Trans-Lube Rebrand to SteelGlide: New Name, 50 Years of Excellence

A Legacy of Hard Work and Determination

Charles Davis, my father and founder of Trans-Lube, knew how to grind. Born the sixth of seven children to a sharecropper family, hard work was mandatory. Farm for food. Pick cotton for spending money, enough to take your high school sweetheart out for a movie and a fancy soda on Saturday night. They married, and together, they worked to pay his way through engineering school. They never had it easy, but they didn’t complain. Dad would say, “It’s out there if you want it, but it ain’t coming to you. You have to go get it.”

The Birth of Trans-Lube: From Idea to Reality

Charles founded Trans-Lube in 1975. He was working for a company with an idea for a solid graphite-based lubricant product, but that company never developed it. He bought the product technology and brand and started winning customers one at a time, face to face. But he knew the product could be even better.

Charles built strong relationships with those early customers, who were impressed by his honest, straightforward approach. They gave him crucial feedback from the field, and for the next five years, he worked to refine the design and formula to create a product that was head and shoulders above anything else in the game.

Refining the Product: A Commitment to Excellence

I was in the eighth grade when Dad founded Trans-Lube. He immediately put me to work, picking, packing, loading, unloading, and anything else a 12-year-old kid could handle. I learned the business and the product, literally inside and out. My grandfather often told me, if you want to do it good, do it right. But Dad’s attitude was, if you can do it, do it better. So I did my best to pick, pack, sweep, and whatever else a little better every day.

Charles continued to improve and refine the business over the next 40 years. As the company grew, he brought my mother, Joy, into the business to help with sales and customer service. Joy was such an authentic, loving person that customers would sometimes call just to hear her warm and welcoming Southern accent.

And over those 40 years, Dad kept iterating on product engineering. The applicator system got simpler and tougher. The Lube Sticks™ got stronger and smoother, ultimately arriving at our current Gen 3 formula. Our proprietary combination of four different dry lubricants provides unmatched protection with tenacious adhesion.

Family at the Heart of the Business

As Trans-Lube celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, we reaffirm our commitment to our customers and our determination to reach new heights of product performance. Mom and Dad are gone now, but their legacy lives on in this family-owned and operated business. We are proud to sell this American-made product to customers across the globe.

A New Chapter: Trans-Lube Rebrand to

SteelGlide

And as the next family generation steps up to lead the company, we’re making one change. We are renaming and rebranding Trans-Lube as SteelGlide. Same proven, reliable product. Same core values of customer focus, quality, innovation, integrity, and hard work. SteelGlide is building on the legacy left to us by Charles and Joy Davis, offering a proven product with proven value from a company that is determined to pursue excellence each and every day.

As Dad might say, “It’s out there. Let’s go get it.”

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