STEUBENVILLE — Bully Tools claims its purely American-made products are “Built to be Bullied.”

Doubtful? Mark Gracy, president and founder of the Steubenville-based tool manufacturer, would point toward Instagram, where the company has posted numerous videos supporting its assertion.

Clips depict tools being used and abused, though never losing their integrity. Products are run over by vehicles, used as pry bars and even hung on like monkey bars. It’s all to demonstrate their durability, which Gracy says far outpaces that of competitors’ products.

“All the things you’e not supposed to do with a shovel, we do, just to show we can do it,” Gracy said, not long before hanging — both feet off the ground — from a Bully Tools shovel suspended in the air by a forklift.

Increased marketing and advertising on Instagram and other online platforms is part of Bully Tools’ present shift toward a direct-to-consumer model.

The 30-year-old company isn’t abandoning retail, Gracy assured, but it is focusing more on direct-to-consumer sales. Bully Tools products can still be found in stores like Rural King and True Value, though they can also be purchased online through Amazon, Wal-Mart, Home Depot or BullyTools.com, Gracy said, adding that shipping is always free.

E-commerce now reportedly accounts for 50 percent of Bully Tools’ sales, compared to no percentage just five years ago when its own e-commerce platform first launched. Online sales have grown “dramatically,” while other sales also continue to grow, Gracy said.

Regardless of its sales model, Bully Tools will keep making 100 percent of its products in the USA, Gracy said. Specifically, manufacturing will occur at the company’s facility in the Jefferson County Industrial Park, which Gracy hopes to expand once the time is right.

Founded in 1994, Bully Tools prides itself in using American labor to manufacture 140 different products “for all seasons and people,” Gracy said. Those 140 different products include specialty tools and a complete line of long-handle tools — anything a farmer or gardener would need.

“I’m not sure if people realize it, but our official name is 100 Percent Made in the USA Bully Tools,” Gracy said. “It’s a long name, but it’s such a big aspect of what we do. … Every single ounce of every product is made in the USA. The vast majority of it is made in our factory. … There’s very little we don’t make here. The rest is made within 50 miles of here at local suppliers.”

The philosophy behind Bully Tools emerged decades ago, with Gracy spending summers with his grandfather, who owned a small farm in Meadville, Pa. Gracy’s grandfather would only buy Craftsman tools, knowing that if they ever broke, the company would replace them. That taught Gracy “If you buy quality, they’re good for life,” an idea he’d carry into his later entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, Craftsman tools are now made with imported parts, or made in other countries entirely. The quality has been lost.

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