Today , they ’re ubiquitous , but would you trust Tim Leatherman struggled for years to observe a buyer for the first - ever multitool ? He was inspired to invent it after a 20 - land drive through Europe on a shoestring budget .
In 1975 , Tim and his wife vanish to Europe , embarking on a budget driving tour that would take them as far as Tehran . Their first purchase was the 1969 Fiat 600 you see here . Not a car renown for reliability when new , six years of hard use left it postulate steady roadside repairs .
European hotels at the time were n’t exactly feats of craftsmanship either . And all Tim had with him was his old Boy Scout clasp tongue . He used it to pay back everything from the Fiat ’s engine to hotel plumbing .
“ It was n’t enough , ” explicate Tim . “ I oftentimes needed a pair of plier . So the idea was to add a yoke of pliers to a pouch knife . ”
The first prototypes were hand - cut cardboard .
Back home in Portland , Oregon , Tim went into his garage and started prototyping . His wife worked to support the duet during that sentence .
“ Three years later I had something I thought was pretty upright . ”
Then Sir Henry Wood .
That was 1980 and it would n’t be until the next year before he received a patent for his design , something Tim dub a “ multitool . ” And it was clock time to find customers .
Tim originally approached AT&T , the US Military and local company utilise workmen . Tim think it would add a welcome dose of versatility to their belt and a big order for a declamatory number of tools was what he needed to get a unexampled company off the ground . But they were n’t interested .
So , he draw near local tongue makers , hear to trade them the blueprint . He really thought someone would , “ come down head over hound in honey with it , give me one million buck and I ’d sit back and live happily ever after , ” commemorate Tim .
But , “ tongue company enounce , ‘ this is n’t a knife , it ’s a tool . ’ So then I went to the tool companies who enjoin , ‘ Sorry , this is not at tool , this is a contraption . ’ ”
“ I care to say that there ’s a flimsy line between persistency and failure to take on world . ”
Tim get a day problem as a salesman , but work night and weekends for the next four twelvemonth trying to discover a buyer for his innovation .
That ’s when Tim ’s college buddy Steve Berliner stepped in . His dad owned a fabrication business concern in town and Steve was looking for unexampled job opportunities for it . “ I was really on the lookout station for something we could deal to the general public in high volume , ” he says .
A nigh - final iteration featured a prominent clamp , as well as pair of scissors .
Looking for room to get the instrument on the market , Steve and Tim approached a local catalog company called Early Winters . “ They were reasonably impressed , but thought it was too expensive , ” says Tim . “ Instead of say ‘ go away , ’ they enjoin ‘ sit down , lease ’s front at this . ’ ” At the time , the original multitool epitome would have retailed for $ 40 , far too much in Early Winters ’ opinion . So , Steve and Tim withdraw the scissors hold and clamp , bringing the Mary Leontyne Price down to $ 25 . That second prototype ( nickname “ Mr. Crunch ” and picture at the top of this clause ) would finally become the first Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool , or PST .
But the story does n’t end there . Tim and Steve decide they ’d necessitate an initial order of 2,000 units to make production viable , but that was far too many for Early Winters . So , Steve and Tim began to solicit interest from other catalog . Eventually one bit .
“ One Clarence Day in late May , 1983 , we cause a purchase order from Cabela ’s for 500 tools , which was not 2,000 , ” says Tim . “ But on the strength of that gild , Steve and I adjudicate to start a patronage and set out yield . ” Leatherman Tools was incorporated and production set about in Steve ’s dad ’s facility .
“ I can think quite vividly when I knew this was real , ” remember Tim . “ It was when our 2nd catalog customer was Early Winters , the company that helped us qualify the tool . ”
Tim , working in Steve ’s papa ’s automobile workshop .
They set an initial social club for 250 tools . Then 500 , then , a workweek afterwards , 750 . “ Two weeks after , they say the 750 were gone , here ’s an order for 1,000 . And that ’s when we knew something special was bechance . ”
By 1984 , Leatherman was making 30,000 tools a year , by 1993 that number was a million for the original PST alone .
Tim , circa mid-2000s in his very own manufactory .
Today , Leatherman betray $ 100 million dollars in putz a year , still fabricate them in Portland . But crappy old cable car stay a key divine guidance for their burgeon range . You ’ll read more about that next week .
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