A couple of years ago, physiotherapist and inventor Alex Roberts saw Australia by Design, a television program featuring Australian inventions, and wondered if they’d be interested in his own innovative product—the STIC® magnetic walking aid attachment.

At the time, the show was in hiatus but the producer promised to keep him in mind for a future season.

Fast-forward to the beginning of 2024 and Alex found himself being filmed for an episode of the show, which aired on 12 October 2024.

His product—an easy-to-use magnetic attachment that allows people who use walking aids such as walking sticks to securely attach or hang the walking stick next to them when they are sitting or in bed—won the Physiotherapy Research Foundation’s Physio Pitchfest People’s Choice Award in 2022.

Early on in the product’s life, Alex would assemble it by hand using 3D printed parts for each order that came in.

In the past 18 months, however, he has found a manufacturer to manufacture, assemble and package the STIC attachment for his company Pragnetics.

He’s also expanded his sales capacity beyond his website, through a distribution partnership with a large mobility supplier, Patient Care Products, which provides products to more than 2500 stores, including pharmacies and home health equipment stores across Australia.

Pragnetics has recently expanded into the market in Britain, where Alex has been living and working for the past year or so for the National Health Service.

He is working towards setting up a wholesale agreement with a mobility equipment supplier there but in the meantime is using Amazon UK.

‘It’s now a matter of building up awareness of the product,’ Alex says.

That’s where the television series comes in.

Alex hopes that seeing the STIC magnetic walking aid attachment spruiked on national television will both increase sales of the product and raise awareness among end users and healthcare professionals—including physiotherapists and occupational therapists, who advise on and prescribe walking aids to the people who need them.

The expected increase in demand may allow him to further expand production, something he is more comfortable with now that he has the manufacturing process locked down.

Alex Roberts and Australia by Design presenter Mike Chapman look at the STIC prototypes.

As a physiotherapist, Alex found that navigating the business world was a huge learning curve.

He made the most of available startup incubator programs in Sydney and joined Sydney Startups, a Facebook-based group of entrepreneurs and innovators.

‘Our degree is very clinically focused and we tend not to learn business-related skills such as developing a business plan, sales, bookkeeping or product development,’ he says.

‘We took a systematic approach.

‘We made a minimum viable product and I assembled it myself.

‘Then we got enough feedback from patients to say that yes, we can produce this, and we took the plunge.’

The next step was finding a wholesaler for STIC, who could supply it to retail outlets selling walking aids.

‘There were a lot of cold calls and emails.

‘I had to learn how to write a good email, establish relationships and talk about the product in a business sense to help communicate value to the customer and retailer,’ Alex says.

‘Physiotherapy put me in good stead for doing this because I already had the interpersonal skills and I knew about falls and mobility aids.

‘I knew how the product could potentially assist users who couldn’t pick their walking stick up off the ground and how it could increase walking aid adherence and accessibility.’

Backing up the product was a small clinical trial exploring the acceptability and accessibility of the STIC magnetic aid, which Alex completed alongside University of Sydney researcher Associate Professor Natalie Allen.

The trial compared magnetic walking sticks and crutches fitted with STIC against standard walking sticks and crutches.

It demonstrated that the magnetic walking aids may be an acceptable and inexpensive innovation for improving walking aid accessibility and adherence and that they reduced walking aid drops when compared to the standard walking aid.

While the STIC works with a range of readily accessible walking aids, Alex says the next step would be to design a range that incorporates the magnetic attachment directly into the walking aid to improve compliance and correct use.

‘They understand that they need their walking stick to mobilise but they don’t use it for various reasons, eg, “It looks ugly. It makes me feel old. It’s not accessible. It’s not ergonomic.”

‘Our vision for STIC is to make walking sticks and crutches more visually appealing by having them come in different colours, enabling personalisation and increasing accessibility because they’re kept within reach.

‘We’re working on that kind of psychology.

‘We’re attacking the walking aid problems from both sides,’ Alex says.

‘You would not have the same handbag as everyone else, so why would you have the same walking stick?’

Alex is now actively looking for investors to take the next step in growing Pragnetics, with the aim of expanding further into the Australian and UK markets and developing a larger range of products using magnet technology.

>> For more information about the STIC magnetic walking aid attachment, visit pragnetics.com.au

>> Watch the episode of Australia by Design featuring the STIC