could make something better," Kershaw said.

Kershaw called a friend, Frank Markusic, who co-owns Ohio Wire Form & Spring Company. The Columbus-based business specializes in making custom wire forms and springs for everything from steel carts to hooks and paint racks.

"I'll be honest," Markusic said. "At first I was skeptical."

Kershaw finally convinced him to spend a Saturday together brainstorming the idea in Markusic's warehouse. 

What they ended up with is the Hanga, an industrial-grade metal hanger that allows for shirts to be tugged over one end through a sleeve with ease before settling over the top. They can be slipped off again with just a tug of the garment.

"There's nothing else like it," Markusic said.

A new dream

Kershaw's first Hanga, designed for shirts, went into production at Ohio Wire this month. He's already created two additional models, one for pants and another out of wood. All three designs are meant to last, he said, and customers can buy Hanga T-shirts with them on the company's website.

There, they can also view a humorous, how-to-use commercial that Kershaw and his daughter appear in.

The name is admittedly a play on words and a conversation starter, Kershaw said. 

“We’re not taking ourselves too seriously, but I think if it's marketed right, and we make a quality product, we'll have some success."

The Hanga will manufacture other “creative home goods” products in the future, he said.

“They’re just new takes,” he said of what’s coming. “They make people's lives more convenient.”

Kershaw has approached the start-up the same way he approached football, he said. The lessons he learned on the field have helped him navigate the new business.

"(Football) is just something that’s always a part of me. I think about it all the time, and I just apply the lessons that I learned, the work ethic, to what I do now. It’s just I can’t go out and tackle anybody.”

If all goes well, Kershaw said business success could still lead him back to the sport he loves.

“Who says one day I couldn’t put a group together and own an NFL team? I think you should dream big. Everybody should dream big. If I’m diligent in business, who says I can’t do that one day?”

Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at (517) 528-2075 or rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.

About the Hanga

Justin Kershaw's invention, "the Hanga," a creative take on hanging your clothes in the closet, can be found at www.thehanga.com . Visit the company's Facebook page by searching "Hanga."