One of the founders had run a national industrial services company.  One persistent challenge across all their locations was supplies - gloves, goggles, suits, boots, tools, accessories… basically all the non-capital-equipment items required to perform jobs. 

Supplies were essentially a multi-million dollar “black box” expense - it was nearly impossible to know what was being bought, by whom, for how much, and for what jobs.

The company tried supplier agreements, but every office had dozens of sales reps quoting them for products with different specifications and prices that changed monthly, sometimes weekly.  

It was impossible to keep up - managers had no idea if they were getting the best price or a safety-approved product, they just needed the supplies to do their jobs.

The company tried vending machine lockers… but that was a disaster.  Personnel turnover made it impossible to track who was using what, they could not tie items to jobs, the machines constantly ran out, and in the end they spent even more on supplies than before!  

The other two founders of TSX Gear had extensive experience in large scale manufacturing.  They decided to bring the highest quality and lowest cost to industrial companies for their highest volume, most safety-intensive need - gloves.  

The initial pitch to companies was “these gloves are as good or better than anything you’re using, and you can provide them to your entire workforce for at least one-third less than you’re currently spending.”  

A few companies loved this idea, and they saved millions of dollars.  Dozens of other companies loved the idea, but all of them told us the same thing - “we don’t know what gloves we buy or for how much, and we don’t know who uses them or how many we use.”

That seemed like too big a problem, so we focused on the customers who bought gloves.  They needed an easy way to get them to all of their people across all their locations.  We created a web platform that was password protected, easy to use, and tracked glove usage to people and jobs.  And they loved it.

The customers loved it so much that the field offices asked us, “can you put more of the items we need onto this site, so I don’t have to deal with different quotes, specs, and pricing?”  Initially, we said “no” because we only distributed the items we manufactured.  But they kept asking.

Our customers have dozens of locations, some with 10 workers, some with 5,000.  They each had their own list of favorite items, with different specs and prices, from different brands and distributors.  They wanted all their items in one place, at a fixed price, with reliable availability and delivery, and have it work with their PO process without being a painful-to-use ERP system.

So we listened.  One password-protected site that works like the ones where normal people go to buy things online, not like a corporate-y ERP system.  Each location has their favorite items, grouped in the ways they do their jobs.  

All items reviewed and approved by corporate safety.  All prices reviewed and approved by operations.  Everything ordered via the PO process used by procurement.  All purchases linked with people, locations, and jobs.  Monthly reports with itemized purchasing for finance.

And then we turned it on.  No training, no changes in their processes, no changes to their products, no changes to how they do their jobs.  

The response was overwhelming.  It was the first time that customers bought us drinks - the site saved them hundreds of man hours every week, saved them millions of dollars, and gave them the information to make their business run better.  

The biggest challenge with new customers since then has been a combination of “where have you been my whole career,” “how fast can we get started,” and “we don’t believe you.”  

That’s the beginning of the TSX Gear story.  We’re writing the next chapters as we go, and we’d like to include you.