Veteran-owned company provides modular organizer kits designed to optimize tool storage.
ToolBox Widget of Columbia Falls, Montana, was founded in 2019 by US Marine Corps combat veteran Jonathan Hurley, a helicopter pilot and A&P mechanic.
Frustrated with conventional toolboxes, Hurley invented a simple way to organize tools that quickly garnered the attention of other mechanics who wanted a similar solution. The outcome led to the formation of ToolBox Widget, a company obsessed with easy, effective tool organization that puts the user first.
An Idea Spawns a Company
Hurley’s idea was simple: create an expandable tool organization system that makes it easier to account for tools. After teaching himself to do 3D printing and 3D design, he developed hundreds of organizer prototypes, field-testing dozens of designs, redesigning as necessary, and repeating the process until he was satisfied. A year and a half later, Hurley had created his first product, the ToolBox Widget Vertical Wrench Organizer, which attracted other mechanics who asked how they could buy their own.
The company soon expanded its product line to include organizers for sockets, pliers, screwdrivers, and more. Each organizer set features magnetized, movable widgets made of a flexible material that holds tools in place in the user’s toolbox drawers, with missing-tool indicators showing where absent tools belong. The company also offers wrench-size labels and various sizes of socket stems to stand sockets in place.
Today, ToolBox Widget has sold more than 2 million widgets and offers more than 25 products.
Word of the ToolBox Widget didn’t take long to grow beyond the aviation community. Demand began to build in the automobile-mechanic industry, where the widgets are also now popular. Nonprofessionals also soon reached out, looking for ways to organize their home toolboxes. To meet their need, the company created a more cost-effective, DIY/weekender series featuring the modularity and scalability that have become the company’s hallmark.
Customer Focused
ToolBox Widget emphasizes its dedication to customer service with a lifetime warranty on all its products and a focus on continuing to improve and expand its products based on customer feedback. The company prides itself on staffing a nonautomated, people-answered phone system and a commitment to ensuring that every customer is completely satisfied.
ToolBox Widget employs a close staff, many of whom are military veterans or veterans’ spouses. The company is entirely self-funded, without outside investors, allowing the team full flexibility in its growth and expansion plans.
