Introduction
University of Kentucky Nutter Football Center install in 2002
Why is it called Stray Dog Strength?
Stray Dog Strength got its name from our founders Matt and Shari’s dog Alex, who was a mutt/Stray Dog they rescued in 1995. Matts wife Shari who also is an owner of our business came up with the name Stray Dog Strength one day and it stuck. From 1998-2020 we by The Equipment Guys with our brand of equipment being Stray Dog Strength. In 2020 when Matt hired his son Jake Purdy as the Brand Manager, we changed the company name to DBA Stray Dog Strength and dropped the name The Equipment Guys but are still The Equipment Guys or TEG Incorporated.
Rack-Bench systems
Our Founder Matt created what he calls the Rack-Bench System in 1999, this system uses one rack with adjustable bar cups and an adjustable bench instead of having separate, squat racks, bench presses and incline benches. This concept was so new that he had to explain the concept to coaches. Explaining how they can have more lifting stations if each rack can do more than one exercise.
ECORE X Stray Dog Strength
It is our mission to provide full Sports Performance Facility solutions, this includes platforms, flooring turf and other flooring services such as sport courts and tracks as well. By partnering with ECORE Athletic back in 2009 we are able to control the full install from start to finish creating a pain free and seamless process for the coach, athletic director and entire organization.
Product Line Evolves
In 2019 Matt Purdy hired his son Zach Purdy as a mechanical engineer after graduating from West Virginia University and working for their ECO Car Design and Build Team. Zach has been helping the family business out for a long time, back in middle school he learned how to do CAD and began doing room drawings for us over 10 years ago. Zach was able to take our product line to the next step, making a truly modular system out of 3×3″ tubing and 1″ holes instead of 3/4″ holes we used for years. In less than 3 years Zach has designed and brought to production/market over 150 products.
Launched an E-commerce store
In November of 2021, we launched our E-Commerce Store on Straydogstrength.com, bringing our large offering of American custom products available to the masses with Transparent Pricing. Before we launched our store we used to only sell via sales reps, making it time consuming to find out even just a price for our customers.
We even have a tax exemption form on our website so tax exempt organizations such as Schools and others can order directly online.
Expanded Sales Reps/Territories
Starting in 2022 we began to hire more sales reps and go after more territories other than Ohio. We have landed many facilities in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Texas since then while continuing to have a stronghold on the Ohio market.
Partnered with Cal Dietz and Triphasic Training
Cal Dietz of Minnesota University Strength/Triphasic Training has many revolutionary training ideas and philosophies. We have partnered together to help him create products to distribute these ideas to other coaches and athletes making these revolutionary training methods more accessible. The first product in this line is the Spring Ankle Device which allows athletes to perform the spring ankle series in more sport specific positions with the Torque Bar.
Partnered with BridgeAthletic Software
The BridgeAthletic App/Software allows our customers to have a cohesive system to program and distribute their workouts using Stray Dog Strength equipment. Many customers choose Stray Dog Strength for our unique/space saving designs so we have partnered with Bridge to create these movements inside their platform so coaches can more easily program them for athletes.
West Coast Showroom
In 2024 we started a dealer program allowing approved dealers to sell our products to their customers. Weights and Bars out of San Jose California was the dealer we chose to work with in California and the owner also owns a gym called Active Space Training where we setup a showroom of Stray Dog Strength Equipment. If you are on the west coast/California and want to checkout our products checkout Weights and Bars!
Expanding Offering
In order to provide full solutions for entire sports performance facilties we are always expanding our offering options. We have recently added Stray Dog Strength Bumpers/Change Plates, Foam Plyo Boxes, Custom Logo Barbells, Powerblocks, Custom Dynamax Medballs and many other products.
