Matt Purdy started a strength equipment company in 1996 named The Equipment Guys, specializing in weight equipment for high schools and colleges. For the first two years, he was a dealer for established brands like Texas Power Bar, York Barbell, Troy Barbell, and others before starting Stray Dog Strength in 1998 as his brand of S&C equipment. Matt was following a passion that began during his days playing football at Ashland University. From his athletic career and experience in the field, Matt realized an important trend in sports performance, the emergence of racks as the core strength training equipment as Sports Performance Training was moving away from single-use machines. Matt decided to be at the forefront of this change: Starting Stray Dog Strength and becoming one of the pioneers in developing the modern-day rack system.
“My dad noticed that most companies then were selling single-use racks such as squat racks, flat bench racks, and incline bench racks that took up lots of space and were only usable for one or two exercises,” said Jake Purdy, Matt’s son who has joined his father in running the business, which now operates under the name of Stray Dog Strength (www.straydogstrength.com). “Matt developed a system that he called the ‘rack-bench system’ that had a rack similar to the ones we still sell today and an adjustable bench that can be used for various lifts. “He realized that the more exercises that could be done at a rack, the better, as the workouts would be more efficient as athletes would not have to move around the room to different racks for different lifts.”
Stray Dog Strength’s rack systems are unique and innovative. “We’re the only company that can put a cable machine inside the rack without increasing the rack’s footprint,” Jake said. “We first did this in 2004 by putting a Lat Pull Down in a Half Rack. Stray Dog Strength also sells 25 different attachments that can be used with the power racks, eliminating the need for single-use strength machines—such as neck attachments, leg extensions, leg curls, and more.Â
The company is a full-service supplier. Besides manufacturing its line of strength training equipment, Stray Dog Strength offers facility design services from start to finish. They can remove the old equipment (with the possibility of providing reimbursement for it). They also supply/install ECORE flooring, Turf, and custom storage units for high school strength and conditioning facilities.
The company has evolved to meet the changing needs of high school strength coaches. “The first step to a new sports performance facility is to understand that it is not just a weight room with some equipment,” Stray Dog Strength states on its website. “As training and athletics have evolved, the ‘weight room’ has grown into a sports performance facility where teams and athletes hone their skills on the three pillars of sports performance — physiological, psychological, and sport-specific skills AKA the Sports Performance Triangle, all while building your team’s culture.”
Stray Dog Strength has kicked it into a higher gear with the addition of Jake, who also followed in his father’s footsteps to become a college athlete. Jake played lacrosse at West Virginia University, receiving an Athletic Coaching Education degree. He began to devote more time to working in the business during the Covid pandemic and is also a high school coach. Jake now shares Matt’s commitment to helping high schools offer their athletes the best strength training equipment.
“We understand the needs of high school strength and conditioning coaches as we have been working hand-in-hand with them for the past 25 years,” Jake said. “We have learned the dos and don’ts of setting up a high school sports performance center, taking into consideration multiple factors, including budget and desired functionality. We’re driven to help the members of the NHSSCA get the equipment they need to be a difference-maker for the athletes they work with and enable student-athletes to maximize their potential in the weight room, in the classroom, and on the field/court.”
