Gear Grid Story
This year GearGrid LLC celebrates its 90th year of manufacturing wire and tube products for the retail display, fire, athletic and equine markets.
During the first 75 years of its existence, the company then known as Wire Specialties and later Mid-Minnesota Wire and Manufacturing, focused on designing and building durable custom retail displays and wire forms for the retail display and OEM markets.
In early 1997, Geargrid co-owner and volunteer firefighter Mike Boyer designed a durable and well ventilated storage system for the proper storage of his fire department’s personal protective equipment. After conducting a market analysis for firefighting storage, it was determined that there were good market opportunities for firefighting storage. Based on that, the product was launched in 1998 starting in Minnesota with the first customer White Bear Lake, followed by Oakdale and eventually numerous fire stations for the city of Minneapolis.
For the next ten years, GearGrid would expand its products and quickly became a market leader in the U.S. Fire service for the storage of firefighting equipment including PPE, hose, cylinders and miscellaneous gear and equipment. During that time, both small volunteer fire departments and large metropolitan fire departments such as the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), Los Angeles Fire Department and Houston Fire Department would become some of GearGrid’s 6,000 customers in the United States.
In 2008 GearGrid created a strategic initiative to expand its GearGrid product sales outside of the US. Introduced to the United Kingdom in 2009 launched at the Fire and Rescue Show held at Excel centre Liverpool. The product is now represented in most European countries including Germany, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Spain. Further expansion overseas includes distribution in the Middle Eastern and Asian Pacific markets.