Say you've rented equipment from EquipmentShare or ordered parts to keep your own fleet running. Then working on a project, you need to source lumber, hardware, or tools before you can get the job done. That's where Forge & Build comes in.
This is the second article in our EquipmentShare Ecosystem series, following our look at EquipmentShare's core rental business. Here we're unpacking Forge & Build: what it is, where it came from, what's actually on the shelves, and how it fits into the rest of the business.
What Forge & Build Is
Forge & Build is a one-stop-shop hardware and building-materials store brand, operating as part of EquipmentShare. It's built to serve two overlapping groups of customers: contractors who need materials and hardware for a job, and do-it-yourself customers who need the same things for a project at home.
According to Forge & Build's own materials, the brand was started by contractors, for contractors, and its leadership team is built around people who've done the work themselves rather than career retail operators. That's a meaningful distinction in a hardware store, where the difference between a stocked shelf and an empty one is the difference between finishing a job on time and losing a day.
Forge & Build operates a growing network of locations concentrated in the Midwest and South but that footprint keeps growing regularly as the brand adds stores. You can find the most up to date list of locations directly on forgeandbuild.com/locations to find the location closest to you and your jobsite.
How Forge & Build Came Together
Forge & Build hasn't grown primarily by opening new stores from scratch. Instead, EquipmentShare has expanded the brand largely by acquiring established, trusted local lumber and hardware stores, businesses that already had a name, a customer base, and staff who knew the community, and bringing them into the Forge & Build family.
For example, take White Creek Lumber & Hardware: a lumber, hardware, and building-materials provider that spent nearly four decades serving West Michigan before officially joining Forge & Build in April 2026. It's a good example of how the brand grows, not by swapping a trusted local shop for something generic, but by folding the existing business in and keeping its local roots and staff in place
That community focus shows up in how the stores operate day to day, too. Forge & Build describes hiring locally and supporting the communities each store serves as a core part of its identity, backing that up with a stated commitment to invest a set amount annually into those communities through an employee-led giving committee at each location.
What's on the Shelves
Walk into a Forge & Build location and you'll find the kind of inventory a contractor or homeowner needs to get a job done without three separate stops: lumber, hardware, fasteners, tools, and general building materials.
The more interesting part is what's happening behind the scenes. Because Forge & Build is part of EquipmentShare, it's investing in a more connected, accurate inventory system, the kind of thing that takes the guesswork out of "does this store actually have what I need in stock." That's a real problem in hardware retail, where a website or app confidently listing an item that turns out to be sold out at the actual counter is a common frustration.
It's worth being clear about how Forge & Build relates to EquipmentShare Shop, since the two serve different, complementary needs. EquipmentShare Shop is the place to order equipment parts and tools online for the machines in your fleet. Forge & Build is the in-person materials and hardware side of the business, lumber and building supplies rather than machine components. Between the two, EquipmentShare is covering more of what a contractor needs to keep a project moving, whether that's a hydraulic fitting or a pallet of lumber.
Backed by EquipmentShare
Forge & Build operates as a subsidiary of EquipmentShare, which matters beyond the corporate structure chart. It means each store has the backing of the same large national equipment rental company covered in the first article of this series, a nationwide support team, and access to T3 technology that connects it all.
That connection is really the point of this whole series. EquipmentShare has been building connectivity across equipment, technology, and now materials, so a contractor working with the company isn't dealing with a patchwork of disconnected vendors for machines, software, and supplies. It's one company extending the same approach across more of what a jobsite actually needs.
Final Thoughts
Forge & Build takes EquipmentShare's approach to equipment and applies it to materials and hardware: local roots, contractor-first thinking, and a connected business behind it. If there's a location near your next job, find a Forge & Build store to see what's on the shelves. And if you're here for the equipment side of things, EquipmentShare Shop has the parts and tools to keep your fleet running today.
Locations, inventory, and services vary by store and change as Forge & Build continues to grow. Check forgeandbuild.com for the most current locations and offerings.
