Since 1983, we’ve been making tools that can endure just about anything and come back to work tomorrow. Here's a look back at how Leatherman got where it is today and how, over the last several years we've helped people answer the question: Are you ready?
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Tim Leatherman and his wife travel Europe and the Middle East. Between a cranky Fiat and leaky hotel plumbing, Tim's boy-scout knife leaves him wanting more, like some pliers, and maybe a screwdriver or two. He dreams up a multi-tool.
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Tim, a mechanical engineer, goes through several prototypes with cardboard and wood. His brother-in-law, a machinist, teaches him how to work metal and the first steel prototype takes form in Tim's basement the next year.
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Tim applies for and receives U.S. Patent 4,238,862 for his first multi-tool prototype, "Mr. Crunch." The New York Times covers the patent, and Tim waits patiently by the phone for the million-dollar call. It doesn't arrive. Tim's new business partner, Steve Berliner, convinces his father to lease them some space in his machine shop.
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The prototype is fine-tuned and the Pocket Survival Tool™ (PST®) is born. Knife companies say it's a tool. Tool companies say it's a gadget. And the gadget company can't even bother to spell Steve Berliner's name right, much less place an order. However, Cabela's and Early Winters have better foresight and place small orders for their holiday catalogs. Leatherman Tool Group incorporates in July.
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The first week of 1984, right after the holiday catalog from Early Winters, the retailer doubles their order to 500 PSTs. A week later, they call back and order 750 more. Two weeks later, they order another 1,000. The goal for 1984 was 4,000 tools. We sold just shy of 30,000. This is known as "exponential growth," and it happened a lot around Leatherman that year.
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Always looking for innovations, we consider, then nix, adding scissors to the PST. However, looking at our shaggier hairstyles from those days, scissors might've been a good idea.
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Bigger or smaller? For our second tool, we go smaller. Turns out we are a little ahead of our time. The Mini-Tool® has a small but loyal following we will re-discover in 1996 with the Micra®, and in 2001 with the Juice®.
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Turns out, handy people really love Leatherman tools. With sales booming, we build a huge factory with enough capacity to last 5 years on enough land that we can expand over 10 years. After 2 years, we double the factory. And 3 years later, we'd triple it. And buy more land for employee parking. To call our projections merely "conservative" would be like calling our tools merely "useful."
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Two firsts: One million Leatherman tools sell in one year, and MacGyver uses a Leatherman. MacGyver! Definitely a banner year.
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The original PST saves the passengers of a bus that has a bomb set to explode if the bus goes below 50 MPH. Keanu helps. "Speed" is Leatherman's first blockbuster.
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If smaller wasn't the answer for a second tool, then bigger must be. In its second year, the Leatherman Super Tool®—which features our first locking blades—sells nearly 650,000 units, and 1.1 million its third.
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We start running our Tool Tales ad campaign. It's Tim's favorite. The campaign featured true stories from real Leatherman users like the bush pilot in Alaska who used his Super Tool to prevent his plane from crashing.
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We introduce the Wave®, which is the first multi-tool that allows access to the blade without opening the pliers, and with just one hand. And when you're fighting off mobsters with the other hand, like Jackie Chan in "Rush Hour,"—the Wave's first appearance on the big screen— that can be pretty useful.
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Leatherman debuts on the "X-Files." Tim asks, "What's she doing there?" They say, "She is extracting alien flesh." Just when we thought we'd seen our tools do it all, someone finds another use for a Leatherman.
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We introduce the Juice, a tool that's "just right" between the super-compact Micra and our full-sized tools. Tremendously popular, the Juice tools must nonetheless be stowed in your checked luggage.
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We unveil the Squirt® line. Small enough to be classified as "keychain" tools but handy and tough enough to be called a Leatherman. Three different models boast everything from scissors and mini-pliers to wire strippers, screwdrivers and knives.
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Folding knives debut, and Leatherman comes full-circle. Tim's boy scout knife from his trip to Europe is brought up to modern standards with premium steel, screwdrivers, carabiners, bottle openers, and bit drivers.
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Leatherman rolls out even more tools and knives, this time built for a specific activity, but with the brand's trademark multi-functionality. Our hunting knives are a field-dressing kits in a sheath—cutting hooks, saws and blades—and the Vista® pruner speeds cleaning a line of shot, building a blind or constructing a tree stand. And our Hybrid® gardening pruners put you in control of your yard and yard equipment.
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We take a closer look at our full-sized tools and introduced the Skeletool®, stripping it down for those rugged adventurers who count every ounce and still need the reliability and strength of a Leatherman. And our new Genus® gardening tool features a rotating handle, packed with all the tools a professional gardener needs. And we opened a retail store at our headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
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Making good on our promise of preparedness, we introduced our Serac line of lightweight, high-powered LED lights. 2008 was also the year we revised our entire line of pocket knives. After a complete redesign we introduced the new Crater and Expanse lines; lighter, slimmer and much easier to use.
